I need photoshop. Which one do I buy?

As an aspiring graphic designer, I am planning to do mostly print at first, but am open to doing other things as well. I am also interested in getting illustrator, but photoshop is the number one priority here.

There is a jungle out there. Which version of photoshop do I buy? Or do I buy a creative suite instead? Please help me. I have no idea which one to buy. There seem to be alot of options. And which website should I buy it from? Thank you so much in advance!!

I need photoshop. Which one do I buy?virus scanner

I recommend you purchase Photoshop Element's first, until you decide that you actually NEED a full version Photoshop.

Elements contains the most popular features from Photoshop and many designers never get into projects needing anything else. Elements retails for around $100 while the full version can cost aroung $600. It would be a shame for you to spend all that money, only to have most of its features sitting, unused, on your hard drive. It would be like spending a hundred thousand dollars on a high performance sports car, and only use it to go grocery shopping.

The good thing about starting out with Elements, is that, should you decide to upgrade to a full version, the upgrade costs less than a stand alone full version, so, the initial $100 spent on Elements is not wasted.

As far as the creative suite purchase: again, it may be that you will need Illustrator, InDesign and other apps, but hold off on buying them until you know you will need them. I recommend you take a couple of digital design classes at your local community college, or adult education center. Most of the current classes will, at least, introduce you to these software applications, so you will have a good idea which app is best to use in which kind of project.

Do some "window shopping" at a local computer super store, or office supply center. It is much safer purchasing in person than most online shopping. If you insist on purchasing online, then only do it from reliable, name brand retailers and not some unknown discout distributor. And, uness you purchase from the Adobe.com site directly, DO NOT buy a downloaded software from anyone else.