I haven’t the foggiest idea what a “stroke” is (it’s probably called something else in PSP), but for text, you just select the Text tool in the toolbar (you can’t miss it… it’s a big T, and it has millions dollars under it… nevermind), and this’ll open a text-editing window, and then you just type in and manipulate the text as you would in a word processor.
But you can’t re-edit it. You can’t manipulate it. It pastes it into the same layer you’ve already stuck things in, so you can’t work on it individually.
There are ways around that, but they’re so hard to figure out - and the Help file is a complete joke!
A stroke is a line generated by following a selection marquee.
Lib, I used to use Picture Publisher, and loved it. It came with my first scanner. Now I use PSP7 and love it best. I know it doesn’t do everything Photoshop does, but I don’t do anything professional, so I don’t need it. My husband prefers Photoshop, as he uses it at work.
I think it’s more a case of liking whichever you learned first on. I’ve never liked any of the Adobe products, though. I prefer Sonic Foundry’s Vegas Video over Premiere, too.
And the price differences are amazing. For most home users, I’d recommend PSP any day. For pros, PS.
I learned PSP first, it was easy to use but pretty basic. My SO (a web-developer) gave me PS when I started working in my own website (see link below), I have to say that there is a difference between the two softwares, one is a cute beetle, the other a powerful truck. They are different and fill different needs. I prefer Photoshop 7 though.
You definitely have a point that text editing is a weak point in PSP (it is hugely improved in 7 as compared to 6, and still sucks compared to Photoshop). My 14 year old son does a lot of graphics editing, until recently using only PSP, since I am unwilling to spend $500+ on an app that’s being used just for fun. Since we got a copy of Photoshop Elements with a scanner, though, he does all his text editing in Elements, then reopens the pic in PSP to work on the rest. But PSP is still a good tool for basic use, especially when you take cost into account.
Create a new layer first, then lay down the text on the new layer.
I have both PSP and Photoshop, and I use both equally. PSP is easier to learn, and for most people this is all they need. I still haven’t figured out how to do some things in Photoshop, that’s why I’m happy for PSP. I can understand the frustration, I had been using PSP for about 3 years before I got Photoshop, and the programs are different - it is hard switching back and forth.
The main reason Photoshop turned me off for a long time is the price - $699 for the full version vs $99 for PSP full version.
If you’re using PSP7, there’s a box in the text-editing dialog with a radio button labeled Create As… Vector. Pick that, and it won’t lay the text down as a flat selection. Also, in the upper left below the typeface selection box is two color picker things labeled Stroke and Fill. Stroke is what you’re looking for–if there’s a null sign in it, left click and hold (or try and click that tiny little arrow in the corner) until a box comes up, and click on the paintbrush. However, I personally don’t like using that to outline text, since it tends to just make it all blurry.
Another way to outline (after you’ve placed your vector text where you want it) is to select it with the object selector tool (hit Q to pick that), then right click and click Create Raster Selection. Move to a raster layer below your text’s layer, go to the Selections/Modify/Expand to expand the selection out a few pixels and use the paint bucket to fill in the selection.
Of course, with all that, you can still only have one color per vector text object thingy, although multiple fonts can be had in the same object. And if you have a version before 7, all bets are off.
Does PSP have channels? Because I can’t live without those. I find that some digital camera images (or just any scanned images) have a problem with the blue channel (excessive graininess). Going into the blue channel and softening it a little does a world of good.
And there’s so much more thatcan be done with channels. They are not just for power users.
I’ve always preferred Corel’s Photo-Paint.
Well, maybe they aren’t. So maybe its not because I’m not a power-user that I don’t know this, but I gotta ask:
What’s a channel?
Well, it looks like PSP has channels of a sort: http://webreference.com/graphics/column41/4.html
And channels are explained here.
According to this tutorial, working with channels in PSP kind of half-ass. I’m spoiled by Photoshop. Just looking around a little bit on the web, it’s easy to see that PS has so many more resources.
Photoshop 7 = free (for some bad bad pirating bastards)
ohhh… its my baby 
I paid a little over $100 for an older (full) version of Photoshop on eBay, and then upgraded from there. Upgrades cost about $150 each. I would never pay $600 or $700 for Photoshop. With a little bit of patience, it just isn’t necessary.
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I just switched to Linux a couple of months ago, and now I’m primarily using the Gimp. I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned it yet.
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I’ve worked with both PSP 3-7 and Photoshop 4-6, and I’ve gotta say that for web images, you can’t beat Paint Shop. Hell, Photoshop couldn’t even handle vectors until, what, the last version or something?
On the other hand, pre-press stuff is slightly easier in Photoshop, though not as much as some people like to pretend. I’ve managed to created 11x17 full-color posters in PSP without too many problems.
Honestly, if you’re not a graphics design professional, you’d be much better served by PSP7. If you insist on getting something Photoshop-like to play with, start with the Windows version of the Gimp. It’s just as difficult and frustrating for a beginner, with none of the cost.
A sentiment that’s not likely to garner much praise around here.
Is there a Mac version of the Gimp? There is no Mac version of PSP. Not that I mind. I don’t miss it at all.
It’s apparently still in development:
that was ummm… a bad choice of words and not sufficiently explained… because I am an idiot. DER!
That said, I am a photoshop dork (its real fun and I get paid to churn out MEGA-RICER sig pics for people on import car forums) and I do company work at home. hence I’ve gotten to use the Quark/Flash/Photochop/etc at home…
So, umm whats the learning curve like on the gimp?
Not too bad if you know your way around Photoshop, and you can’t really beat it for the price. I haven’t yet tried to do anything destined for paper, though, so YMMV.
I use: Photoshop, Paintshop Pro and Micrografx Picture Publisher. All for different things.
PS is difficult to learn, IMO compared to the two in the OP. I have a book for my PS that is 3 inches thick and still don’t know all it can do.
I mostly use Paintshop Pro, even when doing stuff for print. But there are times that it can’t do what I want and I look to the other two.
I think it’s a matter of preference and a matter of what you are used to working with. There is always a learning curve but for those that have never had their hand in digital graphic manipulation, PSP is the best bet for the money and pretty damn easy to learn. If my dad can figure it out…
Oh and I do have Illustrator…that program maddens me to no end. Of course I don’t have a book on it so I can’t even learn the basics without pulling out my hair.
That’s one excellent thing about PSP is that you can do virgin graphics with little knowledge and you don’t need Illustrator like PSP needs. From my experience anyway.
All I learned about PSP I learned fucking around with the program since 4.0. It does have layers but if you save it in a non-native format (aka not a psp file) then the layers will be merged. You can open a psp file and you still have all your steps saved and the last item you worked on visible.