What Photoshop should I buy?

[Aaron]

Hi Guys,
I am going to try to learn to use photoshop and was wondering what version I should buy, I eventually want to design my own deck of cards. That is in the future though, not any time soon. Anyway what version should I buy to get started learning it? I don't know what the difference is in all the versions, any suggestions?

[MDCasino]

start with elements. If after a couple of months you like it and want to move to a full program get psCs5 or cs6 whichever is out. Honestly you dont need to purchase extended version (thats for 3-d editing and weird stuff like that) or any of the bundles, Those just include additional programs. Illustrator is a great program but it takes alot of dedication to learn and it is not as practical as learning photoshop.

hope that helped. 

[MDCasino]

or you can try the ps trial and see if you want to jump straight to that and skip over buying elements. (elements , btw, is like a lite photoshop)

[Russell CircleCityCards]

Aaron, are you a college student in the USA?(or know someone who is!)
If so, you can get the full version of PS for only $200.  Just ask your college on how to get it, usually you can have the key emailed to you and us it on the free trial.  That's how my college did it.

[Rajas Paranjpe]

If you have access to linux OS, there is a very powerful free imaging software called Gimp.
I think a free windows version is also available.
Check that out!

[xela]

Use the trial, don't invest that much money into something you're not sure you want to follow through with 150% (and you won't be sure until you give it an honest attempt).

That said, CS5 is the most current version, so get that one. The differences from the other Creative Suites aren't significant for a beginner though, so any of those will work as well. You can even back track to Photoshop 6, and that will suffice for a beginner as well.

I used PS7 for many years and skipped straight to CS3. I've used CS and CS2 in school and I never liked the layout. I think CS5 got everything perfect.

[Kanped]

BUY.... photoshop?

I don't understand.

[loldudex2]

Right now you can get the full beta Photoshop CS6 on the Adobe website Here:

labs.adobe.com/downloads/photoshopcs6.html

[AceGambit]

BUY.... photoshop?

I don't understand.

Now now, we don't talk about our delinquent behavior in public.  Just because simple Google searches will yield you... results...  doesn't mean you should share them.  Now be a big boy and put away the $2500 toy you didn't pay for

[NathanCanadas]

BUY.... photoshop?

I don't understand.

Well, you know, it may be costly but is definitely worth the price tag. And although the creators of Photoshop are probably rich by now, it's not fair to steal their money by getting it illegally.

[Paul Carpenter]

I'd also recommend getting the trial and jumping in. Photoshop is an overwhelming program to learn, so find a few tutorials the like. If you are planning on doing any kind of digital design work down the road, it is the must-have-and-understand app and is totally worth the investment.

[Aaron]

Thank you very much everyone, I am downloading the CS6 trial that Loldude linked to, I will try that out and see what I think of it.

[IAmTheChin]

Don't feel bad for downloading a program like this. There's a reason they don't fight torrents. It's like Autodesk and their stuff. They lend it to you for free for a year so that once you're comfortable using it, you're WILLING to pay for it when you have a job that needs it (that can subsequently support purchasing the program).

-Chin

[xela]

Don't feel bad for downloading a program like this. There's a reason they don't fight torrents. It's like Autodesk and their stuff. They lend it to you for free for a year so that once you're comfortable using it, you're WILLING to pay for it when you have a job that needs it (that can subsequently support purchasing the program).

-Chin

The idea essentially is that they will never force a 14 year old kid to buy a thousand dollar program anyway. The only way to get that kid to spend that much is to let him get it for free if he chooses to, and then in ten years when he or she is opening his own design firm, he is forced to buy the program. This is exactly what happened with me (sans design firm).

They're basically on the right side of piracy, in that they use it to their advantage to boost sales rather than punishing people who would otherwise never even look at their product.

Keep in mind, it is still illegal to do. It's just in no way immoral.

[Aaron]

Don't feel bad for downloading a program like this. There's a reason they don't fight torrents. It's like Autodesk and their stuff. They lend it to you for free for a year so that once you're comfortable using it, you're WILLING to pay for it when you have a job that needs it (that can subsequently support purchasing the program).

-Chin

The idea essentially is that they will never force a 14 year old kid to buy a thousand dollar program anyway. The only way to get that kid to spend that much is to let him get it for free if he chooses to, and then in ten years when he or she is opening his own design firm, he is forced to buy the program. This is exactly what happened with me (sans design firm).

They're basically on the right side of piracy, in that they use it to their advantage to boost sales rather than punishing people who would otherwise never even look at their product.

Keep in mind, it is still illegal to do. It's just in no way immoral.

Well I download music for free, I don`t care if someone loses 99 cents when they have Millions. But Hypotheticaly where would a person download such a program as photoshop without getting a virus and would the be caught? Not saying I am going to do it but just wondering And when you have a free downloaded photoshop can you use everything the same as the one you pay for?

[Kanped]

I don`t care if someone loses 99 cents when they have Millions

Millionaire musicians who don't suck (a complete list);

1. Radiohead

Anyway, yes there are full copies of PS on the pirate bay, so don't go there.

[Aaron]

I don`t care if someone loses 99 cents when they have Millions

Millionaire musicians who don't suck (a complete list);

1. Radiohead

Anyway, yes there are full copies of PS on the pirate bay, so don't go there.

Ok I will try to stay away from that them.

[moonexe]

Hypothetically, you don't even need fancy cracks to get a free copy of photoshop, all you need to do is to block the ports that allow online verification on Adobe servers, and then use literally any valid activation key.
It's a very easy two minutes process that anyone can be told, you just need to find the information somewhere (and this specific method has a lot of misinformation going around, so most people use cracks anyway.)

As Alex said, piracy actually allows a wider public to become familiar with it. Once you use it for commercial purposes, you have no choice but to buy a license anyway, and you'll be much more likely to do so (as opposed to choosing a cheaper alternative) if you're already familiar with the program.