Good Deal for Switchers

Ok, this deal isn't just for switchers (Windows -> Mac), but it is one I made use of when I switched and the deal is even better now. Upon arrival in Macland, I found myself missing my trusty friend, Paint Shop Pro. I like Photoshop just fine, but I bought Paint Shop Pro 5 way back in the day and it continues to be all I need when it comes to graphics editing, under Windows at least. My Mac mini wouldn't run PSP 5, so I decided to get Photoshop Elements. Elements has everything I need out of Photoshop and it is available at a fraction of the price of its big brother.

My brother figured out that you can buy a Wacom Graphire tablet for about the same cost as Photoshop Elements and it comes with a free copy of Photoshop Elements 3.0, along with other software!


The deal is even sweeter this week as Best Buy has the Graphire tablet on sale for $69.99. That's the same price that Photoshop Elements costs at Amazon (ok, 4.0 is out now, but still), so the drawing tablet and mouse could be considered free.

The tablet is nice too. I've used it for graphics editing a little, but even when not being used for that, you get the convenience of a wireless mouse (no cord to tug), combined with the simplicity of a wired mouse. The tablet plugs in to USB, so you never have to worry about batteries. My only complaint is that the 4x5 tablet is a little small for heavy mousing. I think the 6x8 would be much nicer, but it costs quite a bit more.