I've been digital scrapbooking since April, but I'm outgrowing my Printshop (Creating Keepsakes variety). I'm frustrated by certain things I can't do there. What I want most to be able to do is add texture to the elements I add to a page. Also on the list of things I want to do is paint/brush/drawing effects, photo-editing, and transparent effects. I also want to be able to put them all on 8 1/2 x 11 pages in the program. All digital.

From the reviews I'm reading, PhotoImpact has the BEST photo-editing, but it isn't as easy to use and doesn't organize the photos the way Photoshop Elements does. I could care less about organizing the photos, but I'm wondering if I should purchase Photoshop Elements just because everyone else has it, so there would be more support for it?

Please help!

Well I'm in the comfortable positions that I have almost all the programs used for digital scrapbooking: DIP, PS CS, PSP 8 and PhotoImpact. I used DIP for a while, but find that it was limited especially when I wanted to change back things like the opacity. PSP 8 was something I found really hard also because I have the dutch version and all the tutorials are in English. Okay and now your question. I use PS Cs but just starting out, so the things I do you can also do in PSE. I really love PS, it´s true that the learning curve is steep, but with all the tut´s online and the many people using them who you can turn to for help is very helpful and has helped me to self-learn PS. The downside is the learningcurve. I have the lucky psition that my best friend has done a course in PS for her work in the advertisingbusiness, so she helps me a lot. I´m not sure if I would use PS if I didn´t have her to turn to. She helped me a lot with tutorials online I failed to do.
PI was the only program I failed to self- learn. BUT there´s an extremely helpful beginnerscourse at pirc-bw dot com. I just finished the first level out of three and I love it. I don´t ude it often though, because my computer is too old and slow for the program to use for scrapbookpages. The little stuff from the course goes very well. I think when I have a new computer I´ll use it more often together with PS. The very downside to this program is that not many people use it so for questions it´s much harder to get an answer, also on the pirc bulletinboard you don´t always get answers. which I never experienced with PS. I hope I helped you a bit. Feel free to pm me when you got more questions!

Monique

I think it is personal choice. [BTW I use the program that came with PI called Photo Explorer to organise my photos and elements.]

I have never needed another program since I learned this one in a flash. I did the PIRC Beginner's Workshop, followed Jeri's scrapping tutorials and within a few months I knew so much about this very easy to use program. It does great things when I need my photos improved, and makes digital scrapping so easy yet it has such powerful features.

I guess the best reason is the fact the program is easy to learn and use while still being very functional.

But again, it is personal choice

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Jacqueline
Kitty and Baby Mama
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I have been digital scrapbooking for about 6 months now, and I chose PI based on recommendatons from members here. I have to say that I am really happy that I chose this program. Like others here, I did the Beginner's Workshop at PIRC which was really helpful and completely free. I was amazed at how simple this program was to master, and, overall, I have been pleased with its capabilities for scrapbooking. I also purchased PSE 3 which I am in the process of learning, but, to be honest with you, I keep going back to PI. In my opinion, it is really user friendly. Also, Barbara Williams (Bits of Ivory) has an awesome scrapbooking course using PI at the School of Creative Arts. She is also the moderator of the Scrapbooking Forum on the PIRC Bulletin Board, and she is a great resource for using PI as a program in general as well as specifically using it for scrapbooking. Her course at the School of Creative Arts costs about $20, and you get a lot of great information like how to make various elements, doing various effects with photos, etc. I hope this helps--good luck with your search!

Thanks for all your help and advice. I think I'm leaning towards PSE when I'm really ready to buy, but in the meantime, my husband found an older version of Ulead PI 6 (or was it 8) for $10 that he's going to buy for me. If I fall in love with it, then I'll upgrade to version 10 rather than go to PSE.

Thanks again!

Oh, and I'm new to all the scrapbooking forums out there . . . What is PIRC? thanks in advance.

PIRC is Photoimpact Resource Center.

I dont' really know why you should buy PI over Adobe....I tried starting with Adobe Photoshop elements (The first one) and coudlnt' quite get the hang of it. then I got PI and read the book that came with it and I love it. I am sure the other programs are just as good, just a matter of personnal preference. I have quite a few sites bookmarked on tutorials and help for PI also, so if you ever need any, let me know. I think there are a lot of resources out there for PI

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