What do you guys use for design tools?

[alittle]

I use Paint Shop Pro. You can get it for less than $100 and it does both vector and bitmap, which is a big plus. Photoshop is the gold standard, but at that price and then needing to get Illustrator to do vector art, you really need to be able to justify the cost.

I think that Paint Shop does just about everything you would need or want to do unless you are a professional or highly skilled hobbyist. I highly recommend it. FWIW, my daughter is way into graphic stuff and has produced some really great things with it. She also has used Photoshop at school and was able to use it easily, so the skills you learn with Photo Shop are easily transferable if you do move up.