What is the best image editing software?

We recently received an email asking about software.

"I am currently using Picasa to edit my photos, but I am wondering if there is a particular software you recommend using?"


Here is my reply:

Picasa may be fine, I am not familiar with its features. Since I believe it is free, so I'm assuming you are looking for an inexpensive program. There are many good image editing programs on the market but we normally recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements. It is very powerful, fairly easy to use, and costs less than $80 (sometimes less than $60 with a rebate). Photoshop Elements has nice editing features, a very useful cataloging feature, and there are often local adult education or community college classes available to help you learn it. It shares many of the features of its more more powerful(and much more expensive) sibling Adobe Photoshop. So if you later outgrow Photoshop Elements, stepping up to Photoshop should be a smooth process.


The bottom line is if you already have a program that you like, and more importantly that you already know how to use, then you might want to stick with it. But if you are looking for a new image editing program, you should consider Photoshop Elements.