What is the best Photoshop-like software that won't break the bank?

I like Acorn. Reasonably priced and excellent UI.

My first choice would be Gimp: http://www.gimp.org/

Followed very closely by Paint.net
http://www.paint.net

Adobe Lightroom... It has most of the functions that you need to do photo editing without the price of Photoshop. And the interface is very intuitive.

First, nothing compares to photoshop simply because Adobe owns patents on many of it's tools.

the next best thing is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Tool) it is the closest thing to Photoshop anyone can get, but the interface is hard to learn.

Honestly I would suggest going with photoshop, if you have a friend/relative who teaches or attends a college you could get them to get the academic version for you for fairly cheap.

Gimp is a great downloadable substitute for Photoshop. Simple and intuitive.
http://www.gimp.org/

Gimp is a great downloadable substitute for Photoshop. Simple and intuitive. Gimp:http://www.gimp.org/

It's still not cheap, but Photoshop Elements is actually very full-featured. It also comes free with some PCs these days, so check that pile of included discs you've probably got laying around.

For the Mac, I'm going to recommend Pixelmator. It's constantly improving, though it's still not as powerful as Photoshop. http://www.pixelmator.com/

For mac, Pixelmator is absolutely the best choice. http://www.pixelmator.com/ For $60 you get most of photoshop's basic abilities. And it's FAST.

Adobe Photoshop Elements. It costs around $75 to $100. It has the majority of PS's features, but without the price. If you are in a rush, PSE can guide you through cleaning up a photo, or if you want, you can do it all yourself.

A way to get PSE even cheaper is to buy a slightly older version. The last few iterations have been improvements, but not significant. So buy the version that is two or three yours old, and you get a good program for relatively cheap.

an alternate to gimp, Paint.Net is pretty great.

sorry i linked the wrong site.

an alternate to gimp, Paint.Net is pretty great.

It really depends on your needs. If you're working strictly with photos, then I'd highly recommend Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, as it contains much of the same fuctionality of Photoshop with regards to touching up and editing photos, but the interface is layed out and geared directly to photographers. I haven't touched Photoshop since I started using Lightroom.

If you are currently a student (or will be in the future) pick up the educational version of Photoshop. It IS Photoshop, but only costs $200. You don't have to be going to school for something related to art or design - any kind of student will work (e.g if you're in law or business school you're in luck).

The only limitations versus the professional version are in the user license. Mainly, you can't sell anything you produce - but assuming this is just for hobby use, you probably aren't looking to sell anything anyways.

For those who dislike GIMP, try GIMPshop (http://www.gimpshop.com/). GIMPshop modifies GIMP to look and work more like Photoshop. It's to the point where Photoshop tutorials work mostly unchanged in GIMPshop.

I am not a graphics designer nor do I work in high quality images. But I run a one man business and do all my own literature and graphics. For some years I have been perfectly satisfied with Paint Shop Pro. I have used it for about 8 years and just get the upgrade every time one comes out. It does everything I need to do, and probably has 1,000 features that I never use.

I basically take images from my camera, primarily construction job-site images, and crop, and retouch them removing trash cans and annoying overhead power lines etc. Change the density and contrast, lower the resolution for a web image and that sort of thing.

Ron

Limewire.

Paint.net is free http://www.getpaint.net/ .
You may also consider purchasing an older version of Photoshop (CS2 or CS3) - sealed in a box.

I'm really happy with Photoshop Elements . I bought the newest version for $50 on eBay.

Personally, I use the entire Adobe CS4 Master Suite because I have to... but, if I didn't have to... I would use GIMP.

I like Fotoflexer. It's FREE, an online photo editor you don't even have to download. Cloud computing at its (current) best.

http://fotoflexer.com/

If I were going to live in free software land, then GIMP (www.gimp.org) is a must have for photo editing (by the way I would get Paint.net too, but for completely different applications). GIMP is not simple, but then again neither is Photoshop. GIMP runs on either Windows or, with some effort, Mac OS. (All that said, I've used GIMP for awhile and then just went ahead and bought Photoshop - it is the standard.)

BitTorrent