Much like authoring software there are different grades of image editing software available and you do tend to get what you pay for. In it's most basic form, image editing and creation software would include Microsoft Paint, which comes as standard with Windows systems. This program is very basic in it's interface and capabilities. It can create and edit very simple graphics and save them in a variety of different formats. However, the quality of the graphics created aren't very high and if you are wanting to create some very smooth and quality images for a web site MS Paint would be the last program you would want to be using.

Further up the scale you could expect to find something like Paint Shop Pro. This program is basically an updated version of Microsoft Paint, but gives the user the ability to create some much nicer graphics with its introduction to layers. Layers in a graphic document basically means that you can create something on one layer and something else on a different layer and then either blend or merge the layers, or have the two separate images shown together. Layers means that in a graphical sense you can create some stunning pieces using gradient and overlays as well as some of the useful features built in to the program. The only thing that really lets it down is the interface, which is not very easy to use and takes a while to get used to and the fact that although it does allow for creation of some nice graphics, is still lacking compared to the industry fore-runners.

Adobe Photoshop is most probably the most widely used and highly rated graphics program available on the market today. It has the ability to create some stunning pieces of art work because of its layers and in built blending options, as well as the fact that it recognises so many different file formats and can save files as such.

For ceating graphics specifically for the web Photoshop cannot be beaten. It contains a save option called "Save For Web", which brings up a window where you can see the documents' guidelines for such things as file size, loading time at different Internet connection speeds and quality of the image as it will appear. Also as an add-on to this function you can open the same image in up to four windows and compare the difference of the images as you change the settings to find out which allows for most compression without losing too much in the way of image quality.

It can also build web sites with the inclusion of Imageready, an add-on to Photoshop that comes free with the newest version. With this tool you can slice up a pre-designed web page and tell Imageready to code it, it will then create a CSS file and an HTML file allowing you to upload to your server and quickly and easily have your site on the Internet. The only thing that lets Photoshop down is it's huge price tag, costing around £500-£600.