Hello all - Introduction

Rojgiean

Kathy-In my opinion, while Paint Shop Pro may not be considered the "industry standard" for graphic design, it certainly can help you lay down a nice foundation of knowledge for learning other graphics programs in the future. I designed for a very long time in Paint ShopPro before I decided to move to Photoshop. PSP has also come a long way since its first days. It has a lot more of the same powerful features that Photoshop has. In short, I really like the program and still use it for some things.And yes - you can have a lot of fun with photographs in PSP, too. I`ve been delving into photography for a couple of years now and have found the photo-editing tools in PSP to be perfectly suitable for most things.  I`m sure there are lots of different opinions about this topic between graphic designers. But I worked in PSP for many years before switching to Photoshop and for my basic purposes, found them equally usable.Shooting photos has become an interest of mine since I purchased my first digital camera, about 4 years ago. I`m a person who doesn`t like to waste stuff, which also means I was never a fan of taking experimental shots on 35mm cameras, because I felt like I was wasting film. Now, I can shoot all sorts of experimental ideas without feeling bad about it! Anyway, thanks much for the welcome, and I`ll try to be of help on any topics that I have knowledge in, so feel free to ask.
 
HAHA... I do some graphic work too... I`m slow in even transitioning to PSP, I still use Vectoring and overlays in Printmaster, and then use MSPaint, and such for detailed "pixel work"...lol
Welcome to a community that I am looking forward to learning from, and finding some amazing new friends and colleagues in!  I can`t wait to see who opens the doors, and welcomes in someone so crazy as me...haha
I have a wide array of interests and talents, digital photograpy is not currently one of them... but I`m hoping to change that soon... ope I can get better with digital photography and editing -- it would truly benefit my other work, a nice compliment to the other facets of my everyday humdrum life!
Have a great day, and remember: You are what you make yourself out to be!

Rojgiean

swaynester, I think the instance in which the cat and dog actually do more than tolerate each other is a rare one. But there is one interesting story I heard a few months ago about a particular squirrel joining up with a family of papillions. I thought that was very cool Here`s a picture
 
... ummm... for years, I`ve had cats and dogs both.  They love eachother, and it`s funny watching any other animals come around, cuse they`ll team up on them, if any other animal trys to start something, they have to deal with the others.  Granted, different ones got on better with their own choices.
My favorite was an alley cat we took in, we called "Tomtom" and a pikinese "Toi" with two german shepherds "ClaraBelle" and "Lexi".  Unfortunately, only Lexi is alive today outta that group... they were my fave group
I think that "natural" enemies can be friends when properly nurtured.  That`s why I`ve always loved animals, and I think that`s why tey always seemed to love me back.  I`ve had some strange pets too... Siberian Tiger, Gator, you name it...lol
I think I like bigger pets best, cause they seem to be more loyal.  I`ve always loved my german shepherds, huskies, and my siberian tiger the best.   Siberian tigers are too expensive though... when "snowball" died, I burried her, and haven`t had enough money to get another one.  Ahh well, at least I still have my dogs!

Christina

Kathy,

Well, I can`t answer your question about Printmasters since I haven`t
used it. But I`ll try to tackle the PSP/Photoshop question.

Also, remember my point of view is that of a web designer. I mainly use
photoshop for designing web pages and other misc web graphics. I also
do some photo editing, but not as often as webpage design. Your uses /
needs for either PSP or Photoshop may be slightly different. Anyway,
onward to my opinion

I have been using Photoshop for a little over a year now. (Used Paint
Shop Pro for about 6 years prior to that). So far, I find Paint Shop
Pro to be absolutely fine and usable for everything I`ve done in web
design. The older versions of PSP may`ve been worlds away from
Photoshop, but the newer versions are really trying to close the gap
and becoming quite powerful. The main thing I find better about
Photoshop at this point, is accessibility of tools, better workflow in
general, and a little more power in the vector area.

It`s just easier and faster for me to edit things in Photoshop than in
Paint Shop Pro. So if a client wants me to go back and change the color
of the navigation system from blue to purple, I can do it in a snap. I
like the way Photoshop handles layers and vector shapes. The "smart
group" feature is quite useful. Going back and editing something that
is a year old is faster and easier to start up where you left off.

I guess the best way I can express it, is that while I haven`t found
anything that Photoshop can do that Paint Shop Pro CAN`T do, I have
found that Photoshop is more efficient in how it handles tasks and the
way it presents your tools/options to you. In that essence, I find it
more powerful and I am glad I took the time to learn it. It makes me a
more efficient web designer in general. Plus, in the process of
learning the new tool, I`ve learned a few new tricks and of course, I
am still learning. I`m sure there are many things to unearth in such a
powerful program.

I hope you find ths novel of a post useful