PSP 2020 issues and observations

[Alex87]

Hello, I'm a long time user of ancient PSP versions.
I just got Paintshop Pro 2020 Ultimate from the bundle and after fiddling around a few hours I have a few issues and observations I'd like to report (I've been using the 64 bit version so far)

1) It was a mistake to make the crop tool follow the "snap to center" option when draggin the nodes, I'd expect the selection to only ever stick to pixel edges since it does go to the edge once I release the mouse, like it has been for a decade. It also seems to randomly blur sometimes the underlying image. Is this already being fixed? I read something about cropping issues in other threads.

2) I had to do a "reset preferences" right after the install because PSP would keep forgetting which was the active workspace and messing up some settings in the Materials pane. Perhaps it was caused by a prior installation where I had given up before starting the trial because I didn't want to register an account at the time (maybe some leftovers from the uninstall broke the workspaces?).

4) The "Tabbed Documents" mode has poor performances when zooming quickly with the scrollwheel. It has always been a little slower but now it has become much less responsive compared to when "Tabbed Documents" is disabled.

5) The "Monitor Calibration..." option throws the following error: An untrapped "Function was unable to complete desired operation" error has occurred. Does it work for you?

6) Is there still no hardware acceleration?

7) The new icons don't look very professional.

8 ) I'd suggest for the outer document pane to be made slightly darker in the Light Gray and Medium Gray workspace colors. It feels a little weird that it has the same bright color as the toolbars.

9) When will PSP get rid of those ugly vista-style when "Tabbed documents" is disabled? They really clash with the Workspace colors... it has been clashing for almost decade.

10) Why can't I select Thumbnail Mode when I'm in Dual Monitor mode? This is immensely aggravating.

11) It would be nice if the color wheel height adjusted according to the Materials pane.

12) Changing tools is still just as slow as PSP9, it's a little disappointing to see no improvement there.

I had a couple of instances where PSP became unresponsive after fiddling with Dual monitors and Reset Workspace.

I don't like much how Corel has been evolving this program during these years. Sure there have been useful features added along the way, but it keeps getting more and more sluggish.
Sometimes I wonder what it would it be like if it remained under Jasc. It's obvious that PSP is of secondary importance to Corel, which is sad because PSP could compete against Ph*toshop if only it received some love and a well deserved polishing.
I always felt that PSP had better workflow for some things and much saner keyboard shortcuts.

I don't know... I was expecting better, it feels like I'm a beta tester.

[Jean-Luc]

it feels like I'm a beta tester.

You could really be one :
https://corelbeta.centercode.com/welcome/msg

[ehume]

UI colors can be changed. Go to Menu < User Interface > Workspace Color or Background Color.

[Alex87]

UI colors can be changed. Go to Menu < User Interface > Workspace Color or Background Color.

Sorry, I meant the outer pane, the one you see when you disable tabbed documents and the document windows aren't maximized. The one with the "Drag a photo or image etc etc" introductory text.
The backgroud color only changes on the document windows area.
It's not a real issue, with Dark Gray it feels fine it's just for the lighter tones that gives of a strange vibe. It may just be that I'm used for that are tyo always be darker than the rest, like everywehre else and previous editions.

I have the suspicion that Corel needs more developers rather than beta testers.
I've been in the whole web/software dev business for years, so by harsh experience my headcanon is that the team in charge of PSP has been cut down to the bone. Experienced developers must have suggested to refactor the code but the management shot them down, going instead for the "we must add more stuff" route to appease the marketing dept, so they hired third party consultants to make new features which the core team will have to merge on a codebase in dire need of refactoring.
Well, that's just what keeps happening in every job I land, so it's just a pretty reasonable expectation. There's never the time or the skills to do a proper refactor because those new features needed to be shipped yesterday, in the meanwhile code rot keeps advancing menacingly.

[Jean-Luc]

I have the suspicion that Corel needs more developers rather than beta testers.

The number of developers is fixed, I think, due to money and time restriction. But beta testers are not fixed. They are useful for testing the software on many different configurations. Developers cannot test on plenty of different computers.

[TimW]

I agree with both Alex87 & Jean-Luc. What really needs to happen is for Corel to pay attention to the real beta testers - the users.

[Nrde]

I would rather have snappy performance than some unneeded or at least for me completely unnecessary features. But it is difficult to sell a new version for money if only changes are performance improvements and bug fixes.