You can buy Corel Draw X8 for $499,. maybe you can find it cheaper. Student edition is only $99. I bought it and it's great, but after 5 months I am still using this program far more. The creative effects you can achieve with this software are fantastic and often I find myself stumbling into an image creation that I had not remotely expected or planned for and have to retrace my steps to make sure i can repeat. In the time I've been using paint.net it has been improved upon multiple times while Corel has dragged their feet over updating some clumsily implemented changes or longstanding unresolved issues that their paying customers have been complaining about. I can't believe what I get here for free and the talent sharing that the programmers put out on a donation basis- and someone should give Rick a cape for what he does to make this free product continuously better. I recommend this program to everyone- so what the zoom is glitchy- I hadn't even noticed. Cheers to the guys who keep this program going, it's been a great pleasure to use and learn with and make some fun images.