Need image software for new Macbook

[WannaApple?]

So I was a big Corel PhotoPaint user on my PC, but I recently switched to a Macbook and cant install the old Corel software. I need something like Photoshop/ Photopaint, etc. however I cant afford to pay the huge price tags right now. I was looking at the Photoshop Elements since its reasonable enough, but it mainly talks about photos and Im worried it wont be what I need.

Can someone recommend a reasonably priced (or even freeware/shareware) software that I can use for the following uses:

creating gifs/ jpgs such as website images, banners, etc.
creating high resolution images from scratch
editing images/photos that I either download or take screenshots of, etc. such as cropping, changing colors, adding text, adding other images, etc.

Thanks!

 

[MacDawg]

The Gimp is free and is a Photoshop wannabe
Seashore is also free

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[Sky Blue]

GIMP:

http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/


or

Pixelmator:

http://www.pixelmator.com/

 

[plinden]

Well, I'm not an expert, but there are a few options. You could get Windows XP OEM for $90 and run it in VirtualBox, and install your CorelPaint in it.

You can use Preview for basic cropping, resizing etc.

Or you can download GIMP (like most, if not all, open source software, it's free but not very Mac-like).

If I need to do anything beyond cropping, I use Pixelmator ... it has quite a few Photoshop-like functions like layers etc.

VectorDesigner is a nice Mac-oriented vector image application.

The last two cost money. I got them last year in one of the software bundle offers.

 

[iBookG4user]

Have you tried Gimp? It's a good program that is very similar to Photoshop, see if it works for you 🙂