What do you all use? I've used Coreldraw and Corel photopaint for about 16 years, I love them but they won't work with windows 7 and I can't afford a new version of them. I've now bought several cheaper programmes but they're all garbage. I'm trying to use Photo Explosion now, it was about £30. The clone tool is comparable to Corel but bizarrely if you use a mask to cut an image out of one photo and add it to another you can't resize it - well not by dragging the corners out anyway. You have to spend ages randomly trying different sizes in the original then putting it back on the pic you want and it's still a little too small.. so back to the original to resize and so on and so forth :-(

Suggestions for cheap or free photo editing software please folks? Must have freehand masks, clone, layers, ability to add text, brushes and the usual editing tools and of course (unlike photo explosion) easy to resize masks :-)

Try Serif I use Photoshop but can recommend Serif Photoplus

GIMP - I find it's excellent & FREE :-D

I couldn't get on with Gimp, but I find PHOTOSCAPE excellent - and it's FREE! :-)    Very much like photoshop. But FREE!

Did I mention - it's FREE !

:D

I use Photoshop CS5 but it costs a small fortune!!!

I use GIMP, and it's got far more features than I'll ever get my head round, and I've heard a lot of people say it's comparable with some of the expensive to buy photo editing packages in terms of capability.

Just make sure, if you go to Google to find it, search for 'Gimp photo editing', not just 'Gimp' like I did - quite an eye opener, some of the sites that came up :-O

Claire

> Just make sure, if you go to Google to find it, search for 'Gimp photo editing', not just 'Gimp' like I did

lol too late but thanks!

Thanks for the suggestions folks, I'm working my way through them. I'm trialling serif photoplus at the moment, it does almost everything I want but isn't as user friendly as corel, it seems to require 2 or 3 tools/clicks where one does in corel :::sigh

Adobe Photoshop for us. :-)

I forgot, there's also  Paint.NET   - also FREE :D

it seems to require 2 or 3 tools/clicks where one does in corel

Some times 2 or 3 clicks means more scope for refinement and sometimes not, all these programs have their own way of working - have to say that I have tried others but always return to Photoshop because I understand it I even find the Elements version my husband uses more difficult to use than the full blown Photshop I'm still using the CS3 and could not afford to replace it with a more up to date version although I do have Lightroom if it is a rush job.

i have been using gimp for my photos and to make banners for a sim game for ages and love it, my friend swares by adobe photoshop but the price puts me off. Gimp cant do everything that photoshop can do but for general photo editing it good.

These posts have reminded me how much I miss Corel!  I have it on my old laptop as it came free with something (scanner/printer?) years ago.  I used it so much, so easy.  Sadly, not compatible with the OS on my "new" laptop (now 5!).  At first I went back and forth between machines so i could still use it, but it became too much hassle, so now just use the very simply options available in my photo programme.  Reading the advcie here with interest and will check up on the recomended software to see is any work with a Mac.