Blur Brush tool in PSP?

[Rick_R]

Is there some kind of blur brush tool in PSP?

I have a senior portrait from a 1929 yearbook and there is some obvious half-tone printing. For the background I was able to use smart select plus blur. But for parts of the face selected, using an Average blur it looks a bit distorted. A setting of 3 isn't enough and a setting 4 is too much. I'm looking for a brush where as I drag it over an area it will blur the pixels under the brush, and the amount of blurring could be preset.

Smudge seems to move pixels, which if I understand correctly, is what it's designed to do.

[brucet]

If the smudge brush is too harsh try the soften brush. It may take a few passes but you would have complete control.

regards

[hartpaul]

There is also a Soften brush in that same group of brushes, have you tried that?

[fairbro]

"I'm looking for a brush where as I drag it over an area it will blur the pixels under the brush, and the amount of blurring could be preset."

Yes, exactly. but I have an old 8.1 JASC version of PSP. Does anyone know if this is possible?

The smudge and blur tools in my PSP appear to only apply to the whole pic.

[Kathy_9]

"I'm looking for a brush where as I drag it over an area it will blur the pixels under the brush, and the amount of blurring could be preset."

Yes, exactly. but I have an old 8.1 JASC version of PSP. Does anyone know if this is possible?

The smudge and blur tools in my PSP appear to only apply to the whole pic.

There is no "blur brush" that you can drag over the image, but you can use the selection tools to select the portion of the image you want to blur and then use the blur tool.

[LeviFiction]

Does PSP 8.1 have masking? If so you can duplicate your layer, blur it to the amount you want, then apply a mask to it to hide everything. Finally you can paint with the paint brush over mask layer with White to reveal the blurred result.

[fairbro]

"There is no "blur brush" that you can drag over the image, but you can use the selection tools to select the portion of the image you want to blur and then use the blur tool."

Is there such a "Blur Brush" in Gimp, Adobe or a newer version of PSP? Any other paint program? I had used a program called Deluxe Paint which had a lot more functionality and you could make any kind of additive brush you pleased, but that platform (and my paint program) was run out of business by MSFT.

[LeviFiction]

Technically as mentioned in the original posts, PSP has the Soften brush. This has a blurring effect the more you use it. But it's a slow gradual effect. GIMP has a "blur"/"sharpen" brush under their "Smudge" tool which works similarly to PSP's soften brush.

Both have the ability to create and use different shape heads but PSP's only creates different heads and doesn't change how the brush works. Gimp can use brushes from the MyPaint program. MyPaint, if you don't know, is another free open source painting program/brush engine that can create numerous brushes with different effects and can simulate real media. PSP can also simulate real media in later versions (started with Version 9) but those are done on separate layers not directly on imported photos.

I don't know about Adobe as I don't like them. I also don't have any other paint programs.

I recommend downloading the trial of 2023 and seeing if it works for you as well as GIMP and just testing if they do what you want.

[Jean-Luc]

there is some obvious half-tone printing.

You have many possibilities :

- How to get rid of halftone dots:
https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?t=68482
https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?t=66456
https://forum.corel.com/viewtopic.php?t=60019

- There is also a Descreen filter in the G'Mic plugin (compatible with PSP).

- I have PSP 8.1 installed and I confirm that LeviFiction's suggestion (Mask Layer) works.

[fairbro]

I downloaded GIMP and yes, Virginia, there's a learning curve!

Back to PSP, I will have to figure out how to use "masks"

Thanks for the helpful suggestions and advice!