I learned my Photoshop skills on a pirate copy of PSP7. Good memories. Alas, my workflow has been 100% Adobe since '06. I couldn't go back at this point.

It has been tempting, though. I'm stuck at Adobe CS6 with no upgrade path, because I hate the entire concept of SaaS. I have high hopes for Affinity, but I have occasionally wondered at the PSP/CorelDraw combo as well.

Affinity Photo is an ok replacement. They even built a replacement for InDesign by now – did only test the photo application though.

I gave the Affinity Publisher demo a solid workout, and it's 80-85% there. Still some issues that are keeping me Adobe, but I have high hopes.

The only real disappointment to me is they're trying to be QuarkExpress instead of InDesign, but that's purely a matter on personal taste - I learned layout on ID and QXP is just different enough to piss me off.

Yeah, Quark is absurd. InDesign 1.5/2 was still a bit buggy but presented a way cleaner tool compared to the bizarrely evolved Quark usage. I'd always go back to this simple and efficient version. But seeing that many people were stuck on old Quark, it's probably smarter for a software company to copy the one people actually miss than the one that has an inconvenient payment model.

About software being 80–85% there – in my experience, when switching to a new program, you always have to accustom to new quirks (in Affinity, it's a strange masking/cropping behaviour). The replacement will never get there; one rather accepts a bumpy transition than longing a dying tool till you're no longer to get off. That being said, Photoshop is probably never going away.

I dunno, QXP was all but dead and gone until Adobe went SaaS. I'm not sure there are many adherents left, except the old and bitter.

But I'm sure Quark appreciates Adobe's efforts, though. QXP is still actively developed and has seen new growth in adoption. I gave QXP 2018 a try and it was pretty slick, had I started there first I might never have touched InDesign.

And, of course, I lay out a weekly newspaper. It's not like I'm straining the capabilities of ID CS6. I'll probably wind up sticking with it until I can't install it on the latest version of Windows anymore.

Yes, you're right! They went on to redo Quark. Forgot about that.

I have full whack, paid for PSP8 installed as we speak. Still use and love, but I am not a pro and I am a cheap bastard who will use it until it just wont run.

Bring out the GIMP.

And/or Krita.

GIMP has been solid for a long time for home usage. For some professional setups they've hit several roadblocks that are very hard to fix without huge rewrites (like color spaces, layered settings and – that's really awful – a different screen size DPI setting compared to literally every other comparable software).

They released a new version not long ago that was meant to tackle the layer thing. Open sourcing such a massive effort leads to unexpected side projects like developing a cross-platform window manager from scratch that's now widely used elsewhere (citation needed).

Yes. Somebody please post alternatives to CS whatever or a hack.

SaaS blows donkey dick. Unless of course you enjoy sucking donkey dick. In which case - ok. But don't make me watch it.

The two workflows are Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator/InDesign, or (your choice photo editor)/CorelDraw/QuarkExpress. The OSS trio would be GIMP/Inkscape/Scribus, but it's still IMO not ready for the big leagues yet.

Sorry, three. Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher is primetime ready and worth a look.

Capture One is an alternative.

AlternativeTo lists a whopping 197 alternatives over systems. Most of them are bogus, though.

Unfortunately, making you watch is the part that turns me on.

How much is it worth to you?

I'm willing to negotiate. . . Maybe a subscription is in the cards.

I'm afraid it's the non-consensual aspect that makes it real for me. If you agreed, that would spoil it.

Anyway, I'll be seeing you sometime over the next two weeks. Sorry I can't be more specific, but that would defeat the object. look at it this way, at least I'm not Jigsaw.