Desperation: Someone recommend a photo editing tool!

[textualdeviance]

Considering that I edit photos for a living, you'd think I'd already figured this out, but... Sadly, no.

Here's the core problem:

I hate Photoshop. No, really. I hate it. I hate Adobe's UI, for one, and the thing is a giant, memory-sucking behemoth that takes about 10 minutes to load on anything other than the computer equivalent of a Testarossa. Even Elements doesn't solve that problem.

For hardcore image and design work, of course that's the industry standard. But when you're just doing day-to-day grind stuff? It's like using a commercial kitchen to make a tuna sandwich.

Unfortunately, because it's so popular with said hardcore designers, it's basically wiped out the market for any and all other photo editors.

The Company's efforts this direction have been sadly lacking. Paint, always a standby for grunt work, just doesn't really work with photos in any useful way. Live Photo Gallery is missing some key elements and has some features that are actually bugs, IMHO. And Picture Manager has some fatal flaws, and won't do any creative work.

My favorite tool, Photo Draw, ceased production 10 years ago and won't run on Win 7, so I can't go back to it. Also, it's old enough now that it can't handle newer formats anyway. Word and Publisher and all those other bits have some photo editing options, but they're really designed for docs, not photos.

So... I'm screwed. I find myself having to do one thing in one program, and then switch over to something else to do the other stuff I want to do, and that is a giant pain in the ass.



File management:
--Handles all major image formats
--Doesn't automatically save changes to the original file before you've told it to (I'm looking at you, Photo Gallery. ARGH.)
--Doesn't require exporting to save the damned file (a simple "save as," please.)
--Easy file conversion, either in batch (before editing), or through save as.
--Batch editing for simple tasks (For instance, selecting multiple files and resizing them all to 300 px W--with auto adjusting aspect ratios.)
--Batch renaming (probably the one thing I truly love about Picture Manager.)

UI:
--Easy zooming within the workspace
--Ruler options--pixels, inches, etc.
--Grid options
--Simple icon strip for common tasks (user-definable would be great, but not necessary)
--Item group locking/unlocking

Basic editing:
--Cropping: Manual handles plus set template options (aspect ratio, specific size, etc.)
--Resizing: Manual handles and specific number (inches, pixels, percent) changes. MUST allow for turning off aspect ratio locking
--Brightness, sharpness, tint control, etc. All the basics to make it look pritty.

Creative editing:
--Cutouts (including edge finders), background changes, layering, easy text overlays (MUST have easy editing of text boxes)
--Edge changes: Frames, feathering, etc.
--Simple filters/effects: Greyscale and tones, film grain, antiquing, basic distortions, etc.
--"Word art" text manipulations: Something beyond just changing font, color and edge/stroke

Anyone know of anything that will do all this that also is simple, streamlined and loads fast? Or am I stuck wrestling the Photoshop Beast of Traal?

ETA: Thinking about this more closely...

I really do like Picture Manager in a lot of ways. It has just about everything I want,

-No way to turn off aspect ratio locking for resizing/no grabber tool for manual resizing
-No sharpness adjustment
-No easy way to batch open (i.e., selecting a range in a folder, then doing an "open with")
-No rulers/grids

If they were to build some sort of "creative" add-on package for it to do the rest of the stuff I want (adding text, filters, backgrounds, etc.) it might do the trick.

Comments

[abiku.livejournal.com]

Your requirements rule a lot of the usual suspects out. You may want to check out Xara Xtreme. It has a stupid name and isn't free, but the non-pro version is only $89 and that isn't that bad compared to Photoshop. I don't know offhand if it does everything you listed above, but it is supposed to be a good program. YMMV.

[abiku.livejournal.com]

Also, perhaps PhotoPlus 9 or the old standby of a lot of people, PaintShop Pro.

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

Would an old version of Photoshop be OK? CS4 is a slow, bloated sack of crap, but 7 through CS3 have most of the important features and run much nicer.

GIMP has most of the stuff you mention - not sure about edge feathering, but it might have been added since I last used it.

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

I used to run CS3, and it was OK, but my biggest problem with PS is that it's just too much tool for what I need to do. I feel like I need a degree just to use it. It's overly complicated for basic photo editing.

[paulnolan.livejournal.com]

If it's just for that (and not any fancy tricks type stuff), have you tried Lightroom? Kind of a halfway point between Bridge+ACR and full Photoshop. (I would suggest Aperture as that's what I use, but there's no Windows version, and LR's pretty much the same feature-wise).

[van.livejournal.com]

I use an old (old, like 1990s old) version of Paintshop Pro (5.0 to be exact). Last I looked it was up to 9.0. I know it does MOST of what you want, I'm just not sure about the batch editting. Still, it might be worth looking into.

[ironymaiden]

ha! i use the same version at work, i refuse to give it up.

the GIMP is my answer for the full-service editor. it's a technician's tool rather than an artist's, which is pretty much what i need.

otherwise, i use Picasa for basic crop/retouch.

[van.livejournal.com]

Ahaha, yeah. I upgraded my PSP once, and I was like "WHY DID YOU CHANGE HOW TO DO EVERYTHING?!??!?!" and went back to 5.0. It doesn't do everything I want, and sometimes I have to load up Photoshop, but I'm familiar with what it does do, and enjoy it much more.