Paint Shop Pro VS Adobe Elements

[whitecloud]

Yes I know a stupid question but what is the difference between both software???

[df]

The only stupid question is the one that you should ask but don't. The following is my stupid reply Just my personal opinion is all. I could be wrong on some of this.

PSP has better scripting (actions) power. You can create your own, and edit them too. Elements used to be able to run actions but now they discontinued that feature, probably to make you want to buy Lightroom or CS4.

You can batch process files with PSP. Very nice if you're doing the same thing to a batch of files. That's more inline with LR than Elements.

PSP has a different interface. It's more intuitive to Windows users, where as Photoshop's hotkeys are more like a Mac computer. Either way is neither good nor bad, just different.

Photoshop makes better use of layers from what I hear, and it supports 16 bit tools where as most of PSP's tools are still 8 bit. It suits me fine but others may find that limiting.

Photoshop also utilizes 64 bit OS's, where as PSP is just merely usable on a 64 bit system not utilizing half of the computer's power.

PSP is usually quite a bit cheaper than Photoshop or even LightRoom. I've just bought 3 licenses for less than the cost of one license of LR, and I would have had to buy at least two licenses of LR myself. One for me, one for the wife.

I'd have to believe that Adobe's customer support is lightyears ahead of Corel. It took Corel 11 days to respond to my first inquiry and days more to respond to my response to them. Then their latest email to me stated that if I didn't respond within 72 hours they were considering the matter closed, even though there's nothing indicating that my issue is anywhere near stable. Customer support truely is Corel's weakness IMO. Although I haven't actually dealt with Adobe's support and they may be just as bad as far as I know.

[pdxrjt]

Well, I'll chime in a bit on Adobe support. I e-mailed them with a pre-purchase issue after looking at a pre-purchase page on their website (about an audio program.) The e-mail response, referred me to the same page.... which I had referred to in my original question. I responded saying, I had already looked at that page and didn't see the answer, a reasked a fairly specific question.... they sent me a link to the same page. This interaction took about a week. I didn't buy the software and (except for flash) don't use anything Adobe. So, I'm not sure their support is better.

[OldRadioGuy]

I use Elements occasionally, so I'll add these points to the discussion.

PS Elements has batch processing. It's called Process Multiple Files, allowing you to convert, rename and do a limited amount of image adjustment.

Elements will run actions (scripts), but it will not record them. However, there are a lot of free actions (and some for sale) for Elements that add a lot of muscle to the program. For example, Elements doesn't have curves adjustment, but that feature can be added through use of a free action.

The later versions of Elements will run the new type Photoshop plug-ins that won't run on PSP.

Elements has an Organizer much like that found in PSP X+, and users have problems with it, too.

Elements manages memory very well, but users have it crashed from time to time.

Elements is aimed at the digital photography and scrapbooking markets.

In my opinion, despite bugs the later versions of PSP are much better than Elements. The only time I use Elements now is when I need the use of a couple of the new-type plug-in filters and when I need to use Elements' panorama stitching tool.

Most of my photo editing work is done in PSP, but for some projects I use PhotoLine, a German-developed program that is cheap and powerful.

Bpb

[calpon]

I am a long time user from the Jasc days, but I may become a former user as Corel just can't seem to get its act together.

I am sick of not having a 16bit chain for my images. I am sick of Corel screwing up something as simple as keeping EXIF info intact. I am annoyed with the new interface that makes me take unnecessary steps in post processing images (i.e. having to open organizer, double click an image for full editor, close image after PP, open organizer and start all over). I sometimes work with hundreds of images and this process double or triples the time needed. I have NIK Viveza 2 that worked just fine in PSPX2, but now I have to work with severely desaturated images in the Viveza interface. (The other NIK plugins work fine) . NIK customer service responded immediately to my questions. Even though they don't believe this is something caused by their software they will try to come up with a solution.( I still have yet to hear back from Corel).

Sorry....rant over

[LeviFiction]

For dealing with multiple images in a way that won't work with the Express Lab you can just add the images to a Media Tray while inside the organizer. You can then just pull these into the editor while you're there with the media tray open.

Keeps you from having to open the organizer for each individual image.

[OldRadioGuy]

If calpon is using a high-end plug-in like NIK Viveza 2, he certainly isn't fine tuning photos in Express Lab. We all want to process our many images as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the Organizer-Media Tray-Express Lab - Full Editor work flow is not the road to efficiency, particularly if the pace of moving from Organizer to Full Editor is that of a snail.

The way Media Tray -- still called Photo Tray on the label -- is designed, it's about as useful as a Hummer tire on a Porsche. On my system, it's extremely slow switching on within Full Editor, scrolling among images in Media Tray is extremely slow and you can't add images to the tray from within Full Editor either by File>Open or by save as new file.

I can't use it because it's too time-consuming.

Bob

[pdxrjt]

The other thing about the media tray is that you can only put images into it from the "collections view" of the organizer. I have most of my current photos on C... I had some older back ups on F and they are not part of any collection. I went to the "computer tab" selected and looked at a couple of photos and tried to add them to the media tray, only to find I could not do that. Ah well.... I just LOVE innovation.

[wildhoney]

Photoshop makes better use of layers from what I hear, and it supports 16 bit tools where as most of PSP's tools are still 8 bit. It suits me fine but others may find that limiting.

Photoshop also utilizes 64 bit OS's, where as PSP is just merely usable on a 64 bit system not utilizing half of the computer's power.

Yes, Photoshop Creative Suite does all these things but Photoshop Elements does not. Elements has no 64 bit version, has very limited support for 16 bits/channel (more limited than PSPP) uses very simplified colour management system, has no CMYK support at all, can't split the image to channels (RGB, CMYK, HSB etc.) doesn't support layer masks (only in correction layers) and alpha channels.

IMHO, Elements isn't a tool for serious photographer at all (even for advanced amateurs).

[df]

Thanks for pointing those out to me wildhoney, makes me feel better for sticking with Corel.

[wildhoney]

I think that considering its price/functionality ratio, Corel PSPP practically has no alternatives in its class.

Although Corel sells home & student licenses for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 at a very attractive price (at least in some countries). The suite contains Corel PHOTO-PAINT, an extremely powerful photo editing software comparable to Adobe PS Creative Sute. However, the home&student license is rather limited (doesn't allow using the software with any commercial purpose)...