Whats a good editing program for newbies??

[suze]

A friend of mine wants to start digital scrapbooking. Whats the best program for me to start her with?? I use cs5 and i dont wanna let her drop that price. Its all ive used and ive never taught before!! Thanks ladies

 

[heathergw]

Photoshop Elements... and since you know CS5 you'll be able to teach her some things even though it has his limitations

 

[Paula]

I think Elements would be a good start. It's fairly inexpensive and there are some good tutorials out there.

 

[suze]

We tried the trial but its almost 2 gb for the program and her computer wont hold that. Shes checking out mixbook now but i dont know what that has to offer yet

 

[Jengerbread88]

I started out on Paint.Net which is free (www.getpaint.net). It still has layers. The only thing it doesn't really have is drop shadows.

I graduated up to GIMP (google it and you'll find it). Also free. Has drop shadows, but they're really tricky.

However, both will teach her the basics of layers. If she really likes digiscrapping, she'll feel better about dropping the price on PSE or something else.

Now I use Corel PSP X2. I don't know how much it cost, though, because it was a birthday gift from a friend...

 

[scrap2day]

If your friend is more interested in scrapbooking than editing I would highly recommend Memory Mixer 3. I upgrade it every time they come out with a new version.

I've had Elements and Paint Shop Prox2 and I still go back to Memory Mixer because it is just so easy to use and get my pages done. I can use all of the kits here. They only thing I can't do with Memory Mixer is use the templates. And I am able to "improve" pictures easily if they are too dark or I would rather have them b&w. The software is easy for the new user and quite powerful for the more experienced.

I would really suggest Memory Mixer 3 for a newbie unless it seems like they are really going to get involved and want all of the capabilities of Elements or something more professional. It's what I suggest to any of my friends who show an interest.

 

[ajfries]

I started out with Memor Mixer 3 & I loved that program. I also found it very easy to transtion over to PSE when I was ready.

 

[suze]

Thanks ladies but she really wasnt as interested as she thought she was. I thought she rally wanted to do it, she just wants to pass time on best rest and stick to traditional!! Oh well i actually got to scrap for the first time since sept tho!