Adobe Photoshop...

Thanks for this, Tom. Very timely - I was just today thinking that I wouldn't mind getting Photoshop....! I'll have a look.

Caroline in case you're unaware, that is for Photoshop Elements not stand alone Photoshop. Adobe started renting Photoshop some time ago with Creative Cloud where you pay monthly to use Photoshop and if you stop paying, you cannot use it. If PS Elements doesn't meet what you are looking for, perhaps check out OnOne software Perfect Photo Suite or other editing software that allow you to buy and keep the program w/o monthly charge. Just be sure you have the required OS, as many don't support older OS's. I use Perfect Photo Suite 7 upon occasion, but cannot get the recent one unless I upgrade from Mac OS Snow Leopard. It comes with pen tool, layers, and other things Photoshop has.

You can get Adobe creative cloud for photography for $9.99 mo which includes the latest version of Photoshop AND Lightroom. http://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html
They also have a Free trial to try it out.

When at first Adobe went to the cloud, I was very skeptical and really didn't want to go but now I've come to love it. $10. a month is a couple of cups of coffee and you get not only Photoshop but Lightroom for that price.

i really enjoy the corel paintshop programs started with pro x4 ...use pro x6 ,corel is offering paintshop pro x7 for $79.00...more advanced users using the wacom tablets ect. corel painter 12 very cool i have only just begun to scratch the surface.

Heck I use the full creative cloud set, since I often have to create pdfs and line art for my "day job". The additional cost is low enough that I'm willing to pay it to avoid 3-4 day turn arround with our art department.