When I was considering how to start this article off, I sat for a while staring at the screen and tried to come up with another side of the argument to Adobe Creative Cloud, (aka, CC). There really isn't a substitute if you're intention is to be a professional graphic designer, or at least try to do professional looking work. It's the preferred platform by anyone getting paid to do serious graphics work, whether it's on a Mac or PC. But Adobe Photoshop, and it's overlording suite of products, Creative Cloud, comes at a cost. In this article, I'll ask the question: Is it worth what Adobe charges for it?

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Should I Pay $10 Per Month For Adobe Photoshop?

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The saying goes: "You're only as good as your tools", or at least that's what my ole' GrandPappy - The World's Greatest Mechanic - used to say. And he was right. Adobe Photoshop is the best image manipulation program available. Now before all you GIMP guys come at me with your rhetoric about being just as good ... just stop. I've used them both and GIMP is as good, except for one very important way. There's a lot more training and development out there in the real world for people to benefit from by opting to use Photoshop over GIMP.

Keep in mind though, GIMP - the GNU Image Manipulation Program is 100% free. There is a lot of instruction and add-ons for the program. Just no where near as much as there is for Photoshop. For a professional graphics designer, making the jump to GIMP isn't that great of a leap. Unfortunately, someone with less experience, or a novice may need more assistance than the pro. You can literally Google "photoshop" and anything you want to do with it, and the results will be there in plenty. As far as functionality, Photoshop wins and I won't wast page space arguing the point.

So Is It Worth Paying Out Of Pocket For?

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Currently, the CC version of Adobe Photoshop can be had for 10 dollars per month. That price also includes Lightroom, which is a program for managing your images, and works well with all other Adobe CC products. The rest of them can be licensed and installed at a monthly fee of 50 dollars a month, but that includes it all; Illustrator, Dreamweaver, In Design, and all the other great programs come at that half a hundred price tag. If you're going to professionally work in graphics design, then it's a no brainer question. Buy it and be glad you have it. if you're just a passive user, the question should be: "What usage will I get from it?"

If you're just a regular Joe like me, then maybe do like me. Only pay for the Photoshop subscription at 10 bucks and work hard at getting the most out of PS. If you're into doing serious illustrating, painting, cartoon characters or animation, then Illustrator is a better tool for that. When you see good surreal, or comics, or painted imagery on the internet, then it's a safe bet that the person used Adobe Illustrator when creating it. Photoshop is more intended for what it's name suggest, photo work. Adobe pioneered this industry and have gotten so good at it that their flagship product has morphed into a killer, do-all application that the skilled can make do wondrous things. You can get a lot out of Photoshop, if you work hard enough at it.

From the Steemit Point Of View: Our goal here at Steemit should be to visually and rhetorically put forth the best product we can, and publish it for those we want to witness it. That is my simplistic explanation for what we do here. photoshop will most likely make what create for Steemit, much better. I mention it because I feel Adobe Photoshop is worth a Lousy 10 Bucks a month. There are definitely free alternatives out there, and I was going to list them and provide links, but this awesome person nutshells it perfectly so I'll just link out to them:

12 Best Free Photoshop Alternatives You Should Try

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Ten dollars per month is worth it for me. I get a massive amount of enjoyment working in Photoshop every day. For that reason alone, I can't think of a better place to spend a 10 spot on. If for you, PS gives you enjoyment by creating awesome family photo renders and making everybody think you're great by the work you do, then it's worth it. If you push the envelope a bit, and start working through the bazillion tutorials that are freely available on the internet, then you might just start down the road toward becoming a serious graphics designer. Or just settle for blowing us away here on Steemit.