What version of Photoshop are people using?

[Tapewolf]

With many thanks to Turnsky, I am now in possession of a 200MB PSD file which breaks Gimp's import filter and makes Krita sit and smile and twiddle its thumbs until you kill it.
PSP8 at work managed to extract the whole image as a single layer, but I'd really like to have a multi-layered version so I can study how it was made and remove the background etc, so I'm going to have to buy Photoshop by the looks.

The question is, which version?  CS3 costs more than the Macintosh did and unless I somehow transform into a decent artist (unlikely, but not impossible) I'm probably only going to less than 1% of its features.  Adobe's website is geared at photomanipulation and is utterly useless for relatively simple questions like "Will Photoshop Elements allow me to split a 36-layer monster PSD file into separate layers?" or "Which version is best for drawing webcomics?"

Since there are a number of webcomic artists here, I'd like to know what people are using and which versions can be used, and I figure the answers would be of interest to other artist-wannabes as well.  Exactly how crippled is Elements?  Does it have an artificial limit to the number of layers, for instance?  Or hobbled so that it can only be used for retouching?

[Darkmoon]

I haven't used Elements in forever, but last I had heard, it will break an image down into the individual layers if you have the PSD.

That said, you should eb able to find a used copy of PShop CS1 for cheap. It'll open just about anything CS2 or CS3 cranks out, and likely the file you got is from CS2, so it should be just fine.

[Turnsky]

Photoshop CS, Basically Photoshop 8

[Tapewolf]

That said, you should be able to find a used copy of PShop CS1 for cheap. It'll open just about anything CS2 or CS3 cranks out, and likely the file you got is from CS2, so it should be just fine.

Good call.  I'll look down that avenue.
Given the expense I'm guessing that many webcomic artists began while they were at uni and thus managed to get the student discount.  (Politely ignoring the fact that some may have got the 5-finger discount - if you did, I don't wanna know)

I'd still be interested to know what versions of the software people out there are using and what the differences are between them from a practical point of view.

[Tezkat]

The last version of Elements that I used was severely limited in terms of features. It's essentially optimized for photo manipulation/retouching and has virtually no useful tools for content creation. I do recall it having some support for layers, however.

If GIMP can't import your PSD file, then the file probably includes some of Photoshop's custom layer blending features and special effects.

I'm now using CS 2. Most of the advanced layering effects were already present in Photoshop 7, however. I only have PS 7 on my laptop, and so far I haven't had any problems with transfering files. The main compatibility problems I see are with the brushes (Photoshop CS and up have some really neat brush tools for things like hair effects), but that doesn't affect the data files.

[RJ]

I have Elements 5 on my new computer. Vista wouldn't let me use my erm... certain copy of CS2. But I have that and Elements 2 on my old computer.

Elements 5 is a little difficult to get used to still. I liked 2 better- it was just simple and did the job I wanted.

[Tapewolf]

I have Elements 5 on my new computer. Vista wouldn't let me use my erm...

...computer.   

But I have that and Elements 2 on my old computer.   Elements 5 is a little difficult to get used to still. I liked 2 better- it was just simple and did the job I wanted.

Cool.  One thing, though - you're a photographer as well.  Are you using Elements for that, or for the commissions as well?  If it works well enough for the commissions, I may have wasted a couple of hundred on Photoshop 7 

[RJ]

I have Elements 5 on my new computer. Vista wouldn't let me use my erm...

...computer.   

That too...

But I have that and Elements 2 on my old computer.   Elements 5 is a little difficult to get used to still. I liked 2 better- it was just simple and did the job I wanted.

Cool.  One thing, though - you're a photographer as well.  Are you using Elements for that, or for the commissions as well?  If it works well enough for the commissions, I may have wasted a couple of hundred on Photoshop 7 

Meh, whatever works really. I used both Elements 2 for photos and normal art on the old one. CS2 just ran too slow. I'm just lucky somebody loaned me Elements 5 since I couldn't find the other CDs.

[GabrielsThoughts]

I have  Photoshop Elements 4.0 which I modified with  brushes from CS2...as well as some other tweaks that took me less than half an hour.  I prefer to use older programs like Photosoap, and Ms Paint, because newer isn't necessarily better. Also I bought a current copy of Macromedia freehand at a yard sale for 50cents, I don't have a Mac, but for 50cents I can't complain.

[LionHeart]

What sort of tweaks? I use Elements 4.0.

[Josh Massa]

I'm actually using an $800 of Photoshop CS my friend gave me with his flash drive. Any idea what Photoshop that is?

[Kryptic]

I use a lot of GIMP and a dash of CS.

Photoshop's on my Dad's laptop and so I use it when I can, but I'm usually Gimping.

[Tezkat]

I'm actually using an $800 of Photoshop CS my friend gave me with his flash drive. Any idea what Photoshop that is?

Photoshop CS = Photoshop 8.

After 7, they decided that they needed a new version system to confuse eveyrone.

[Tapewolf]

I use a lot of GIMP and a dash of CS.
Photoshop's on my Dad's laptop and so I use it when I can, but I'm usually Gimping.

Same here.  It's irritating - I know all the keyboard shortcuts for GIMP so using Photoshop is kind of painful at the moment.  Changing the brush seems to be particularly kludgy in PS, but no doubt I'll get used to it in time.

I eventually went with V7.  It crashes if you open a file by double-clicking on it, but apart from that it's working quite nicely.  I was particularly impressed with how fast it opened the enormous Turnsky commission - it took about 15 minutes even though it was the PowerPC version running on intel hardware.

[Shadrok]

I use a lot of GIMP and a dash of CS.
Photoshop's on my Dad's laptop and so I use it when I can, but I'm usually Gimping.

Same here.  It's irritating - I know all the keyboard shortcuts for GIMP so using Photoshop is kind of painful at the moment.  Changing the brush seems to be particularly kludgy in PS, but no doubt I'll get used to it in time.

I eventually went with V7.  It crashes if you open a file by double-clicking on it, but apart from that it's working quite nicely.  I was particularly impressed with how fast it opened the enormous Turnsky commission - it took about 15 minutes even though it was the PowerPC version running on intel hardware.

I have Photoshop Cs2, I don't know if this is the same in 7 but you can go into Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts...
and change them to what your use to.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

It's not the keyboard shortcuts, it's the general menus and layout that differs somewhat.

I mean, yeah, you can adjust the keyboard shortcuts in Gimp, but due to licensing issues, the default layout is different to Photoshop. *shrug* just one of those things.

Heck, you can get a plugin for Gimp that alters -everything- (menus, names, keys, at the least) to match Photoshop as close as it can. :-] Tell me you can adjust the menus on Photoshop - without hacking the binary, I mean... :-]

[Sunblink]

Photoshop CS is my love-baby, simply said. Even if they come out with a better version of Photoshop (which they likely already did), I'm not gonna ditch it.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[xHaZxMaTx]

Ditto, CS was the first PhotoShop I used and I've gotten used to it's layout.  That and I'm probably just too lazy to learn a new setup.

[mini-lion]

I currently use CS, seems to handle most things thrown at it, especially at larger size documents, but seems fiddly at small scale.

I mostly use if for website design and slicing and colouring and photo adjustments, rather than sketching and general art work.

[Jack McSlay]

can't you give it a try on paint shop pro first instead of wasting 800 on a bunch of features you won't use? it costs 10% of what PSCS does, and it also opens PSD files

[Turnsky]

can't you give it a try on paint shop pro first instead of wasting 800 on a bunch of features you won't use? it costs 10% of what PSCS does, and it also opens PSD files

paint shop pro can't handle layers real well. that's a honest to god truth, i've used PSP, PSCS, and the GIMP, and Photoshop, for all its memory hogging, has proved itself to suit my needs very well. i've crashed the other two programs more times than not trying to use 'em like i use photoshop.

[Tapewolf]

can't you give it a try on paint shop pro first instead of wasting 800 on a bunch of features you won't use? it costs 10% of what PSCS does, and it also opens PSD files

Basically I did, and it didn't work.  As Turnsky says, it doesn't handle layers correctly, or at least, the version we have at work didn't.  To its credit it did render the composite image correctly, but it absolutely would not split the file into layers.  So I got PS7 for about $500.

**EDIT**
Also, I made a conscious decision not to buy any more Windows productivity software if I can avoid it.  There doesn't seem to be a unix version of PSP...

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

paint shop pro can't handle layers real well. that's a honest to god truth, i've used PSP, PSCS, and the GIMP, and Photoshop, for all its memory hogging, has proved itself to suit my needs very well. i've crashed the other two programs more times than not trying to use 'em like i use photoshop.

FWIW, there are different ways of using the different programs, and the programmers seem to prefer a slightly different working pattern, in each case. So doing things "the photoshop way" on The Gimp, for example, is likely to run into problems.

This is over and above the normal collection of problems you run into when dealing with a proprietary format in Open Source, to whit, the OS guys don't have a roadmap of what the possible options are in the format, so sometimes they guess wrong, and things go belly-up. *shrug* Not a lot you can do about that.

I expect Turnsky and Tapewolf know this - I'm commenting for Jack's benefit, and, indeed, anyone else who might be interested...

[Gabi]

I have Elements, but I've only used it once. I use The Gimp normally, and sometimes Paint Shop Pro 8 or Paint Shop Pro X when I'm on Windows.

[Jack McSlay]

paint shop pro can't handle layers real well. that's a honest to god truth, i've used PSP, PSCS, and the GIMP, and Photoshop, for all its memory hogging, has proved itself to suit my needs very well. i've crashed the other two programs more times than not trying to use 'em like i use photoshop.

FWIW, there are different ways of using the different programs, and the programmers seem to prefer a slightly different working pattern, in each case. So doing things "the photoshop way" on The Gimp, for example, is likely to run into problems.

This is over and above the normal collection of problems you run into when dealing with a proprietary format in Open Source, to whit, the OS guys don't have a roadmap of what the possible options are in the format, so sometimes they guess wrong, and things go belly-up. *shrug* Not a lot you can do about that.

I expect Turnsky and Tapewolf know this - I'm commenting for Jack's benefit, and, indeed, anyone else who might be interested...

that's the big problem with those paint programs... everyone makes their own way to do things thus making proprietary formats, and in the end we're stuck in a mess of formats and programs that don't understand each other...

which is why I avoid using proprietary formats whenever possible

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Style of work, not format of file, Jack.

Sure, proprietary formats bite, for precisely that reason - but I was referring to the method you would use the application, which is a somewhat different concept.

[Turnsky]

paint shop pro can't handle layers real well. that's a honest to god truth, i've used PSP, PSCS, and the GIMP, and Photoshop, for all its memory hogging, has proved itself to suit my needs very well. i've crashed the other two programs more times than not trying to use 'em like i use photoshop.

FWIW, there are different ways of using the different programs, and the programmers seem to prefer a slightly different working pattern, in each case. So doing things "the photoshop way" on The Gimp, for example, is likely to run into problems.

This is over and above the normal collection of problems you run into when dealing with a proprietary format in Open Source, to whit, the OS guys don't have a roadmap of what the possible options are in the format, so sometimes they guess wrong, and things go belly-up. *shrug* Not a lot you can do about that.

I expect Turnsky and Tapewolf know this - I'm commenting for Jack's benefit, and, indeed, anyone else who might be interested...

that's the big problem with those paint programs... everyone makes their own way to do things thus making proprietary formats, and in the end we're stuck in a mess of formats and programs that don't understand each other...

which is why I avoid using proprietary formats whenever possible

there's various little 'quirks' in most programs i've found to be detrimental to their continued operation, for example, PSP7, it cannot handle more than twenty layers, before collapsing in on itself.. who'd have more than twenty layers?... photoshop can handle over a hundred with no problem..
note: my own work, completely digital. sketched in opencanvas nowadays, and inked in photoshop.
basically, Photoshop is a very potent tool in the right hands, so are the other three 'big' programs. Layer Options are photoshop's big creedo, and it handles that supurbly.

as for price..... eeeeeh... 

[Jack McSlay]

there's various little 'quirks' in most programs i've found to be detrimental to their continued operation, for example, PSP7, it cannot handle more than twenty layers, before collapsing in on itself.. who'd have more than twenty layers?... photoshop can handle over a hundred with no problem..

wait... PSP7? wasn't that 2001? there's already been 5 other versions since that

regardless, if I'd spend a lot of money on an imaging program, it would be on Painter, because it's a painting program, not a photo editing program