Professional image editing software

I do architectural images professionally and I use Photo-PAINT and Paintshop Pro

Hi West,

Your friend had best look for himself.  There are strong opinions on "professional" photo editors for dozens of photo editors.   "Professional" depends on what you do.

Here are my personal opinions.
1.  Face reality.  Photoshop is the most popular by far of any photo editor. It's the one and only photo editor featured in books and photo magazines in book stores. It's taught in university courses.  It does everything.
2.  It can only be rented.  So what ?  Again, face reality. At about $100 per year, it's the equivalent of 5 years of Photopaint at about $500 to purchase.

NEVER-THE-LESS !

1. I use Photopaint X6 with Windows 7 as my primary editor.  Here's why
  -- Photoshop does not have an interface -- not even a standard toolbar.
  --The menu bar in Photoshop is too tiny for me.
  -- Photopaint has an interactive gradient tool.  Great tool for compositing.  Photoshop does not.
  -- The Curves dialog in Photopaint is larger, has a linear mode, and an interactive histogram.
  -- You can create your own interface in PhotoPaint but not in Photoshop.  I created 7 toolbars and 62 icons in PhotoPaint X6. That beats trying to memorize 67 keyboard shortcuts.
  -- I use Photoshop CS5 for content aware fill, making sketches, and some of their filters like Liquify and Plastic Wrap.
  -- Try out versions of Photopaint after X6 before buying. They had serious shortcomings for me.
  -- PaintShopPro is nice but it's for advanced photo amateurs -- no Lab Curves -- no channel dialog -- etc. However, it may be all that your friend needs  and the price is right -  usually on sale for about $40.

Phil

Mint would be my last choice for an OS. Windows 10 is running rings around the other OS's, I turn off all the social crap and I work professional with images and vectors files well into the 3GB range are no problem.

westinbrodey said:

Recently he switched on to windows.

1.Which is the professional grade software on Mint for photo editing.

Sorry, but that seems confuse for me. Mint is a Linux distribution, but you're talking about to switch from Mac to Windows . If want to use Linux, the best option is Gimp. if you're a Photoshop user, maybe you like to use GimpShop, a Gimp version with the Photoshop interface. 

btw I don't understand what relationship has with Corel, since Corel doesn't develop a Linux version since the past century. 

If you want an alternative to Photoshop, I suggest you to try PaintShopPro

Linux for graphics is limited.  I assume you mean Linux as you mention Mint.  Gimp is pretty much the creme of the crop on Linux for raster, and Inkscape for vector.  Both have limitations "professionals" might find troublesome.  Primarily this is lack of cmyk support, probably not something your friend is concerned with, but there are other limitations.  But he might not encounter those.

I know people that can make MS Paint sing and dance.   So much depends on his ability to learn and adapt.  

You would be kindest to advise him away from Linux if graphics is a vocation choice he wishes to pursue.  A super majority of the graphics industry avoid Linux with some caveats.  

If he needs to run a load balanced server or such, Linux is fine.