What is a free alternative to photoshop?

i don't want anything like GIMP, I want something that can do layers and masks. I'm trying to create a texture for halo ce and don't want to spend any money. again, no gimp.What is a free alternative to photoshop?
FREE software:





http://www.gimp.org/downloads/ (Animation included)


http://www.blender.org/download/get-blen鈥?/a> (Animation included)


UnFreeze: http://www.whitsoftdev.com/unfreez/ (Animation)


trueSpace: http://www.caligari.com/products/trueSpa鈥?/a> (3D authoring package)





FREE software (No Animation):





http://www.getpaint.net/ (Very user friendly)


http://www.inkscape.org/download/ (Very good for vectored graphics)


http://www.download.com/PhotoScape/3000-鈥?/a>


http://www.online-image-editor.com/





FREE online photo editors:





http://www.blibs.com/editor/ (Animation Tools)


http://www.gifworks.com/image_editor.htm鈥?/a> (Animation: GIF format only)What is a free alternative to photoshop?
Why not GIMP? It can do layers and masks. It can do anything Photoshop can. Have you actually tried it?





If you prefer Photoshop's interface, you can try GIMPShop.
You coould try paint.net. It is a free programme providing you have the lastes net framework.
Umm, gimp does do both of those ya know. You could try paint.net
Probably the best open source is GIMP