If you don't own anything right now, then I would just download a free 30 trial of either Paint Shop Pro or Adobe Elements 5 (or both, one right after the other 30 day expires). Either one of those will do you fine. There are other programs out there of course. If you don't own anything and don't know if you'd even like it, it's the safe way to go. You can go to the tutorial section on this site and see/do the different tuts for the different programs (you'll notice other programs listed also). Do some of the tuts, see if you like it. Everyone has their favorite program. One does this, the other does that, it's all what you get used to. I've used both and am now on Photoshop CS 3. You'll find some people use more than one program. There have been threads on how many people do that even. I just stick with one myself these days. Good luck.