Hi all -

First, I do apologize if this post doesn't belong here; however, I really don't know where to post this. I've been using Adobe Photoshop CS2 to edit images; it is extremely slow to start up and it locks up very frequent.

Can anyone suggest a better software to edit graphic/images?

Thank you much.

I always recommend Photoimpact by Ulead - does an excellent job at jpeg compression and is only $99.

I use Fireworks myself. Its much easier to understand than photoshop IMO, ive never been able to get the hang of photoshop.

I'd recommend Macromedia/Adobe Fireworks too. Teriffic software. Infact Macromedia Studio is invaluable to web developers/designers in my opinon.

There is a free 30 day trial. It is really easy to use and you can achieve some very powerful results.

People may argue that Photoshop is more powerful and they would be right but it is an over kill for web design and a monster to learn.

CubeCart was built with Fireworks/Dreamweaver. It's pricey but worth EVERY penny.

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Thank you all for your replies.

I have been pulling my hair out over Adobe CS2; needless to say, I really hate it. I'll try out what you recommended and let you know the outcome!

I will also back up the Fireworks recommendation... Its great! I can also use PhotoShop but I using Fireworks and Dreamweaver together (studio) is slick!

Photoshop is superb, especially for batch processing of images and photo editing. You cannot get the same effects on Fireworks as you can on Photoshop but I do agree that Fireworks is alot easier to learn...but if you have the time and inclination, you will get a whole lot more out of Photoshop!

I've always like Photoshop for print graphics but find it's a pain (and usually way too much for most users) for webgraphics, which is why I use photoimpact. Photoshop also does a lousy job in compression I think.

Never used fireworks - will have to check it out though.

Depends what to want to do,

I use Google Picassa for simple edits like cropping & red eye, Photoshop & Illustrator to create my logos, and Image ready to resize pictures for web use. Also the is a good add on to windows that will resize your pics when to right click over them, look on googe for that, its called a power toy i think,

I use Paint Shop Pro 8

I just learnt it before others and seem to find it easier than other programs available. I make all my site images and other graphics with it.

I've been a graphics design professional for the past 14 years, working with big corporations such as 20th century fox, nickleodeon, and Disney to name but a few, and in my time have mastered just about every pc and mac based graphics package out there, even the small ones.

After all these years, my preference has drifted to Corel Graphics Suite on PC (With 2GB RAM and plenty of hard drive space to assist in stability). I have worked with some enormous file sizes for magazine and poster publication, and it's handled them tremendously.

However, I recently started using Xara Xtreme Pro! I'm astounded on how good it is! Check out their website and download a trial version. It's very easy to pick up from a beginner's point of view, has some tremendous tutorials, is very good for web publishing, and has some very good advanced functions - It can even create flash animations very quickly and easily without any technical knowledge. It's also fast and stable and you don't need a monster of a computer to run it properly either.

Highly recommended! It also handles bitmaps!

If you want quick, quality resizing, cropping and such, there is no better than IrfanView. It's free, lightweight and hands down the best thing I've ever used for basic photo work.

Of course for anything complex, it's CS2 for me.

Somebody somewhere mentioned the Pixel Image Editor. An evaluation is on my todo list

I bought Macromedia Firework and loving it since, thanks guys for the recommendation. However since I already invested $$$ in CS2, I will (in time) learn how to use it as well.

Money well spent I think.

Yes, I'm also a fan of the Macromedia Suite. Fireworks is my 2nd graphic editing program after Paint Shop Pro, and I use Dreamweaver all the time.
I also use flash when needed, but my skills on flash is not that great.

for the money, try the GIMP editing software, it is open source and can be used on linux and windows. GIMP stands for General Image Manipulation Program

I mainly use Paint Shop Pro 9.

I also use Koolmoves for Flash Editing, for 59$. It was easier for me to learn than Flash 8 and is pretty powerful beyond just making flashy text. You can make whole animations etc.