PSP 2020 - Anything new?

[JoeB]

Given that some people have already installed PSP 2020, I was curious as to whether any of those people have discovered anything new and useful with it.

Also, does it still have the crappy crop tool? If so, it's a further indication that they aren't paying attention at all to user requests and complaints. But then, that would be nothing new with Corel, would it?

[Ken Berry]

Still has the crappy crop tool, I'm afraid... The main innovation for me is the ability to increase the size of fonts which is particularly useful in my 4K setup and 4K 32" monitor. The increased size of icons now also applies to the toolbox icons down the left side of screen. I'm pretty sure that in PSP 2019 they remained pretty small in PSP 2019 and were almost unusable on my 32" screen...

[ehume]

Still has the crappy crop tool, I'm afraid... The main innovation for me is the ability to increase the size of fonts which is particularly useful in my 4K setup and 4K 32" monitor. The increased size of icons now also applies to the toolbox icons down the left side of screen. I'm pretty sure that in PSP 2019 they remained pretty small in PSP 2019 and were almost unusable on my 32" screen...

Interesting that PSP 2020 still has the crappy Crop tool that was introduced in PSPx10/PSP 2018. My copy of PSP 2018 has enlarged icons down the left side of the screen. The enlargeable font was introduced in PSP 2019, so that is not new. Anything else? Anything to make one choose Ultimate over standard?

[LeviFiction]

The ultimate is always just the add-ons. GRFX Studio, AfterShot 3, Painter Essentials 6, PhotoMirage, and for those using Parallels on Mac OSX, the Parallels toolbox. I personally have no use for these.

The stuff inside PSP is always exactly the same.

For me the only two really interesting features are the Refine Brush for selections, and copying layer styles. And yes I am aware that I just finished scripts to do that very same thing earlier. But their method is faster. Now I just have to make my scripts able to copy and paste between 2020 and older versions of PSP. xD Should be easy enough.

Smart clone....I don't know. Will have to play with it. But I don't personally have much use for it. Faster vector text will be nice for those who make use of it. And then there is the rather nebulous claim of "enhanced legacy features" without explaining what that means. Or which tools have been "enhanced". Though they claim it's all influenced by user feedback. It's the "over 50 fixes" BS again. If they can't actually tell us what's been improved there's no way to trust it.

[JoeB]

For me the only two really interesting features are the Refine Brush for selections,....[SNIPPED]]

Smart clone....I don't know. Will have to play with it. But I don't personally have much use for it..... [SNIPPED]

I followed the link that Zantara provided in the original thread about PSP2020 being out and read the blurbs as well as watching the two videos - Refine Brush and Smart Clone. PS CS6 had a refine selection tool way back when. The Smart Clone tool interests me if it works well because I'm always happy to have content aware tools for stuff I do creating images that use elements from a variety of different source images as well as cleaning up some images. That's why I got PS CS6 some years ago for client work like that when their content aware tools were better than anything PSP had at the time.

Having watched the two videos, however, it will take some experimenting to determine whether or not either tool works well. Granted that the videos were brief, leaving the presenter little time to refine the workflow examples provided, but I can't say that I found the results exceptionally impressive. The grass clone that was used to cover the brown area of lawn didn't, IMHO, look natural when completed. That is, the texture and overall look didn't seem to blend naturally with the rest of the grass surrounding the patched area. But, as I said, it might be that with a bit more time and effort spent (perhaps some rotation of the clone, and maybe several clone samples rather than just the one he started with, as well as blending options if they can be refined) could produce the result I would want. I had similar feelings about the result from the Refine Selection tool. Will have a better idea when the trial comes out.

And then there is the rather nebulous claim of "enhanced legacy features" without explaining what that means. Or which tools have been "enhanced". Though they claim it's all influenced by user feedback. It's the "over 50 fixes" BS again. If they can't actually tell us what's been improved there's no way to trust it.

I totally agree with you on this. It has been a constant failing of Corel that they provide this fluff marketing stuff and never, never respond to requests for actual details of what they have actually done to enhance legacy features, what their so-called 50 fixes are and to which tools, and which specific user requests they have responded to and satisfied. If one were to read all of the requests in the Wish List for PSP2020, I would bet dollars to donuts that there isn't one of them that has been added to PSP2020. And not even one requested change to the crappy clone tool which has had numerous complaints!

And just who asked to yet ANOTHER crippled interface that added to the bloat of the program, just like the unasked for Essentials workspace did with the last version and that has caused so much confusion for some users? Enquiring minds.....

[Bobby55]

I've just installed (and uninstalled) the trial version and to be honest, I can find nothing that would persuade me to upgrade from 2018. (I could find nothing exciting in 2019 either)

[LeviFiction]

If one were to read all of the requests in the Wish List for PSP2020, I would bet dollars to donuts that there isn't one of them that has been added to PSP2020. ?

I was going to ask them during the webinar and see if I could get a response, was betting against it but was ready to try. But technical difficulties prevented them from showing us a webinar with a pre-recorded youtube video....yeah.

[ehume]

If one were to read all of the requests in the Wish List for PSP2020, I would bet dollars to donuts that there isn't one of them that has been added to PSP2020.

Of course, by the time 2020 is out, they are finalizing 2021. The earliest we should expect any response to what is being requested now -- will be in PSP 2022.

[JoeB]

If one were to read all of the requests in the Wish List for PSP2020, I would bet dollars to donuts that there isn't one of them that has been added to PSP2020. ?

I was going to ask them during the webinar and see if I could get a response, was betting against it but was ready to try. But technical difficulties prevented them from showing us a webinar with a pre-recorded youtube video....yeah.

Technical Difficulties is Corel's alternative name for Technical Support.

[rondo]

If they haven't fixed the crop tool they can keep 2020.

[hartpaul]

I totally agree with you on this. It has been a constant failing of Corel that they provide this fluff marketing stuff and never, never respond to requests for actual details of what they have actually done to enhance legacy features, what their so-called 50 fixes are and to which tools, and which specific user requests they have responded to and satisfied. If one were to read all of the requests in the Wish List for PSP2020, I would bet dollars to donuts that there isn't one of them that has been added to PSP2020. And not even one requested change to the crappy clone tool which has had numerous complaints!

And just who asked to yet ANOTHER crippled interface that added to the bloat of the program, just like the unasked for Essentials workspace did with the last version and that has caused so much confusion for some users? Enquiring minds.....

Regarding the wishlist for 2020 - that went to 9 pages with many dumb requests by people that were unfamiliar with many of the old and newly added features of PSP . This then had others suggesting (and I was guilty of this as well) of explaining how to get that effect with the options already present so that it was not a valid wishlist request. Now imagine a rep from Corel having to read through all those genuine requests as well as the solved ones and the ultra rare ones (eg can PSP have a button that allows me to have it direct a cup of tea/coffee be made) and then selecting the features to add.
I think the wishlist needs to be heavily moderated so that people have to put the suggestion in a normal thread first asking for solutions and if one cannot be found then find a way to state the request in such a way and with illustrations if necessary so that modified request can then be moved into the wishlist thread. ie limiting free access to post to the wishlist will filter out false requests , unreal requests, and any other discussion that bloats that thread.

Regarding this "NEW" Photography mode it does not really add anything new but rearranges options and is just as useless as the "Essentials" mode.
Using the Customise and some new toolbars I have been able to duplicate what shows as the Photography Workspace, I can then save this as a workspace and loading my own modified workspace is just as simple as switching to this new Photography workspace. So no real need for Corel to set up this wasted effort and ignore almost unanimous requests for a fix to the crop tool.

[Zantara]

I loaded my PSP 2019 workspace in PSP 2020. That gets rid of the Photography workspace, as it wasn't available in 2019. Wasn't going to use it anyway, as it's easy enough to access the functions in other ways, like edit mode.
I have since learned here that it's best to start from scratch with each new version.
Just wonder what the function of importing is, then.

[ehume]

I loaded my PSP 2019 workspace in PSP 2020. That gets rid of the Photography workspace, as it wasn't available in 2019. Wasn't going to use it anyway, as it's easy enough to access the functions in other ways, like edit mode.
I have since learned here that it's best to start from scratch with each new version.
Just wonder what the function of importing is, then.

There isn't any function to it. The best way to copy your old customizations is to put them in your head and make a new workspace. Some features you will remember later. Some features never make it to your new workspace.

One thing about workspaces: you can save them. So when PSP forgets its customizations, you can reload the most recent workspace. I'm up to PSP 2028 46, now. I started at PSP 2018 30 because PSP lost my prior workspaces. On the off chance that they might turn up, I did not reuse names. The fact that I have had 17 iterations indicates the little tweaks I have made. I'll admit, it is a little gonzo. But it shows how flexible PSP is, and what you can do. Probably I could have gotten away with a single named Workspace.

[Zantara]

I've got a clean 32-bits version on my laptop. I use that for writing about PSP 2020. No personal touches or toolbars etc.

On the laptop I discovered what they seem to mean by One-Click Layer Styles. It's gone from my version on the computer, because of importing the 2019 workspace.

I use a pspimage for writing tutorials containing 8 layers. One raster layer has my watermark. It's set for Soft Light and normally I select the layer, click on the "Copy" button I have in my personal toolbar and then use a button "Paste as new layer", also from my own toolbar on another image to place the watermark. Two clicks.

When right clicking on the raster layer with my watermark in the clean PSP 2020, I see this menu

However. When opening another image with layers and using again the right click menu "Paste Layer Styles" nothing happens.
Not only doesn't it paste the copied layer, it doesn't copy the style either.
The layer in the second image doesn't change to soft light.
I tried it with an image and all it does is promote the background to a raster layer, but without the Soft Light.

Anybody else more luck?

I will reset the version on my computer and start again. Thanks for the advise, ehume

Somebody wrote about not knowing if there was a repair option. There is. Change, Repair, Delete.

[Jean-Luc]

However. When opening another image with layers and using again the right click menu "Paste Layer Styles" nothing happens.
Not only doesn't it paste the copied layer, it doesn't copy the style either.

It copies only the Layer Style (settings), not the layer itself. It is the normal behaviour.
On my side, pasting the layer style applies the recorded style to the layer in a new image.