Free Photoshop Competitor

[Sgt Beavis]

http://www.getpaint.net/


About
Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.
It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.
The programming language used to create Paint.NET is C#, with a small amount of C++ for installation and shell-integration related functionality


I've been trying this out. Don't let the "Alpha" scare you off. This is the 3rd Alpha and it is pretty stable IMO. Paint.net doesn't have all the features photoshop has but it is easier to use and it is FREE, as in beer.

Hope you enjoy.

[DarkWolf]

http://www.gimp.org/

Doesn't require .NET, also it's multi-platform so you can use it on Linux or OSX as well.


Windows version: http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/
OSX version: http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/

GIMPShop: http://www.gimpshop.net/

It's a version of GIMP that renames/moves some of the tools so they're more familiar to people used to Photoshop. It also includes a plug-in that puts everything into one main window like Photoshop, instead of multiple windows.

It's also compatible with most Photoshop plug-ins.

[franks]

i really enjoy paintshop pro xi :)

very easy to use for a fifth of photoshop

[The Big Matt]

pay for software?

balderdash!