Smart Photo Fix Cursor Pop Up Box

[Jehonathan]

My apologies if this question has been asked before. I have searched this forum, the online help and even a printed manual.

Upon selecting the Adjust workspace and moving the cursor over the image in the preview area the cursor changes to a dropper and a small box opens which contains 2 columns of data. The column headings are…

Current: Original:

Below them are the values of the R,G,B channels at the cursor position. Moving the cursor around the image in the preview area changes these values. Left or right clicking places a target on the image and changes the colour balance of the image. I presume it is selecting a new value for the White Balance. However, the data values remain identical in the Current: and Original: columns.

The dropper and box are only displayed when the Smart Photo Fix option is selected in the Adjust Palette.

So, how does one get the data values for Current: and Original: to display different values?
What is the difference between left click and right click?
What is the overall function of this feature?

If there is a section of the help I’ve missed could someone please point me in the right direction.

PaintShop Pro X6 16.1.0.48 x64

Thanks in advance for your help.

John.

[MarkZ]

John:

I've used PSP with the Adjust mode for a number of years and was not aware of the problem you describe. I tried to make sense of the Adjust mode when it first appeared and decided very quickly to stay away from it. You may have come across a couple of threads within the last month with the questions - do you use Adjust mode and do you use Manage mode - and there you will find at least one rant about how dangerous it is. In beta testing we have asked Corel to do away with it.

My suggestion is to forget about Adjust mode, stay away from it, and do all your changes in Edit mode. There your moves are reproducible, you can work with layers and history to go back and correct changes that do not suit you. I see no value in trying to understand Adjust.

[Forriner]

When you open the Smart Photo Fix option, the cursor changes to the dropper so you can choose points on the photo that should be white, grey and/or black, in order to adjust the colour balance. The Current and Original columns both show the Red Green and Blue values of the pixel under the cursor. Real Blacks are of course 0,0,0, real whites 255,255,255, and grey somewhere in between.
Maybe they intended to use the second column for something when the interface was designed, but as far as I can tell you can just disregard the extra column here.
Left click and right click do the same thing: select a point that PSP interprets as should be white, grey or black.
Please don't ask them to 'fix' it, because you know Corel: fix something that isn't really broken means breaking something else completely unrelated

[Jehonathan]

Thank You Mark and Forriner for your informative replies.
I wondered myself if it was something left over from PaintShop's earlier days. I will follow your advice and not use the Adjust mode.

Thanks again,
John.