Photo editing software

It seems the writing is so small that I cannot read it. Is this normal?

Not normally, sounds like a screen scaling issue? Presumably Win11?

I don't remember having to tweak GIMP settings, but you could check under Edit > Preferences > Interface > Display > Monitor Resolution

I have quite a high DPI display (2880x1800 on a 14" laptop using 200% scaling) and GIMP is on autodetect at 122 pixels/inch

Also worth looking at DaVinci resolve. It was and still is the worlds most capable colour grading software for motion pictures, but over the years has acquired many additional tools for photo editing, effects, post production etc - they are starting to eat Adobe's lunch since they view the software as a add on to their hardware sales, not a revenue stream. So the basic version is free, and the pro version a one off purchase (remember them?) for ~£300.

Don't let it scare you, it's a massive program with a huge learning curve if you want to puss it to its limits, but things like cropping and clone brush are simple to get at. The Internet knows nearly everything about it.

Ah, a name from the past. I used to take some of their mini-converter PCBs out of the boxes and build them into video fibre-optic products. They seem to be a lot smaller and cheaper now.

I see Argos is selling Adobe Photoshop Elements 2026 (3 year licence) for £89.99. This is very tempting as I have used this software in the past.

or ... as I suggested earlier, pick up an older verion with an unlimited licence

you could probably find something on eBay for around £20

Thanks. I'll go for Adobe one way or another. I tend to think that £30 per year is reasonable but £32.98 per month is not.

The main difficulty is if you are using adobe file formats like .psd[1], and/or you are relying on the bundled cloud storage in Creative Cloud - that is when you can find you are locked into their system.

Want to open a file you created ten years ago, you need to subscribe again etc.

For intermittent use stuff, a perpetual license is normally better.

... back to the cheap out of date version of PS Elements ?

It's not essential to create .psd files anyway.

If I want a decent quality uncompressed image I can get a TIFF file direct from the caamera, and PSE will process it and print from it

Alternatively you can mess around with it as a jpeg

I assume you can still open a .jpeg file, edit it and save it as a .jpeg file thus ensuring permanent compatibility?

yes - and when you save as a jpeg you can select the compression level

You can do all that yes. However if you say want to take a photo, colour correct it, tweak brightness etc, and then add a caption using a text layer, and you save that final result as a jpeg, you can only go back to the final result.

What you lose is the ability to go back and generate a new jpeg with different text on it. For that you would need to save as a full PSD so that you preserve all the layers, masks, effects, correction planes etc.

For simple tweaks that may not matter, however if you are doing more involved editing, there may be a significant amount of effort put into the process, and it is very handy to be able to go back and tweak that process rather than start again.

Saving the jpeg is a bit like sitting down at your word processor and writing a book. When you are finally done, and all the tweaks and updates are complete, you print it out, and then delete the word processing files.

Thank you for this helpful explanation. I'll go ahead with Photoshop Elements 2026 for my immediate purpose and treat the foregoing as a potential learning experience.

A bit like saving it as a pdf file perhaps?

alternatively ... you work on it and then save it as a .psd file on your own drive and revisit it at your leisure using your perpetual licence for PSE - nothing is lost, so whats the problem ?

If you have a perpetual license, then there is no problem... that was the point I was making :-)

On Sun, 26 Jul 2026 21:51:38 +0100, Scott snipped-for-privacy@gefion.myzen.co.uk> wrote: [snip]

The curious conclusion to all of this is that I tried to purchase from Argos but I was unable to link my Nectar points. When eventually I got hold of customer service, I was told this is an IT issue affecting all customers. I then tried Currys instead (£3 cheaper) and was unable to log in because either I or the site was 'rate limited' (whatever that means). I then went direct to Adobe, which was the same price as Currys. And this is what passes for progress.

I've long given up trying to get anything from Argos using Nectar points online. It's a lot easier to go into my local Sainsbury's before doing the food shop and hand the assistant my Nectar card after getting what I want up on the screen. It takes a few minutes, but at least I don't have to mess around with idiotic online systems.

Does this apply to software which is online only?