Paintshop Pro X4 default workspace color?

[musicman53]

In the X3 version there was a menue setting for the color of the work space where you could change it and not have to use the Graphite color.
In the X4 version there is nowhere to select non default color.
There should be as not everyone wants to be forced into having it the default"graphite or whatever"color.

[Ken Berry]

I am in full agreement with you, as I am sure many others will be. But at the moment, I am afraid that what you see is what you get... Unless the trick is really well hidden...

[LeviFiction]

The trick is their UI team doesn't think of everything. They really wanted to move permenantly to the dark UI that, as it happened, was even a little darker than X3 when first released (not much but there were darker areas). It was the first thing I and others mentioned, the need for the option for a lighter UI and we were told that plans were in the works to eventually fix this problem. Though we don't know when.

I just figured they wouldn't make as many sales in the beginning because of problems like this.

[musicman53]

In the registry the entry for Graphite workspace (X3)is there and you can enable or disable it.
X4 has no such entry.

[frcaste]

I completely agree that there should be an option for a lighter interface. Also, the icon colors ... the B&W icons all start looking the same after a while, expecially if they are of similar functions. Hope they offer color icons in the near future.

[Rick_R]

I tried copying the X3 registry key UseGraphiteWorkspaceTheme to X4 with appropriate changes. It had no effect.

[LeviFiction]

That is because the UI is completely different. It has no option for a lighter workspace at all, a single registry key would not fix that. The coming Service Pack 1 is supposed to give us these new options as they took a long time re-writing a lot of code to make it happen. But we'll see what happens. It could end up being a fleeting dream.

[Kathy_9]

I'm hopeful for a dream and not a nightmare.

[bearspa]

I have a related question. I'm new to this discussion about X4--just started the trial version, and was wondering if there was a reason why the buttons are now all/mostly monochrome. Color provides information, and, in my opinion, it is a lot easier to distinguish, say, the eraser button when it has a red tip on it, or to recognize the histogram adjust button when the bars are in color versus a b/w x-y chart, or the hue/saturation/lightness, when it has colored rings.

Along the same lines, when looking at the layers, it is much easier and faster for me to note which layers are hidden when there is a red slash through the little eye than when there is or isn't a black and white eye on a monochrome background.

Finally, I use long file names to describe my pictures (often over 60 characters). In X3, the name of the active file was always displayed on the top left corner, and there was enough room to read the full name, however long. Now, if you vertically tile 3 pictures (something I often do as I often exposure-bracket my pictures), there isn't enough room for me to determine which picture I'm looking at. Likewise, even when I'm looking at one picture, I'm fine so long as the picture window is not maximized--I can see the full name. But, when I maximize the window, X4 switches to the tabbed view (even though there is only one picture), and there isn't enough room on the tab to display the whole name. All this could have been avoided if X4 had not replaced the name of the file in the top left corner with the Corel PSP title.

Does anyone else have these issues, particularly regarding the lack of color?

[mgroothuis]

I agree with the poster who complained about the icons being monochrome. I have used Paintshop Pro from the very beginning and have become so used to identifying icons via colour that this grey wall of icons is hindering my workflow. I have always customized both the bars at the top and the layer window, with the icons I use on a very regular basis, and find it disconcerting not to be able to do this any more. It seems to me that designers/developers are beginning to forget what they have learned so long ago, and which is still very important to the success of software: don't fiddle with long-term memory by way of altering familiar processes/user interfaces! Microsoft did it with Office 2007 and there are still vast numbers of users who curse the company about having made that bad decision. I can understand the need to revamp, especially if you are after new customers. But if you decide to change things in such a way that the entire interface becomes new, at least also provide the power users (remember those? People who have used products for such a long time they can use them "eyes closed, hands tied behind their backs") the option to return to the environment they are most familiar/happy with so as not to reduce them to novice users again. As sure as I am writing this, that will only lead to looking elsewhere, as much as the idea is unpalatable at this point.
PS Was any usability testing done with power users??

[Rick_R]

Microsoft did it with Office 2007 and there are still vast numbers of users who curse the company about having made that bad decision.

Oh, c'mon! The Office 2007 change isn't that bad!

All I had to do was buy a third-party add-on that displays all the traditional menus, which lets me completely ignore Microsoft's "improved" interface. -- thereby rendering the product useful as originally expected.


(One thing I especially like about WordPerfect, which I have been using since WP-DOS 5.1, is that the user interface doesn't change with each new edition. I don't have to re-learn what I already know just to please interface designers who don't actually use the product on a regular basis.)