Photoshop cheaper alternative?

[Regular]

A Magix product might be worth checking out. According to the PDF I read, it can import PSD with layers, which is quite impressive. I've never used this product so can't say to what extent it does this import. Evidently, it has Xara Xtreme 5 with it, so it's a good raster/vector combo.

I got notification in email today, it was on sale. There is a free download to try.

The advertisment in the email flyer:

MAGIX leads the field in innovative photo editing and graphic design. In Photo Premium 9, MAGIX has combined two of its flagship consumer products, MAGIX Xtreme Photo & Graphic Designer 5 and MAGIX PhotoStory on CD & DVD 9 deluxe, Photo Premium 9 has been born. Explore the possibilities.

[Luke.Hart]

I'm not sure I entirely agree with Covoxer about Gimp. I personally find it much more user friendly than PS, I suspect the biggest problem is it doesn't do things in the same way as PS (and some people don't like the proliferation of windows). I also have never noticed any slowness, but this may just be because I've always run it with plenty of memory.

Having said that it's one huge deficiency is that it doesn't support 16bit images (yet). This is a real showstopper when you're working in B\W and mucking around with the exposure and curves. This issue can be worked around to a certain extent by correcting the exposure and applying any curves when importing from RAW.

[covoxer]

You can see slowness (relative to PS) applying some heavy effects to the large image. You can also see the interface issue here as filters are less interactive.
While one may argue about the overall interface decisions, the OP question was about PS alternative and he stated following:

I was used to Photoshop Elements 4.

This makes me think that GIMP will not look quite friendly.

[juergen]

One that might be of interest for you could be Photoline.
It is available in 32/64bit Versions, can import your psd/pdf files, has multiprocessor support and can use plugins. Especially if you have large graphics, it might be much quicker than a lot of the other software packages.

http://www.pl32.de/

Juergen

[w00dy]

I use Serif Photoplus X3 for editing bitmaps, at £60.00 it's not a bad buy (http://www.serif.com/photoplus/).

[spline]

www.sumopaint.com has some nice features that work better than photoshop their gradients for example. As long as you dont go very highres its also fast enough.

[xtom]

I'd also recommend Paint Shop Pro. I much prefer it over Photoshop.