new guy... interested in graphic design

[Tim]

If you're just learning I think Fireworks is the best place to start, its a lot easier to use that photoshop.
Maybe start with that, then once you've got exprienced (and a bit more money), move to Photoshop. I personally can't get along with Photoshop, its too complicated and doesn't do much more than Fireworks for the things I use it for

 

[Nick]

I agree 100% but it is personal perfernce, dpends what you really want to learn and get into

 

[mssssee2]

If you're just learning I think Fireworks is the best place to start, its a lot easier to use that photoshop.
Maybe start with that, then once you've got exprienced (and a bit more money), move to Photoshop. I personally can't get along with Photoshop, its too complicated and doesn't do much more than Fireworks for the things I use it for

I totally agree, i started designing with fireworks and is much easier and much more efficient for graphics than photoshop. I use photoshop only for the picture part the rendering capabilities on fireworks and illustrator are just outstanding. I also convert Photoshop brushes to vector because it can be used in manymore ways, like creating custom fonts other than to just blend in photos...

 

[Techmaster05]

you can always go to adobe.com and get a 30 day trial using Photoshop, just to try it out and if you like it and dont actually give up than buy it, you dont have to have the newest PS, you can just get the CS2, not much of a difference between CS2 and CS3, not sure about the new CS4 as im not willing to spend more money trying get that when the adobe creative suite CS3 is good enough for me which is all of the CS3 programs from adobe. I think photoshop is a lot better than fireworks if you really know how to use it more, i never really got into the whole fireworks thing but illustrator is great to, great for logos and making them look really high quality, but id say photoshop would be the best if you really know how to use it

 

[malakh]

Paint.NET has many similar features of Photoshop. So I think starting out, you could at least try that out.