Advice on which program to start with (versions of PS, GIMP, Paint.net)

[Fred16Bit]

I would like to learn one of these little by little in my free time and possibly make a contribution once I am good. I feel like there is a lot more Photo Shop community and help but could be wrong. Someone here was talking bout how there's another version of Photo Shop that is really meant for doing the cover art but I can't remember what it is called. I would probably like to get this version!

TL;DR, which version of Photo Shop is best for what we are doing here with the covers?

[sheep2001]

Photoshop cs2 is a free download from Adobe - it handles all the templates here just fine, and can do most of the editing you need.  It's a great place to start.

[E0N]

Most if not all versions are viable, but Adobe offers Photoshop CS2 on their website for free, and that's what I'm using at least. You don't really need a powerful computer or anything (mine's a crappy $250 laptop lmao) so I'd recommend starting there. Another thing is that most of the templates are in .psd format, which is basically the Photoshop file format, and while there are plugins for Paint.net and Gimp to open these, I've heard that they have things missing something.

As for the others, I haven't tried Gimp and with Paint.net I did a few Mega Drive covers but since there aren't any lines that your image can snap to or anything, looking back with the spine the game logo would often go outside the area.

So all in all, it's up to you, though I'd definitely recommend Photoshop. They are all free though, so just try each one out and see what best suits you.

[Fred16Bit]

How about Illustrator (the one I was thinking of). It seems like it is geared specifically for this kind of work.

Edit: I see that Illustrator works by using mathematics to create a line between two points. This makes it good for making vectors that retain sharpness no matter if you resize big or small. So would this be something useful for covers?

Edit2: I can see immediately too that it would be highly useful in moving logos around.

[PX0]

Illustrator is a drawing tool, with liitle to no photo-editing tools.
It would only be usefull, if you intend to completely reproduce (redraw) a cover from scratch.

But most of us are using existing images (scans, screenshots, etc.) and edit them accordingly. (Cleaning, cutting stuff out, adjusting colors, etc.)

Photoshop is the much better option for such photo-editing.
And it contains many drawing-tools anyway. So you can do vector based images in photoshop as well.

[sheep2001]

They are 2 very different prospects.

If you can get good at both photoshop and illustrator, then you're a cover master.

Photoshop is great for working with existing artwork.  Illustrator is a drawing tool.  A professional level drawing tool at that.  It's not easy.  I've tried a few times to get to grips with it, and failed miserably.

For working with scans - go down the -htoshop route, at least to begin with.

[Fred16Bit]

Thanks for putting me on the right path. I will be downloading that free version of Photoshop then. I hope there are no limitations with that one.

[E0N]

There are no limitations, it's the same as if you were to buy it back in the day.

[segamer]

I posted a free copy of Photoshop on our forums.

http://www.thecoverproject.net/forums/index.php?topic=14505.0

[Fred16Bit]

I posted a free copy of Photoshop on our forums.

http://www.thecoverproject.net/forums/index.php?topic=14505.0

Thanks. I have been watching your tutorials on Youtube. I am uploading a raw scan of NBA Live 96' for SNES the US box. I used your tutorials to clean up the white and black areas with replace color. I also used donor images to remove the stickers. However, it is not perfect and I would like to know techniques to remove that piece of tape on the left of the main image. Also, the area where I removed the NBA sticker could use improvements. I used a lot of the clone stamp tool. I am open to critique and want to learn. This is very fun.

http://imgur.com/a/G4fzQ

[wiggy]

How about Illustrator (the one I was thinking of). It seems like it is geared specifically for this kind of work.

Edit: I see that Illustrator works by using mathematics to create a line between two points. This makes it good for making vectors that retain sharpness no matter if you resize big or small. So would this be something useful for covers?

Edit2: I can see immediately too that it would be highly useful in moving logos around.

It's of little or no use when working with the existing logos that you'll find in scanned artwork.  It's quite useful, if not essential for logo creation/recreation, but not at all designed for manipulating raster images.

It also has a much steeper learning curve than Photoshop and the like.