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Corel Paint Shop Pro Versus Adobe Photoshop


smithxi

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Photoshop

pros: better 16-bit editing, accurate color management, lots of tutorials available, your wallet won't weigh u down any more.

PSP

pros: cheap, fairly easy to learn, can use most PS plugins

The choice depends on what you use the program for. The average home user would probably feel more comfortable with PSP. But for professional color correction, RAW file handling etc, I think PS wins.

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Photoshop, hands down, all-around (features, interface, new superior/useful/innovative tools, better for layers & channels, etc - all of it!) And no, it's not that expensive, upgrade version (from ANY old version you may have/get your hands on for dirt cheap -- I had an old version bundled with a digital camera personally) is 150$, and it's definitely worth every penny. Worst case scenario, you can likely find a 2nd hand copy of CS (not CS2) for dirt cheap too, and it's still a very good tool. Very good integration with other Adobe apps too (illustrator, premiere, etc).

Paint Shop Pro is not much cheaper (the upgrade is though, if you've got some old version of it). And I wouldn't say it's easier to learn. I find the interface TOTALLY backwards to start with (and since Photoshop's the standard out there, you'll likely find more resources for it too). Too many bars getting in the way all around the screen too (even on a dual monitor setup screen estate is valuable) It may have RAW support, but it's nowhere near Camera Raw, and it doesn't support my DSLR either (PS has for pretty much forever like pretty much every other RAW tool). I'd rather use several other apps before it, including Photoshop Elements.

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the transition is so weird. I don't know how to do anything in photoshop. It's driving me nuts. I'll have to relearn it.

Actually, I would say the inverse. The menus haven't changed too much. The tool palettes and such are more or less the same too (with a few extras). Same MDI window setup (swatches, layers, channels, etc). It's consistant user interface is actually one of its strong points I would say. No single version upgrade made me feel like too much had changed at once.

AutoCAD though... Peeked at the last version, and it's changed dramatically since the days I was using it intensively. Even basic commands don't work anymore (like l [space] to draw a line, from anywhere, then try to type say 20<45 for a line 20 units long @ 45 degrees - nope! it writes stuff on dims instead and errors out and stuff - absolutely RADICAL changes!) Menus changed entirely. All kinds of stuff's changed dramatically. Back in the v12 era, I could have teached this thing, I knew it inside out (even knew like all the dim vars by heart and wrote some autolisp and such), and now I've got a hard time drawing simple 2D lines with it... Lots of awesome and overly useful new stuff, but the changes... Never had such problems with PS (basic stuff like opening a file, using the basic drawing tools, applying filters, printing, saving and such has hardly changed at all since at least v2.5)

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Well many older (60+) people I've shown both programs to say they prefer paint shop. They say it's more intuitive. And now PSP has 16-bit support, there's really not that much u can do in photoshop that can't be done in it.

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Well many older (60+) people I've shown both programs to say they prefer paint shop. They say it's more intuitive. And now PSP has 16-bit support, there's really not that much u can do in photoshop that can't be done in it.

Showing a very complex app to old folks hardly means anything (I doubt your "test group" was statistically relevant either). Sounds like "old folks prefer PSP". I find these folks are often better served with simpler apps, like Photoshop Elements. Something with easy guides to do common tasks. Showing powerful and complex software to a bunch of older not very computer literate guys is not the way to get your program be appreciated for its powerful and advanced features. Either ways, it doesn't make the app technically better (just arguably harder/easier to use in someone's opinion)

And yes, it can probably do 90% of what photoshop does 90% as good, but that last bit matters very much to a lot of folks (me included) - the old 80/20 rule. Just like OpenOffice is good enough for most basic users, but for a lot of people it's just not cutting it.

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I thought PSP is more in the class of PSE than full fledged PS CS. So it's only meaningful to compare PSP with PSE.

Paint Shop Pro is not much cheaper (the upgrade is though, if you've got some old version of it).

PSP Photo XI on the official website is US$99.99, not much cheaper than PS?

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I thought PSP is more in the class of PSE than full fledged PS CS. So it's only meaningful to compare PSP with PSE.

That sums the whole discussion up pretty good.

PSP Photo XI on the official website is US$99.99, not much cheaper than PS?

PS CS2 upgrade (from any old version like I've said before) is 150$ - and it's TOTALLY worth the extra 50$ IMO. Yes, the full retail thing is bloody expensive, but why bother when the upgrade's cheap?

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I use Photoshop CS and I've found nothing even comes close. Maybe because I've used it for so long, but I did give The GIMP and Paint Shop Pro a go, I really did... But the results are no where near as good.

I've also found that there are so many exclellent tutorials for photoshop, that even a complete novice can have awesome work coming together in a short time.

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