ASP from the perspective of long-time PaintShop Pro users

[JStanley]

deleted

[John123]

I have read much of this thread. I have come to the conclusion that many people are complaining about the very things I find superb in ASP. I am too much of a new user to comment on the various points made just that I believe strongly that ASP is very different from what those posters think it is. Many other posters have tried to explain this point without as much success as one would expect or hope for. This is not due to what they have written rather I think its very hard for many users that come from the traditional digital picture editor to grasp.

I am a PSP user for some time now. No guru though. I am able to do 90% of the things I wish to using it. One area that has been a very disappointing aspect of PSP has been its RAW Labs ability. It is completely useless for me. With the addition of ASP I no longer have to use anther program not from Corel to load and process my RAW files.

I expected ASP to handle my RAW files better than PSP but I was shocked with ASP's total abilities. For many RAW files it is all I need to use. I will go to PSP only when I need much deeper editing abilities. This in no way is a short coming of ASP. The point is "much deeper" editing. It is for the most part giving me more freedom and great speed in getting RAW files into a usable format with the least effort. Thus I don't need to use PSP as much.

If I had known about Bibble I would have certainly gotten it some time ago. But I'm very pleased that at least now I do have this brilliant software in the form of ASP.

I have never used a RAW image or a picture of any sort if it is the original for editing. To me it is the same as a negative and is for archiving only. I have always used copies only to edit. With ASP this notion is the standard way of working. I couldn't be more pleased.

One or more posters made the point that ASP is a RAW editor that is nondestructive and that PSP is a pixel editor that is destructive. That to me is the fundamental difference between the two. Without keeping this important difference in mind one is bound to have some issues. The important point is that its a RAW editor. It is not expected to do everything that say PSP can do. Further with PSP backing it up there is no need for it to do those things.

I look at is as a very good RAW processing program that should be kept slim and fast. No need to duplicate a lot of the advanced abilities present in PSP. I like ASP just as it is. Sure I expect upgrades and patches giving it more power, but I don't want its fundamental nature to be compromised in doing so.

[ormdig]

John123, I couldn't agree more. ASP is extremely capable and fast, fast, fast. It's also a lot of fun. The plugins add tremendous options for recovering detail (Bez and Wavelet Sharpening are fantastic) and offer opportunities to "handcraft" almost any look desired. I am constantly surprised at what I can get it to do for my images.

[kaymann]

I also agree with John 123!

I like the concept of plugins as I can choose to load them or not, keeping my ASP slim, trim and fast. The plugins I enjoy I can custom tab and put in order of my workflow (Coral - please make this easier).

I beta ran ASP and we did not have plugins and still thought it was a great program. Now with plugins WOW!

[John123]

I also agree with John 123!

I like the concept of plugins as I can choose to load them or not, keeping my ASP slim, trim and fast. The plugins I enjoy I can custom tab and put in order of my workflow (Coral - please make this easier).

I beta ran ASP and we did not have plugins and still thought it was a great program. Now with plugins WOW!

I couldn't agree more.

Also from Ormdig "ASP is extremely capable and fast, fast, fast. It's also a lot of fun."

I forgot about the fun factor. It is a fun program. Thanks for reminding me.

You both hit it on the nail. I am still awe struck by ASP.

[claudermilk]

One or more posters made the point that ASP is a RAW editor that is nondestructive and that PSP is a pixel editor that is destructive. That to me is the fundamental difference between the two. Without keeping this important difference in mind one is bound to have some issues. The important point is that its a RAW editor. It is not expected to do everything that say PSP can do. Further with PSP backing it up there is no need for it to do those things.

That is it in a nutshell.

The two types of program are NOT replacements for each other, they are complementary. In many cases when you are done with the RAW converter you do not need to fire up the pixel editor; in those cases where some really fine retouching is needed, you have the pixel editor to backstop the broad-stroke RAW converter. For me in those cases, I export to an interim 16-bit TIFF file; then convert to my final JPG after completing pixel editing.