Hi guys,
Does anyone know of any place/website/etc* where I can get Adobe products for a reasonable price?
IMHO prices are ridiculous.
Or… do any of you know of any amazing photoshop alternatives that are free/reasonably priced and not GIMP and windows compatible?
Thanks in advance.
* legal means of acquirement 
If you are a student or teacher then you can get a pretty good discount on all Adobe products. Other than that, they are expensive but because they are industry standards they can get away with that pricing.
As for alternatives, I quite like Paint.NET but you can actually do a lot now just from within your web browser with services like [URL=“http://www.picnik.com/”]Piknik or [URL=“http://aviary.com/”]Aviary.
Artweaver and Irfanview do basic image manipulation (free and not GIMP)
For simple image manipulation there is also Picasa.
Thanks guys
Not sure what you have against GIMP (which is the best Photoshop alternative there is) but Inkscape is a great alternative to Illustrator, Scribus is a great InDesign alternative, Notepad++ is a great Dreamweaver alternative, SWiSHMax (commercial app) is an awesome Flash alternative, Paint.NET is a great Fireworks alternative, Audacity is a great Soundbooth alternative and Dia is a great Flex (wire-framing) alternative. 
One option is to buy an old version off eBay (with caution, checking feedback etc), and then buy the upgrade to the latest version. Sometimes you’ll find retailers selling Photoshop CS (sealed and unregistered) for a low price. You can then buy the upgrade to CS5 from CS. Works out about 50% of the full retail price for CS5.
I bought Photoshop 7 off a private individual on eBay and then upgraded to CS3 a few years back. The eBay trader agreed to transfer the license and we contacted Adobe who authorised it etc. Worked out much cheaper than if I’d bought CS3 full version from scratch.
Its the interface, etc that puts me off GIMP, all the little windows here and there. Also the shortcuts put me it quite alot. I know you can customise them but I don’t want to be changing them everytime I format my PC.
That’s a really good idea, never thought of that.
Now, for some legal help. My girlfriend is a student. I’ve noticed a few places selling Photoshop CS5 Student Edition for a reasonable price. If she gets it would I be able to use it or would I get a beating?
Cheers.
Usually the Student versions of software programs are restricted for non-commercial purposes only, etc.
In the US (not sure where OP’s location is) Adobe’s student versions can be used commercially.
County Durham is in the UK (at least if it is the one here) so he wouldn’t be able to use it for commercial reasons
Damn
I’d double-check the current UK Adobe Student Licensing first though (as it may differ) but usually that’s the case in English ‘Student Licences’ from the big software vendors.
ok thanks for the reply guys