please advice on this
keen to start learning to use photo shop or sketchbook for my art.
would appreciate advice on this. Not interesting in the computers over $1500. Also pen or pad, which do you find best.
Noel Leeming has a hp 14" x360 but only 4gb ram

sheryl13 - 2021-01-18 07:33:00

sheryl13 wrote:

please advice on this
keen to start learning to use photo shop or sketchbook for my art.
would appreciate advice on this. Not interesting in the computers over $1500. Also pen or pad, which do you find best.
Noel Leeming has a hp 14" x360 but only 4gb ram

The ram is easy to upgrade it's the other bits that matter. Without knowing model number of that Hp you mentioned no-one can give you any advice about it.

nice_lady - 2021-01-18 07:45:00

Photoshop doesn't need much of anything really.
https://helpx.adobe.com/nz/photoshop/system-requirements.htm
l

lythande1 - 2021-01-18 07:45:00

thankyou thats very helpful

sheryl13 - 2021-01-18 07:49:00

nice_lady wrote:

The ram is easy to upgrade it's the other bits that matter. Without knowing model number of that Hp you mentioned no-one can give you any advice about it.

sorry, perhaps should not have added that comment, i have no idea.

sheryl13 - 2021-01-18 07:50:00

sheryl13 wrote:

please advice on this
keen to start learning to use photo shop or sketchbook for my art.
would appreciate advice on this. Not interesting in the computers over $1500. Also pen or pad, which do you find best.

sheryl13 - 2021-01-18 07:51:00

nice_lady wrote:

The ram is easy to upgrade it's the other bits that matter. Without knowing model number of that Hp you mentioned no-one can give you any advice about it.

On many modern laptops (and especially 2 in 1s) that is no longer true - RAM is soldered and cannot be upgraded

vtecintegra - 2021-01-18 11:00:00

This message was deleted.

azza20 - 2021-01-18 22:43:00

vtecintegra wrote:

On many modern laptops (and especially 2 in 1s) that is no longer true - RAM is soldered and cannot be upgraded

Hmmm true

nice_lady - 2021-01-18 22:46:00

People have been using photoshop for 20+ years on whatever computers were around. Surely pretty much anything is going to work, if it isn't the latest high speed wonder machine, one might just have to wait a few seconds for the effects to process?

It isn't like one is rendering high resolution video or anything.

tygertung - 2021-01-19 07:21:00

tygertung wrote:

People have been using photoshop for 20+ years on whatever computers were around. Surely pretty much anything is going to work, if it isn't the latest high speed wonder machine, one might just have to wait a few seconds for the effects to process?

It isn't like one is rendering high resolution video or anything.

yes this is true, but drawing tablets havent been around for 20 + years

sheryl13 - 2021-01-19 09:24:00

sheryl13 wrote:

yes this is true, but drawing tablets havent been around for 20 + years

Interestingly they have. There were portable tablets back in the early '90s. Non-portable ones go back much further.

But back to subject, my wife uses Photoshop on her 'regular' laptop for casual use without problem.
The quality of screen, and how realistic the colours are, would matter if you are doing it for professional purposes.

soundsgood - 2021-01-19 10:18:00

It seems that it was developed in '88 and version 1.0 was released in '90

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop

Tablets seem even older, first introduced in the 19th centuary, but for computer input in '57

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_tablet

tygertung - 2021-01-19 10:47:00

I think Moses received some tablets quite a bit earlier, according to one story!

Is 'Nixon' still around? He might have a view.

But I recall them being used as handhelds back in the '90s. I think that they monochrome. Perhaps they were the cheaper ones.

soundsgood - 2021-01-19 12:02:00

This message was deleted.

azza20 - 2021-01-19 19:57:00

tygertung wrote:

People have been using photoshop for 20+ years on whatever computers were around. Surely pretty much anything is going to work, if it isn't the latest high speed wonder machine, one might just have to wait a few seconds for the effects to process?

It isn't like one is rendering high resolution video or anything.

Ridiculous.
You have never used photoshop on a single large hires image obviously, let alone a multilayer comp. I've been using photoshop since V1 btw, when an undo of anything at all took 30 minutes if you were doing anything large/commercial and that was on the fastest Mac 2 money could buy, state of the art at the time. Your estimation of what is required is completely off the mark.

OP it will perform "ok" on a cheap machine, for small non complicated work.

But for anything serious and you want 1/ huge amounts of memory, you can't have too much, your tile size depends on it 2/a lot of fast storage, your scratch space depends on it 3/ a fast graphics card, photoshops gfx engine depends on it, CUDA/OpenCL processing, hardware vs software gfx compute, can be switched on in preferences if it detects you have a worthwhile card and driver installed.

You will want to factor in a small usb tablet like a wacom intuos,

Edited by ronaldo8 at 12:30 am, Wed 20 Jan

ronaldo8 - 2021-01-20 00:15:00

If the OP is a professional illustrator or photographer and is working with 50 MP pictures from a Canon 5D, they probably are not going to be asking this question.

They are just wanting to do a bit of drawing using the photoshop and a tablet, so really, I don't think they will need the latest high end super computer.

tygertung - 2021-01-20 08:02:00

They are are they? They are an artist wanting to get into digital media. I know what that looks like, you however dont have a clue, just some assumptions based on no experience of the matter, are you any kind of artist who made the transition to digital media? From your reply is is plain you aren't.

Your advice is good for the first year at which point they grow frustrated and annoyed with the slowness and limitation.

ronaldo8 - 2021-01-20 10:33:00

sheryl13 wrote:

please advice on this
keen to start learning to use photo shop or sketchbook for my art.
would appreciate advice on this. Not interesting in the computers over $1500. Also pen or pad, which do you find best.
Noel Leeming has a hp 14" x360 but only 4gb ram

That 4gb will be an albatross, you want 8 at least. Whatever you get, make sure it has an ssd, not a physical disk. If you can find something with at least some kind of gpu acceleration. Photoshop will run on a basic business laptop built for boring farts to run excel on but it is a loveless exercise.

My advice is save up some more $ first else youll find yourself saddled with a mediocrity.

Edited by ronaldo8 at 10:43 am, Wed 20 Jan

ronaldo8 - 2021-01-20 10:41:00

ronaldo8 has it right.
I've had Photoshop for many years, and now also Affinity Photo.
Built a new computer to get some more speed.
Gone from i5 with 16GB to i7 with 32GB.
Yes to the SSD too.
I have 2, one is used for the Photoshop 'scratch disc'.
You will need a decent video card too to render quickly (I use a lot of plugins and other products that utilize the GPU). I use an Nvidia 2060 Super (8gb GPU memory).
Not top-end stuff but certainly way better than the laptop spec's that OP mentioned.
I normally deal with 50MB to 100MB files, and don't want to be waiting all day for adjustments to get done.
Edit: Would I use a laptop for my work? No way, unless it was a decent gaming laptop, and then the dinky screen is a hindrance too. So then you need a decent external monitor hooked up to the laptop.
I'm only using a 24" screen and would like something bigger but that will have to wait until the 24" one blows up.

Edited by gettinggrey at 11:29 am, Wed 20 Jan

gettinggrey - 2021-01-20 11:20:00

Add on another $600 - $700+ for a Wacom Intuos tablet too.
Don't hamstring yourself with a teeny tiny one, or an 'El Cheapo' from Ali.
You may be better served by getting late model gear 2nd hand here on TM?
Then the cost of software too. I can recommend Affinity Photo as a Photoshop replacement, and it's on sale now with 50% off.
Don't bother with a freeby such as Gimp. It's just not 'there' at the moment.
Digital media work is not cheap.
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

gettinggrey - 2021-01-20 11:49:00

Affinity is excellent, agreed. Possibly best feature, no Creative Cloud bloat.

Edited by ronaldo8 at 12:36 pm, Wed 20 Jan

ronaldo8 - 2021-01-20 12:34:00

If OP only wants a 'painting' type of program (and doesn't actually need Photoshop, etc) then Krita is free and worthy of consideration.
https://krita.org/en/

gettinggrey - 2021-01-20 13:10:00

ronaldo8 wrote:

Ridiculous.
You have never used photoshop on a single large hires image obviously, let alone a multilayer comp. I've been using photoshop since V1 btw, when an undo of anything at all took 30 minutes if you were doing anything large/commercial and that was on the fastest Mac 2 money could buy, state of the art at the time. Your estimation of what is required is completely off the mark.

OP it will perform "ok" on a cheap machine, for small non complicated work.

But for anything serious and you want 1/ huge amounts of memory, you can't have too much, your tile size depends on it 2/a lot of fast storage, your scratch space depends on it 3/ a fast graphics card, photoshops gfx engine depends on it, CUDA/OpenCL processing, hardware vs software gfx compute, can be switched on in preferences if it detects you have a worthwhile card and driver installed.

You will want to factor in a small usb tablet like a wacom intuos,

If you have been using it since V1, you will have noticed that the computers have become many thousands of times more powerful since then.

tygertung - 2021-01-20 13:27:00

Photoshop requires minimum RAM 8GB, 16GB recommended.
Minimum GPU memory 2GB.
64bit OS.
So that original laptop OP mentioned won't run Photoshop.
tygertung you make a good point but the software minimum requirements these days are way 'up there' too.
Many of todays computers are still not capable of running Photoshop...just because it's a 'modern' computer doesn't mean it's actually any good.

gettinggrey - 2021-01-20 15:05:00

Well perhaps a previous version of Photoshop might be sufficient for one's requirements, or perhaps an alternative free version such as Krita, GIMP or Inkscape?

If one is using a free and open source programme, that would save a bit of money to spend on hardware instead. I would have thought that a desktop would be better than a laptop though.

tygertung - 2021-01-20 15:18:00

Yes, a desktop would be better and probably a better price/spec's than a laptop.
There's quite a few decent machines on TM for sale that fit inside that $1500 budget.
Then some freeby software. I've 'played' with Krita and it's fine, but I'm more into photo work. OP will need to play a bit with various software to find what is wanted. Maybe a freeby Anime software product would be fine too.
Then save some more money to buy a decent graphics tablet (Wacom, etc).

gettinggrey - 2021-01-20 15:45:00

tygertung wrote:

If you have been using it since V1, you will have noticed that the computers have become many thousands of times more powerful since then.

As have file sizes, both in terms of spatial resolution and bit depth. As has the complexity of what the engine is now doing as has the overall feature set it offers compared to then.

Your advise to run it on any old toaster stinks, you simply don't know what the hell you are talking about.

ronaldo8 - 2021-01-20 17:42:00

gettinggrey wrote:

If OP only wants a 'painting' type of program (and doesn't actually need Photoshop, etc) then Krita is free and worthy of consideration.
https://krita.org/en/

Autodesk sketchbook is now free and has always been a great app.

Krita is great true, Fire Alpaca is another that comes to mind as does mediabang.

Artrage is also brilliant piece of software, a local product as well, not free but quite cheap.

ronaldo8 - 2021-01-20 17:49:00