Do you need Adobe Photoshop or is Pixlr (www.pixlr.com ) sufficient for most of us?

student using pixlr to edit photos

Has anyone used both Adobe Photoshop and Pixlr extensively enough to determine whether or not they can do most of what they did on Photoshop with www.pixlr.com Editor and Express?

Last year in my Digital Media class at Truckee High School I was teaching on PCs that had Adobe Photoshop installed on them.  We used it for many of our lessons and students created a lot of great work with it.  This year, I was lucky to have my classroom upgraded with new Apple iMacs.  These computers are a big improvement from my older Dells but they did not come with Photoshop installed on them.  I'm looking into purchasing licenses for this software but in the meantime have found that Pixlr online editing software has allowed my students to complete all of my introductory editing lessons teaching them basic photo editing, effects, and layering.  I have not used Pixlr long enough however to determine where I will reach a road block.

Please comment below with your thoughts regarding Pixlr and it's capabilities in regards to Adobe Photoshop.  From my experience so far, I do think that I can confidently state that most people could do most of what they did on Photoshop with Pixlr and of course the best part is that Pixlr's software is free and even better, requires no account or login!

The picture above is of a student in my digital media class using Pixlr Editor to add filters and adjustments to her digital photographs.  The kids have a lot of fun with this lesson as it really provides them an outlet for their creativity which they can then share with others on Flickr or Google+ Photos.