DDS Image Editor Options
You have a number of options for your DDS Image Editor. These range from expensive, professional grade programs to free open source and freeware programs. The program you choose should largely depend on your needs, available monies to devote to your DDS project(s), and your own personal taste. As you can usually download free trials of most DDS Image Editor software you can compare the programs side by side if your computer has sufficient space, memory, and power to run them concurrently. Here is a brief rundown of some of the more popular programs in this market:
Photoshop, with the proper plug-in, may be one of the most well know examples of a DDS Image Editor. This powerful, yet expensive program developed by Adobe is well known among professional graphic artists and offers support for a lot of formats beyond DDS. Many graphic artists consider Photoshop the industry standard. However many consumers in need of a DDS Image Editor will not feel comfortable paying for the expensive commercial grade program. To fill that gap is Corel Paint Shop Pro. This substantially cheaper program is sometimes referred to as the "poor man's Photoshop." Once again, you will need a plug in for Paint Shop Pro to recognize your DDS files, but once this is taken care of you have a powerful, full featured DDS Image Editor at your fingertips.
On the free side of DDS Image Editor software you have a program called GIMP. This program is often compared to Paint Shop Pro in terms of features, but is entirely free thanks to its license under the GNU General Public License. You may have to do a bit of web searching as well as check out GIMP message forums, being a free program the amount of support is limited, however the third party support is perhaps as great as with Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. As with its commercial cousins you will have to install a plug-in for Gimp to be able to recognize your DDS files.
If the prospect of installing plug-ins does not appeal to you or you run into difficulty getting them to work correctly, then you can also check out software which will allow you to convert your DDS files to another file supported by your image editor software. There are a number of these programs available as free downloads. Hopefully you will be able to find a DDS Image Editor that fits your needs however and will not be forced to take this route.
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