PSP Photo X2: First impression....:( - SBB Digital Scrapbooking Forums | Scrapbook-Bytes

Pesto126 · #1 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

Well.. I just downloaded and installed the new PSP Photo X2 (or XII for those who like the consecutive numbering from good ole PSP).

anyway.. after taking around 10 minutes to load - I booted it up. Well.. the screen looks different with the new charcoal background.. not a bad color choice actually. Played around with some of the new tools.... and then it all went downhill from there.

Opened up a photo.. went to the Photo Effects -> Time Machine filter.. interested effects (auto frame creates too.. not bad).. CRASH. Ouch..

Restart application and it worked this time.. interesting. Then, figured I would explore the new layer styles... well - the way they layed them out on the layers palletes screen leaves a bit to be desired (I always thought PS got this completely right). Not many options but I added a drop shadow and some bevel... preview turned on... CRASH! Ouch again...

Uninstalled, cleaned up temp files and registry entries left behind... no thanks.

If you have PSP 8 or 9.. I'd recommend sticking with it. If you have PSP X or XI, you may comtemplate upgrading once they fix all the bugs...

After playing with it for about an hour.. I'm disappointed (per usual with Corel) that the product that was PSP.. is now so far removed from its core that the Corel name on it is quite fitting.

Sorry for the bad news... perhaps others will play and find they like it - I'd love to hear from you...

Tracey R (Haley64) · #2 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

Pesto, I think I might try this "Graphite workspace"

version out after they get a few of your mentioned kinks out of it.

I have been reading quite a bit in the corel newsgroup about this new version and what all of their findings have been.
Right now the biggest major drawn back for me is the with the new layer styles added to any image and then saved is not able to be opened in any earlier version. Since they don't understand dynamic content. the posters on the newsgroup are figuring a way around this, it involves creating a new layer either above or below the style layer and merging down to turn the style layer with all of it's content into a raster layer. So it will open in older versions, you would have to keep a copy of your unaltered .pspimage incase you want to change it at a later date!
As I have read so far:
X2 doesn't remember last applied in the resize dialog box
Crop now has a rotate option
Some effects and adjustment layers got their sliders back while yet others lost theirs! THANKS COREL!

It is being reported that X2 runs faster and more efficient then X1 did along with the organizational browser not eating up memory so bad.
For anyone interested in downloading and trying it out Suz Shook already has a few of her famous Tips & Tricks up and ready to be read.
http://users.adelphia.net/~suzshook/12tips001020.htm
http://users.adelphia.net/~suzshook/12tips201240.htm

Pesto126 · #3 (**permalink**) 09-09-2007

Hi Haley.. the only thing I truly like... the graphite color!

The rest is typical Corel.. bloated. I tested on a 3.6 with 1GB of ram.. and it was very choppy.. not to mention that it crashed 3 times on my in 10 minutes... Its really disappointing to see how far PSP has fallen... but it certainly works well for those that do not use PS - I'm sure once the bugs are worked out, it will be a good option... just surprised it was released in its current state.. not good!

IluvAyYa · #4 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007

Thanks for your first impressions, Pesto and Tracey. I got the message from Corel that the new version was out, but had already decided I was going to wait for some good reviews before even thinking of getting it. Don't have the time right now to play with a trial version and now I know I'm in no rush to get this one! Keep us updated though! If it gets better I MIGHT reconsider

Tracey R (Haley64) · #5 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007

Ok so I downloaded it!
First I kind of like the graphite look, the dropdown menu items and tool icons really stand out.
I don't know what I either did right or wrong but X2 was loaded and ready to go within minutes for me. I have read that the organizer only starts with My Documents/My Pictures folder and doesn't really look at the sub-folders located in there unless you tell it to. Well thankfully I have very little loose photo images just laying in My Pictures folder, anyway it was done and ready within minutes (3-5).

I don't like that when I had a layer selected in the layers palette that is shows a lighter gray, then the non selected layers and I promptly deleted the wrong layer

because to me the selected layer should be the darker gray...not the light gray, but this is something I guess you could get used to.

Next after trying to figure out where I could find the style layers at I had to use the HELP menu and located them in the layers properties box. There is a special tab in there to select "Layers Styles" Wow it sure doesn't ship with many preset styles does it? But I see we can create and save our own also.
Next X2 seems to hang A LOT between selecting different settings for me. Like changing from one style layer option to another. While using the paint brush and trying to click on the "Continious stroke" box it was like seriously confused and instead of retaining the graphite color bar at the top of the workspace it turned it to my default windows color (green) and then showed that blank little white icon in the top left corner instead of the PSPX2 icon.
I am not sure if I like the new look of the dialog windows either. They basically just moved the preview on image ability to the top of the dialog window and moved the setting, preset dropdown list down to the middle of the window....why move anything around?

It didn't crash once for me but it sure took a long time (5-10 seconds) when I tried to change any of the settings for tools or in the effects menu's.
On the other hand I thought the dialog boxes and menu's opened faster then PSPX.
I think this could be a ok program in time if and when corel fixes some of the issues that they shipped with it!

Next thing to play with will be to see how all my older resources are accepted by X2.

trjjmom · #6 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haley64

Pesto, I think I might try this "Graphite workspace"

version out after they get a few of your mentioned kinks out of it.

I have been reading quite a bit in the corel newsgroup about this new version and what all of their findings have been.
Right now the biggest major drawn back for me is the with the new layer styles added to any image and then saved is not able to be opened in any earlier version. Since they don't understand dynamic content. the posters on the newsgroup are figuring a way around this, it involves creating a new layer either above or below the style layer and merging down to turn the style layer with all of it's content into a raster layer. So it will open in older versions, you would have to keep a copy of your unaltered .pspimage incase you want to change it at a later date!
As I have read so far:
X2 doesn't remember last applied in the resize dialog box
Crop now has a rotate option
Some effects and adjustment layers got their sliders back while yet others lost theirs! THANKS COREL!

It is being reported that X2 runs faster and more efficient then X1 did along with the organizational browser not eating up memory so bad.
For anyone interested in downloading and trying it out Suz Shook already has a few of her famous Tips & Tricks up and ready to be read.
http://users.adelphia.net/~suzshook/12tips001020.htm
http://users.adelphia.net/~suzshook/12tips201220.htm

Thanks for the links to Suz's tips unfortunately, I couldn't get the 2nd link to work.

Tracey R (Haley64) · #7 (**permalink**) 09-11-2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by trjjmom

Thanks for the links to Suz's tips unfortunately, I couldn't get the 2nd link to work.

You're welcome and I am sorry it seems that I posted the same link twice. I have corrected the links now in my previous post, if you click on next page it does take you to the second page (which was the second link).

Tracey R (Haley64) · #8 (**permalink**) 09-11-2007

I kind of like this new version! ROFL

I did suceed in crashing it once while playing in the newer Express Lab. I got a microsoft runtime ++ error...whatever that means to anyone!

I have my tool bars and palette all adjusted to my liking. All my older reasources are working surprizingly well.
I am really glad that all the brushes I created were at 300ppi so now that I can use them at 1000x1000 pixel size they are not pixelated.

Ok enough rambling...off to finish reading the forums!