Paintshop Pro - Wishlist for version X7

[Radim]

I wish to detach tool option palette.
Laptop has full wide display. So it's very narrow vertically.
Independent tool option palette is better to work.

What do you mean? This (image below)?

[Kathy_9]

I wish to detach tool option palette.

Just click on it and drag it; it detaches.

Click for larger view

[Rick_R]

Cool!

I have one 24" monitor and I've tried using dual monitors in other situations and it literally gives me a headache. (I have to keep forcing myself not to look at the second monitor.)

I have an Android tablet and an app is available that lets you use it as a second screen with Windows. Often times I find that the various PSP toolbars take up a little too much room. It looks like I should be able to detach the toolbar, layers palette and tool options bars and move them to the tablet screen, freeing up a good bit of room on my monitor.

[Rick_R]

Well, since it's come up ...

How about iPad and Android apps that let you use the tablet as a second monitor and in Edit mode move toolbars and palettes to the second screen? And how about a set of checkboxes in Preferences that let you set whether to open the various toolbars and palettes automatically on the second screen if it is running?

Not necessarily all toolbars and palettes. Realistically, I can't see why someone would want to have the Organizer stuff, etc., on a separate screen. Just some of the editing tools that folks have a tendency to open and close a lot.

Just edited it! I meant iPad, not iPhone! I'd hate to try using an iPhone as a monitor!

[Rick_R]

By the way, the app that lets you use an iPad or Android tablet as a second monitor is iDisplay: http://www.getidisplay.com/

And the "second monitor" does support touch even if the main system doesn't. I just installed it on Win 7 Pro on a non-touch desktop but the tablet monitor still works as a touchscreen. (Fortunately, my tablet has a 13.3" screen.)

[unfy]

I dunno how to address the "problem" in a universal way, so I'll just mention the "problem".

On things like brush size and other such things that have a slider under them, the range is typically between 1-999. Attempting to use the slider to get a value between 1 and, say, 16 for pixel level stuff is impossible.

The work around that I've found for this limitation, I think, is that you can mouse scroll wheel while the given size widget has focus. Means it works for a mouse, dunno about a graphics tablet (wacom/monoprice/etc).

I dunno of an easy fix or if the mouse wheel is the correct way.

Actually, a thought hit me. Dunno if it breaks the interface paradigm or not ? If you hold CTRL or ALT while dragging the slider it would "zoom in" on the area you're in on the slider.

IE
* Click on the brush size thing to pop out the slider
* as you move the slider around, it's in the full range of values
* hold CTRL, and the slider bar "zooms in" so that the min/max that you see are within maybe +/- 32 of your current selection ?
* this makes releasing CTRL a bit weird (or, how to handle it after wards), I know.

Fixing the tabbed documents == corrupted on screen display when zoomed in to point of having scroll bars would be nice, too

[Kathy_9]

On things like brush size and other such things that have a slider under them, the range is typically between 1-999. Attempting to use the slider to get a value between 1 and, say, 16 for pixel level stuff is impossible.

Instead of using the slider you can highlight the pixel size with the mouse and type in the exact value you want.

Click for larger view

brushsize.JPG (11.07 KiB) Viewed 5303 times

[hartpaul]

You can also use the mouse wheel to roll to the value required at small values that is fastest.

[Rick_R]

On things like brush size and other such things that have a slider under them, the range is typically between 1-999. Attempting to use the slider to get a value between 1 and, say, 16 for pixel level stuff is impossible.

In addition to the "slider", there is also a "spinner". In the image above, in the Hardness adjustment, if you mouse-click on the small up- or down-pointing triangles it adjusts in 1-unit steps. So you can use the slider to reach the approximate size and then the spinner to reach the exact size.

The benefit of the spinner versus typing in a number is that you might not know the exact size you want and you would have to repeatedly type in a different number.

The benefit of the spinner versus scrolling the mouse wheel is that you can probably get more accuracy with the spinner. Scrolling with the wheel isn't intended for very precise adjustment.

[Rick_R]

By the way, we all know that you can zoom in or out with either the + and - keys or by scrolling the mouse wheel. But especially the + and minus keys go in increments of anywhere from 5% to 20% per step. If you press F9 a preview window appears that lets you do a fine adjustment.

[Rick_R]

Menu > Layers > New Adjustment Layer > Levels > Layer Properties Dialog > Adjustment tab > Levels control group:

Add spinners to the number-entry fields at the bottom. At least for the gray. Changing the gray just a few digits can have a huge impact on an image.

[Alejandro]

I would like to have something similar to the Only Luminance square option present in the Unsharp Mask but for Curves. Maybe an option allowing curves to affect Only Luminance and another one allowing curves to only affect Color.

If having that and because the program already has the Only Luminance option for the Unsharp Mask and allows doing what can be done with the adjustment layer which has been called Histogram, I wouldn`t mind the program not having a Lab Color mode.

Is it technically feasible or am I asking for too much?

[Steveatesh]

This may have been said in previous posts but PLEASE make PSP X7 faster when using layers - it is vey slow to respond when using various brushes, for example the erasure or background erasure, even using fast PC. I can use the brush then have to sit back and wait for it to complete before going on to the next stroke.
Your main rival isn't like that and it's the one thing I don't like about PSP - I'm sure I'm not the only one to think that!

[Rick_R]

This may have been said in previous posts but PLEASE make PSP X7 faster when using layers - it is vey slow to respond when using various brushes, for example the erasure or background erasure, even using fast PC. I can use the brush then have to sit back and wait for it to complete before going on to the next stroke.
Your main rival isn't like that and it's the one thing I don't like about PSP - I'm sure I'm not the only one to think that!

Keep in mind that programs can only be optimized so much. Photoshop Elements isn't a "from scratch" program -- it's a stripped down version of a much more expensive product. So Adobe can afford to spend more on optimization of a particular feature. Also, Adobe may have implemented brushes or layers differently, resulting in that particular feature working faster.

One thing that might help is to install a RAMDisk and use that as the drive for cache files, etc. Check http://www.radeonmemory.com/software_downloads.php

Do you have automatic backup set? And if so, how often? I find that a lot of times when PSP seems to hang with multiple layers the problem is that it is writing a temporary file. Having those written to a RAMDisk makes a huge difference -- a RAMDisk can be 8 times faster than an SSD.

Also, when possible, consider using an adjustment layer instead of a standard layer. The result is the same but adjustment layers use much less memory.

[MarkZ]

Steve:

I don't experience the sluggish performance you describe with these tools. I'm not sure if this is relevant in your case, but try deleting the ImageDB.db file in C:\Users\Your name\AppData\Local\Corel PaintShop Pro\16.0\Database. I think performance is affected when the file gets very large. It is recreated the next time PSP is started.