AuthorTopic: Replacement for Photoshop - Suggestions?  (Read 10104 times)

Offline Peppermint Pig

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Re: Replacement for Photoshop - Suggestions?

Reply #10 on: October 09, 2006, 03:16:52 pm
I'm also a Mac user, and that might not be helpful to Dogmeat, but perhaps sharing my experience would help someone, whether they're new or experienced pixelers.

Mac: Classic: Photoshop 3.0.5: While this is a regular Mac OS product, I still use it constantly. Provided you had a Mac and were using Classic (be sure to streamline your OS9 System folder for better performance), this would be my top suggestion. It may lack some of the features that those pixel oriented PC apps have, but it's still one of the best configured photoshops, surpassing a handful of descendants to the Photoshop line: Later versions of Photoshop became less pixel friendly and wonked up the layers, channels, and mask accessibility. While current versions have fixed some of the layer/mask/channel accessibility, they have become more buggy and are still not as pixel friendly as they could be. Adobe Image Ready, I am told, is a good web/pixel friendly tool with some animation features.

Photoshop 3.0.5 supports hotkeys: Type m to select the square selector tool, shift+m to turn it into a circle, z for zoom tool, f to toggle backdrop/screen modes, i for eyedropper, etc... If you've ever used Photoshop, you would likely expect the same functionality in an older version, and this one has it.

Filters for this version of photoshop might be lacking (Photoshop 5 and up might be good to use as a secondary graphics tool for more filter support, but is hardly as lightweight/portable as a pre 4.0 photoshop, based on system and HD space requirements.), however do not underestimate the power of the force!! Built in image adjusters in this program are incredibly versatile. Flaming Pear has a handful of free and necessary tools that are supported, such as an alpha transparency solidification tool to help with conversions to png (not supported, but GraphicConverterX is a great assistant for web prep). The filters I use quite often tend to be selection and mask based, such as blur, sharpen, unalias, KPT Find Edges Soft 2.1, and others. This program is competent. I used it to create some OSX icons before I even had OSX, and they turned out great.

Mac: Classic: Gifbuilder: Better than some, but still a somewhat no-frills animation tool. I adore it, actually. For some reason, the OSX version is broken on my machine?? Again, there might be a good Adobe alternative, but hey, those cost money! This is just a dependable support tool.

I wish there was a good OSX pixel app solution, but frankly there isn't one. Although I did do some graphics work for Pixen, that was before I had an OSX system. Although I do run Tiger now, I would not use Pixen: Due to bad experiences with the developers, I do not support their efforts.

Mac: OSX: GraphicConverterX: It does have the tools to do basic pixeling, and it is the tool I like for converting between formats. Has some filter and adjustment tools as well. It also supports gif animation.

Mac: OSX: Iconographer: Alright, if you don't mind working on icon sized stuff, I suppose this is an interesting alternative. It has pixel grid toggle support and several other features... and if you're going to be doing icons, I think it's invaluable, so it's worth having anyways!

Offline Dogmeat

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Re: Replacement for Photoshop - Suggestions?

Reply #11 on: October 09, 2006, 03:21:57 pm
Thanks for all the help gents,

I think what I'll end up doing is rolling back to an earlier verison of PS once I reinstall windows.

Someone mentioned memory issues, I'm pretty sure that's what the issue is, on the computer in mention it only has 512mb unlike my laptops which each have 2gb.
Daisuke Nagano Yokoyama

Offline Filax_666

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Re: Replacement for Photoshop - Suggestions?

Reply #12 on: October 09, 2006, 04:33:42 pm
only has 512mb

Consider yourself lucky, I have about 300mb...on a five years-old iBook...and, considering that, your problem should be WINDOWS (because I use PhotoshopCS on that Mac)

Offline Dogmeat

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Re: Replacement for Photoshop - Suggestions?

Reply #13 on: October 09, 2006, 05:19:34 pm
Thats the great thing about apple though, you can do so much with so little due to the fact that the hardware and software is so proprietary to each other. Maybe I'll get myself a nice new iBook next year, they have great screens and are slick.
Daisuke Nagano Yokoyama

Offline Peppermint Pig

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Re: Replacement for Photoshop - Suggestions?

Reply #14 on: October 09, 2006, 09:26:19 pm
Since this is a replacement topic, what do people think about PDA's??

Software for the PDA's? Which PDA's are best? Is a stylus sensible? I need to know these things!!! (time to gooooogle)

Offline Dogmeat

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Re: Replacement for Photoshop - Suggestions?

Reply #15 on: October 09, 2006, 11:35:40 pm
I have a sharp zaurus sl-c700 that I found at work ( in a junkpile! ). The screen is so clean and crisp it's beyond amazing. The thing gets a 640x480 resolution and using a program called clover paint ( pixel art program that rocks your socks ) it's an amazing machine. It has inputs for SD and CF cards. Only problem is that it is a japanese device and if you're not IT savy you'll be hard pressed to get it converted to english. Other than that, I've seen people use Paint on windows mobile devices. Oh did I mention it has a screen that flips around and a full keyboard, it can switch from being a fully functional linux computer to a fully functional tablet PC. Did I mention it is also capable of wired or wireless networking? Anyway, have a look:

http://images.google.com/images?q=sl-c700&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images
Daisuke Nagano Yokoyama

Offline Peppermint Pig

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Re: Replacement for Photoshop - Suggestions?

Reply #16 on: October 10, 2006, 12:07:34 pm
Tiny Keys!! Haha. It looks pretty cool.

From Wikipedia:
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SL-C700 (Corgi), a clam-shell model and the first PDA to use Sharp's "System LCD", sold only in Japan.

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While the SL series devices are no longer sold by Sharp in the US or EU there is an active market on the internet. Devices from Japan are converted to English language and offered for resale through internet merchants.