Tom
Istar
Really?? How'd you get CS3 to run on a 64-bit OS? It just refuses to open on mine. I'm thinking about getting CS6 instead, since it's the version I learned on in high school and my laptop isn't compatible with Adobe's CC software.At home, I'm running CS3 on Win10 with no problems... It was installed on Win7 and then I upgraded.
I agree that Adobe suck. At work we used CS3, 5 and then 6 with no problems until Adobe pulled a plug somewhere. Then they died. Now we have to lease the software under Creative Cloud and have a real bugger of a job to get some of it to load and run on the network PC. At least it means I never have to hot desk... So there is a silver lining to that cloud
Speaking of CC, I still can't believe Adobe has stuck with the subscription-based model after all the criticism they've gotten for it. What a ripoff.
I used GIMP for a while. Didn't like it. It's cluttered and the workflow wasn't intuitive. It also lacked some key features I needed for photo editing--the right color spaces, for one, and a couple of filters/layer options/etc.Gimp and Krita are both really good. IMO Krita is a better painting program by far than photoshop, if a bit clumsier to learn (I am a beginner with this, so take what I say with a grain of salt.) both are free and opensource, part of the GNU project, and will run on windows, mac, and most linuxes I think you can even use Gimp through your browser. If you have a chromebook, though, you would probably need to switch to linux.
I haven't tried Krita, as I have a couple of painting/drawing programs I got through tablet software bundles. I've heard good things about it, though.