Photo Exosion Deluxe 4.0?

[eaglesfan]

I've been looking for a photo editing software. My dad may not let me download GIMP. He says it sounds like you have to know a lot about computer encrypting and such. (it wuld be great if someone could prove him wrong.) So we started looking at bestbuy. He found a Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 for $40. Does anyone use this? If so, how do u like it? How does it compare to other software? He wants me to look into store-bought software vs. internet downloads (such as GIMP). So.. how does this Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 compare to other software: GIMP, Photoshop, or anything else?

[Samanax]

You don't have to be a computer programmer to install GIMP, you just have to get the right installer. Download GIMP from the following link and you'll get everything you need to install GIMP.

Installers for GIMP for Windows

GIMP FAQs

A GIMP users manual can be found here: Grokking The GIMP

If you shoot in RAW and need a RAW converter for GIMP: UFRAW

If you want to try a image editor that isn't as hard to figure out as GIMP you might want to check out Photoscape...it's a free download.

[teaking]

Cant help you on the software you have mentioned but I can tell you that GIMP is open source and is regularly updated and maintained with major new features in the coming versions. It is 8bit at the moment but there's a lot of work going in to bring it up to 16bit. Its no more harder to use than photoshop the tools are not as automated and require more user input but a lot of what is done in photoshop can be done in gimp. Its a pretty powerful image editor and is free.

For a lot of serious image editing you will need to learn new techniques in any software and that is always a learning curve but you wont need to know about encryption unless you really dont want people seeing the files your editing Gimp wise there are windows, and linux builds and even a portable app that will run from a USB stick.

If you would prefer software that is more automated try picasa its free to or have a look in the forum there are some great threads for software recommendation

[wulf]

Most store brought software is going to require to you connect up to the Internet anyway to register and possibly download updates. My experience of low budget proprietary packages (I'm guessing "photo explosion" fits in there - I've not heard of it) is that they tend to be quite limited, often with annoying bug, and that they also often try to save your work in formats that are likely to be impossible to use in a few years time when you've upgraded to another computer and lost the disks or password (or can no longer find whatever site you're meant to connect to to finish installation).

Having installed Gimp on numerous machines, I've had no problems with it and think that you should be fine. The kind of download that would be more problematic would be if you found a site that offered Photoshop for free - that is likely to be illegal warez - whereas The Gimp is free by design rather than through theft.

Wulf