Need a cheaper alternative to Photoshop for creating web page button icons, etc. (1 Viewer)

[SteveA]

Does anyone know of a good software package to use for creating icons to use on web page buttons and things like that? Most of the web designers in my office use Photoshop, but I don't need anything nearly that featured-packed (or expensive). I don't need to modify photographic images or anything like that. I just need to create simple graphics and save them in .gif or .jpg format.

In other words, I need something similar to MS Paint, but with support for more file types. Any suggestions?

 

[Camp]

I prefer Paint Shop Pro for casual use: http://www.jasc.com/products/psp/

I think it's ~ $100 and very powerful.

 

[AjayM]

I've used both Photoshop and Paintshop and for the casual use that I do I hardly notice any difference in "real-world" use. Photoshop is an incredible program, but unless you want to dedicate serious amounts of time to learn it all it's a little wasted I think.

Andrew

 

[Andy Hardin]

Photoshop Elements.

Its got about 95% of the full photoshop features for under $100

 

[Andre F]

I would also vote for Paint Shop Pro. It's a good program but a little confusing at first. I hear Photoshop Elements is also very good.

 

[Shawn C]

Try Xara X from http://www.xara.com

It's an outstanding graphics program, but it not for editing photos, etc. It's a vector program and is 100% awesome.

I enojy using the GIMP for photo processing.

http://www.gimp.org

 

[SteveA]

Thanks for the replies. I saw both Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop Elements at Best Buy today and thought both of them looked pretty good for what I want to do.

 

[DaveF]

PhotoImpact is another good option for web oriented tasks and general purpose image editing. (I've got v6 and found it useful.)