Why did you choose Photoshop over Painter?

[Datameister]

Simple: I already owned Photoshop and had been using it for tasks other than painting for half a decade. I was familiar with the interface and didn't have to pay because it was already part of my software collection. Painter would have meant spending another hundred bucks or so and learning an all-new interface. Besides, I've seen equally breathtaking work done in each program, and equally horrible work as well. It's more about the artist than his or her tools.

That being said, I've lately been considering buying Painter. It'd be a nice complement to Photoshop.

[Lizard Head]

Version 2 LE was bundled with my first scanner about the same time I got my first job and they were using 2.5.... So I got into it because it was my employers choice,,, but lately given how PS is developing.. would really love a new choice.. been looking at some, testing some.

currently testing Corel Photopaint bundled with Corel DRAW as an alternative, tried gimp, dogwaffle, Mirage etc etc

also I have Gotten into Painter by choice lately.. to me it seems a different tool then Photoshop.. they go hand in hand more than being an alternative to each other

[tatiana]

Painter wasn't available when I first started working with Photoshop ('91 I think it was). Back then I also worked with Studio 8 and Macromind Director for digital illustration for multimedia projects (yup, that was the old days - PS had no layers either). When Painter did become available, I recommended purchasing it at the company I worked for at that time because of a demo I saw at SIGGRAPH as well as various write-ups I'd read, so we got a license for the senior artists in my team ('96, I think). I eventually also bought a version for my home studio, and now I have v8. Not upgrading to IX at the moment because I don't have a need for it. But, at my current employment we do have the latest version...but we had Photoshop first.

As Datameister mentioned, Painter is a nice complement for Photoshop and that's pretty much how I use it, at work and home.

t

[Giap]

In my case, I have been attracted by digital painting and I've thought PS was good for me. Actually, I found some information about Painter but it didn't sastify what I wanna know. So I asked my friends, who have already had experience about Painter, they gave me a lot of advices but one of those made me think too much at that time. She told me If I wanted to be a "modern artist", PS was the first choice, and if you wanted to be a "real artist", Painter is the first choice. I asked her why and then she explained. With Painter we can simulate like you are painting in the real life. For distance, we can choose oil painting, water color, pastel.. etc even we can simulate the canvas like you're painting on the wood, paper for watercolor painting and something like that. I thought too much and finally I chose PS. 'Cause, my fields are digital painting and 3D so PS is enough. I just wanna focus at one ^^' One step at the time is better to me. Maybe, in the near future I will learn how to use Painter but not now.

[tomt]

I'd suggest you try Painter, it has a free 30 day trial. The interfaces aren't terribly different and it is fairly intuitive. For an experienced Photoshop user, you should have no trouble picking it up. It's that close. After you open it, try the Artist's Oil brushes, especially one of the impasto variants. That's one of the reasons Painter is my main graphics program. You have to experience it.

[nders]

for me is because photoshop is so mainstream (the PSD) it is a pain to switch to painter for works. 2ndly painter's pixel options are too simple for me. I am a lazy bum which like presets, photoshop have tons of them (a4 etc)


but yeah i am getting a bit disappointed though at how much photoshop is providing for paint artists. trying very hard now to make my switch to painter.

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