Translating PS into PSP/PSE

[kaulike]

Like many of my fellow amateurs, I am unable to afford the full Photoshop, so I'm making do with PS Elements (came with scanner) and Paint Shop Pro.

I am blown away by Paint Shop Pro and can't really see a reason to buy Photoshop even if I could afford it. But Katrin Eismann's book, and just about every other one out there, is written for PS.

I mostly translate by feeling around, but I think it wouldn't be too tough to create some kind of a translation algorithm---a set of steps to follow to translate various things from Photoshop-ese into Jascian (PSP) or Elemental (ha ha). Anyone else working on this conundrum?

Kaulike

[Ed_L]

Hi Kaulike,

Having started out with Picture Publisher with no manual, I know very well what you're talking about. When I started, there was only one site that I could find that dealt with PP, and I had a real hard time. Although I don't know of anything like you are suggesting, I'm sure there would be a tremendous call for something like that. Heck, write a book, and make a small fortune.

Ed

[kaulike]

-->Heck, write a book, and make a small fortune.<--

I'm a technical writer, I have thought about it...

[Sandman]

I have to say that for the price I've been very impressed by PSP. I've been lucky enough to try Fireworks and Photoshop too, but at the moment they're a little too rich for me to buy

[Doug Nelson]

I showed this thread to one of the support people over at JASC (Paintshop Pro) to see if they'd be interested in helping out.

They weren't.

Evidently it's a very common request, but impossible to do in practice, since the underlying paradigms are so different.

My own advice is to not simply learn what to do, but why and how it works. Then you're prepared for any software you might come across.

[kaulike]

You must have showed it to Kris Z, he answers this kind of thing frequently on the newsgroup (news:comp.graphics.paint-shop-pro). He is highly responsive to customers, though, and is not above a regular chat nor a petty scoff now and then. I really like his informal style.

I'm not surprised with Jasc's disinterest, after all they are single-minded about their product, as they should be. For example, I wouldn't think that Canon would be interested in a book about how to operate their scanners/printers/whatever by comparison to similar Epson models, since that would be admitting that Epson had market share.

I disagree, however, that the paradigms are all that different. Many tools are identical between the two programs. The concept of brushes for each tool is also identical.

As far as ME writing a book... not this year. Too much research, as I would have to cover all of the stuff on which the dummies books spend so much time, and, of course, I'd need a copy of Photoshop. Maybe next year.

[Doug Nelson]

Yes, it was Kris, and I too like his style.

But the statement of impossibility was his (ok, he didn't say "paradigm", I paraphrased his more lengthy and well-considered reply down into one sentence).

[Astris]

Kaulike you have asked the question that I have often thought about. I can't justify the investment in Photoshop, and I use PSP. Although there are tons of support on the internet, there are very few books written about PSP. I have wondered if you could follow the instructions in Katrin Eismann's book and adapt them to PSP? I primarly use PSP with my digital camera and digital files.

I have also posted at the PSP newsgroup and have found Kris Z to be helpful. Although I have to admitt often over my head.

I'm am the type that works best with a book or manaual.

[kaulike]

Astris,

Thanks for the reply.

I have found Katrin Eismann's book to be very portable to Paint Shop Pro, with a few exceptions. For example, PSP does not split color channels in quite the same way, and there is no tool like the color spotter that you can use to grab the CMYK percentages of a given pixel as they change. Also, what Photoshop calls "levels" is very similar to the histogram adjustment in PSP, but not quite the same. PSP has no "LAB" color, but it does have "HSV", which can be used in a similar way. Curves are very similar between the two programs. At least, this is what I have noticed from reading her descriptions---I can't afford to purchase Photoshop at this point.

PS Elements is in a similar quandry. It has many of the things that "real" Photoshop has, but it is missing a few that I would consider elemental---LAB color, for example, and curves are both missing, and if there is a color spotter I can't find it. It is also a horrid memory hog---it runs faster on small files, but on large files that PSP is able to manage well, Elements eventually starts thrashing back and forth to disk and the entire system crawls. I don't use it much any more except for very quick fixes.

However, what is truly portable are the concepts. I don't have my copy at hand, but I do remember that her descriptions of maintaining and re-creating film grain were spot on (no pun intended) and worked nearly as written in PSP, since the tools used exist in both programs. Several other descriptions were the same way. I didn't find translating between the two to be all that difficult.

The main message I would want to get out is that the tools may be orthogonal, but the retouching skills described in the book are not. It is very definitely worth the $25 to own it.

Best of luck

[Astris]

Thanks Kauliike,

It sounds like a worthwhile investment. I have looked through some other PS books and felt they could be applied to PSP. I guess once you identify the differences in the programs you can then apply the concept.

Astris

[Sharon Brunson]

When I was using PhotoPaint primarily but having to communicate with an uncle who used Photoshop, I downloaded the free trial of PS and tried to do the things I did in PhotoPaint. It does help use the actual program to make the translation to whatever image program you are using.

[Astris]

Sharon that sounds like a good idea. I appreciate your input.

Thankyou,
Bud