Many years ago I needed to create some graphics. Nothing fancy, just some images for documentation at work. I had used several graphics programs in the past, none of which really did the job that I needed. I wanted a simple interface, a lot of power, and most important of all, I didn't want to spend half the day waiting for the graphics program to catch up to me.

I considered Adobe Photoshop, but soon realized it was priced way over my budget. So I kept looking, and before long found a great product called Paint Shop Pro. I downloaded the evaluation version, and quickly realized that I had found a gem.

Paint Shop Pro supported everything that I needed, including layers, vector and bit editing modes, a magic wand, and dozens of other functions. The program also supports Photoshop filters, brushes, patterns and far more other things than I have even bothered to explore.

What I like about Paint Shop Pro is simple: the program is very fast (even on a relatively slow machine) and it's inexpensive (less than a hundred bucks). It also has some very nice features, and I believe that PSP (as it is affectionately known by many of it's users) has a larger user base than Adobe Photoshop (this is at least true among the webmasters with whom I communicate).

Now, keep in mind that I've never really used Adobe Photoshop much. Just a one week training class and half a dozen graphics for a manual that I had to work on (at one of my consulting jobs many years ago.) So I cannot say that Paint Shop Pro is better or worse that the Adobe product.

What I do know is Paint Shop Pro will easily meet the graphics needs of virtually all webmasters. I've found that it will do everything that I've demanded, every single thing without fail.

I am especially fond of a unique feature (at least I think it's unique) known as tubes. In the words of the vendor (Jasc Software), "The Picture Tube Brush allows you to paint with a variety objects without having to draw them. With a tree and foliage tube, you could paint a forest with just a few brush strokes. You can also create, collect, or share tubes with your friends and colleagues."

For example, there is a tube with a dozen different leaves in different shapes and positions. As you use the tube, the leaves get scattered at different angles where you place the brush. This way you can draw a really nice looking tree without having to position and draw every leaf yourself.

I would recommend this product without hesitation to any webmaster who needs to create graphics of any kind (including animation, since Paint Shop Pro comes with another product called Animation Shop).