[Sticky] -- What Do You Like/Not Like About PSP 2021

[Zantara]

I have been a loyal customer of Corel PSP, purchasing nearly every version and been a member of many PSP groups over the years. I know of a lot of people that use Corel, and the majority use the Filters/plugins, and therefore require the 32 bit version as only a small number of filters/plugins that we use work on 64 bit version. There will be quite a lot of people who may not wish to get version 2021, if they are not able to use the plugins.
We have been doing our hobby for many many years, most using Jasc versions prior to Corel. Yes, they can stick with their older versions for the plugins, but some may not like more than one version installed. Can I ask why they are no longer supporting 32 bit?

I have not bought the new version yet, and not yet decided whether to purchase as I am waiting on feedback on the new features from others.

If you use PSP just for the creative tube tutorials, PSP hasn't offered anything worthwile for a lot of versions. To be exact, the only reason you need to upgrade is because your Jasc or old Corel PSP versions don't work on a newer Windows 10 version.

So far only MuRa seems to be a problem. All other old plugins still work with my PSP 2020

The world of creative tube tutorials and easy tags etc. is shrinking. People switch from a payed domain to a free one, but give up because of the many restrictions on free sites.
More and more tubers and other material creators switch their attention to other things.
Therefore the market for creative tube tutorials is shrinking
With that the race to be one of the first to have the new PSP version

Ik have switched to photo-editing a while ago and for those of us that focus on that, PSP has enough to offer and enough to get irritated about, too.

It is completely personal, but I am exited about the new PSP with its AI effects and workspaces. There is plenty old stuff revamped to appear like something new, like AI HDR Studia, which is Pic-to-Painting with new effects.
I like the new workspaces. I decide what I want with a photo and know now which space has the correct tools and effects for me.

It's all about what you want from PSP. Enjoy your creative tags etc? Then an upgrade might not be of any benefit and you are better of sticking with an older version so you can work in 32-bit with the filters.

PSP 2021 is 64-bit based, although you should install the combination 32-bit/64-bit of the full version.

Maybe there is a new creative world to be discovered, using tubes, kits, masks and other materials and use them in PSP 2021 64-bit
There are quite a few familiar filtermakers that have switched to 64-bit. Xero did, just before they went off-air

You have just given me the inspiration to look in to that. Thank you!

And there is always Filters Unlimited to use in the 32-bit PSP or keep a previous PSP version installed alongside PSP 2021 to use your old filters.

I'm not trying to sell PSP 2021. I would just like to be positive for once when I feel dat for me personally that is the case. And I would like to share it with you.

[migf1]

If you use PSP just for the creative tube tutorials,....

Excuse my ignorance, but what are the creative tube and tags? Are you referring to content made using the Picture Tube tool?

[Zantara]

This is my interpretation made from a tutorial on a PSP website. It will contain a tube, accents, one or more masks, selections and the use of lots of plugins
It is a tag as in opposed to an easy-tag. You get complet kits with tubes, accents etc. The idea is to keep it easy and create a tag by copying and pasting the elements in a position of your liking
Neither has anything to do with the original meaning of the word tag, although it started that way.
There are always trends going on. From blending, where you might find a landscape with a face in the top corner, blended in.
That is soooooooo 2000. It was replaced by the tag trend, which turned into easy tags.
Current trend is very complicated backgrounds made up of masks, selections and drop shadows and at the end you ad a tube and a bit of text (or not)

This is an expample of someone making tubes and sharing them for free. If you are in luck they have asked permission from the original artist: https://tubes-en-alles-voor-psp.jouwweb ... en-animals
This is an example of a website which was very popular many, many moons ago. Unfortunately the owner died and the site is kept alive as a memorial. But it is very out of date now.

There are less and less people willing to spend time on writing those tutorials or updating their website. Many go for the free domains or move to Facebook groups.
A main reason is that filters that have been used (or shared) since Jasc PSP, are no longer working with the newer PSP versions. That means that all the tutorials written many years ago using those filters, are now obsolete.
Sometimes the whole effect of a creations changes because a filter that can't be used anymore.

It's a different world.


This is the result of a tutorial where a photo is at the heart of the creation. The tutorial is about editing, adding a frame, tools etc.
No tubes involved.

If you look at the first one, you can see why a new PSP version is of less significance than when you use it for editing photos.
But there is a run on any new PSP that comes out
And each year people miaow because there is another old filter that doesn't work anymore. Because they have used it in a lot of their tutorials, and can't easily be adapted.

[migf1]

Wow Zantara! Thanks for such a detailed reply!

Though it seems those are scrap-booking terms and trends, which is not my thing (I'm more into photo editing, post-processing, retouching and such). Hence my ignorance of all that going on .

PS. Btw, those links and pics contain some amazing work!

[HKTee]

The upgrade price - having only recently upgraded to psp2020, I think loyal customers should get a much better discount.
£50+ to upgrade a few days after I have just done that to 2020 is stupid!

[LeviFiction]

If it's literally been a few days since you upgraded to 2020 see if you can get a refund and then upgrade to 2021. YOu should be able to upgrade from an earlier version of PSP depending on the version you started with.

[Lies54]

I like that very much for you Zantara that only mura does not work. So for you the filters C&S, Mehdi and all AP Filters work ?? Whatever they cause problems. And I don't have a Corel to let one detail in a photo color and the rest gray. I have Corel because I write PSP lessons and I like working with filters and masks. As far as I can see now, over 150 of the 250 filters do not work and that is just too many. And mehdi works with if the parts are with you, you can also send me the filter. But so far worthless and I will no longer buy Corel if I can no longer fulfill my hobby.

[Zantara]

Hello Lies,

You can still use PSP 2020 or an older version and use your filters there, can't you?

[LeviFiction]

There are also the 32-bit plugin bridge options. These allow you to run 32-bit plugins from a 64-bit program, they work by having a separate app run the plugins and this app is called from the 64-bit app by a plugin that passes along the data. Which means the 32-bit plugins are in fact not running in PSP but a separate program. Assuming these plugins are even necessary and not just things people have gotten used to using.

[JoeB]

I was wondering how those bridges worked! Sounds very much like how the Nik script works in principle.

[LeviFiction]

Indeed, in fact combinging the two ideas of the bridge plugin and NIK scripts reminds me of a topic on the scripting subforum. While I don't think I should continue this discussion here, there had been some interest on the scripting forum to use older copies of PSP as a way to run 32-bit plugins via script from 64-bit PSP. I don't know if they got it to work or not, or even who they were, it's just a vague memory at this point. But if it worked, aside from being slightly slow to start up the first time, it would work very similarly to the NIK scripts. It would send a temporary copy of the layer/image to another version of PSP, then run another script on the image with the scriplet flag. This separate script would call the plugin for you. Not a very practical solution I suppose as each plugin would require two scripts to use, but do-able. Lot of overhead.

What I don't get is, Corel could make money selling such a bridge plugin or drum up excitement for the Ultimate bundle by including it with PSP Ultimate. And they have the engine for running Photoshop plugins already. So....why not just make their own version of this bridge plugin? I say it like it's easy, but would be easier for Corel than somene starting one from scratch.

The world may never know.

[Zantara]

To go back on topic....What do I like about PSP 2021...that it allows me to do such different things with it as shown in my previous post. And yes, there are free programs, that will do something very similar. But after all the moaning...I have liked PSP since version 7 by Jasc. It is still buggy as it shuts down when you switch workflows and then you have to end the process in Taskmanager first, to start again. I have already re-installed PSP. But I still like it. The bugs will be solved in the next hotfix or update, others will remain. But the sum of it is....I like PSP 2021 because I feel there is a lot I can do with it

[JoeB]

Indeed, in fact combinging the two ideas of the bridge plugin and NIK scripts reminds me of a topic on the scripting subforum. While I don't think I should continue this discussion here, there had been some interest on the scripting forum to use older copies of PSP as a way to run 32-bit plugins via script from 64-bit PSP. I don't know if they got it to work or not, or even who they were, it's just a vague memory at this point.[SNIPPED]

In my second post after I first posted the Nik Scripts in the scripting sub-forum (the Nik scripts I posted are here: https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?f=104&t=64877 ) where I described the various reasons to use the Nik script, in point #5 of that post I suggested people could use the Nik script from PSP 64bit to open an earlier 32bit version and automatically transfer the image into the 32bit version where they could use whatever 32bit plugin they wanted, then save, close 32bit and the filtered image will automatically be returned to the 64bit version. I have 2 versions of that script - one which only transfers the active, visible layer, and one which transfers all layers and returns them. Maybe that's what you were thinking of. You don't need a second script because, in 32bit you just select and work with your 32bit plugin/plugins of choice as usual before saving, closing and having the filtered image returned to the 64bit version.

[Lies54]

Hello Lies,

You can still use PSP 2020 or an older version and use your filters there, can't you?

Hi Zantara.
I can do that yes but I don't buy 2021 to keep using the 2020. I buy the 2021 to use that and there are more than 150 filters not working. To open your creation in 2021 and then go to the 2020 because you want to use the filter Mehdi or AP [Lines]. That is the same as buying a TV and continuing to use the old one because the channels are only half working.

[Zantara]

Hi Zantara.
I can do that yes but I don't buy 2021 to keep using the 2020. I buy the 2021 to use that and there are more than 150 filters not working. To open your creation in 2021 and then go to the 2020 because you want to use the filter Mehdi or AP [Lines]. That is the same as buying a TV and continuing to use the old one because the channels are only half working.