Wish I'd Never Upgraded!!!!

[Ripperoo]

Damn Corel PSP2023 has cost me over £1500 and it's still garbage!

I reluctantly upgraded my trusty, no-longer supported Win7 machine, which I'd been using for over 12 years without any issue,with a new Dell XPS XPS8960 (i7-13700/64GB RAM/Win11 Pro) as the old PC was not compatible with PSP2023.

Now, I have been using PSP ever since it was a JASC product back in olden times (PSP9 IIRC).

Haven't bought all the versions since, but I think I ended upgrading a few times since, including X3, X4, X9, 2018 and currently 2023.

One thing that bugged me after moving from PSP9 was that you could no longer CTRL/zoom centred on cursor (those who know will understand what I mean), but looks like Corel borked that feature a long time ago and will not be re-implementing it.

But this infuriating new version has some annoying non-features, such as the following:

1. After editing a photo and hitting the save icon or close window and save, the original file is not overwritten but saved a folder where I've opened completely different photos previously.

It's almost as if it's saving to last used folder and not overwriting the existing file.

I may have missed it, but is there a setting to change this behaviour?

2. Where's the extra content I purchased with the Ultimate version, such as the Preset Shapes and probably other stuff I haven't noticed yet?

I have installed and also done a Repair Install of all the additional add-on and yet no sign of them.

3. The image resize performance is ridiculous! My old PC (12 year old i7 with 16GB ram) used to resize (shrink or grow) almost instantly, but now, each image can take 5-10 seconds on a far superior PC less than 2 months old.

I have to say, I am not buying another upgrade of PSP and may even downgrade to one of the earlier versions which will ironically feel like an upgrade.

There are other issues I've experience so far, but these are the main ones of the top of my head that make using the 2023 version very inefficient.

[CloudyBright]

Resize works instantly for me. Something may be wrong with your hardware or settings?

[CloudyBright]

Cheat sheet:
Hopefully it might help.

PaintShop-Pro-Keyboard-Shortcuts.pdf

[LeviFiction]

Ripperro - did 2023 not install on your Windows 7 machine? Or did you simply go by the fact that 2023 isn't officially supported on Windows 7? Meaning they make no promises and won't help you resolve problems.

1 - Can you give more details? I don't experience this the way you've written it.

Do you mean it opens a save as dialog pointing to the folder where an image was last opened from? This should only happen on the first JPG image you save during an editing session. When saving over a JPG file, PSP opens a 'Save As' dialog letting you choose the default compression of the JPEG that it'll use for all subsequent saves throughout the editing session. When you close PSP and open it again, it'll do the same thing. But as I said, all subsequent saves should just overwrite in place. They shouldn't save to a new location without asking you first.


2 - The extra content usually comes as separate downloads or are separate installers included with the main installer. I didn't personally purchase the Ultimate version so I don't know the full details. But I've seen someone with a large installer that put a bunch of smaller installers into the Program Files folder and you're meant to run each one separately yourself.

Or they come as links that were sent to you in the purchase email.

You could also check to see if it's included in your Corel.com account under additional downloads.

There is a final option, though I don't think it's what you're looking for. PSP has a built-in "store" under the "Home" tab. Any purchases made in previous installs of PSP can be restored by going to the help menu and selecting the "Restore Purchases" option. It'll ask for the email the items were purchased under. But I don't believe it will include things purchased directly at corel.com.


3 - 2019, the version you mentioned you were using previously, I don't believe included the AI resize options. PSP added AI resizing for upscaling. Which, yes, is slower than normal resizing. But AI resizing should only be done when you upscale, or grow your image. If you're shrinking it shouldn't be using AI. You can see which method you're using the in Advanced Options portion of the Resize dialog. Bi-cubic should still be almost instantaneous. If you're resizing with AI in only 5-10 seconds you're doing pretty good.

[CloudyBright]

Regarding the Resize performance. It does take longer if/when up-sizing the image. Down sizing is practically instant.
I use Topaz GigaPixel for up-sizing images. I didn't realize that PSP could up-size images.
So - I made a side-by-side comparison of an image upsized 2x with both PSP and GigaPixel.

In my comparison test, Gigapixel was a bit faster than PSP. But the PSP image is superior (fewer stair-stepping pixels in the image).
If you make comparison image tests with your old machine and the new machine, it would be interesting to know the results.

[SteveP]

Damn Corel PSP2023 has cost me over £1500 and it's still garbage!
...
But this infuriating new version has some annoying non-features, such as the following:

1. After editing a photo and hitting the save icon or close window and save, the original file is not overwritten but saved a folder where I've opened completely different photos previously.
...

Yes. This "feature" was introduced with the July 21, 2023, release (25.2.0.58 x64). It makes PSP 2023 nearly unusable for me. I've reported it.

[fs999]

Damn Corel PSP2023 has cost me over £1500 and it's still garbage!
...
But this infuriating new version has some annoying non-features, such as the following:

1. After editing a photo and hitting the save icon or close window and save, the original file is not overwritten but saved a folder where I've opened completely different photos previously.
...

Yes. This "feature" was introduced with the July 21, 2023, release (25.2.0.58 x64). It makes PSP 2023 nearly unusable for me. I've reported it.

That's why I've found photos in other directories... Is there a way to downgrade without reinstalling ?

[JoeB]

If by "downgrade" you mean going back to PSP2019 (which from your original list seems to be the last version you owned prior to 2023) you can simply keep 2019 installed or reinstall it if you previously uninstalled it. All versions of PSP install separately and don't affect one another.

[john4647]

Damn Corel PSP2023 has cost me over £1500 and it's still garbage!
...
But this infuriating new version has some annoying non-features, such as the following:

1. After editing a photo and hitting the save icon or close window and save, the original file is not overwritten but saved a folder where I've opened completely different photos previously.
...

Yes. This "feature" was introduced with the July 21, 2023, release (25.2.0.58 x64). It makes PSP 2023 nearly unusable for me. I've reported it.

The way to Work around this is to use 'Save As' each time you want to save. Otherwise you will end up (as I did) with numerous files in the wrong place.

[Ripperoo]

Ripperro - did 2023 not install on your Windows 7 machine? Or did you simply go by the fact that 2023 isn't officially supported on Windows 7? Meaning they make no promises and won't help you resolve problems.

I tried several times to install on Win7 and it would never install properly and would not launch. Contacted support, spent hours on chat, uninstalling, used clean-up tools and reinstalled and still no luck. On about the 4 chat cession, the agent said Win7 wasn't supported, despite all the other agents being aware of the OS.

1 - Can you give more details? I don't experience this the way you've written it.

When I used to open say 15 files from a specific folder and and edit them, I'd use the "Close All" option from the "Window" menu and would get the save dialogue box with options to SAVE or CLOSE the files en-masse. Clicking SAVE would then offer up the overwrite question for each file that had been changed and clicking CLOSE would close all files without saving any edits. BUT it would save the files to their respective folder from where they were opened.

Now when I hit the same SAVE button as before, I have no idea where the files have saved to and have to go and look for them and have found them in a folder that I've opened completely different files from earlier in a session.

I just does not make any sense and I've used PSP for many years and have done this process tens of thousands of time before PSP2023 without any issue, so Corel have either changed something or the installation is corrupt.

The last time I found them, even though they had originally been PNGs, they had been saved WITHOUT any extension at all without me even changing anything. Plain infuriating!

2 - The extra content usually comes as separate downloads or are separate installers included with the main installer.

Yes, when I have purchased previous 'Ultimate' versions, the main PSP program is installed followed by the additional add-ons which need to be downloaded and installed in order and they have always worked as normal before this POS piece of buggy software.

PSP has a built-in "store" under the "Home" tab. Any purchases made in previous installs of PSP can be restored by going to the help menu and selecting the "Restore Purchases" option.

You are right, just went to the Restore Purchases and nothing showing under the email address I use for Corel, but that will be because I purchased directly from the Corel website.

3 - 2019, the version you mentioned you were using previously, I don't believe included the AI resize options.

I got mixed up with the version numbers and it was PSPX9 (not 2019) and PSP2018 was my last purchased version. My bad!

PSP added AI resizing for upscaling. Which, yes, is slower than normal resizing. But AI resizing should only be done when you upscale, or grow your image. If you're shrinking it shouldn't be using AI. You can see which method you're using the in Advanced Options portion of the Resize dialog. Bi-cubic should still be almost instantaneous. If you're resizing with AI in only 5-10 seconds you're doing pretty good..

I have always used the Advanced option when resizing in previous PSP versions and it's always been almost instantaneous, but now the AI option is selected by default (until a lower resolution is entered), but even so, shrinking sometimes takes a lot longer than it used to do in any previous versions.

I upgraded PSP2018 to PSP2023 on the Win7 PC (that borked the whole PSP program) but PSP2023 is the only version I've had installed on this Win 11 PC so it cannot be a version conflict with previous versions and cannot simply downgrade and will have to uninstall, clean-up and install PSP2018, which is not a quick task and don't look forward to it TBH.

I think it will be my last PSP I'm sad to say after this recent experience.

[Ripperoo]

The way to Work around this is to use 'Save As' each time you want to save. Otherwise you will end up (as I did) with numerous files in the wrong place.

But this will be a real PITA when having to save 15-20 files at a time,

[john4647]

The way to Work around this is to use 'Save As' each time you want to save. Otherwise you will end up (as I did) with numerous files in the wrong place.

But this will be a real PITA when having to save 15-20 files at a time,

It's only an extra 2 mouse clicks per file.

[Ripperoo]

The way to Work around this is to use 'Save As' each time you want to save. Otherwise you will end up (as I did) with numerous files in the wrong place.

But this will be a real PITA when having to save 15-20 files at a time,

It's only an extra 2 mouse clicks per file.

Honestly, do you think that is a viable answer?

The previous version never used to do this, so why the newer version.

An extra 2 clicks PER FILE? That is a massive PITA for anyone's workflow!

[john4647]

1 Click per second = 2 seconds per file, that's 30 seconds for 15 files.

But only if you are saving them to different folders. If they are all going to the same place then you only need to use 'Save as' for the first file. Following files go to the same place.

If they are going to different locations then you would be using 'Save as' in any case.

[fs999]

I have made a script to put on a button in the toolbar.

Code: Select all

from PSPApp import *

def ScriptProperties():
    return {
        'Author': u'Frederic Schneider',
        'Copyright': u'(c) 2023 by Frederic Schneider',
        'Description': u'Remplaces the not working commande Save',
        'Host': u'PaintShop Photo Pro',
        'Host Version': u'25.00'
        }

def Do(Environment):
    # EnableOptimizedScriptUndo
    App.Do( Environment, 'EnableOptimizedScriptUndo', {
            'GeneralSettings': {
                'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default, 
                'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.Match, 
                'Version': ((25,0,0),1)
                }
            })

    # FileSave
    App.Do( Environment, 'FileSave', {
            'GeneralSettings': {
                'ExecutionMode': App.Constants.ExecutionMode.Default, 
                'AutoActionMode': App.Constants.AutoActionMode.AllAlways, 
                'Version': ((25,0,0),1)
                }, 
            'DefaultProperties': []
            })