The best graphic software

That is a very tricky question...
It begs the question "Best for WHAT"? Each person needs different tools from his graphic software, therefore his "best" is dependant on what he does.
An animator for example would swear that "Anime Studio 8" is the best. But for a wedding photographer it's completely useless, and he'll say that photoshop is the best.
Then the designer will say "Photoshop is a pixel based software, it's not scalable. Illustrator is the best". Then the publisher will laugh at him and say "Both of you are wrong, because Photoshop and Indesign are worthless without Indesign".
Then they will start fighting, and breaking chairs on eachother's heads, and the police will come and arrest them, and then we won't have an animator, a designer, a photographer and a publisher.....

As Morgantao said very well it depends "Best for what?"

BUT I think that considering that this is a Graphic design forum, and FF does not have any kind of video or animation, none 3D options and is not for CAD or any other special topic, it would be supossed that could be safe to make a new question:

What are in your opinion the best 3 professional paid standalone for still 2D graphic design and photographic manipulation and editing programs and the best 3 Photoshop compatible plugins ?

So this question reduces the market and options and does not include any kind of other possible applications and also only focused on professional big software and not many of the small available ones, and also none of the free ones.

MY OWN CHOICE OF STILL 2D Graphic and Photograpic software

1 - Adobe Photoshop CS5

2 - ACDSee Pro 5 is a very good and complete photo editor and photo management

3 - Spiral Graphics Genetica 3.6

4 - Kolor Autopano Pro 2.6 - The best professional stitching photo images you will find

5 - Oloneo HDREngine - That has some new features not available in any other app and in realtime preview.

6 - Postworkshop 3 (soon to be released)

Here I could put also Filter Forge and OnOne Photo Suite that both have standalone versions but works better probably as plugins.

MY OWN CHOICE OF PHOTOSHOP PLUGINS COMPATIBLE

1 - OnOne Perfect Photo Suite 6 (includes 7 very useful plugins very well done)

2 - Topaz Labs Photoshop Plug-in Bundle

3 - Nik software Complete Collection

4 - Filter Forge 3.0

5 - DxO Optics Pro 7

I am sorry that I put Filter Forge in the 4th place, but is the slowest one and that it can´t get benefit of the new technologies and is ONLY optimized for CPU, and has slow preview compared to the others, and there is no hope that FF will be upgraded to the new technologies with more RAM and GPU(as said before by Vladimir and GMM) to be compared with the others.

DxO is also faster than Filter Forge, BUT is oriented to a different way of doing things and is not in the same market as the others.

I do not put the professional version of Capture One pro 6, because although this is very professional and well done, for me is confusing and not as intuitive and easy to use as the others that are more friendlier.

I BOUGHT THESE ONES ABOVE WITH GREAT DISCOUNT WAITING FOR THE GOOD MOMENT

I bought the Topaz Labs when it was with a 50% discount,
also bought OneOne when it was released with a 45% discount, and the same also with
the Nik software Complete collection that on Christmas they have put a special offer of 50% discount for only one week.
And bought Acdsee pro 5 with a 70% discount offer given last year.
Postworkshop had a 50% discount during a few days for Christmas.
Genetica Basic version had a 30% discount

Thanks SpaceRay!
We were writing the same moment, so my second post is a bit late.

I have to say Photoshop is on the top (Prefer CS2, but must go with the flow).
ParticleIllusion is very good, although it's a little hard to use, and is mainly used for animations. Illustrator is another program I use all the time, mainly in conjunction with Photoshop. Then there's all the HDR and Panorama tools that I use only once in a while, so they'll have to come in 4th place.

As for plugins: Pixel Bender for photoshop, Topaz Simplify for photoshop and Scriptographer for Illustrator (Kind of a Pixel Bender only for vectors).

I've used ParticleIllusion for years. It's super little 2d particle engine. PI is great because they're constantly issuing new particle libraries, not unlike Filter Forge. Particle illusion hasn't been updated much in the past few years, so I'm not sure what's going on over there.

For serious particle action, not involving a 3d program, you might want to check out Trapcode Particular, by RedGiant. It's best to get the whole suite, but it's expensive, and requires After Effects, though. http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/produ...ode-suite/


For an inexpensive little editor, ArtRage isn't bad. It's 'sticker' system is something I wish Pshop had standard. Also: you can export out all the 'materials channels' of your image separately. (Color, bump, spec, etc.) www.artrage.com/

FWIW, one of my favorite pshop plugins (other than FF) is Perfectum, by Redfield. It's great for smoothing out all the jpg - junk and generally smoothing out rough edges: http://www.redfieldplugins.com/filterPerfectum.htm


I use Frischluft Flair for lighting effects quite a bit, too. Although there are probably better light flair filters out there...
http://www.frischluft.com/download/index.php

Trapcode seems very interesting. Thanks CorvusCroax. I'll download the trial and test it.

I have a Wacom tablet from long time. I sometimes use it. Very good product. They have no rivals.

Ha! Ha! Ha!
I must take you in Thailand a couple of times, so you will change idea about selling testicles.

I just had a look at ParticleIllusion. I knew it.
But I tried it long time ago when it was still free and not so good.

Yeah the Inkling looks awesome, and for $200 it's an amazing buy.
The best thing is that it records everything you do as vector graphics, so it's MUCH better than scanning your doodles from the sketchbook.
If I have a spare $200 laying around, it totaly buy one. I love everything about it, even how it folds into a nice little package.

I don't think Wacom needs to sweat too much about competition from pressure sensitive giant iPads. Wacom tablets are not only pressure sensitive, they are angle sensitive as well. Wacoms can also use all kinds of pens, some are highly specielized, like the airbrush pen which lets you control the air pressure, angle and distance of nozzle from page. There are also different nibs for the pens, so you can make the pen feel like different kinds of brushes or felt tip pens.

Had a look at ImageJ just now... A bit too heavy for me
If you're into coding and know what you're doing then Mathlab can get you a long way. People who study image processing use it.