[Sticky] - What do you like/not like about PSP2023

[gtojon]

I have been waiting for bug fixes with file saves taking too long & resize issues for the last 3 versions. Cannot resize just one layer most of the time ... not all the time.

Please, somebody tell me they fixed these issues. Been using since ver 1.

Cheers, Jon

[Finfell]

The way the layers work. I've been working with editing programs for over 20 years.I learned in school on Adobe, and used that until they went subscription. I switched to GIMP and Inkscape until I could afford CorelDraw, which I own and use now almost exclusively. Growing pains! lol
I picked up PSP2023 on a Black Friday sale because it looked interesting. While it has some interesting features, I'll probably never use it as intended because how the layers work. It drives me CRAZY that I can't simply copy/paste something into the same layer. It automatically gets a new layer. I've searched, and can't find how to change that. I work a lot with repeats, and having 50 layers of the same graphic is unworkable.
But what really makes this a waste of my money is the fact that you can't fully lock layers, or create a background layer in an existing work. All you can lock is transparency, which makes it impossible to edit on a layer without also editing all the other layers at the same time. This the very point of working in layers, to be able to isolate something to edit it without affecting the rest of the image. This is so basic, I can't understand why it's not there. It's not like Corel doesn't have this feature in their other programs. Without the ability to work on an isolated layer, I might as well be editing in MS Paint.
One last thing. CorelDraw has the ability to create a palette of color from the document, but I can't see how to do that with PSP. For that matter, it's very confusing to have color palettes, but to call everything else a palette also. It would have been better to find a different word, say, workbox for example. Or cohort. Or toolflock, or anything but a word that has already been used for decades for sets of color.

[LeviFiction]

Ctrl + E - Paste as New Selection. I know it doesn't initially sound like what you want, but it is. It first creates a floating selection so you can move it around until you're satisfied with where you have it. Then you can either do it again, which auto-merges into the layer, or you can manually defloat (Ctrl + Shift + F) if you're done altogether.

I have also complained about the use of the word palette as it's used in several locations 1) Index colored images have a built-in color palette 2) Color Swatch categories are also called palettes 3) Palettes representing different functional modules. However, in all cases Palette is a perfectly correct word to use a a painter's palette refers both to the colors chosen and the surface they are presented on. Or a holding space for any item. It's annoying, I do wish they would change it, but also not wrong.

I don't know what you mean by "can't edit one layer without editing all of the others" because you can't. If you're editing one layer you can only edit that one layer. If you're referring to selection of a single layer then yes it's annoying that the Move tool while holding SHIFT is the only way to move a layer, and being precise by clicking on the nodes of the transformation cage with the pick tool needs to be precise. But ultimately editing the layer is restricted to the layer.

[kotaje]

My current picture editing program is no longer supported by Microsoft, thus, I will need to update it. For my purposes, Photoshop is an unnecessary luxury, and I've never been able to become comfortable with it. It seems as if the PSP would be a suitable improvement for me.

[Jean-Luc]

You can download the trial version from the Corel website (Alludo). It is fully functional. You can use it for 30 days. Try it and ask your questions here on this forum.

[rnmerchant]

It seems to me that I noticed that now PSP files are "version specific", like Corel Draw CDR files have been for some time. (mind you I am writing this from memory so I hope I am not wrong and wasting people's time).

By this I mean a file created with the 2023 program will not be read by the 2022 and earlier versions. This then becomes a major major problem for those like me, using 2 computers with different versions ( I don't need to pay for a newer version on both setups) - if one forgets to do a "save as" and use an earlier version then one cannot read the file on one's older version.

This is just a 'make work' project for me because I don't do things that are so complicated that they don't work on an earlier version and I don't need these new 'file stamps'; and further almost certainly there is nothing in my file that can't be read save for whatever stamp corel inserts to make it a "202*" version. Pain.

Enough that, for me, like other mentions in this thread, I don't need to buy the new versions and must stop having this unrequited and unmet need for "newer" and "better" features that in fact I never get.

There should be a utlity to strip out the bits of the image files that say 'version 20xx'.

[LeviFiction]

You don't need to buy a version for each computer unless you are going to use them simultaneously. One version can be installed on both just fine. But PSP has always had this in some fashion, often going several versions before a change in the program necessitated an increase in version # for the file format.

[Suffolk_bobby]

I have PSP 2018 and have held off upgrading as nothing really changed on the newer versions, however when Focus Stacking was introduced my interest was once again aroused.
To begin, the installation of 2023 failed many times, eventually, support requested a remote connection and we were eventually successful.
My first dislike is Aftershot LAB.
Having already paid for Aftershot Pro3 when it was released, the watered down version is pointless. I would have preferred the program to recognise the presence of the pro version and open that instead.

As for the Focus Stacking, I was sadly disappointed.
I have stacked images for many years using both Helicon focus and Photoshop, but having the operation under one roof instead of using separate programs seemed ideal.
My test subject consisted of three batteries arranged diagonally, with the camera locked on the tripod, I focused front, middle and back, an easy task which rendered perfectly in the ancient photoshop Adobe CS5.
In PSP2023 it really had problems, the image was reversed, no alignment and severe ghosting all over. I tried several differing compositions (and subjects both in RAW and JPG) but none were successful in stacking satisfactorily. Support were forwarded a video showing a 'start to finish' recording of my screen as stacking the images were performed using both PSP and PS, their reply was that I had focused incorrectly.

I decided not to upgrade.