I've seen some amazing entries over in the Graphic Design Contests forum, and I was curious about how they're made.

I'm not asking for fellow members to reveal their designing secrets, just wanted to know what your using to make the spectacular graphics .

I was thinking about attempting a few drawings or so (I'm not a designing specialist by a long shot), and see how I do. The only resource I have is paint (which I'm sure isn't enough to create them).

Yup....paint is nothing dude...though I still enjoy playing around with it...

But for designing the softwares I use are Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Xara Xtreme....
You can get demo versions of both...just make a "Google Search" or rather use
http://boogle.technix.info

Try your hands and see if you enjoy it... Best of Luck

yer paint is not so a good idea it doesnt offer the filters etc and styles that every design needs nowadays to be good enough, i personally use Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and Adobe Illustrator. For making flash image and scenes i use Adobe Flash CS3, and for editing sites i use Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. I like Adobe products i find they are the best. Maybe not the cheapest but still the best.

I would recommend downloading a free trial of photoshop from the adobe website, it will give you a free 30 day trail of which by then you would of made wonderful images and graphics.

Have fun!

Adobe Photoshop is the majority software used by designers. Followed by Paintshop Pro.

However, if you're looking to do logos and the like, then Illustrator is the gold standard. A cheaper alternative is Xara Xtreme, it's very good for the price and does most everything Illustrator can do.

I use Photohsop & Illustrator

Well, I'm far from being a great artist, but I like to use Fireworks for most of my web design work.
I also like to play around with Xara Xtreme when I can remember how to work the darn interface.

I use

Adobe Photoshop CS3
Adobe Fireworks CS3
Adobe Illustrator CS3

For graphics

Photoshop, Illustrator, Paint Shop Pro BUT

I also use

Gimp and Inkscape which are both open source and very capable packages.

Thanks for all the recommendations so far everyone

I suppose since I've never done any graphic work before, I'll try out some open source software like Xara Xtreme or Inkscape, and see how well I design .

The best graphic programs out there has to be Photoshop CS3 for touching up photos and cutting out images, Adobe Fireworks CS3 is basically for creating web graphics and vector art ,Adobe Illustrator CS3 is good for creating logos and making illustrations.

I think Photoshop CS2 or CS3 is still the best software to create awesome raster design graphics. For Vector Images you can also use Adobe Illustrator. Some people combine it between CS2 and illustrator to make awesome design graphics.

i use adobe photoshop cs2, i used cs3 for some time.

I'm a vector freak so CorelDraw and Illustrator and for the web templates and occassional logos in photoshop, the good old pen and tablet and trusty pen and paper and a scanner.

ya id say try some demos out. i really enjoy photoshop, its really easy to use and there are tutorials all over the web.

I am using Adobe Photoshop CS3 right now

Photoshop CS3 is also what I use, its definitely top of the line software. I don't do anything fancy but I know my way around it and can do web design easy enough with it.

I'm the odd ball of the bunch, I've been a Loyal Serif software user for almost 3 years now. EVERYTHING i've done in the past 3 years has been with Serif Software.

My primary graphics tool (Used everyDay - AllDay) is Serif DrawPlus x2 Graphics software. DPx2 Handles the following, but not limited to: Raster / Paint / Vector / CAD / FLASH / & Edits Pdf's. <<~~ That's about the equivalent of having Adobe: Illustrator / Photoshop / Fireworks / Dreamweaver / & FLASH all wrapped into one software.

Where you may end up paying $1,500.00+ easy for all 5 of Adobe's software, Serif DrawPlus x2 only set me back $100.00

I'm mainly a 2D Vector Graphics designer, so being able to export in Layered/Vector .Wmf & then converting to other layered formats without losing quality allows me to deliver in: .Eps / .Ps / .Pdf / .Svg / .Wmf / .Emf / .Dpa... As you may have noticed, once converted to any of these formats from a pure points/paths vector, the editable /Layered design now becomes compatible with just about EVERY Standard graphics software.

Leave it to me to be the odd ball, What can I say, I'm a die hard serif fan (Even though they are a UK based company)

I'm not very good at the design side but I do enjoy it when designs I create work and look good. I'm on a Mac and I use something called Pixelmator for some of the graphics, but good on GIMP is still my favourite graphics editor. Not only is it free but once you've mastered the interface, it can be as good as Photoshop

Dan

Ok since you mentioned opensource design software I figured I would post the TOP contenders with links for easy access.

(For Raster/Paint) GIMP Or GimpShop <<~~ This version is laid out like PhotoShop ~ You can even follow Photoshop tutorials step by step & get the same results.

(For Vector) InkScape

(For FLASH) OSFlash

(For 3D) Blender

(For screenShots & Presentations) WINK

I hope the above Opensource software collection helps, Good luck!

Always remember, ~ Anyone can learn how to use a software, however creativity comes from within, without creativity, it's just a software! ~

(Once you generate a little profit using OpenSource, invest into a paid software with the profits)