Preface

I have had many people write to me after watching my TV series asking what programs and tools I use. I purposely avoided talking about them during the programs for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted to focus attention on the process of making art and enhancing photos rather than on the tools. I wanted them to be like those traditional painting shows with a twist. I didn’t want the programs to become lectures on how particular software programs worked.

Secondly, computer programs change almost before you can get them installed; and I felt that, if I placed too much attention on the computer programs, the shows would be outdated before they got on the air.

Another reason for taking this approach was that there are now dozens of good programs on the market ranging in price from a few dollars to several hundred, and most of them can do many of the same things, and it seems each one does some things better than others.

The computer program you have or might purchase depends on several things: how much you have to spend, what kind of computer you have, and whether you plan to do specialized work, to name a few. The same applies to equipment. The amount of space you have on your computer might also be a factor, although that is less of a consideration than it used to be with the low cost of hard drives and memory.

Over the years I have used a variety of tools and most of them suited me at the time. I have wandered from Apple computer to several brands running DOS or Windows and now I’m back again to Macs.

Each generation of computer is significantly more powerful and spawn better and better software and hardware peripherals. The tools I am fond of today may change tomorrow. I don’t expect to ever be entirely satisfied with what I have now.

Having said this, however, I must admit that the tools today are very, very good; and improvements, especially in software, are measured in smaller and smaller increments. And I am a happier man than I used to be.

So, with this preface I’ll tell you what I am using today, and why. I want to emphasize that these tools are the ones that are right for me at the moment. I have used lots of good software and you might easily find software that suits you better than what I use.