Try these, both free to download:.

Irfan viewhttp://www.irfanview.com/.

The Gimp (a fully featured program which is comparable to Photoshop)http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/.

Mike..

Free:I second IrfanView, very handy..

The GIMP, well, there are loyal fans, there are, ones who are err... "un-fans" too. I'm in the latter camp, sorry....

Paint.NET is something inbetween those two. Has all the basic "brush-based" postpro capabilities like dodge/burn or clone, basic layers. Combined with IrfanView should do most of the things PP beginner would care for..

Inexpensive:.

Corel currently has summer discount on Paint Shop Pro, I'm not sure if it would end up over or under $50 in US (In Europe it's circa 70 GBP/EUR incl. VAT if you buy directly, but graphic soft is (normally) cheaper in US. )You can also shop around, say for previous boxed version from Amazon.....

There are geniune ones, but be very careful. Scamsters and simply clueless people are here to stay..

1) "OEM Software" Scam. Period. Delete their mails..

2) My legalese parser is down for maintenance, so I can't say about Corel or Adobe, but many manufacturers do not grant you right to sell "used copy" of their software. ("non-transferable" license.) You end up paying money for something that is essentially pirated copy.30also all common scams like impossible-to-get rebates...

Also I forgot to mention that I will be running these programs on a mac..

But I'm sure The GIMP runs fine on OSX (you are using OSX, don't you?)..

Or you can increase your budget to $80-100 and buy Photoshop Elements 4. (I know, sometimes easier said than done.  )..

Indeed I am running OSX.

Ah I actually didnt even see that the gimp ran on macs. ill just use that for now. maybe in a bit if I feel like I'm outgrowing it ill get elements. maybe I can sign up for a digital photo class at my university and get a free copy of photoshop.....

I use GIMP on my Mac Powerbook for editing photos when I'm travelling - it's fine. And free!Mike..

Good Free Software..

For JPEG editing ( 8-bit accuracy ) :.

The Gimp ( gimp.org will link you to all versions and it's available for Mac ).

Gimp's pretty comprehensive..

Gimp also has a plugin available which can READ RAW files, but only doesa conversion to an 8-bit internal version, which is not great..

For RAW editing ( 16-bit accuracy ) :.

Cinepaint ( cinepaint.org ).

- you may be able to get an OSX binary, but I think you might have to build it (!).

Also a package called UFRaw, which handles RAW files :.

You can google to get the home page. Getting a MAC version might bea pain in the behind, although there is one available via darwin portswhich you can link to via the homepage..

StephenG.

Fuji S9600Fuji S5200Fuji F30Fuji E900Canon A710ISPCLinuxOS..

I "won" a copy of PSE5 on ebay for $36 about 2 weeks ago. It is a brand new disc and I was able to registar with Adobe online with it's serial # so it is legit. Now all I have to do is find the time to learn how to use it..

Gary..

You won't be able to get photoshop for free, but a pretty good discount if you are enrolled in High Education.Photography and Graphic DesignPortfolio - http://www.atlanticexpressinc.comPrints - http://www.atlanticexpressions.com..

Actually in high school I took photo for 3 years and the 3rd year we started doing digital and they gave all the students a free copy of photoshop cs. however they could have easily charged our parents by adding it onto the tuition....

On another note, gimp doesnt seem to be working for me. when I try to open it, it tells me I need to install something called X11 from my OS disc. I am in california at a job right now (i live in ny) so I cannot get to my disc, but does anyone know of there's someway around this?.

Thanks..

As for X11... Well, http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/x11/.

You could probably compile the GIMP with plain Xfree86 from OpenDarwin instead, but I doubt you'd succeed before getting back to that disc. I doubt I would, despite the fact that using unix shell and make are part of my job description..

Nut then, maybe expirienced OSXers have tricks I do not know of.....