Corel PSP X

**BobShrader** · 07 September 2005, 02:57 PM

I received my upgrade to version 10 from Corel yesterday. It's the first version since Corel purchased Paint Shop Pro from JASC. Here are a few observations based on playing with it a little:

1. Corel appears to have lifted another idea from Xara, even though they sold that vector drawing software (much better than their own Corel Draw) back to the original owner. They used "X" in the new version rather than "10" like Xara X.

2. The manual has slimmed down tremendously with only 100 pages of instructions and no mention of a lot of features, including masks. I haven't looked to see if there's additional documentation on the CD.

3. Based on the manual and the new look of the program, it appears Corel is going after the digital camera niche with this version.

4. Unlike the previous CD upgrades supplied by JASC, installation now requires a serial number and detection of a previous version of PSP on your computer. Installation leaves the old version installed. I don't know what happens when you uninstall the old version and eventually have to do a reinstall of "X", so hang on to your CD with the old version.

5. PSP X appears to be faster than PSP 9, at least in opening.

10. The default workspace is much different. A Learning Center targeted to photography is on the left. The browser is now at the bottom of the screen with a default of tiny thumbnails. All icons have a new look as do the Palletes, which appear on the right of the screen.

11. Installation recognized location of "My PSP Files", but PSP X would not allow me to open previously saved Workspaces. I had to recreate each of those manually. And saving Workspaces did not save the open Browser location in use at the time, which is a pain.

12. The new Object Remover tool appears to be an asset. I'm still playing with that.

Bob

**BobShrader** · 09 September 2005, 03:31 AM

Here are a few more observations after working with Corel PSP X for a couple of days.

1. Flaw -- PSP X files cannot be opened with PSP 9. No mention is made of that in the so-called manual that comes with the software.

2. Improvement -- In Save and Save As dialog boxes, the Save As Type options pop up with JPG at the top, rather than having to scroll to find JPG as in PSP 9. That's much more practical and saves time when trying to save in JPG. Thanks for that change.

3. Improvement -- The Makeover Tool is a great addition. The blemish removal and teeth whitening options work very quickly making these corrections.

4. Improvement -- I also like the Object Remover Tool. With it you use a lasso to freehand draw around a section of the image to be replaced. Then you select a resizable rectangle and position it over an area to be used as the replacement. It seems to work better when the replacement area is at least as large as the area to be eliminated. This method is much better than using the Clone Tool for removing an object from an image.

5. Flaw -- the shadow of the Clone Tool remains on the screen after that tools is deselected, and it remains there until you scroll that area off the screen or minimize, then maximize for a screen refresh.

6. Flaw -- Running a script containing the resize command and several other operations, the script dialog box appears as gray and does not refresh until that phase is completed and operation moves to the next phase of the script.

7. Flaw -- In working with some large files, I found that my plug-ins became inoperable -- listed but grayed out on the plug-in menu dropdown. In some cases, shutting down PSP X and restarting allowed plug-in operation to begin again. In one case, however, the computer had to be rebooted for the plug-ins to become available again. No such problem in PSP 9.

8. Flaw -- After working with large files for an hour or so, shutdown of PSP X was extremely slow, almost appearing to hang with no apparent hard drive activity. But each time I used CTRL-ALT-Del, it brought up the PSP shutdown question about whether or not I wanted to clear the memory as PSP closed. Then it shutdown normally.

9. Flaw -- Manual: garbage! Many powerful features of PSP undocumented or unexplained fully.

Windows XP on a PC using an AMD 2G processor with 2GB RAM.

**RAMWolff44** · 10 September 2005, 05:15 PM

I downloaded the trial last night (thank god for DSL, 20 minutes for 104 Megabytes

) and I love the new icons. I agree, it won't load older workspaces and I prefer my layers and other useful tool to be on the bottom, not on the side of the workspace. I can't get it to dock on the bottom!!

It's got that "Corel" feel, for sure but it respondes quickly and that's good!!

Oh, one other thing is that ever since I installed this app I have "Buffer Overrun" messages that pop up ever once in a while and it's continuous. I close one message and another opens!

Will play with it some more tonight or tomorrow.

All the best

**RAMWolff44** · 10 September 2005, 05:37 PM

Ooooooooo, refresh rate on the workspace is BAD!! I've got plenty of RAM and a very good video card with even more DDR RAM (I work with 3D) and I just created a quick shape and it's like delayed as you drag the object around the screen. A BIG turn off for me!!

**sallybode** · 10 September 2005, 11:49 PM

The interface looks more modern, the changes in the tools do are not significant to warrant an upgrade.

It still paints the same--the trial that is.

Did this in about 20 minutes. The paint/trace function is why I bought 9, and it is no different that I can see.

The refining tool for photography is easy to use, but if you know how to do photo retouch, it isn't all that extra.

The addition of thumbnails is nice.

I was rather hoping that Corel would include some of the things from PhotoPaint or bring in CYMK support and build PSP up to be a real competitor against Photoshop. Well, perhaps they are going to use some strong points of PSP to upgrade PhotoPaint instead.

I am going to forego this upgrade for now.

**arry otter** · 12 September 2005, 03:39 PM

Think i'll stick with PSP 9. pity there's no Animation Shop in new version.

**sallybode** · 12 September 2005, 08:30 PM

I suppose they are marketing that separately?

**RAMWolff44** · 12 September 2005, 09:09 PM

I think they split everything out!! I don't see any sort of extra stuff like the Animation Shop in this version. It's being sold seperately for $39.00!!

**georgetroy** · 14 September 2005, 03:17 AM

I like the pencl effect a lot. This program seems to do it with less pain, than others. It's easy to work with, more so than Photoshop or PhotoImpact for me. I also like and use Acyrlic, then what in the heck do I know. GT