Color, gimp.app, and Photoshop

I love Photoshop. I always have. I can still remember the first time I saw it. It was version 3 in a computer lab at Penn State, running on 7100s with Mac OS 7.5.1. It was a rainy day and I was enlisted to help the instructor keep the class of PSU faculty and staff on task as well as help with any technical difficulties. One look at the program and I was in love. I spent many of the following weeks in that lab on the weekends, after training faculty, staff, and students creating all kinds of graphics and whatnot for fun. Since I believe that software should be purchased and used as the license agreement states…I gave up Photoshop at home and now only use it at work for work related projects. As most people know, I like to do a lot of projects at home…so since I did not want to put out tons of money for Photoshop, I decided to try gimp.app…an open source graphics program.

Most of my time spent in gimp.app is enjoyable. I love working with graphics, but for nights like last night, I wanted to buy Photoshop. Why? Color. Alone, Photoshop is worth the price tag for color options. I am extremely picky with color…and with every design, I get more pickier. I have a fully functional XOOPS install up and running, but I refuse to provide a link for people to see it because I am unhappy with a shade of blue. I spent two hours yesterday in gimp.app struggling to get a decent color, without any luck. Perhaps it is learning curve…perhaps it is user interface…perhaps it is just me being stubborn, but I just wanted to let everyone know that the hold up with my XOOPS install is because of color. I am trying to stick to my overall template, but sometimes color drives me so crazy I start from scratch because I cannot handle it (look at the serveral versions of jappler.com I went through this year). I am hoping to figure my color problem out tonight, but I am confident if I had Photoshop…I would not have any problems.

PS, I am downloading the PS Elements demo right now.