I have been a Photoshop user for many years. I currently have Photoshop CS2, but it runs very slow and is not optimized for Intel Macs. I’ve also used several versions of Photoshop Elements with mixed results. You get what you pay for and the full Photoshop software gives you everything and then some.

But what if you don’t want to spend $600.00 and still want Photoshop? Photoshop Elements may suffice.

I’ve been using Elements 6 for about two weeks now and there is only one thing that I miss from the full version of Photoshop– the Pen tool. I’m sure Adobe knows what they are doing, and purposefully kept the Pen tool out of Elements. If Elements had the Pen tool, I wouldn’t even consider paying $$$ for Photoshop. I’m sure others wouldn’t as well.

Of course there are other differences. The menu system in Elements isn’t laid out as nice as Photoshop and you don’t get all the filters and extras. But for 95% of what I do with image manipulation, Elements is enough.

For just $79.00, Photoshop Elements is plenty worth it.