PSP 2018 becoming very slow over time

[LordKraken]

Hi everybody,

I have been a Paint Shop Pro user for many years (before the X version!) and I have always been very happy with it.
Last winter I upgraded to PSP 2018 but I didn't use it that much until recently (also got a baby last winter, that's why ).

So it's still very good but it has a major issue, it becomes very slow to the point where every action has a 2 or 3 seconds delay, especially, when zooming in/out or changing tools. The only way to fix that is to restart the program.

I have been waiting for some time for a patch but this is apparently not coming, so I'm trying to find an answer on this forum, unsuccessfully so far

Is this a known problem? Could it be a memory leak (as windows sometime warns me about PSP taking way to much memory, but the task manager only show 300mb which is reasonable).

Thanks for your help!

[DPainter]

This has been a ongoing issue over many versions. After using it for some time it goes slow and glitchy to do anything. Not sure but I think it's being bogged down with catch memory. You can limit it but I haven't seen any difference in the slowing down issue.
So far the only fix is to do what your already doing and restart it. It would help a little if you set to delete catch memory when shutting down the program. (Catch memory is the Undo memory) It want retain the use of this once the program is shut down anyway so deleting it is no loss.

[Jean-Luc]

the task manager only show 300mb which is reasonable).

Do you see an increase in memory occupation during all your working ? In other words, do the occupation memory increase continuously ?

[hartpaul]

it becomes very slow to the point where every action has a 2 or 3 seconds delay,

After using it for some time it goes slow and glitchy to do anything

These are vague terms although the first poster does give a clue about recognising it.

How long does it take before it goes slow? How many images have you processed ? Are they multi layer images?
Can you test and give others a repeatable list of circumstances? Otherwise others on this forum and Corel help would just be guessing at what the problem could be.

Is it time related - how long you have had the program open, or number of image related or number of images and number of layers related or a combination of all these factors.
I cannot say I have seen any slow down that you are suggesting except with very large images 10000 pixels plus and very large brushes 2000 pixels

[LordKraken]

Thanks for helping guys!

DPainter > I don't remember having that kind of issue with previous versions, but I was using a very old one before upgrading to 2018. Restarting fix the problem, but it's annoying as I usually have multiple temp files opened (there is a "workaround" though, I kill PSP through the task manager and on next start there is a prompt to recover these temp files...).

Jean Luc > Memory usage does increase while I'm working, but nothing out of the extraordinary. Except that yesterday I got this system message from Windows itself telling me that PSP was eating way to much memory, but after double-checking it the task manager only report 300 mb!?

Hartpaul > I haven't made proper statistics about that, but generally after a couple of hours using it PSP starts to slow down. It generally starts with the working window being repainted when zooming in/out. Then the palette starts being redraw every time I'm doing something (I can see actually it, just to tell how slow it is). And then it's switching between tools that starts to be affected. I'm doing a lot of pixel art work, switching being brush, fill, and erase all the time so PSP just becomes unusable after a while.

[Jean-Luc]

Thanks for helping guys!

Is Undo enabled ? (see in Preferences)
Is the Scratch disk enabled ? (in Preferences too)

[Jean-Luc]

Except that yesterday I got this system message from Windows itself telling me that PSP was eating way to much memory,

It may be a peak .
You may let open the Taskmanager and see "live" what happens when you are working (memory, process, etc.)

[Jean-Luc]

I'm doing a lot of pixel art work, switching being brush, fill, and erase all the time so PSP just becomes unusable after a while.

You have perhaps History enabled ?
If yes, all your work on a file is recorded and image size may become very huge. If you are working with textures, they will be included in the History. Etc. Take a look to your images size (on disk).

[hartpaul]

Go to File > Preferences > General Program Preferences > Undo
Check your values there - IN Jasc PSP 8 it was 500 MB per open image or 100 undo/redo steps per open image
In PSP 2018 it is still 500 MB and 250 undo/redo steps per open image.

Looking back in the Jasc PSP 8 written manuel I found:

"To Free memory used by the Undo/Redo commands
Use this command only when the stored information is so large it noticeably slows down Paint Shop Pro's performance.
This action permanently clears from memory all information stored in the Command History. It cannot be undone."

So if you are doing a lot of pixel and brush work and PSP is storing this information it may be taking time manage the undo information.
Do you have a number of images open at the same time?
You might change Undo preferences to reduce that amount of information. eg how many times do you need to undo 250 steps perhaps change that to 100. When I am doing some involved work as I reach a point when I am satisfied with one aspect I will Save that as a psp image this saves the layer information as completed at that point. However the Undo history is still present and can be saved as a separate text file. To see how large that can be View your History and on the far right is a down arrow where you can save the history as a text file. Also there is another button Empty Command History.

So two steps you can test in your next sessions.
1. Change the number of Undo steps down to 100 or even less - I rarely need more than about 10-20.
2. When you are satisfied with an image to a point either save as a pspfile or clear the command history or both.
See if that makes any difference.

Ref
http://help.corel.com/paintshop-pro/v20 ... tions.html

[LordKraken]

I'm going to follow your advices guys. I never thought that the undo features could actually stress the memory, but now that I give it a second thought, it's true that I was working with dozen of working files while modifying them quite extensively.

So I reduced the undo stack to 100 steps, and I'm going to monitor that for a while, see if it helps.

Thanks again for the quick help

[Jean-Luc]

You have perhaps History enabled ?

I am speaking of THIS history :

[LordKraken]

Oh thanks Jean-Luc, I didn't know about that one!

I guess reducing the maximum number of undo will reduce the size of that?

[Jean-Luc]

Oh thanks Jean-Luc, I didn't know about that one!

I guess reducing the maximum number of undo will reduce the size of that?

No. Nothing to do with Undo. Each action is recorded. And if you use textures, they will be embedded too. Corel is aware of this situation and I hope they will come in the future with an easy way to remove this history on demand. This history is very usefull when you want to know which actions you have done on an image. In one month or a year, you will not remember but the history yes.

[hartpaul]

After reading about Edit History and Session History and Jean-Luc's post I decided to do an experiment.
1. I reduced the undo steps to 1, and made sure that save edit history was saved.
2. I Chose Primary red (255,0,0) as the Foreground color and Primary Green (0,255,0) as the background color.
3. New document 300 x 125 so wide enough to include full name once saved, and chose the paintbrush tool with size 10 pixels.
4. Left click and drew a red stroke and right click and drew a green stroke.

01undo1steps2saveedithistory.jpg (26.57 KiB) Viewed 4011 times

5. I was able to undo the green stroke but not the red stroke. I saved the Session history, As you can see the History palette only shows 1 step.

6. I could not view the Edit History until I saved the image. Then I was able to view and also save the Edit History.
7. I opened the Edit history and the Session (undo) history each in wordpad and compared them.

Note :
1. the disc size of the Edit History (9 KB) was consistently smaller than the Session (Undo) History (16 KB) so long as I kept the image open.
2. even though I did not change the brush except to go to the background color and using the right click draw this was also recorded in the Session history but not in the Edit history.
3. Then I closed the image and then reloaded it and applied a levels command and then saved it .
I saved the session history which only included the Levels command (1 KB) whereas the saved Edit History now had the Levels adjustment added (9 KB).

Conclusions:
The Edit History and Session History are two distinct things that can build up in an open image (s) and so become quite large. The Session History is larger than the Edit History for a starting image.
Saving the image regularly loses the Session history if the image is closed and reloaded but the Edit history continues increasing in size.
Changing the preferences to stop the Edit History being saved will save some space / memory.
Reducing the number of Undo steps will save much more memory for a continuously open image.

[Jean-Luc]

Conclusions:
The Edit History and Session History are two distinct things that can build up in an open image (s) and so become quite large. The Session History is larger than the Edit History for a starting image.
Saving the image regularly loses the Session history if the image is closed and reloaded but the Edit history continues increasing in size.
Changing the preferences to stop the Edit History being saved will save some space / memory.
Reducing the number of Undo steps will save much more memory for a continuously open image.

Exact !
The user post was about PSP becoming very slow.
I had the same problem.
I worked on a file (a few Kb). I made many manipulations (some with textures). Continued the next day and later too.
As I observed an increasing loading time and a lag between tools actions, I verified the file's size on disk. It was now 300 Mb ! This huge size explained PSP slowness...