I'm pretty young, but I'm really into drawing and designing stuff. The only graphics program on my computer right now is paint, and I can't do much of anything with that if I want it to look halfway decent. I was looking at highly recommended things like painter and photoshop, but they're sooo expensive.... we can't spend hundreds of dollars, but I'm willing to spend up to about $100 or so. Is there a decent program that doesn't cost much, or am I better off sticking with a free program even if it's not great?:confusion

GIMP (http://www.gimp.org) is free. I heard it is good.

Thank you for replying....I'll try it.

You're welcome.

Just from messing around with it quickly, it looks really cool! Thanks; I thought that most free programs weren't very good. It's definitely fine for being free.

There is many free (open source programs) out there that are great. Such as Blender a 3D graphic maker. Its been compared to the best of the best and is highly ranked.
Gimp is also praised but comes with one down side to many windows at once. But that can be changed easily with a quick download of a program.
Firefox is a open source program that is really great for your computer.
Ad-aware, open office is great too. There is many great open source programs out there. Like Linux its like windows but free and some people say way better.
Divx player is a video player and it is great.
So I just wanted to let you know that open source has some great things out there. So I hope you like GIMP and welcome to the graphic world.

I use paint and I love paint.

If you find that Gimp is too difficult for you try to find a copy of Paint Shop Pro 8 or 9 (I've seen them for as low as $19(US)). With the right plugins they can do everything that Photoshop (or Gimp) can do but in a more user friendly way. I wouldn't bother with PSP v 10 or 11 as they have just gained more features for digital photo correcting and manipulating (since the Corel buyout PSP just plain stinks).

I use Photoshop for all of my editing needs. Photos, web graphics, print graphics, you name it.

If you're a highschool or college student, you can get a rather good discount at the Academic Superstore.

Although, the newest version of Photoshop [CS2] is still about 300$, the feature-cut version [Photoshop Elements] is only 70$.

Elements link: http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketdisp.html?PartNo=763954
Photoshop link: http://www.academicsuperstore.com/market/marketdisp.html?PartNo=731442

I've dealt with them before... Very friendly. To get your discount, you have to e-mail them a document proving your enrollment. According to their eligibility page: report cards, your student ID card, registration receipt, offical schedule of classes, and a letter of enrollment are all considered proper documentation.

I hope you're able to use the Academic Superstore! Oh, and they have a lot more than just software.

http://www.academicsuperstore.com/

Check them out! You may find something other than Photoshop that you may want at a really deep discount [Corel Painter, Paint Shop Pro, Canvus, Dreamweaver...].