Reply #23: photoshop really is the best image editing program out there...

[paper chase guy]

by a good mile. There's some other good stuff out there that can come somewhat close, but it's a professional standard for a reason. It manages to keep evolving into a more deep, complex form yet stay cohesive.

I had no idea of the depth of ridiculous things that were possible with the program until after having used it for a year or so.

Illustrator is also great, but I've only barely learned how to use it, and most of what I can do with it is also possible in photoshop (drawing bezier curves)