What Actual Improvements Have You Seen In PSP 2018?

[Dijenga]

Got my email on August 1 ... but really want to find out what (if any) of the suggestions made on this forum were implemented.

Lots of "sizzle" in the advertisement, but I need a little "meat" to entice me to buy so throwing this question out to the members here:

What are the actual improvements you have seen implemented in PaintShop Pro 2018?

[hartpaul]

There is already a sticky post right at the top.

[Dijenga]

Yes, there is a sticky ... but unlike many members here, I have to financially justify to myself whether a product has improved enough to justify the expense. No, it isn't that PSP is expensive --- it's in fact quite fairly priced.

My intention was to have a discussion of what improvements in how images are processed, new processing abilities, etc.

For instance, in the thread asking what we would like to see in the next version of PaintShop Pro, there were lots of suggestions and wish list items. Were any of these implemented? Which ones? What features were dropped --- is it something I rely on?

I read the email from Corel and there were no real details about these things. I've read the posts in the sticky, and it does appear folks are happy with the program. My wish was to discuss more of the nuts and bolts.

Have they added a different blend mode?

Have they added adjustments?

Are those improvements, fluff, or fails?

I hope this clears up what I originally posted. I'm trying to justify the purchase now, rather than later. I'll likely end up buying it down the road, but the more benefit I see, the sooner I'll commit.

You guys have a great weekend, I'm hoping to be out shooting the next couple of days.

Be well.

[LeviFiction]

The help files give a decent overview of all that's changed.

http://help.corel.com/paintshop-pro/v20 ... ro.html%23

No new blend modes

No new adjustments

Improvements, fluff, and fails exist. Which ones you think are improvements, which ones you think are fluff, and which ones you think are fails are up to you. For example, clone preview, superscript and subscript in text tool, paste to fit in text tool when using text wrapping. Are all improvements. The fact that when you rotate the crop it now rotates the image and not the crop rectangle may be an improvement, unnecessary fluff, or a complete fail. Impossible for me to say.

Essentials workspace, it's meant to make Edit mode easier to work with by pairing down the available tools and menu options. For some, obviously they love it, others, it's waste of time to even consider.

Launch time and speed of some commands is indeed an improvement. I never used Depth of Field because it was always so slow. Not nearly as slow anymore.

The dropper tool now let's you sample using LAB, HSL, RGB, and CMYK. Great for figuring out what a color is in a different color space.

Eraser tool is both an improvement and a flop. I think I may need to make a video to demonstrate. The Eraser tool has improved how it works with the opacity setting. So you get better results than you did previously. And it gained the ability to erase a feathered edge, and restore that feather without adding a bunch of black. However, in gaining the ability to recover previous transparency, it lost the ability to clean up the results of the Object Extractor command. Which is a huge fail. We're hoping either a) this feature is removed and we get the old functionality back or b) they take the object extractor command into consideration and build a way back to fixing that one instance.

Document aware sliders, to me this is fluff. This will set the maximum value of any slider on the tool options palette that adjusts to size, to a percentage of the maximum size of the image you're working on. So, for example, right now the maximum size of a brush is 3000 pixels. But if you had say an 800x800pixel image that's just overkill. So the Document aware sliders or "Relative Tool Size" set at 50% would set the maximum size of the image at 12000 pixels. (800 + 400 (half of 800)) And you can control just how much of the original size is used for the maximum. From 0% (full size of the image is the maximum size) to 100% (twice the size of the image). Of course the 3000 pixel limit on brushes is still in effect.

[Dijenga]

Thank you LeviFiction.

In that little bit of space, you've provided me with a ton more information than the email from Corel or its linked advertising/sales page did.

I work almost exclusively in the Edit Mode in PSP, so that bit of information is indeed important for me to know. Does PSP decide what options/tools to pare down, or is it the end user? Also, those options/tools are still available but in a different location, right? ... or are they just gone?

Probably just me, but I've had less and less success with the Object Extractor with each version so I very seldom try to use it. Maybe it's what I'm trying to do, or the images I'm using. I don't know.

Document Aware Sliders sounds interesting actually. I'm not sure that I've ever needed it, but I'm sure that could be of benefit to some.

Thanks again for your reply.

[JoeB]

Thank you LeviFiction.

I work almost exclusively in the Edit Mode in PSP, so that bit of information is indeed important for me to know. Does PSP decide what options/tools to pare down, or is it the end user? Also, those options/tools are still available but in a different location, right? ... or are they just gone?

Corel made the decision as to what to put in the Essential tools option. However, you can start with the regular, full workspace and use the option there to hide tools you don't use often or regularly by unclicking their checkbox, and get them back by clicking the checkbox again. Also, because the toolbars are extremely customizable, you can simply delete and/or add any tools you want to from toolbars, or even make your own specialized ones. So really it's up to you to decide what's essential, or whatever.

[LeviFiction]

I forgot to mention, you can now also hide the Manage and Adjust modes. Something often asked for by those who don't use those modes.

[hartpaul]

I also note on my system that if I use the rotate crop option to rotate an image it leaves an area outside the cropped image such that the window does not change to match the image .
The window also does not snap to the image if you use the mouse wheel to zoom in and out. It is as if you dragged the window out to show a bit more background and it remains fixed and you have to manuallly drag the window in to match the image again.
Anybody else get this and is this a bug?