PSP X specific questions - SBB Digital Scrapbooking Forums | Scrapbook-Bytes

ksbalint · #1 (**permalink**) 09-11-2005

OK, I bought PSP X today. I'm still getting used to the new features. I do have a couple of questions that I'm hoping someone can answer:

1) Is it alright to use 8 bits color depth or is the 16 bits (which seems to take up much more space on the computer, preferable?) Which one is closes to the 16 million colors choice that I had in PSP 9?

2) I've tried designing a few elements with PSP X and when I make them into png files it seems like they compress quite a bit, more so than they did in PSP 9. Or am I just imagining things? Has anyone else noticed this? They compressed so much (a 2.65 MB file becomes a 81 kb file, for instance, a 19 MB file became 4 MB) that I thoroughly checked to make sure the pngs were 300 ppi, that they were the same size as the psp files, etc. I thought maybe I had done something wrong. Now, I might add, the png files look fabulous when I call them up.

I might add that I'm happy with PSP X in the little bit I've played with it. I like the browser, and while I thought it would take a while to get used to it, I'm already used to it. I like the layers palette changes, as well.

Tracey R (Haley64) · #2 (**permalink**) 09-11-2005

Hi Kathryn glad to have you on board!! 8 bit is the one we used to know as 16 million colors in PSP9. 16 bit seems to be more for Raw images and their specific needs, whatever they are!! hehe

Wow haven't played with png's and saving them yet, so haven't noticed the size difference you talk about, but you're right that seems like a huge compression rate.
Will be interesting to see what comes from this..
Ok I played and compared PSP9 to PSPX using the exact same size and resolution for a new image, right from the start PSPX with 8 bit was 6.2MB, PSP9 was 5.9MB image
However when created, and one brush stroke was applied they both had the same 5.969MB size in the info field.
Next came save .png both were the same uncompressed size 6,250,124b and all the rest of the setting are the same but PSPX compressed size was 9,290b and PSP9 was 10,942b. but then after clicking ok they both became 9,331bytes!!
Maybe this has something with how PSPX uses the 8 bit forumla instead of the 16 million 24 bit?
Tracey

ksbalint · #3 (**permalink**) 09-11-2005

Ok, thanks, Tracey. I had a feeling you would know about the 16 million colors/8 bit question. Maybe the png thing is just what I'm making (lots of holes in the items). But, still, I was surprised at the compression rate. Let me know what you think once you try it.

Tracey R (Haley64) · #4 (**permalink**) 09-11-2005

Before you mentioned this I never paid attention to how compressed .png's became.
Just figured the program knew and it seems we get very little control over the compression settings like we do with .jpg compression...
In your png Optimizer/transparency tab do you have Alpha Channel transparency checked?
and Existing image or layer transparency?
Just checking to make sure after I fiddled with the settings that I am back to the right choices..LOL

ksbalint · #5 (**permalink**) 09-11-2005

Well, I guess the program does seem to know what it's doing because I think the elements I've been making today have turned out well when I call up the png files. So I won't worry about the compression. I'll try printing them, though, just to make sure they still look good.

Tracey R (Haley64) · #6 (**permalink**) 09-11-2005

Good thing too, one less thing for us to worry about!! hehe
I love the new browser it seems so much more convienant to use, at least for me it is.
So is PSPX behaving for you also?
I did find one bug, reported it to Corel and hopefully they will pay attention to it. I posted it in the newsgroup because it is such a long explaination of what I found...by accident mind you!! but it is dealing with the layers not behaving the way they are suppose to.

ksbalint · #7 (**permalink**) 09-11-2005

Well, the first time I tried to close it down, it just hung there and wouldn't close. I had to do a control-alt-delete to get to the task manager to close it down. I'm still in it now, so I haven't closed it down a second time yet.

One thing that's weird for me to get used to is when using the deform tool in the old one, I would right click to keep the proper ratio or perspective or whatever it is you call it on a photo or element. This one when you right click it deforms the element or photo. It was such a habit to right click that I'm finding myself having to re-do all of my deformations.

I love the layer palette and the new way for linking layers, and the way you can more easily manage the layers now. I have to say I think I like the browser the old way, but the jury is still out on that one.

I like the edit -paste as new layer instead of the edit-paste-paste as new layer that we used to have to do.

I haven't tried fixing or editing any photos yet with it. I've only made elements so far.

I can tell you that I'm keeping it and not going back to PSP 9.