Hello,

I was wondering if anyone was aware of a Photoshop alternative, but much cheaper. Kinda like Xara vs. Illustrator, still professional software but at a fraction of the price. Any ideas?
I am not so much looking to improve photos, but rather for the designing capabilities, like brushes, layer styles, filters, effects, and of course several different selection methods ... all to be used in combination with Xara.

I was used to Photoshop Elements 4. Now i am using the free Paint.NET, but this clearly lacks a lot of features. I have not really tried GIMP yet. Also the new Photoshop Elements is version 8, but on the website they only talk about its photo-editing capabilities, and not about the other stuff i am looking for so i am unsure what has become of it since version 4.

Thanks for your help!