Newbie to PaintShop Pro

[mitchm]

Hello peeps,

I am a new user to Corel products in general, i am a web designer by trade and have up till now used the Adobe suite of products especially Fireworks CS6 and Illustrator CS6. The main reason for the change is the fact that Fireworks now is end of line and will not be further developed (such a shame)

Fireworks was my prime environment for web graphics and basic photo editing, Illustrator was vector usage especially business card, logo design.

I am evaluating PaintShop Pro at the moment and so far i like the environment, very customisable workspace.

However i am having a hard coming to grips and starting to see some liminations i cannot live without being a Fireworks user.

1) I cannot import any AI, PSD, EPS files in a editable layer format, they come across as Raster flat files, this does not work out for me because i usually need to ungroup the layers and take specific parts from objects to use on the canvas. How can i achieve this workflow with PaintShop Pro ? (fireworks had seamless opening of vectors in AI files, EPS etc.etc)

2) Ability to open Layered PNG files that were created with Fireworks for continuation of where i left off

3) Is there the ability to have a master page, and you can duplicate pages similar to Fireworks functionality.

Thanks very much and i hope to be a user soon.

[photodrawken]

The thing about PaintShopPro is that it is an image editing application. It does an excellent job at that, especially compared to the almost non-existent 16bpp "support" offered by PhotoshopElements (which is the comparably-priced competitor).

PSP has really nice vector capabilities for an image editing application, but not as robust as a dedicated vector graphics program like Illustrator or CorelDraw.

Although I haven't used PSP for Web-specific effects/constructions, I suspect the same holds true--not bad for an image editing application, but.... Someone who does Web work will have to jump in on this.

Insofar as file format compatibility is concerned, it's just the nature of the beast that an all-Adobe workflow will be smoother than a partial-Adobe-partial-other workflow. PSP imports PSD files with layers OK provided that the PSD layer has a comparable PSP layer/effect. In other words, masks come in just fine as do some of the adjustment layers, but PS-specific effects/layers will be rasterized into a single layer.

Vector graphics are even more problematic. Keep telling yourself that PSP is an image editing application. I can get some AI (CS2) vectors into PSP as vectors, by exporting them out of AI as EMF files, opening the EMF file in PSP and copying and pasting into a layer in another PSP-opened image file.

I could be wrong, but I don't think your #2 and #3 can be done. Again, if you want a high-end Web site development application, PSP will disappoint.

[mitchm]

Thanks for your response... not sure if you used Fireworks before but its sort of in the middle of Illustrator and Photoshop.... it could create vectors wonderfully and also do some nice basic photo editing, nothing major but still ok especially with the use of third party plugins.

I have just started to trial CorelDraw and it seems to be the answer but not in the nicest way as i would of liked. For example it does import AI, EPS, PSD files ok.... BUT to do any sort of further bitmap editing it needs to open the third party program Photo Paint, then once saved it goes back to CorelDraw its not the best workflow but i could see it working if i got used to it.

Why is CorelDraw interface only available in a light grey ? There is no option to tweak the interface as much as PaintShop Pro ? I absolutely loved the dark charcole look of PaintShop Pro proabably one of the main reasons i wanted to start to use it, but the lack of importing and working with Adobe Files is a massive drawback..... IF ONLY Corel added this functionality it would be the ultimate and will be just as good as Fireworks...

Paintshop Pro seems good for web editing and banner building and the sort, but Corel need to understand that many web graphics are in a PSD, AI, EPS format on the web, icons, graphics, etc.. are all supplied in this format so support for inter-operability is EXTREMELY important.

Can any let me know being a web designer which corel product would suite me most ? to acheive what i want.

[LeviFiction]

PSP, when it was under Jasc, was considered the place to go for web graphics development rather than photo editing. Even though it is mostly a photo editor.

1) If you can program in Python you can make your own importers for some things. But if you use any features that don't exist inside of PSP beyond the simple vectors I can make no promises for how well it'll work.

2) PSP does not support multi-layred PNGs. If you want to come back to it later save as a PSPImage file.

3) I've never used Fireworks Masterpage. But no it's not...at least not in an official capacity.

Have you considered or tried Xara? It's a vector editing program with photo editing built in. Though it also may come with Magix Photo Editor but you shouldn't have to use it.

[photodrawken]

Thanks for your response... not sure if you used Fireworks before but its sort of in the middle of Illustrator and Photoshop.... it could create vectors wonderfully and also do some nice basic photo editing, nothing major but still ok especially with the use of third party plugins..

I looked at Fireworks a couple of years ago. At the time I was looking for a replacement for CorelDraw at a reasonable price. You're right that Fireworks has middling vector and raster capabilities, neither of which were robust enough for my purposes.

BUT to do any sort of further bitmap editing it needs to open the third party program Photo Paint, then once saved it goes back to CorelDraw its not the best workflow but i could see it working if i got used to it.

I'm a big believer in using dedicated applications for specific purposes -- a vector program for vector graphics and a raster application for images. So, using one app and then another is a smooth workflow that I like, whether it's AI and PS, or CDR and PPT.

(I also dislike the bright gray UI of CDR and PPT....)

File format compatibility for proprietary formats will always be problematic, especially if an image uses features from the originating application that are not available in the target application. You're on your own to find an import/export method that works.