Looking for Image Editing Program (with requirements)

[Jrob]

I'm looking for a good program for editing images with transparencies, before iv used icon editors until they no longer allowed it to be used for free. I liked how they had gradient fill, opacity, colorize, changing hue/etc, toggle-able anti aliasing , and an easy to use interface. The only problem with these programs is they're not as good for editing larger images. Any ideas for good programs, I'm willing to pay up to 40$ maybe a little more. (This doesn't mean you need to post only the expensive ones because I would like to take a look at and compare the cheaper ones too. List more than one if you want.). An example of what i was using before is Sib Icon Editor and Icon Craft, (Very similar).

[Sodisna]

Paint.NET. It's free and can do transparency and alpha channels, if I'm not mistaken.
[url]http://www.getpaint.net/[/url]

There's also GIMP.
[url]http://www.gimp.org/[/url]

Both are pretty much a watered down version of Photoshop.

[koeniginator]

paint.net is god tier

[johan_sm]

Gimp and paint.net are the best free ones. Then there's photoshop.
As far as I know there is no other good and popular image editing app.

[Big D Duchovny]

GIMP, no contest.

[DaveP]

Gimpshop (Gimp with a photoshop style layout), that way if you ever make the move to Photoshop it's an easier transition

[Jrob]

I'm using Paint.net now, iv used it a while ago and forgot about it, thanks for the help