A little confused about buying PSP X3

[rfe777]

I'm thinking about buying PSP X3, but as I live in Israel I'm a little confused about the price that I'll have to pay - it's either 29.99$ or 62.30 euro(for middle east). I'm talking about buying it online and downloading the installation file.

If anyone can clarify that it will be greatly appreciated.

[LeviFiction]

US prices vs everyone else's prices has been a big piece of debate for a long time. From what I understand you'll be paying the higher price.

However, I don't know. The reason I'm here is to make a quick suggestion.

1st, have you downloaded the trial and found the program worth buying?

2nd a new version could be just around the corner. I don't know when though. It could be weeks it could be months so I do caution that if you buy X3 and suddenly find you can't deal with all of the problems it introduces and soon after X4 comes out and you like X4 better you are out that money. So at this point it's a weighing what you do know against mere speculation. Just letting you know.

[rfe777]

US prices vs everyone else's prices has been a big piece of debate for a long time. From what I understand you'll be paying the higher price.

However, I don't know. The reason I'm here is to make a quick suggestion.

1st, have you downloaded the trial and found the program worth buying?

2nd a new version could be just around the corner. I don't know when though. It could be weeks it could be months so I do caution that if you buy X3 and suddenly find you can't deal with all of the problems it introduces and soon after X4 comes out and you like X4 better you are out that money. So at this point it's a weighing what you do know against mere speculation. Just letting you know.

I've used the trial version of PSP in the past and liked it a lot. It's probably what I need, a professional photo editing program, powerful but not so overwhelming and extremely expensive as Photoshop.

I just tried to purchase the ultimate edition and succeeded without any problem. It does come with a lot of additional applications. Can you explain a little about them LeviFiction(if you know them)?

[LeviFiction]

The exact extras, I'm told, are different based on where you are.

Project Creator - trash. Don't even worry about this. It is supposed to make things like photo slideshows, videos, photo books, and so on. But there are better options out there and people have had way too many problems with Project Creator to get me to recommend it for use at all.

KPT plugins - special plugins that offer a variety of useful...and just odd....options. For a complete list and description of each see the following topic

http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... 9&p=212788


Painter Essentials 4 - is somewhat like a light version of Corel Painter which is a digital painting application. It simulates many different types of drawing tools and lets you get really creative. It also has an option to automatically turn a photo into a painting using various brush and canvas settings which are pretty nice.

PhotoLooks - Does something. I don't know I don't own it. It's essentially a wide variety of really good filters that you can combine in various ways to create different effects. And there are a lot of options.

[rfe777]

The exact extras, I'm told, are different based on where you are.

Project Creator - trash. Don't even worry about this. It is supposed to make things like photo slideshows, videos, photo books, and so on. But there are better options out there and people have had way too many problems with Project Creator to get me to recommend it for use at all.

KPT plugins - special plugins that offer a variety of useful...and just odd....options. For a complete list and description of each see the following topic

http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... 9&p=212788


Painter Essentials 4 - is somewhat like a light version of Corel Painter which is a digital painting application. It simulates many different types of drawing tools and lets you get really creative. It also has an option to automatically turn a photo into a painting using various brush and canvas settings which are pretty nice.

PhotoLooks - Does something. I don't know I don't own it. It's essentially a wide variety of really good filters that you can combine in various ways to create different effects. And there are a lot of options.

Thanks for your reply.

However, you said that PSP "introduces problems". Care to explain? you don't sound too fond of this program...

[LeviFiction]

PSP itself is great. I love PSP. I own Photoshop and still prefer to use PSP. PSPX3, however, is a terrible iteration of PSP. After 4 patches it still contains a number of problems and some problems were introduced by the patches.

The problems of PSPX3 don't bother everyone because not everyone finds themselves experiencing them. But they do crop up from time to time.

For example, PSPX3 does not release its memory so if you intend to edit lots of really large images one after the other you should be prepared for an "out of memory" error.

Adding text no longer crashes the system since Patch #2 (Ultimate has the first two patches installed by default so you don't need to worry about those) but filing through the fonts and making edits has been known to frustrate people.

And there are other smaller things, random crashes, things not working like they are supposed to. If you want a full list do a search of these forums you'll see more complaints than praises. X3 just really frustrated people to no end. Though admittedly most problems were with installing the software, and others dealt with what we as users of the software for a long time view as backwards movements from what it used to be.

[rfe777]

PSP itself is great. I love PSP. I own Photoshop and still prefer to use PSP. PSPX3, however, is a terrible iteration of PSP. After 4 patches it still contains a number of problems and some problems were introduced by the patches.

The problems of PSPX3 don't bother everyone because not everyone finds themselves experiencing them. But they do crop up from time to time.

For example, PSPX3 does not release its memory so if you intend to edit lots of really large images one after the other you should be prepared for an "out of memory" error.

Adding text no longer crashes the system since Patch #2 (Ultimate has the first two patches installed by default so you don't need to worry about those) but filing through the fonts and making edits has been known to frustrate people.

And there are other smaller things, random crashes, things not working like they are supposed to. If you want a full list do a search of these forums you'll see more complaints than praises. X3 just really frustrated people to no end. Though admittedly most problems were with installing the software, and others dealt with what we as users of the software for a long time view as backwards movements from what it used to be.

Well, I'll try it and see if anything goes wrong. Thanks for all your help

[kal]

I have X2 and X3 loaded on my machine. I have tried using X3, but it is really frustrating. It continually crashes and freezes. It's to the point that I am using X2 most of the time now.

I also REALLY miss preset shapes! I used them all the time with 8, 9, and X! It was so much easier to create buttons that way.

[teknisyan]

Just to add to the free add on or additional applications, Levi covered almost all of them.. but different region may have different add ons on your purchased PSP X3 Ultimate.

If you bought the PSP X3 Ultimate, you may also get..

WinZip® 14.5 Pro - we know what WinZip it.
Red Giant Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 1.1 - an application that lets you manipulate and experiment with light while preserving essential photographic detail. (haven't used this though)

[LindaSue]

I also REALLY miss preset shapes! I used them all the time with 8, 9, and X! It was so much easier to create buttons that way.

Did they remove Preset Shapes from X3?

[LeviFiction]

If they mean vector preset shapes then no. If they mean some other preset shape option I am unaware of then...maybe. But vector preset shapes still exist in PSP x3 I even did a tiny tutorial on them using X3.

[kal]

If they mean vector preset shapes then no. If they mean some other preset shape option I am unaware of then...maybe. But vector preset shapes still exist in PSP x3 I even did a tiny tutorial on them using X3.

I seem to remember a lot more vector shapes in older versions. Specifically there were a couple for creating buttons with multiple layers. Maybe this was an add-on from an older version and I don't remember?

Admittedly I am no expert in PSP. I am just a hack when it comes to using PSP or PS. I know a couple of things but that's it. But it seems to me there should be a really easy way (like a premade shape) to drop in a web button and manipulate the layers for colors, glare, etc.

I posted in another thread about plugins. I would be willing to pay for something that allowed me to quickly create stuff like this.

[LeviFiction]

Okay, so you're not talking about the actual tool but the different shapes then.

In that case I never used preset shapes with PSP before X2 because I was not into vectors at all. I contacted someone on here whom I know uses PSP 8 and they confirmed there are a number of vector shapes that used to be included but were not included with later versions of PSP. Since they are just shapes and not an actual feature of PSP if you get a hold of someone who has them you can get them back. Or design your own, they were pretty simplistic.