[tobeygeorge]

I am brand new to this. If I purchase a Photoshop do I need to start at the bottom and work up to Photoshop elements 4.0 or can I begin by buying it? I see that there is a PhotoShop, plus a 3.0 and 4.0. Help! Tobey

[Ro]

Photoshop Elements is the consumer-level version of Adobe's graphic editing software. It is really good and is enough for most people. It is only if you want to get into some serious things that you would need Photoshop (which costs many hundreds of dollars.

If it were me, I'd buy Photoshop Elements 3.0 or 4.0. (4.0 is just the newest version). Personally, I like Photoshop Elements 3.0 better. Adobe took some important functionality away with 4.0 - swapping it out with functionality that they hoped people would like better.

But I didn't.

I've done the training series (Scrapbook Software Secrets Revealed) for both of them (as well as for Photoshop) - so if you decide to go ahead, you can quickly get a head start on learning how to use the software if you buy it.

But once you get going, you're going to love it. It is amazingly fun to do!

Hope that helps!

[Betsy]

Because Elements 4 is out, you canprobably find Elements 3 pretty cheap - and lots of people have said 3 is better than 4!

Elements 3 or 4 would be a great program to start out with, and will probably be a good program to stick with for years to come.

[siskitkat]

Scrapbook Answers magazine comes with a free disk with fonts, demos, sample projects, how-to demos and 30 day trial versions of software. The December issue included a trial version of Adobe Photoshop Elements 4.0. If you can find that, it would give you an opportunity to try before buying.

[dinny]

You can get demos of both software HERE

That might help you decide.