Talk:DDS Tools Listing

Created by: LHammonds (with help by throttlekitty)
Date Last Modified: 23:00, 27 July 2007 (EDT)
Last Modified by: LHammonds

Photoshop "Not as easy as alternatives"?

Now, I've spent a fair bit of time with Photoshop, but I fail to see why it's more difficult to use. I have used both GIMP and PaintShopPro, and while both did things differently, I wouldn't say any one approach was necessarily easier (though I found the GIMP's layout and UI confusing as hell, I must say). So while I'm not going to unilaterally remove that line, I am questioning why it's there. Anyone care to comment?
Dragoon Wraith TALK 16:41, 12 June 2008 (EDT)

Would you agree that Photoshop has THE MOST amount of options and plugins available out of what is listed? With more options comes more learning, more complexity and can be quite daunting to somebody that is only familiar with Windows XP and MS Paint. With a person such as that, Paint.NET would be an easier package especially with it supporting DDS format natively unlike all other paint programs. That's my 2 cents.

--LHammonds 19:03, 12 June 2008 (EDT)

Not familiar with Paint.NET, so I don't know anything about its abilities, UI, learning curve, etc. I was more comparing it to GIMP and PSP, which are the programs that it is most often compared to in my experience, in terms of having similar capability. So you may very well be right when compared to Paint.NET, I wouldn't know.

But in my opinion, compared to the other two, while the number of options in Photoshop can be daunting at first, one or two quality tutorials will make you capable of at the very least doing something. I certainly don't know how everything works or how to use terribly many things particularly well, but you can get pretty far on Photoshop basics, and learning the basics is pretty straight-forward if you grab a couple of good tutorials. Most of being good with Photoshop involves playing with different settings to get the look right (and remembering what you're doing so you can both do it again on another project, and more importantly, adapt it to similar but somewhat different projects).

What it really comes down to, for me, is that Photoshop has a very well laid-out UI. Things are consistent and you find things where you expect them, after you've played with a few things a bit (and a good tutorial can help here a lot). You may not know exactly what you need, but it's very easy to very quickly know if the effect you're going for is best accomplished with layer properties, filters, brushes, or simple adjustments. That makes navigating it and experimenting for yourself relatively easy, and so while some hand-holding may be required in the beginning (in the form of a tutorial), there are a very large number of tutorials available and after only a few of them one should have a handle on how the program works. From there, it's just experimentation, which I think PS makes easier by having a well-done layout.

Mostly, I just don't want to give the wrong impression to new users. Photoshop is an excellent program, and it's not that hard to learn. Just my two cents. Obviously, for most users, the cost is going to be a larger concern anyway.

Dragoon Wraith TALK 19:22, 12 June 2008 (EDT)