Hiya,
First, this is not a thread about PSP vs. PS. I have never used PhotoShop other then LE and Elements basically because of cost. I am sure it rocks (for over $500 it better) and this site is testiment to its "productivity power", though I'd also like to believe a gifted artist could crank out beauty with nothing more than a few colored berries and a nice smooth cave wall (and some decent lighting) Just not sure how to convert cave art to an uploadable file format. I know , I know... "Easy, snap a still with my Canon digital camera, and edit in my PhotoShop".
Well, i really cant afford either one.
My kids have bad habits... eating, wearing clothes, school projects
The point of this thread (and it will be a long one) is to help anyone like myself, who is considering the Upgrade. Is it worth it? is it really an upgrade or just adding a few more buttons and filters. Or even a first time user. The $100 was a big step for me.
That being said, i am stuck with Paint Shop Pro, and it seems that ver 8 makes that not such a bad thing. I just downloaded the Final release of PSP8 (85 megs ). Its like learning a whole new app for me. Its been 2 years this time around since JASC released a major version (used to do it every year) because they started from scratch and re-built the program from top to bottom. I spent the first 1/2 hour just customizing the buttons and menus. MOre than ver7, Everything (read: "Everything") can be moved drag and drop explorer style. You can even add and name your own menus and toolbars. Theyve added Automation scripting,record, play,etc (man will that be handy) and looking over the layers, it appears they are more "flexible". I think they even finally "fixed" the drop shadow feature where a shadow now can become its own layer. That was a frustrating limitation in the past. Without talking about every single feature, i just wanted to add one more thing. It installs and runs fine side-by-side with version 7. It was meant to. If I get too bogged down in the ver8 learning curve, I can still open 7.4 and work in familiar "turf". Plus you may want to keep it on long enough to transfer any custom shapes, textures, filters to the new app.
PSP comes pretty loaded, especially for the price. I'm sure PhotoShop has most, if not all and then some of the features. But the new PSP adds a little more power than past versions. Hope I didnt bore anyone to death, but i was excited about my new "toy" and figured anyone who is in the "maybe I will" stage, would like to hear.
Besides, one thing I know for sure that you can do with PaintShop but not PhotoShop, is download a 30-day trial . Should be full featured, just stops working after 30 days.
Ciao