Software for nothing and graphics for free

June 30, 2006 7:52 AM

Does anyone know where I can get a free (legal) copy of Paint Shop Pro?

I need a copy of Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro, but I need a legal version with no cost.

Jasc used to ship a 2 generations old version of the software free on magazine covers. Does anyone know where I can get a relatively modern one from?

Please... don't suggest GIMP...

posted by twine42 to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

Oldversion.com has a few free graphics programs but neither Photoshop or PSP. I'm not sure what you have against GIMP. It is going to be much more feature rich than the older versions of the programs you desire.
posted by JJ86 at 8:07 AM on June 30, 2006

Paint.NET? There were a few others at this site too. Paint.NET was mentioned here a while back though I'm too lazy to search for it. Also promising looking but not free (but, on the other hand, very cheap and very multiplatform) is Pixel.
posted by mrg at 8:15 AM on June 30, 2006

Jasc no longer exists (it was swallowed up by Corel) so I don't think you'll find any more give-away old versions.
posted by AstroGuy at 8:34 AM on June 30, 2006

I don't know about free, but when I'm looking for cheap used software, I usually head to ebay or amazon marketplace. There's currently a few copies of Jasc on ebay for 10 dollars or so, and if you don't mind Photoshop 7, you can get it for 25 or so.

If you really want free software, you may want to look into Paint.Net as mrg suggests, or try the GIMP. I used to hate the GIMP, but it's gotten a lot better recently, so give those two a try. I'm pretty sure Paint.Net opens Jasc and Photoshop files.
posted by fvox13 at 8:37 AM on June 30, 2006

Softwareoutlet.com generally has excellent deals on older software.

They have Adobe Photoshop 5.0 LE for $19.99 here.

I hope this helps!
posted by whitebird at 8:41 AM on June 30, 2006

Softwareoutlet.com also has Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 available here.
posted by whitebird at 8:45 AM on June 30, 2006

I'm sorry! That's also $19.99.
posted by whitebird at 8:45 AM on June 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

Try your library. I've found old versions of software on the cds that come with old "How To Use Software X'-type books.

In particular, I installed Flash 5 this way, although it was a demo version that expired after 30 days.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 10:32 AM on June 30, 2006

Response by poster: Why not GIMP? Because it's not as user friendly, it's not as powerful, and the interface plain sucks. It's great software in it's way, but I don't think it can compare to PSP or PS on Windows platforms.
posted by twine42 at 3:43 AM on July 2, 2006