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Given the price it's definitely worth a look.ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. I haven't used it for a long time, but it's pretty capable as well. There is also GIMP, an open source (free) editor along the lines of Photopaint/Photoshop. I've also used Photoshop, it's also extremely powerful, capable of any photo correction you want and no doubt drawing as well. For correcting photos it's probably great, as far as drawing goes I have no idea. Installed it once & could not get used to the interface. It's also got some color correction tools, but I'd say photo correction isn't it's strong point. It's really designed for use with a tablet. It's got brushes galore, various paper & surface textures. Painter is like no other as far as actual drawing/painting. I've also used Corel Painter 10 a little, but I'm definitely a beginner with it (v11 is the latest). At one time it was my favorite pixel type editor, for the past few versions it's been left behind a little.

It's also got Draw, which is an awesome vector program. You can certainly correct photos, and there are brushes etc for drawing.

Photopaint (comes with the suite) is a very powerful pixel based editor. I've used the CorelDraw Graphic Suite for a long time. I can say what I do know, so for what it's worth. Well, I don't have enough experience with other programs to really offer advice.

Corel painter essentials 3