Alternatives to PS - what they can and can not do?

[Mike Reyburn]

Has anyone used Photoline, www.pl32.com?

[Chuck S.]

Nobody's mentioned Corel's Paintshop Pro? (not to be confused with Corel Painter, a painting program)

No experience with current version, but I believe it now supports 16 bit, raw, psd's and many other formats. Seems highly featured, even if it is priced more to compete with PSE...

See features & free trial here:

http://www.corel.com/corel/product/i...id=prod4900069

(BTW, I have no connection to Corel or this product.)

[Sevo]

Has anyone used Photoline, www.pl32.com?

Yep. That is, I use the 64bit version. The GUI is rather Windows XP/PS7 age, but the software works well.

[barnninny]

Time will tell... I anticipate many things like Pixelmator, but nothing with 16 bit, paint, filters, layers, actions, etc. That's a lot of development time just to make something that will ultimately compare unfavorably with Photoshop.

That's a strong point. Very strong.

The basic problem is that Photoshop is really several pieces of software for several distinct user groups, rolled into one. Those of us doing photo processing often piggyback on features actually designed and implemented for graphic designers, digital painters, etc. I agree with Ben that it's really hard to imagine anyone else building all those pieces for all those user groups, much less then rolling them into a single package. If they had it to do over again, I doubt Adobe would.

Corel might, I guess, since they have some version of most of the pieces already, but my guess is they're more likely to follow Adobe to the SaaS model than try to fill the void it left behind.

[polyglot]

While it's no PS substitute, I use a combination of VueScan (or ufraw for digital) and gimp. While default gimp (that I have installed on my linux* box) only does 8-bit, I tend to only need curve and colour adjustments at the input so I do that in VueScan on the raw 16-bit data then export as high quality jpeg. And keep DNGs of the raw scan data.

Once I have the image in gimp, all I do is rotate, scale, crop, clone/heal and sharpen, none of which have quantisation issues.

This doesn't get you anywhere if you want to do dodge/burn in 16 bits.


* PS was never really an option for me. I refuse to fund Adobe and my linux box can't run it anyway. I'm not an imaging professional so I don't need to care, though I feel for those who just got lumped with a significant and uncontrollable overhead.

[Jac@stafford.net]

[...] The basic problem is that Photoshop is really several pieces of software for several distinct user groups, rolled into one.

Photoshop evolved in the paradigm of monolithic software. Later, Adobe integrated much of the creative suite so that the programs can share a file as a smart object. I predict that Adobe will eventually break Photoshop down into more role-specific modules so that a photographer, for example, can choose which parts he wants and leave the rest, or add more at a future date. That will likely fulfill their profit track for a long time.

[Joseph Dickerson]

Sure. Every time I look into Lightroom, I check and see if it has a channel mixer. It still doesn't have a channel mixer. Since I only do B&W prints, and the reason I use digital is to apply contrast filtration to color captures in post-production, I think the channel mixer is pretty important.

I've used other tools to do B&W conversions, and I've seen the Lightroom dialog. I still prefer a workflow with the channel mixer. I'm sure there are other functions I use that don't exist in Lightroom, but that's the big one for me.

Just for the record, I'm not that angry at Adobe over this, but software and computing costs are a big deal in digital work. (Plus the fact that my printer was just orphaned by HP and I can't even buy photo inks for it anymore. Argh!)

John,

Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 works with Lightroom and Photoshop (as a plug in) and beats the channel mixer approach by a lot, at least for me.

You can download a trial version, the whole Nik Suite is now only $150, some of my students found it discounted at $120. It's now marketed by Google. Maybe with Adobe's new policy Nik/Google will release a stand alone version of the Nik software.

At least we can hope...

JD

[Jim Andrada]

I'm too damned old to worry about learning any alternative and what they charge for the full CS suite is half of what I have to pay every year for RealFlow alone so I think it's astounding value for the money - so much that I can't really see them losing much if any business because of the new rental model, nor do I see a real significant market opportunity for any other company. I think the only true alternative to Photoshop is to build a darkroom and buy an enlarger.

I know - I feel curmudgeonly today!

[AuditorOne]

Well, back to Paintshop Photo Pro X3.

[Kuzano]

Two thoughts from this front...

If anyone thinks simply defaulting to Light Room is a course of action, how long do you think it will be until Adobe closes the door on LightRoom... Seems to me, last I heard, they own LightRoom, and PSE as well.

Secondly, if the market place has successfully twisted Microsofts Nuts to force a re-think and rewrite of Windows 8, does it not follow that six months to a year of "stone-walling" Adobe products altogether would bring them to their knees... .Come on folks... this is all about money. Plug the income stream. Don't fall for this lease/rent software program, or we'll not see the end of it. Just bypass Photoshop and Adobe for a few months.

Microsoft has knuckled under with an intro of Window Blue, or as I refer to it, an improved "Windows 7 risen from the ashes of Windows 8 Surface". The word is that Windows Blue is not a Service Pack for Windows 8, it is fully a new operating system designe to quietly replace Windows 8 Surface without Microsoft admitting defeat.

In fact, I am so pleased at the back down from Microsoft, as this weekend I have to write the new outline for "Introduction to Windows 8" to teach at the Community Ed department of our local Community College for Fall Term. So pleased!!

If Adobe has no sales or rental agreements signed for six or more months, they will be looking for a back door out of this problem as well. Just close your wallets, and put your plastic away... BOYCOTT.

The market has the solution...withhold the income stream they are making this move to acquire. Make them compete in the market. Perhaps someone will step up and fill the need during the void. Excellent opportunity for aggressive companies. Adobe can't really own all the marbles.

I vote Boycott of Adobe products.... All of them. They'll be back with products for sale as usual. However, don't stop looking for alternatives. If Adobe can do Photoshop, surely someone else can..... After all, It's just computer code.... Right?

Now let me say, admittedly, I have not paid a dime to Adobe since I purchased the academic version of Photoshop 7, which is still working great for me. But then, I don't know what I am missing, nor do I know what you all have become addicted to with all the CS stuff.