Best PSP version made?

[carl365]

Just curious, to the long time PSP users, was there one version that had the least problems and ran well in general?
I forgot where I read it that X3 is the least desirable.

Thanks!

[Joelle]

I liked X and X2 most, but X2 started to get very slow as I moved to Windows 7.

X1 and X3 were never beta tested and it showed!
I am happy with using X8, there are a few minor niggles, but as there should be a service pack appearing one of these months (almost said 'days' but that might be wishful thinking), the niggles will hopefully get less

Joëlle

[JoeB]

Just curious, to the long time PSP users, was there one version that had the least problems and ran well in general?
I forgot where I read it that X3 is the least desirable.

Thanks!

I went from Jasc's PSP 9 (with all patches) straight to Corel's X7 so can't speak to the intervening releases (although I recall that the original X version completely messed up the Clarify filter). However, I would suggest that you might get different answers depending on which bugs that appeared in various releases had negatively affected any specific user and that user's usual workflow. So it's a bit of an unfair comparison of at least some of the releases, although there might have been a couple of releases that were so bug infested that there might be general agreement as to the worst as opposed to the best version.

I would say, again from following the old Jasc newsgroups, etc., as Corel started working with the program starting with X, that there seemed to be many incremental feature improvements over the years, and I believe that I have most of them now with X7 and didn't actually miss them too much with Jasc 9, although that was likely because I had third party filters/programs that filled in the gaps (e.g., content aware filters like smart fill, etc.)

I'm very happy with X7 and with the features that have appeared since the original X and it has replaced my Jasc 9. X8 might be a very good program also once the patches come out but from what I've seen in this forum there are some bugs that don't make it quite up to par with X7 (until they get fixed at least) and the few new features don't seem to work so well as to make it an absolutely necessary upgrade from X7. But that's JMHO, of course.

[carl365]

Thanks Joelle and JoeB, that gives me a better picture of PSP. I had Jasc 7 way back then but only used it for the most basic editing, cropping, brightness contrast, never got into layers etc. I recently got X7 and started learning but it does so many things, it's going to take a while. I was mainly curious why some people seem to be staying with versions of a few years ago whether there were some advantages or not.

[brucet]

Started way back with Jasc. I've forgotten which version. Had every version since. So far I found x7 to be the pick of the bunch. I haven't seen the need to go to x8.

regards

[Joelle]

It seems very odd that some users have problems that other users don't see. As this happens in other software, I think it might not always be the program, but the computer it's installed on.
We will never know.
My biggest gripe with the later versions of PSP is that the Curves Adjustment filter can no longer sample from an open image, I find that very irritating and it should never have been 'improved' , but as with everything else, I have got used to it.
Since using X8, I haven't touched X5 or X6, which are still installed.
Didn't like X7 and after the beta testing of it, the final version refused to install so am not missing that at all.
See what I mean with different computers and the different versions of PSP..


Joëlle

[LeviFiction]

Joelle also points to another reason why some people stick with older versions. Small/large changes in how commands work inside PSP. They are usually gradual changes, if they change at all, but every now and again in attempting to make things "better" they break a workflow or effect process that worked in every version up until that point.

Others maintain all of the older versions so that they can better help people on these forums. Wouldn't do much good to have a user to user board if everyone always maintained the latest version of PSP only and someone using an older version suddenly needed help.

[carl365]

More good points Joelle and Levi. Another reason I have is quite frequently I see some slightly older versions X4-X5-X6 on that auction site going for very low prices, in the $6-14. I thought perhaps I may try one and see, just for the heck of it...

[hartpaul]

If getting some of the older versions you should also search and find the Service Packs as well as some had some bad flaws in the original release.

I continue to use X2 for power processing of images. With many of the images I need to apply a red/green/blue adjustment to correct some color casts, Brightness / Contrast to reduce the brightness of slightly overexposed images and more often a levels correction to brighten and or increase contrast.
With each of these I have a custom toolbar with these adjustments on it . I apply adjustment and hit Enter key to accept. In later versions hitting the Enter key does not accept for the Levels adjustment and I have to move the mouse cursor to the highlighted (Default) Yes button and click there. Over a large number of images this can slow the processing down and add hours to the processing time (over 1000s of images).
Unfortunately X2 still uses the text box so I use X4 for placing text on an image.
So I could get by on just X2 and X4 - I have bought the other versions out of curiosity, as well as still hoping that they will improve to have the best of X2 and X4.

[carl365]

hartpaul, good point the service packs, thanks!

[trueblue]

Service Packs are available in this forum from X4 upwards http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=55803

I agree with others that X8 is a good version, even with its few niggles.

[carl365]

Service Packs are available in this forum from X4 upwards http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=55803

I agree with others that X8 is a good version, even with its few niggles.

Good to know that, thanks! I have X7 and X8.