So my question is this:

Is there much difference between - Adobe Photoshop 5 andJasc PaintShop Pro?

The 5 version is all I can really afford at the moment.

One thing I do like from Adobe is ImageReady ... which really does a great job optimizing your images for web. PSP saves OK files as far as size goes, but IR really packs them in tight. IR comes with PhotoShop, but you can also buy it standalone for a lot less (check MySimon.com)

So I use the combo and would recommend it to anybody

I do have to disagree on ImageReady. Personally, I think Fireworks 4 does a MUCH better job on image compression.

You know I would like to run a test of the two. Is anyone willing to agree on an image in a TIFF format in certain size. Then you compress it in ImageReady and I'll use Fireworks 4 and we can have people vote on what looks/downloads the best in 3 predetermined file sizes?

As with alot of us price is an issue.

Students & teachers as an example, who live and reside in the US can get end user discounts on Macromedia products, but not Adobe (AFAIK, there aren't discounts on Adobe but I could be wrong here). Students and teachers, who live & reside in Canada can get end user discounts on Adobe products, but not Macromedia. I'd check out each product carefully.

You'll also find that if you buy a bundle you can sometimes get a discount which makes it worthwhile to buy either one or the other. I think Macromedia offers a discount on bundles of Dreamweaver & Fireworks together. Macromedia & Adobe are the two major players http://www.macromedia.com & http://www.adobe.com . I'm not sure you can really compare the quality of the work that can be accomplished in Adobe with PS, but then again you work with what you've got. The other thing that is really nice about Adobe is the Adobe exchange coupled with all of the tutorials they have on site. Macromedia does have a similar section but I think Adobe does it better.

I use it quite often and is excellent.

I was happily using PSP for years when my company merged and the new leaders said thou shalt use PhotoShop. So I evaluated. It was better for a while; not now. Not for my needs, anyway. So I do my primary work in PSP and export to psd format so my company doesn't know the difference.

I should note that besides ImageReady, I also keep DeBabelizer on hand when I get that CD full of product images that all have to be resized, copyrighted and saved as jpg for a client's catalog. That's a wonderful automation tool ... do it once to one image, save what you did and run it on an entire directory of images. Come back in an hour and it's done.

I'd be interested in the graphics compression test, too. I posted the following
http://www.effierover.com/test01.tif (397,547) http://www.effierover.com/test02.tif (323,960) http://www.effierover.com/test03.tif (294,150)

PSP save as JPG produces 139,039 - 118,986 - 107,505.

ImageReady set to medium quality jpg (which is as low as I like to go) produces 28,640 - 21,064 - 15,884. I saved these online as
http://www.effierover.com/test01-opt.jpg http://www.effierover.com/test02-opt.jpg http://www.effierover.com/test03-opt-jpg

because I believe no file size test is complete without a visual comparison. Some graphics programs compress and damage the image.

So, how does fireworks do?

I was trying to open the TIFF files but my photoshop was unable to open them. The same goes for my Fireworks 4.

Are they in Mac or PC format? I'd really like to run this test, so it would be cool if I was able to open the TIFFs.

It should be up there under http://www.effierover.com/test.zip