Adobe rocks (get it? ;-) )

[Erik Heyninck]

Although I can't say anything on Adobe except the fact that their products (Photoshop, Illustrator) are often used by so-called "pro's" to cut off your head or to tell you to go and play with the kids that use other apps, I know that I can "translate" most of the Photoshop tuts to Photopaint, and even to Xara if I take the layers into account.
So there IS a great site and forum on

www.gurus.onlinedesignschool.com

His Transparency Mark, theKeeper, is the Guru's name and he visits regularly this Forum too.
If I can ever afford Photoshop, I'll probably buy it, despite the fact it is from Adobe, but because of Mark's creative approach.

Another interesting view tool is Irfanview

www.irfanview.com


I intend to ask its architect, Irfan Skiljan, to try and include xara files. It's a small and totally free viewer etc.

[This message was edited by Erik Heyninck on January 25, 2001 at 05:06 AM.]

[mike engles]

Hello

You can add plugins from the prefs tabs.
You can add from several different folders and they are instantly live. Some plugins will not work, because they expect Photoshop type layers, rather than PP objects.

PP has never managed to bridge that gap between layers and object behaviour.
Micrografx was a very big Windows graphics company, before Adobe ported its products to Windows. It now does not really have the resources,to compete.

I have used PP from version 3 to version 8 and was a beta tester for version 8.

Mike Engles

[Klaus Nordby]

I, too, have used PP from version 3 to version 8, though I now prefer version 6. It's VERY fast on a lot of basic bread-and-butter image stuff, and starts up in no time (unlike PS 6). So I warmly recommend PictPub.


K

[dk_art]

Dang ... I didn't put my user name in and the next screen said to go back and fill it in and my long-winded post was lost in cyberspace .... :-(

Ok .... yeah I tried Canvas7 but I thought the straight forward easy to use and (for the most part) palette-less interface of XaraX was much better. Canvas7 does vector and pixel work all in one but it lacked some things (like many of the fill and transparency effects) that XaraX has. I also found it cumbersome to use. Also , having a 15 day trial time is a pathetic marketing strategy as it's just not long enough to try out the whole thing or get used to it.

David K
www.dkingdesign.com

[jens g.r. benthien]

Following the thread, I saw someone mentioning PhotoLine. As of today they just released version 7.12, which has improved scaling capabilities (btw, it was me who discovered a but in the scaling algorithm that messes up the colors :-) ).

I can't stand it any longer, and I really don't want to read again the words: I can't afford PhotoShop or Illustrator. Though I know from my own experience, a designer is far away from being a well paid specialist, but if you have a good client and a good project, a software with a price tag around US$ 5.000 will pay off fast. But if you think by now that I invested that much in a CAD application, you are totally wrong, because I prefer to test applications BEFORE I'm going to use them. And believe me, there are several great apps from small software engineering companies for 2D and 3D on the market that are far better than the so called 'industry leader'.

So if you want the features of PhotoShop - including the plug-ins and the plug-in compatibility - but with a much smaller footprint on your hard drive, more stability, more speed, less RAM demanding, you really should go for PhotoLine 32. It costs a fraction of PhotoShop (US$ 69, download a 30 day trial at http://www.pl32.com), and the developers give you an unparalleled PERSONAL support - something Adobe definitely can't match, because Adobe hired some nobrainers, trained them and calls them 'tech support', whereas the Photoline support is the development team itself - see the difference? You can compare them with the XARA team - they react so incredibly fast - it's hard to believe. In most cases you'll get an answer the very same day, but at least the next day.

This is the difference I am looking for: results, like our clients are looking for results.

And if you should happen to have PhotoPaint 7 from Corel installed, well, to be honest, that's the only pixel app I'm running because I still have plenty of old version 7 *.cpl PhotoPaint files in my archives.

It's not a matter of 'face' like the Asians say, or image or knowledge, it's a matter of brain, character and mentality what you use to reach your goals.

Enjoy XARA X and PhotoLine 32! And spend the rest of your funds for a great dinner with your family - makes more sense than to shovel it into the pockets of arrogant companies.

ciao,
jens

[Stewart]

If we're talking ass kicking cheap but wonderfully useable, take a look at serif.com.

Most of the Srif products were originally aimed at the home user but even so they have come a long way and beat many products hands down. PagePlus7 is one I just bought which is the Serif answer to Pagemaker, and it's great. As an full blown product offered to registered users it cost £19.95; cheap as peanuts and good enough for almost anybody who cares to learn the easy and intuitive interface. They also do an app called 3Dplus2, which is their version of Xara 3d4. For anybody who uses Xara3d, the Serif product beats it hands down in every department but one, and thats speed, nothing beats XARA for speed, but it costs the same and has much more to it 'and' you can import almost any bitmap to use as a background to the 3d text and animate it.

I still prefer 3d4, but only for the speed and ease of knocking together a quick graphic.

I used Micrografix PP from version 1LE, but dumped it for Photoshop.

[qmr]

good points Jens, couldnt have put it better meself. But I'll try nonetheless..

The early Photoline32 I downloaded showed such promise but it timed out unlike the paintshop pro 4.12 demo, so I didnt take it further <font size="1">(alright I'm cheap)</font> but photoline's feature set is outstanding even for CMYK lovers and at $60 it's a steal, and the developer (one guy) takes note of users requests and builds them into updates if possible.

It could become like xara perhaps.. Xara began as a web forum phenomenon with zilch marketing muscle and now in X-guise it beats the crap out of 'industry standards apps' whatever they are.. Mac$$Illustrater??.. Mac$$Freudhand?? gimme a break..

The only standard my own industry right here recognises is:

1. what I want to draw,
2. how whizzy it must look
3. and how quick I can get it done.

"Wot? You've not got Xara? Oh.. It shows in your work on that G4 screen.. Tsk.. HaHaHa.. "

I bought Photoshop sure, but if you've got better things to spend your inheritance on (like a new suit to get a real job) take Jens' advice. He writes the longest posts here, so sure he knows what he's talking about.

..and as far as Photoline goes, see Tucows. Five cows cant be all wrong.. Support the little guys. Get back to work. Ok.

Q.

http://www.Qdesign.co.nz