Photoshop is surely the professional package. It's renound as the best or definitely up the top for image manipulation. I've used PhotoImpact only a little, and while it is certainly good for image editing, it does lack some of the cooler things Photoshop can do.
In terms of being user friendly, both require a bit of trial and error, but there is definitely a lot of free documentation on the Internet for Photoshop, I'm not so sure about Photoimpact.
You also have to consider price, I know Photoshop is quite expensive, I don't know how much Photoimpact is. If you do decide to get Photoshop, consider Photoshop Elements, or even PaintShopPro for cheaper alternatives...
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