Tradeshows. It has streamlined it for us immensely. Especially because we are a global team all over the world with the same task and mission. It allows us to work on one platform to bring our vision to life. The simplicity is what has been a game-changer for us.
If you have high resolution images, it does a remarkably good job at resizing and resampling. It has to have something to work with, so I recommend it only be used on good quality images. On four to five megapixel images, I don't think it works as well as on my 20+ megapixel photos.
We get a lot of use out of this software. It's vital for work with production in our industry and has a lot of cross-functionality - creating social media images, retouching photos, editing photos, creating gradients, and more. It's pretty fuss-free in that we haven't had to reach out to support and the program hasn't crashed on us. We are trained on the software (so again, this isn't for beginners), but for detail-oriented designers and creatives like ourselves - it's a no-brainer.
I've used it for a long time and would consider myself a Pro user at this point. I know where everything I need is, have custom actions set up to make common actions faster, and have my workflows automated so much that everything is easy. Occasionally, a new version of Photoshop will change a common usability feature which will slow things down for a short time before I'm able to adjust, but generally I really like my setup. However, if you're new to Photoshop, it is likely going to take you a while to figure out how you can best use the features.
Adobe Photoshop is very reliable, but is never 100%. There have been times when Adobe Photoshop has had trouble opening, but nothing a little computer restart couldn't fix. I use Adobe Photoshop on a Mac for both work and at home on a daily basis, and I would be lost without it.
Speed can be an issue when you are dealing with large files for large format printing or billboards. When working on web images, speed is not an issue.
While I never contacted Adobe directly, there is so much content out there in the form of YouTube videos, Lynda/LinkedIn learning that almost any issue, including bugs, can be worked around (and this method is generally faster as there's no turnaround time involved).
Topaz always responds to my questions in a few hours or a day at most. They've been able to explain their answers and give detail I needed to complete my work. Their instructions are quite clear and easy to use. I haven't had to reference any third-party support sources to get answers.
I took a course so it really helped. I didn’t take the course until much later after beginning to use it, so I wish work would have sent me right off the bat. It would have alleviated a lot of frustratinon
[Adobe] Photoshop offers the best photo editing as well as content creation. The layer-by-layer approach of [Adobe] Photoshop helps to work between two apps or even two PCs of entirely different Creative Cloud apps seamlessly. The stability and the speed of the tools in photoshop make it even better to make a canvas of creativity.
Since they aren't direct competitors I don't expect PaintShop to hold up to a specialized piece of software. PaintShop allows you to resize but it's not intended to resample as well as Gigapixel AI.
It does take a long time for the program to start up, however
The most difficult task is onboarding new employees into Adobe PhotoShop who don't have experience with it. It's an investment for their future so we see value in it.