Great list, BuBBy! You've led me to a new photo editor favorite, that being GimpShop.

A port of Gimp, obviously, but tailored to be as close to Photoshop as possible. Works with PS filters, and is one powerful program, with or without having to pay for it. The icing on the cake is that it's totally free of charge. I'll be spending some time learning it, and then I feel that I will be uninstalling some of the others I currently have on my system.

Anyway, I'm grateful for you sharing that list!

FF

Thanks BuBBy, super list! I've been on a filter frenzy for a week now! Lot's of goodies to go through, it takes some work to investigate each filter's capabilities and save the best, then getting them all working across the graphic programs I use most. Good times, good times:)))Now is a great time to be seeing what is new in the graphic sector, so I really appreciate new links to check out.
~LD

There are a lot of excellent graphics programs on the market these days, but just because they come with a premium price tag doesn’t mean they are the only option. Take a look at this list of our favorite, and free, alternatives to some of those pricey programs.

35 Free Graphics Programs Hopefully there is one or two on the list you haven't seen before.

Idahl - yeah, I'm giving my paws the rest of the night off too! Thank you for the nice comments - much appreciated. Spent the day trying to be a good girl and catching up on everything I've neglected the past few days. This poor hamster is runnin on empty - too much software (yeah, as if...) - I'll check in later
hg

Freeware Fan - are ya still with us? It seems like Idahl and I have sort of highjacked your thread, LOL (didn't think you would mind tho!) There's one other program I've been sitting on, trying to decide if I should post for you.....so, here's the full story and afterwards you can decide what to do.

Its a freeware texture/tile generator called Imagely's Picture Styles. The homepage is at
http://www.imagelys.com/

Its relatively new - June of this year. You also need to download the texture packs - there are six so far - some of them look like draped silk scarves in beautiful jewel tones, all designed to be layered over each other and there's soooo many of them. Its got a decent help file and if you are interested, I did make some notes for a friend you are welcome to have (although I doubt you'll need them, LOL!). So, why did I hesitate to mention this? I have McAfee's Site Adviser on my browser - I don't rely on it nor treat it as gospel, but I do take the time to check it out when something I'm interested in is red flagged. You can get Imagely's and the first four packs at cNet Downloads, but packs five and six are on the homepage only. When I found this program back in August, McAfee had not yet rated them - when I looked the other night, they had and its red, due to links to other red sites. Also, when I googled' it just for grins, man, I have never sen so many red flags on one of my searches! Now, when you dl the program, it says 30 day trial - but you register for free and its yours to keep. My system is clean, and I have had no emails from them or anyone else far as I can tell.

I'm not going to debate about McAfee - but I did want to give everyone the full story and then they could make up their own mind. If you have a use for this sort of thing, its a fun toy to have on hand, so let me know. (FreewareFan, check out my live space) - See ya'll later,
hamstergirl

@HG I didn't mean to babble on so much yesterday, sorry! I just didn't think you would really like Xara all that much and I knew from what you told me, that you already had most of what they offered.
I loved your Live Space and I think your paintings show a lot of talent! There is much confusion between Corel Draw, Corel Photo Paint and Corel PainterX vrs. Adobe Photo Shop. All those Photos and Paints in the names. Not to forget the old Photo Shop Pro
I think they did it on purpose!:)
I can tell you want to work with raster programs, the vector programs are Corel Draw, and Adobe Illustrator the rest of them are raster.
I've had way too much fun looking at all the software the last couple of days. Today I'll be good and shut up early!:)))
Later
LD

Hey Idahl!
.....YIKES! You sure know your stuff! (says the noobie graphics user in a small, reverential voice). I live in fear of having to do a reinstall - probably because I'm not sure how, LOL! And, I don't have a cd for XP - I realllllly need to buy that new computer.....You know, outside of selling my beadwork, (back before everybody and their mother started making their own) and working as a street artist in San Francisco back in the day, my creative endeavors have always made rather than paid the bills. I never had a job doing anything remotely interesting (hey, most of us don't get excited by insurance!) It's nice to hear that you have been able to work in a field doing something that you enjoy and are passionate about - and yeah, I'm jealous too ;)

Thank you for the lowdown, its put a few things in perspective. I came to my computer knowing the names of two pieces of software - Corel and Photoshop. Not being a photographer, and not knowing any better, I thought "Oh, Corel is for painters, I won't need to look at that silly Photoshop" - jeez, what an idiot. I even sat on my copy of PSE4 for two months before I looked at it! Well, I got bored one day and decided to install it and now, well I just wish I had done it sooner - I love playing with all those brushes!....Now you have given me a very good piece of advice - basically, learn the software that I already have; and then learn how to push it past its limits. Remember, thrill of the kill and all that? They were thinking of me when they cloned the phrase jack of all trades, master of none! Happy accidents are a good thing, but only recently have I been able to operate at a level of intent (as opposed to "Wow, how did I do that?....so I won't ever do it again"). One of the reasons I play with all these filters and plugins is to get a grasp of the terminology - its hard to make plans when you don't know what your tools are for! There's just so much stuff to take in and its not just the graphics, there's the day to day operation of the computer too. Sometimes I really feel like my brains are leaking out my ears (its really hard to get out of my fur too).

I see that Corel now has an Essentials 4 (I have v3, came with the wacom) - it seems like Artweaver is practically a Corel clone (and has features that Essentials3 doesn't). The program history you gave was very interesting. I had always planned on using this machine as a learner, and then getting a new one, and installing Painter on it - at the time I wasn't even aware that they were up to version 10. I knew it was overkill, but hey, everybody deserves champagne once in a while! But getting v8 might not be a bad idea. Getting Xara was foolish, I admit. Vector drawing frustrates me more than anything else I have tried to do to date. When I held it up to the programs I currently have, yeah, I'll admit it - the packaging got me. I've stayed away from eBay on purpose - do not want that temptation as well *grin*. I've just put something up on my Live space called Old Master. Did it for a competition with Twisted Brush. Its got a gazillion things wrong with it, but its the best I've ever done, on or off a computer. Look at the rest - they scream newbie - but you'll see what I'm talking about. Its about 5:00am, and this hamster is retiring to her nest- see ya later!
hamstergirl

Ah, Muddle is my middle name*grin*! My own amusement is most important to me, work second.One must keep one's priorities straight. Xara Extreme, my thoughts for whatever they are worth. First I bought Xara3d, I'm thinking around nine or ten years ago. I have version 3.03... I may have upgraded once, can't remember for sure. I do know this, I had to do a complete reinstall once as I burned up a drive, and they had all my account info and everything went quick and easy with that company. Now they have Xara3D 6...almost 40 dollars for the 'upgrade'...and after I looked over the "new and improved features" I wasn't impressed. In fact, they are basically selling what I was doing with their program on the fly, back when. For the noobie graphics user, I guess it would be worth it...but really, it was a piece of cake to make their version 3.03 do the very same thing. So I won't be "upgrading". Then I looked at what was being offered in their Pro Program, again, they weren't offering anything that was all that special. In fact I'm surprised if you are working with the freebies and low cost shareware, you haven't already run into most of those very same features. In short, I do believe it is a good company, but they are really taking other people's ideas and marketing them with a pretty package for the end user that isn't very experienced yet. The safe but dull route.
The best thing you can do for yourself is plan a project. Sit down and ask the software you already have to do the work. As you solve each problem, you will learn the capabilities of the software that you already have. Then read through the feature lists of bigger packages. Just for grins and chuckles I went and checked out what ebay had tonight for Corel8. You can get all the bells and whistles, Draw and Paint(Vector and raster),clip-art, fonts, manuals etc for around $80 dollars including shipping. New, legal and registerable, 2 days left. In Jewel cases, no box. It took me years to find most the goodies that program could handle, and I was using it every day. I never have been able to find anything that I wanted it to do, that it could not, it was a great version. If you are working in the print media, go with Adobe Illustrator10-Photoshop8 or Corel12,they are the industry standards. Corel and Adobe have always warred. Corel stumbled way back when with version4(buggy as heck)and again with 7(same problem)so Adobe took the lead, but believe me, I've used both and Corel could hold it's own +. I'm just now thinking of upgrading because there comes a time when the bar has been raised. That doesn't mean Corel8 is a boat anchor, it just means for pro work, you have to be able to really grind fine to stay even. A lot of Pro end users are switching to Corel now, they are finding what I've known for years. Corel is very user friendly and you get more bang for your buck. I've worked with some of Serif's products back when, had a couple of big clients who had done their own basic work but needed it to be redone professionally, so they would bring me their files and I would put it all together for them in a better way. It was horrible, I always hated working with it...like using your elbows to move the mouse:))) BUT that doesn't mean it is that way today... I found the site tonight and I'm tempted to D/L so I can give you my opinion of it now. Another excuse to play with software!heheh!
Hope I haven't bored you silly,it's just my work has taken me through lots of the graphic software ups/downs through the years. Time is money and I've had to know what would work with what, fast. A rolling stone gathers no moss but it does acquire a bit of polish.
~LDahl

@Idahl -

*it is so great to find a fellow paint program/filter junkie!!*

Yeah, but you actually DO SOMETHING with yours! Me, I just muddle around for my own amusement....I had to leave the workplace just around the time that computers were starting to become an every day/body thing. So you can imagine how floored I was when I got online last December - I had seen MS Paint, but that was it. The first thing I googled was Dogwaffle, and after that, well, you know the story! Right now I'm working on (or at least I'm supposed to be) Xara Extreme. Its a 30day trial, but I'm thinking of getting it - are you familiar with this? You can get 2 really nice vector draw programs for free, Serif's Draw Plus, and Inkscape, but Xara seems to make the whole process a bit easier (I could NOT handle it being any harder!!)

And I'm babbling again, its time for a breather. So glad you liked Kaleidoscope, it really can create some beautiful images (I think there's one or two on my Live space). The Plug-in Site has so many great links to free plug-ins and filters - I've dl'd more stuff in the last 20 hours than in 6 months! Guess I'm gonna have to just force myself to learn how to use it all *grin*....catch ya' tomorrow..
Cheers,
hamstergirl

BuBBy - you are a prince! (I bet you wish people would stop saying that and just send you money instead)...well, its a 32-bit version, I was actually looking in the right place too, just didn't know that a 32-bit version would only show the year, and not the bits! As for my other question, merge the two accounts? NO!!!! I like working with a net (no pun intended), if Aston (or anything else) does take a dive, it might help having a second admin acct already in place. I just wanted to use Run as to access my GOTD programs without flipping between the profiles - its really become the only reason I need to visit that acct. Secondary log on has been enabled, just need to set a password and it should be good to go.
Since you have my e-mail, you can send me the bill - just be aware that there's already a very long line......
Cheers,
hamstergirl

I feel really silly asking this, but where do I look to see how many bits my WinXp Pro is? I'm not sure if its 64 or not

How to determine whether your computer is running a 32-bit version or a 64-bit version of the Windows operating system:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;827218

In order to use "run as" on another account in XP Pro, does that account have to have a password?

I believe you need to have a password on the account you are using with RunAs.

since "run as" is not running - will assigning a password to the old account take care of this?

If that is the only thing "preventing" RunAs from working - yes. Also the Service "seclogon" (ie. Secondary Logon) has to be started/running for RunAs to work.

Are you saying you would like to combine the two user profiles into one - or is this only because of the extra problems in switching between accounts?

Some other reading on RunAs
Why doesn't the RunAs program accept a password on the command line?

@HG....Sorry about the typo, it is IrfanView... I was a bit tired:) I was having too much fun trying out new filters that you pointed me to. I've wanted to have one like Medhi's kaleidoscope forever. I've looked so many times, thinking someone must have made one, but all I could find was those that would do half of the operations so you would have to go through many processes to get half of what I wanted. Thank you so much for that little treasure!
I do have an antique copy of PSP, I really don't use it for a paint/photo program at all. I use it to work with filters and layers together. I don't ask it to do that much, but it does what I want very well. I use different graphic programs for different jobs. RealDraw Pro is my favorite for text and vectors, Corel8 Draw for layouts, Photo-Paint for putting everything together. I like IrfanView for finding/sorting files,scanning and importing from one format and exporting into another(plus setting wallpapers on the fly,checking plugins, listening to sound files + + + +etc...it is my little workhorse)
My work experience includes both PC and Macs, Corel and Adobe. They all have their up and down sides.
It is so great to find a fellow paint program/filter junkie!!

BuBBy - got a couple ?'s for you:

I feel really silly asking this, but where do I look to see how many bits my WinXp Pro is? I'm not sure if its 64 or not - but I need to know before trying to install the .net framework. I'm starting to get that FEELING again - you know - the one that says "you reaaalllly shouldn't be doing this"....if I got AstonShell up and running successfully (which I did, and even paid for a license to boot!), it would mean that I was now Master Of The Universe...after looking at - again - this whole Gimp/PaintNet/framework thing, my coronation might have been a bit premature.

In order to use "run as" on another account in XP Pro, does that account have to have a password? I am the only person who uses my machine, so passwords aren't necessary. When AstonShell was offered here recently, I took another member's advice (I believe it was BillW50) and installed it to a new admin acct (damage control). Everything worked out fine with Aston, and my new acct has sort of worked its way up the ranks to my primary workspace (starting out new makes everything so nice and tidy!). Its a pain however, to flip back and forth between the two accounts when I want to use some of my older GOTD programs, since "run as" is not running - will assigning a password to the old account take care of this?

Thanks BuBBy,
hamstergirl

Thanks a lot guys (BuBBy, that means you too!)...well, guess I'm off for another adventure! If I don't surface soon - send in the Marines (hmmm, a Navy SEAL might be nice too),,,
hg

Good read, thanks for the link!

Just a FYI for people are wondering about the different versions of the .NET Framework.

This is a fairly concise summary http://www.leonmeijer.nl/archive/2007/06/11/50.aspx

Hey hg, how you doing today?? About your question of .Net size, the .Net Version 3 is only 52Megs in size. Not too bad, really. But then again, that depends on the size of your hard drives, yes? I don't remember what size version 2 is, but since you're going to be installing it anyway, may as well go with version 3, and you'll be covered for the next year or two.

And about your computer skills, it sounds to me like you are making FINE progress, if you only just started last Dec! I've known people who have been trying to learn for a couple of years, and can just now barely send email.. :-)

Well, I've been at this desk for just about 24 hours now, getting things in order here, so you'll excuse me if I take leave for a while, yes? Time for some shuteye. Talk with you later, and good luck installing .net . It's really easy, but the install time is a bit long.. Bye for now.

@Idahl - again, thanks! That's the Fotomatic link I was looking for. I love those filters, especially the sky gradient one. And I spent a little time looking at your website again - if that's your "toy".....yikes, what do you come up with when you're "serious" ;) Everything is so nicely done, its really something for you to be proud of!

Hey guys! Been busy, haven't we?!! You know, I really don't post all that often, but this is the subject most near and dear to my virtual heart and you guys are both in my cool book so...

@Idahl - I owe you a very big thank you/apology. After playing a while with Irf/Erfanview .....yeah, "viewer" is an understatement *grin*. And once I figured out how, all my filters worked just fine. Even tried a few new ones from the Plug-In Site - ULead had three freebies, ArtTexture, Particle, and Fantasy Warp. All three are great, but you have got to see the Particle one! I am very happy I took your advice and downloaded it. As for ArtRage2 - that was my 2nd find! Liked it so much that I paid for the full version. They've raised the price of a license to $25 (it recently had a major upgrade), but even at twice that amount it would still be a steal! Nothing else that I have seen (yet) outside of maybe DeepPaint comes even close to ArtRage's ability to duplicate the look and behavior of full-bodied oils or acrylic paints being brushed onto a canvas. I would love to try PainterX - have a couple of trial copies from magazine cd's - but this poor little machine of mine would probably throw itself on its back and scream for mercy (and then give me the LawnMower Man treatment as revenge right before it permanently expired!). Now, you have PaintShop Pro, correct? Is it for photos or painting (I'm assuming photos....I'm also assuming that my foot is rapidly heading towards my mouth again - hey, its used to it)?

@FreeWareFan - hey, you did it! Cool! As for your nice thank you - aw shucks, it weren't nothin...heh, heh, he. No really, and for once I'm not being funny or sarcastic when I say this - being able to provide input in a forum like this that actually helps someone out gives me the warm fuzzies. Especially when its someone who has computer skillz way over my own (generally, even a gnat falls into that category). If you had seen me last December, on the floor trying to figure out how to plug this thing in and turn it on, well, you would see why I get such a kick of out this! (I bought my computer from my downstairs neighbor - he knew how to do two things with it...one was looking up the winning lottery numbers. I'll let you figure out what the other thing was (how do I know this? I found the temp files he left....all of them!). It never ceases to amaze me with just how generous people on the net can be with their knowledge and time. Sure, there's plenty of the other sort, but fortunately they are in the minority. This site in particular has been responsible for much of the progress I've made over the last few months - and I don't mean just the apps, its the people who share their experiences and provide links, here and on the front page ....its just nice to be able to return some of the favors.

There is one question I would like to ask either of you, or anyone else - its about the .net framework one needs to download in order to use PaintNet or Gimp (I wanna bag the Big 2!). I know its bulky - can it be installed onto an external hard drive or does it have to be located on the c drive? I don't think my c drive's got the room, so.....

Oh goody, its time to see what's on the GOTD menu for the day (I love being nocturnal). See ya'll later!
cheers,
hg

@ Idahl - Mission accomplished! I've looked at Irfanview, and I like it. I'll dig deeper into it as time permits. Thanks again!

@Idahl Will do, Thanks! I'll be offline for a bit, re-installing Windows and doing a general re-partition of the system, but I should be back online by later tonight. I'll let you know my impressions of Irfanview then.

@HG...fantastic filters! The Mehdi ones look like they could be really useful, not just fun to mess around with. I have a very old version(6)of PSP... never upgraded and now it is part of Corel(which ruined it for a lot of people I think) Anyway, Deep paint plugs right into it and you can take your file from DP send it to PSP and back again without a save. So the two programs work hand in hand.(making one the working extension of the other) Thanks for your comment about my website. It's my toy:)))
@FF, do try ErfanView: http://www.irfanview.com/ It will handle most all of your plugin filters and it works great for so many graphic operations. It doesn't have layers but you can do a lot with it. I see a third party is working for a paint plugin for it too. Look for "Image" on the task bar, then Effects..pull it down and go from there to load your filters for use. Great for doing effects on the fly. I just have a folder I keep on "C" that I named Plugins and direct ErfanView to that folder.

Fotomatic Filters are here: http://www.cybia.co.uk/fotomatic.htm Go to the task bar look for Digital Photography, on the drop down menu there is Fotomatic...pick one that interests you. I've used their Cybia Edgeworks filter set(a good one).

hamstergirl, you ARE a diamond in a field of stones! Thank you very much for going the extra mile to check all that out. I thought maybe I had a system problem for a while there. Now that I know what's what, I can certainly deal with it.

You're the best! ;-)

Okay, this is what I've found

What I tried was using my Photofiltre Studio plugin folder for my source directory and then I tried again, using my Pshop elements folder. You can do this is Deep Paint by going to file, click preferences, click directories, then click on the second line down under Photoshop Plugins and specify which directory to use (obviously, you have to have these up and running in another program to do this). These are the plug-ins that I got Deep Paint to accept in this fashion (I did not try installing these directly into Deep Paint, I suspect they would work fine that way - famous last words...: Fotomatic, Harry's Filters, Flaming Pear, Tessela, and Mehdi Kalaioscope. Paint Engine worked, after a fashion, but not well enough. I tried running it directly in PhotofiltreS - all I got for my troubles was a black image - nice under some circumstances, just not these! Deep Paint also ran the Impressionist just fine thru PShopE, but that won't help you without PShop - I think thats the only program it will function directly in. I think the problem with Paint Engine may be the way Deep Paint is set up - color, bump, shine. It will always ask you which channel (is that the right word?) you want to run the filter on and if your image is using all three, some of the filters will run three times (if you told them to), once for each channel. With Deep Paint, PEngine would work only on the color channel. If I checked off Bump and/or Shine, it ran once for color, and then 2 messages saying the plugin terminated.

FreewareFanatic, you might try downloading VicMan's Photo Editor - its right here in GOTD Freeware Library. It comes with Paint Engine installed. Maybe you can get it to work thru that? At least you could see if its worth pursuing. The really annoying thing is I could swear I remember it working in all 3 of my apps! I'm really sorry, this is not the news I was hoping to give...... do you still have the free version of PhotoFiltre? Try it there, it may work, and so may the other filters I mentioned above. Anyway, here's some links for those filters:

The Plugin Site - GOLDMINE! Get Flaming Pear here, among others
http://www.thepluginsite.com/resources/freeps.htm

Tessela - very very cool stuff - have not tried Checkout yet
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/zeric/tessela/

Mehdi Kalaidoscope 2.1
http://www.mehdiplugins.com/english/kaleidoscope.htm

And all the rest of the Mehdi freeware filters
http://www.mehdiplugins.com/index.htm

I can't find where I got the @#$@%##$ Fotomatic Filters!!! There's eight of them and they really rock - maybe from one of my magazine cd's? (See what happens when you hit your late 40's......aw crap, and they tell me its all downhill from here *fume*).

Idahl, I have not forgotten you - I've just run out of steam! Let me take a breather and I'll be back....

Cheers,
hamstergirl

@HG Good morning sleepy head! I tried it too and just about got the same result. I didn't crash but I got a error message. The Harry's filters are working with it, but so far that's all.

FreewareFanatic & Idahl,

Hi guys.....*gulp*...;-) Just got up and saw your posts (hey, I'm a nocturnal animal and I take my job as a hamster very seriously!) Let me do some homework and I'll get back to you asap.
hamstergirl

ps: FreewareFanatic, where did you dl Paint Engine from? DeepPaint can be really funny about its plug-ins and from what I've read, its not just me. I do remember though that I was able to get Harry's Filters, Paint Engine, and Impressionist to work, but not the other filters from my PShop Elements4, it gave me the same result - show up in the filter menu, but was a one-click crash from there. Anyway, let me go check on a few things.
hg

@Hamster girl...I am afraid you did create a monster, I was up way too late playing with the editors and plugins that you recommended! Have you tried the Xero filter sets?
If you like paint programs, have you tried ArtRage? The first edition is free.

Say, hg, I seem to have a problem with PaintEngine beta version 1.10 . I've installed the Pe.8bf and fmachine.ini into the Tools directory of Deep Paint, but everytime I try to run that filter set, the entire program takes a dive on me.

Harry's Filters work just fine, but not Paint Engine. Any pointers you care to share?

TIA

@ hamstergirl - After spending some time with the programs, my vote goes to, (drum roll, please)..................

Deep Paint!

You did not exaggerate one bit when you said that this program is simply outstanding. For this piece of work to be offered free of charge, just floors me! This one has moved to the head of the class in my world.

I've even gone out and obtained Harry's Filters and Paint Engine, but have not had time to give those a try yet. If there are any other free filters that work with Deep Paint, or a link where I could start my own search, just let me know. :-)

Once again, thank you for pointing me in the right direction!

FreewareFanatic - my pleasure, and I look forward to hearing from you!
hg