Why is the JPEG subsampling broken?

[Zacabeb]

10 years ago, I asked Jasc to put in an option for selecting the color subsampling method used when saving JPEGs, so that they could be saved without any subsampling. They listened. Then Corel came and bought everything.

Saving JPEGs with 4:4:4 color sampling worked fine in PSP 9. Now I'm trying it in PSP X6 and find that it's completely broken; either it saves in 4:2:0 regardless of the user setting, or it applies a lowpass filter to Cb and Cr regardless of the sampling structure when opening them (PSP 9 simply repeated Cb and Cr pixels). Saving a JPEG with the lowest degree of compression, it still gets mauled and colors bleed all over the place.

Corel, if you read this forum, answer me this: what the H*ll did you do? Fix it FFS!

Color subsampling should be outlawed. It's an outdated and destructive method that has a greater visual impact that people are made believe, at a ridiculously small drop in file size.

Everybody else, what non-Corel product do you recommend for optimizing JPEGs from TIFF or PNG? I want absolute control over everything.

[Zacabeb]

Okay, sold my soul to Adobe for a monthly fee now. Seems I have to change my workflow to one where PSP simply does not exist. PSP X6 is laughably bad anyway with its broken, badly messed up workspace.

My fellow peers, is there any way that has actually worked for getting in touch with Corel?

After all, the likelihood of anybody with any influence over anything at Corel reading anything at these forums is less than finding a unicorn grazing next to a pot of gold by the spring of eternal life at the end of the rainbow; i.e. far less than being eaten alive by zombie aliens, which in turn is far less likely than getting hit in the head with a load of bricks fallen out of the clear sky. Thus it is extremely unlikely to happen in the lifespan of the average human, or humanity as a whole for that matter. In fact, by all probability Corel actually does not exist at all in this universe but their products have ended up on shelves here because of an interdimensional glitch.

But if anyone at Corel does read this post by accident: Stop spending all the R&D on that combustible lemon and fix your existing products first.

Maybe I'll send a formal letter of complaint instead and rub the paper with dollar bills to give it that irresistable smell. Then maybe they'll listen. I'll just have to find an interdimensional portal and hope that the letter ends up in whatever dimension Corel exists.

[Joelle]

Good grief..
Rather than shouting at other users, write to Corel:
http://www.corel.com/corel/pages/index.jsp?pgid=800145

I have no problems with X6 that can't be overcome. Plenty of niggles, but that's not only in PSP.
It would be great if all software was perfect, but that will never happen.
I hope your new software in-a-cloud manages to be accessible whenever you need it.

Joëlle

[Zacabeb]

I didn't intend to shout at other users, I was hoping other users would shout along with me. But then again, as I realized myself, this is the wrong place to voice any concern since Corel doesn't read it.

Thanks for the link. It seems that writing a letter on paper is the only way to get in touch with them. They're cunning.

Edit: I found now in the bugs thread that the option isn't completely broken, it's just ordered the wrong way around:
http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... hroma#wrap

So it seems it is possible to still get 4:4:4 in PSP X9. It's a shame there's no easy way to make Corel aware of the bugs. But at least we now know what dimension Corel exists in; it's the dimension where every day is opposite day.

[LeviFiction]

Do you have a Facebook account?

You could just post your complaint to their Facebook page, some have discovered quick responses to such posts. After all it's in Corel's best interest to respond quickly.

I'm also posting to the CorelYourWay forums. The administrator there is working for Corel and she reports our problems directly. It's still up to the developers and project managers to make it a priority, but it is an avenue. But definitely do the Facebook thing if you can.

That being said, Corel responding to a problem is pretty rare here. Usually the best we get is someone on their off hours answering problems on their own. However, we're told (take that with a block of salt) that Corel does read the posts here, they just don't respond to them.