Quote (rinirax @ Apr 15 2021 03:22pm)
i can recommend affinity photo
usually costs 30$, pay once and own it forever
I've recommended this several times in the past too.
I used PS, PSE, had CS subscription, and Affinity Photo/Affinity Designer saved me tons of money, while granting a very familiar work environment.
The only thing I find lacking in Affinity is being able to work with gifs, which isn't something I care too much about personally.
I personally got it in beta and enjoyed free updates for quite a while, cheaper than PSE (one time payment for a lite version of photoshop with no subscription) and hell of a lot cheaper than a monthly subscription to Adobe.
Photoshop is superior, mostly because of the extra features that make certain things easier, so if you're willing to spend extra, go for it, at least give it a try.
If you're looking to save money, Affinity is great, and it is currently on sale so it's a good time to pick it up.
Quote (Wretch @ Apr 12 2021 08:08pm)
Photoshop and Illustrator are definitely the standard, and for good reason. Something new (to me) i found last year and found to be really helpful was a program called Topaz Gigapixel AI
Really, any software from Topaz Labs (some are even Photoshop plugins) can be very handy. They've been around for a long time, worth checking out imo.
I've also recommended Gigapixel in the past. It's basically a program dedicated to upscaling images.
I purchased Topaz products because they advertised a one time payment for their program, then later decided to sell yearly licenses to updates.
You still keep the purchases, but can't update them unless you purchase them again... which sucks imho.
It will let you download the update, but then won't let you use the program, so you have to uninstall and revert to an old version, which is a pain in the ass and waste of time.
Topaz effects can be nice, but can easily be overused and overdone.
There was a time when topaz effects flooded the graphics section, and everything looked the same
