PSP: How can Paint Brush improve?

[Nev]

Hey everyone,

How would you like to see Paint Brush improve for PSP? Ideas of any scale are welcomed.

Best,
Nev from PSP Team

[JoeB]

All interesting questions, but wouldn't the topics be better suited to the X10 Wishlist thread? Just a thought.

But it's nice to see Corel looking for real input on the product!

[csh2000]

Start with removing the Ads tool bar...

[JoeB]

Start with removing the Ads tool bar...

I think that suggestion - to remove the ads from the presets dropdowns and wherever they appear - would get 100% backing from PSP users! It would be the answer to the general question "How Can PSP Improve the User Experience?".

[LeviFiction]

Actually, I would like all ads to be moved to the presets drop-down instead of the brush selection area. And to be limited to a category called "store" this way it's easily accessible, but out the way and not as annoying. You already moved text presets to the presets drop-down. This consistency with brushes and everything else you're selling is just a must anyway.

Also get rid of that horrible pop-up on mouseover action. I'm glad you added the "x" as I suggested but my main suggestion was to do away with the mouseover requirement. If any pop-up should happen at all (which I'm dubious about) it should be on onclick. not onmouseover.

I'd like to see a stroke example, I know this me getting into photoshop similarities again. But honestly, I love the stroke example you get when you're deciding on your settings. It isn't perfect and many artists still have to test the brush but it gives an little something extra to the look. The only problem with a stroke example is that there is no good place to put one. And I have no solution for it other than to ignore this suggestion. xD

Add more of the standard blend modes. This is for everything not just brushes, layers, fill tool, all of it. Honestly, how have we gotten this far without an add or subtract? We have multiply and divide for crying out loud.

[brucet]

Ads? I have no issue with Corel having ads to promote their products. But give the user two options. First allow the user to choose if they want 'notifications' or not. Not ads but notifications. Second have an option that allows the user, at 'registration' time, to block ALL ads. This could sit along side the registration number box. This would allow Corel to bombard the poor trial user but once purchased those pesky ads would be gone. Gone for the entire life of that installation/version. So ads for the trial period and an option to allow 'notifications' only.

Paint brush. I would like to see the 'Hardness' setting to have an 'offset' option. At the moment all settings are from the center point of the brush. I often want to apply a brush stroke alongside a straight/hard edge. ie having a 100 hardness on one edge while having a 10 on the other edge. So allow me to drag the center point to where I want/need it.

regards

[Kathy_9]

Start with removing the Ads tool bar...

Agreed.

[Joelle]

Start with removing the Ads tool bar...

Agreed.

Add my name to the list.

Joëlle

[hartpaul]

Agreed . I have placed my name on the mailing list for the Discovery Centre. So as well as receiving notification adds via that mean I also receive the same adds when opening and closing PSP and also on the Presets and other in programs adds. Too much. Having the adds in the one place - Discovery centre emails is enough. Does Corel really think that during my processing while concentrating on that and then seeing an add I will stop what I am doing and proceed to the Corel site to make a purchase - It actually has a negative effect on me and others.

[Cassel]

Does Corel really think that during my processing while concentrating on that and then seeing an add I will stop what I am doing and proceed to the Corel site to make a purchase

Actually, i think those ads in the program are meant to make the purchase WITHOUT proceeding to the Corel site. I think the idea is to make it easier for the user to purchase/install those extra supplies.

I know for a fact that some extra supplies, purchased on the Corel site, cause issues to inexperienced users: they don't know where to install them or save them, so in-program purchase is possibly meant to save them those headaches of saying that "it does not work". That is my guess.

[brucet]

Sorry but we are getting away from Paint Brush improvements and onto those darn ads. Yes I was guilty to, but!!!

Back to Paint Brush ideas!

regards

[Jean-Luc]

When using a gradient, actually, painting with gradient considers gradient fills the hole image.
As improvement, I would have the option to limit the gradient to the brush size (considering the gradient should fill the brush size). This could create interesting effects.

[MarkZ]

Using the paintbrush with Wet look paint at low hardness results in a darker border at the edge of the paint stroke, the reverse of what is desired. We've been asking for this to be fixed for years. The burn brush had the same fault which was finally fixed in X8 - surely the same fix could be applied here without having to wait for X12.

I would like to see a wider application of the feathering as hardness is reduced. It seems that the feathering is only a few pixels regardless the size of the brush. I'd like to see it proportional to the size of the brush and be about 50% of the radius of the brush at 0 hardness.

I see very little difference between the airbrush and the paintbrush. Any time I've played with the Airbrush I've seen no difference at different settings of rate. It would be nice to have more choices in the Airbrush. For example, I'd like to be able to have random application of three colours with each stroke. The user could choose the colours to be used, perhaps the relative amount of each colour and the program would apply them in a random fashion. In this way it would be possible to achieve a bit of texture using the brush.

[Cassel]

Although the maximum size of the brushes has been increased a few other settings might need to be adjusted or tweaked or improved.

Step size:
Currently, the step size is determined by a % of the size of the brush tip, however, if using a regular square brush, say 100 pixels, but with a Thickness of 10%, that makes a brush that will be 100x10 pixels. Using a setting of 200 for the Step will only mean an impression every 20 pixels. This basically makes it useless if you rotate the brushtip 90 degrees. On the other hand, if the same square brush tip was left in its whole (meaning 100x100), the impressions, at a setting of 200 for the step would be every 200 pixels.

Position Jitter:
Again, this is a % of the size of the brush, with a max of 1000%. This makes it hard to scatter brush impressions on a larger surface if the brushtip is small. For example, if i want to create glitters with the brush, that tip will be small (maybe 10 pixels), but even with a position jitter of 1000%, it means that all those glitters will be concentrated within a small 100x100 pixels area. This makes it hard to scatter on an base that might be 3000x3000 pixels, in a nicely random manner.

Preview:
It would be interesting and useful for the users to be able to visualize what each setting in the Brush Variance Palette will do. Can there be a preview in that palette to show what the result would be? Right now, one has to change a setting, go to a work area, try the brush, go back to the palette, adjust some more, etc. Even just a straight line at the bottom of the palette to show what result will give this or that change. That will speed up the workflow and probably make this palette even more convenient to use.

Size setting in the Brush Variance Palette:
Since version X8, the minimum size jitter in the Brush variance palette (set to 1) gives an actual jitter that looks more like a setting of 10 in previous versions. This breaks tutorials and does not allow the user to have a discrete size variation, as it is way too obvious now.

[Cassel]

I thought of something that might help a lot of users use the Brush tool in even more creative ways: Angle/direction of jitter.

The idea is that, right now, the jitter will place random impressions of the brush tip in a concentric manner, making it an approximate circle. What if the jitter could be directed as if there was an explosion in a particular direction?