PaintShop Pro sucks!!

The BBQ Pit
41

Ummm. damnit, I meant, like Photoshop needs…not PSP.

Photoshop and Illustrator, Adobe products.

Egads.

42
      • I guess it’s whichever one you learn first; I had PSP before I bought PS/IL and PSP makes the most sense. The main drawback with it is that it can’t handle really large image files. -And it doesn’t have a bazillion effects, but it’s one-fifth the price for Pete’s sake.
  • And I like the way that Paint Shop Pro “airbrushes”, as far as I can tell, it’s actually better than Photoshop in this regard. It’s much easier to do gradient blends with PSP’s airbrush than it is with anything or combinations of settings that I have been able to find in Photoshop…
  • I tried WinGIMP on Win98, it crashed whenever I attempted to use about half the tools on the palette. Then I accidentally closed one palette and couldn’t find any instructions on how to re-open it!! I ended up uninstalling it before I bothered to figure any of it out: GIMP has no instructions included, and the online help pages aren’t organized for quickly looking up how to do anything, and I had deadlines to meet. Photoshop/Illustrator costs money, but at least they come with actual books…
  • The only reason I use Illistrator is to create PostScript vector images; for straight vector drawing to rasterized images, Webster or Xara X is way easier+faster to learn to use, as well as faster to use.
    ~
43

I prefer Photoshop, but PSP will do. It doesn’t have click-and-drag features like PhSp does, but once you know the principles of how it’s done, the rest is easy to figure out.

PSP has a convenient default for copy: if you just pull up an image and copy, it copies the entire image without you actually having to select it. Saves a couple of keystrokes.

One thing I don’t like about PSP is its paintbucket. Maybe I just haven’t figured out how to use it, but it fills up the WHOLE image with the selected color instead of the color section I want to change.

44

Oh! Oh! This is one of the most recent things I figure out(well, besides creating textures and paint tubes). To have it only fill in part of it:

  1. change to “millions of colors” mode instead of 256 or any of the others.
  2. Use the the shape or freehand capture(for lack of a better word. The lasso or dotted square icons) tools to select the area you want filled.
  3. select your fill tool and decide if you want a soild color or texture.
  4. use the fill tool on your previously outlined area.
  5. change back to whatever color mode you were working in before.

The above also works for all the hue/colorize/image effects etc too.

45

I never liked Paint Shop Pro when I was using Windows. Far too klunky and limited when compared to Photoshop.

Now that I use a Mac, I use Photoshop 7 for all my ‘serious’ graphics needs, and Photoshop Elements 2 for simpler things like creating Web text graphics and the like. Photoshop Elements 2 uses the Photoshop 7 engine, produces a lot of great graphics straight from templates, makes applying filters, etc, a breeze. And only costs $100. Can’t be beat.

Plus they’re both Mac OS X compatible, which is where its all at.

46

I much prefer PSP over Photoshop. PSP is always logical; Photoshop is not. Plus, Photoshop takes so damn long to load.

47

Funny, I never thought PSP was logical. It’s obviously a “Your Mileage May Vary” sort of thing.

My take on it is that PS is “deep”, and not everyone needs “deep”. (Not that I am pretending that I know all the nooks and crannies of PS—far from it.) But once you learn the basics, it can’t be beat. I find that one excellent way to get your feet wet with Photoshop is to learn the keyboard shortcuts. They are such a timesaver.

But, if “deep” is not what is required, PS Elements will do just fine, and can use a lot of the filters and “styles” (love those Photoshop Styles) that PS full can. I have only used PS Elements 1, but from what I saw, it offered a lot of bang for its buck. Would be quite enough for most users.

Add to that cross-platform compatability (OS X! YES!), tons of support via web site tutorials, a special Photoshop magazine, bi-annual Photoshop convention, instructional videos, books and so on, PS is an excellent choice. And if you use the inexpensive PS Elements instead, you can still avail yourself of many of these plentiful resources.