Need advice for purchasing Photoshop.

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

I had a little bit of money left over from paying my tuition last semester, and I am giving serious thought to purchasing Photoshop CS4 Extended -student edition. I can get it for about $200. According to Adobe, there is no difference between student and nonstudent versions, in the US it can be used for commercial purposes, it is fully upgradeable to a retail copy, and its liscense doesn’t run out.

But, while I was doing research I noticed that Photoshop CS5 is atleast expected to be out in April. For people who where around during the CS3-CS4 transition: Was the student edition always $200, and was it always available or did it only become available a little while after CS4 had been released? Do you guys think I should wait for CS5 or get CS4 student while its still available? If I get CS4, I don’t have the money to readily upgrade it to CS5, and probably won’t for awhile. And spending $200 is pretty much my limit, so if CS5 student costs more than that I can’t afford it.

#2

CS4 sucks hard, I wouldn’t pay $200 for it. IMHO see if you can get a deal on CS3.

#3

I don’t believe CS3/CS3 student edition are even available anymore, which is kind of why I am worried about waiting for CS5, if it comes out and I can’t afford it, I don’t know if I’ll still be able to get CS4 student edtion.

Edit: I found CS3 extended on amazon, but its not student and it costs $599, and the normal CS3 is only available through other retailers on their site, and I’d rather not purchase from a vendor that isn’t on the approved venders list. Call me picky, but I’d rather not end up with a lemon/bootleg product and with no support for it if it is.

#4

Argh matey :pirate::pirate::pirate::pirate::pirate::pirate:

#5

I was waiting for someone to say that.

#6

I’m not going to pirate it… Not that I haven’t been tempted before, but I like the thought of having a legitimate copy.

#7

You could spend $200 on a Wacom tablet, which comes with Photoshop LE. Depending on what you use PS for, that could be sufficient.

#8

If you’re in college, definitely make sure you check with your school bookstore before buying student editions directly from Adobe. Depending on how large the school is, they might offer much better discounts. For example, my school offers Photoshop Extended for ~$100, the Design/Web/Production Premium Collections for $250, and the Master Collection for $400. And they’re all “full” Retail editions.

#9

I don’t believe my university has it in its book store. The university I go to is a smaller one. I did this on purpose because the professors here like to help their students as much as possible, and they have a good engineering degree plan.

I first got my hands on PS CS3 in my senior year in highschool. I got really good at the program by just messing around with it. Midway through the class the teach stopped giving me assignments as long as I gave her a copy of whatever I was working on. I would use it for Photo enhancements and image manipulation. I have no idea what Photoshop LE has to offer in that regard.

#10

The only functionality limitations in LE that bother me are no layer groups and no masking layers. I’m also not sure if you can make macros in LE, but I rarely use them anyway.

CS4 also has the ability to rotate the canvas, which is cool if you do digital painting, but there’s a 90% chance you’ll have to disable the feature (along with GPU acceleration) because turning it on causes massive performance drops. CS4 also becomes unresponsive seemingly at random every few hours, and needs to be restarted.

#11

Honestly, after years of working with photoshop and paintshop pro, I highly recommend NOT getting CS4. Stick with CS3 if you can.

#12

https://www.gimp.org/

#13

I was waiting for someone to say that, too.
.

#14

[COLOR=‘Red’]No.

#15

oh I have to try out Gimp now that they allegedly got WACOM pressure sensitivity working on OSX. Might be better than PS Elements.

#16

So essentially CS4 is the Vista of Adobe?

#17

Unfortunately, yes.
They’ve made some changes for the worse, without really adding something of value. (If you’re not interested in the 3D part, that is)
I think you should wait for CS5 if it comes out in april.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.