Portrait Artist Forum - Which software to use?

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Though I'm sure there is more extensive support for Photoshop, there is plenty for Paint Shop Pro also.

Here are two newsgroups:
comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro
alt.binaries.paint-shop-pro

Here's an online PSP Users Group:
http://www.pspug.org/

Here's where the Users Group lists their Forums:
http://www.pspug.org/forum/forum.shtml

Here's a link to Amazon's PSP 7.0 Anniversary Editon for $36.99 with rebates: Paint Shop Pro Anniversary Edition

If you do a search in your favorite search engine on Paint Shop Pro Tutorial and Paint Shop Pro Forum, you'll find many online resources.

After you get your program, go to the Jasc web site and download the update patches: http://www.jasc.com/patches.asp

One thing you'll love about PSP is the image browser. Following is a screen shot of it. On the left are your folders and on the right are the images in your folder. If you hold the mouse over an image, the information about it pops up without opening the image (see the gray box on right).

One of the things you'll want to do is customize your standard toolbar. Go to View | Toolbars. Highlight Standard Toolbar and click Customize. In the screen shot below, I've shown the icon for the Browser which is one of the first things you'll want to add. Other things will take time to understand and you can add them to the Standard Toolbar after gaining more familiarity.

I just installed Photoshop 7 myself and this is my first upgrade since Photoshop 4. I've used it a few times and it appears to be much improved. Photoshop has taken time to add in web features that PSP had long ago. For example, all web colors need to be expressed in hexadecimal format. PSP had the ability to convert RGB to hex long before Photoshop. 7.0 does have this ability. But, one of my PSP favorites is still not in Photoshop: mouse over any image and the height and width in pixels shows in the status bar.

Quote:

Does anybody understand why I could not print from Micrografx Picture publisher (what I have) to my old Epson 740? (It then says 'you have selected a non-postscript printer along with a print style that specifies halftones and black generation settings." My computer keeps on saying this, if I go to the RGB mode or the CYMK mode. Anybody up for this one?

Hummm, this is interesting since it is only picture publishing software, but let me take a guess. (I use a Macintosh, so this is based on that.)

The Epson 740 is an ink jet printer (I have one and an 1160 too) and cannot print any postscript documents, as postscript, but you should be able to go into the page settings or printer description in your desktop printmonitor and change it to grey scale and print.

The easiest way to explain this is that ink jet technologies use the "True Fonts" that are supplied with most computers. They are created in a different language which let them appear to be smooth on an Ink Jet.

Postscript is designed to be used only on a laser type printer, or a mapping printer at commerical printers. It uses a font that is like the old days of typesetting. To get your inkjet to accept Postscript you would need to purchase a "postscript ripping" software that translates your files. These can be incredibly expensive.

I did find one called "StyleScript" (see below). I know I have discussed this before. I am not sure they are still producing it but you could find a copy on E-bay. It is only around $100.00 new and makes things very slow but the output is lovely.

Contact Epson or get out that manual for the printer and software. You shouldn't be having this problem. It has nothing to do with CMYK or RGB.

I just had a thought. Make sure you have the right printer loaded in your profile. If you could tell me what type of computer you are working with I can help you through this if it is a Mac. I am sure there is someone who could help you with Windows too. The print setup lets you choose a "Postscript" printer (default on Macs) or a USB printer, so maybe we could tell by your connections!

From two older posts:

Quote:

Andrea, sorry I am jumping in late, I didn't know if you still needed help. I am quoting a response I posted under Digital Cameras below. I thought it fit your question well.

I have found the Epson papers to be great. I think they are all pretty good now, but you get what you pay for. The laser printer vs. ink jet...

I am not sure about the printer Linda was talking about. Sounds great but I thought Epson only made inkjets (could be wrong). These are fine, I guess, if you want to print a photo but the minute you want to print anything with graphic elements and text you need a Laser or something like the rip software I have mentioned below.

The reason being that a laser reads what is called Postscript, which is a very smooth graphic language. You'll see photographs or illustrator files titled EPS (encapsulated postscript) and you can buy tons of postscript fonts that are used in commercial print production. Inkjet printers will use a knock off version called a True Font or something that may come with Microsoft, etc.

These are not as smooth as Postscript. Today's inkjets are much better with character generation, so maybe the new Epsons are fine. Color lasers are very expensive. The ripping software for inkjets can range from $100.00 to $500.00 (a pre-press house would use the expensive one).

Older post:

Quote: Regarding printers: I was going to link you to the greatest software for color inkjet printers, but just saw they no longer support it. If you have an Epson or other more commercial type printer (mine is an 1140) try to locate a copy of "StyleScript".

This is a knock-off of Postscript ripping software for printers. You cannot tell the difference between a color laser and an inkjet with this software. Images look wonderful, color is good, not print proof acceptable but comp-wise it is great. The only drawback is it really slows down the process.

Remember when printing, regarding paper choices, most people do not realize they must go in and select the paper they are using based on the print quality and color matching selected.

There are a number of choices: plain, photo, matte, glossy, card, etc. If you run a nice glossy photo paper with it set to plain, you are not going to get as good resolution.

Good luck!

Wow, you are all so very helpful. Thanks! :thumbsup:

I will read your ideas a couple of times more. There's so much info there.

By the way, I have no digital camera. I just scan my stuff. I think I will wait and see what Micrografx Picture publisher does with the new printer (2100) and then decide if I should get PSP. It sounds that's the best deal.

My old Epson is broken down, so I won't try and get any Postscript fixes for it. But it is good to know that I "shouldn't have these problems". I'll see what happens with the newby printer.

Thanks again, this is a great forum!

Sophie

Jumping in late to this one, I've used Photoshop Elements and just upgraded to Elements 2 since I also switched to Jaguar on my Mac. Elements is $99 and has most of the features of the more expensive versions of Photoshop, especially if you pick up one of the how-to books with CDs, like Lynch's Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2. This has extra plugins to accomplish more esoteric operations.

It sounds from some of the comments here as though Cynthia's favorite program isn't available for the Mac, so it wouldn't be an option for me in any case. Elements is very intuitive and has lots of helper features to walk you through procedures as you're doing them; I think it's more user-friendly than the more expensive versions.

Leslie, if you could only teach me how to get my color right for RGB now in Photoshop! I tried to load the software that Morgan was talking about in the Digital Cameras, and went to the Fred Miranda 's site (which is excellent, by the way. But the software to create the linear images will not load for me. His actions plug-in opens fine, but the converting ones do not.

This is frustrating!

Beth, I just started a thread on color accuracy here http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...5&goto=newpost so I'm not the person to ask. This whole color thing is definitely frustrating. And none of us wants to become a Photoshop expert - we just want to be able to take decent shots of our work or put up accurate scans! My heartfelt sympathies. Let me know if you figure it out and I'll let you know if I do.

Leslie, you definitely want to become a Photoshop expert! :)

I know this is an old topic, but it is new to me as I am reading it for the first time. I use both Photoshop and PSP, but for different reasons. Although Photoshop is by FAR the better program (thus the higher cost), PSP has one feature (that makes it worth the cost of having both) that Photoshop doesn't have and that is the ability to capture. You can capture an image, area, window, object, etc., with much greater clarity and resolution than a typical Window's "Print Screen" function. Of course, you may not need this functionality, but if you do, catch the images you need in PSP and then edit them with Photoshop. I write manuals, online help, etc., for a software company, so I use this feature often. Now that I think about it, I don't use it that often for my art, but it's nice to have when I need it...

There are other things that are wonderful about PSP. If you hover your mouse over the image, the size displays in the bottom status bar. I use that all the time. Photoshop doesn't have it. Also, to select a layer in PSP, all you have to do is click on it. If you want to delete it, just hit the delete key on your keyboard. All very convenient features. Photoshop makes changing from one layer to another more difficult.