Graphics Software

There are many programs available that allow you to work with photos and graphics. Here are a few common choices...

Paid Software

Adobe Photoshop

This is pretty much the industry standard for photographic manipulation. Photoshop offers all sorts of powerful tools for a variety of work. It is the powerhouse application for this type of work and any budding photographer or graphic designer should be familiar with it. See our photoshop tutorials for more information.

Adobe Illustrator

Illustrator is sort of a companion to Photoshop. Whereas Photoshop is primarily a tool for manipulating and editing images, Illustrator specialises in design and creation of graphics from the ground up. Strongly recommended for graphic artists.

Adobe Fireworks

Adobe took over Fireworks when they acquired Macromedia in 2006. Although it is still supported (CS3 featured some updates), the future for Fireworks does not look solid as it is really duplicating the functions found in Photoshop and Illustrator. It seems unlikely that Adobe will want to keep developing such similar products indefinitely.

Free Software

GIMP

This is a highly-respected free alternative to Photoshop. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program, referring to the fact that it is released under the GNU General Public License. GIMP is often associated with Linux but is available for a number of operating systems. For more information visit www.gimp.org.

Paint.Net

This is another application that is often recommended. It is available for Windows computers and includes all the basic requirements for a graphics app as well as quite a few advanced tools and effects. For more information visit www.getpaint.net.