Best Photoshop Alternative

[Niccolo]

Right, so.

I'm a poor college student in Australia and I have a great love of digital art. I've been using a copy of CS3 for a long time now (Legitimate! My Grandmother gave it to me!) but due to a... well, my hard drive ate itself and left me with a fresh, clean computer - and the disk itself is three hundred miles away.

Anyway, I figure this is as good a time as any to investigate alternatives. I don't mind paying a little money, but I don't want to fork out the umpteen hundreds of dollars to Adobe for software that I won't be using to print money.

I've heard of Gimp - and used it a little - but honestly, it feels rough around the edges.

Does anyone else know of any other half-decent painting software alternatives? The only real condition is it must be graphic tablet compatible.

 

[darth.pixie]

Painter. Corel Painter essentials is cheaper than the rest of them but I bought mine some time back and have no idea how much it costs anymore or if the prices differ. It's a really good program. Honestly, some functions are much better than Photoshop's.

 

[Firetaffer]

Well, I've heard good stuff about Corel Painter: http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1190317151777#tabview=tab0

And also Photoshop Elements (which I use) http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel/ has a lot of photoshops functions.

If you're going free however, Gimp, as you've listed would be your best choice. Sure the UI is a little alien but I'm pretty sure as with any other program if you stick with it you'll get used to it.

 

[Wing Dairu]

I use nothing but Gimp. Swear by it.

 

[AdeptaSororitas]

GIMP. Essentially Photoshop, but completely free. Its my go to ^^

 

[SnowyGamester]

I honestly get a lot of use out of Paint, but I don't see that fulfilling all of your requirements. Though failing that I usually use Paint Shop Pro, but the version I have was made before Corel bought it from JASC Soft in 2004 so I can't really have an opinion on its current state.
...If worse comes to worst you could have whoever is in posession of the disk email you the CD key and download the trial version of CS3.

 

[Captain_Fantastic]

though im not too smart in this topic paint.net works well for me

 

[Nazz3]

Just pirate CS5.

Or you could ask your college if they can sell you a copy for a smaller price