What is the best software for dealing with tilesets?

[IBBIAZ]

Hi there. I'm new here, and I don't know or do too much map-making...

I've looked through the tutorials for all the help I can get, but I can't seem to easily find an answer. Forgive me if it's asked a lot.

I'm making a little videogame with a friend of mine, and we're planning on creating and using 16x16 pixel tilesets to use in creating our maps. We'll then export the image file and import the whole image as a background in Game Maker. The problem is that I'm having trouble finding a good software to do this with... Game Maker's room editor has no zoom options, and you can only brush with one tile at a time. I tried Graphics Gale, but the selecting and brushing of tiles isn't seeming to work for me (plus the UI doesn't really work with my Windows 7). And Gimp's grid doesn't really suit my needs - I want a hard-locking grid, so all 16x16 tiles will be evenly laid out, not overlapping, and implementing tiles will be easy.

So, do any of you know a program that will suit my needs? If you're familiar with the RPG Maker series, those had a wonderful map editor for my needs, but I can't figure out how to export image files from it.

(here's a video of the map maker in RPG Maker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Y_W7kD8LU
He starts going over it at about 1:45)

So, to sum up my needs, what I need is a program that I can select one or more tiles easily, brush the tiles easily (hold the mouse button and drag it for multiple squares, while still being evenly spaced), has zoom options, allows you to change the map size at any time, and supports layers and transparency.

Can anyone offer help?