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Paint Shop Pro


friscolives
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I have used PSP to develop clothing on IMVU and as far as I can tell, you can do everything with it that you can do with photoshop. The latter might just have a few more fancy things to it, but that hasn't impacted me at all.

Now that I am a creator in SL I have deviated from clothes and make skyboxes and textures.

What has been a bit of an issue in the past is, that if you get any templates sent to you as .psp files, you might not be able to open it in photoshop if there's a layer in there that PSP doesn't support.

But if you make your own stuff from scratch, then you're good to go with PSP. It has a lower learning curve imho than Photoshop and there's tutorials all over the place including on youtube.

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One of the graphic gurus might need to weigh in on this, but I would think that if you are able to save layers with an alpha channel into .tga or .png formats through .psp you should be fine. I think you should also be able to use Adode Elements as well, but have not used it for years.   I don't know what tools are availabe in PSP or how easy it is to learn or how costly it is. 

Many many people use GIMP because it is FREE. There are some basic clothing classes using GIMP at Builders Brewery.  And, there are tutorials on the web and youtube if you google them. 

I am a Photoshop user and have learned to use it since I have been in SL.  Oftentimes, I have translated GIMP steps into steps for Photoshop.  You might be able to do this as well for PSP, but honestly,  I think most people use GIMP or Photoshop.

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Paintshop Pro is a fine piece of software, if you can't afford Photoshop, and if you don't care for GIMP.   It's not as powerful as the other two, but it's still very good.  I consider it a pro-sumer level, rather than professional level, tool.  If you're mainly a hobbyist, it's a good buy.  If you plan on doing graphics work professionally, however, it is not a viable substitute for Photoshop, and you'd be far better off investing in the real thing.

One notable drawback PSP has always had is its lack of a channels palette.  This makes working with alpha channels (and channels in general) a bit less convenient than it should be.  You can still access them, but you have to do it in kind of a round-about way.  Again, if you're just a hobbyist who isn't going to be doing graphics work all day long, the amount of extra time per image that this costs you might not matter very much.  However, if you're a professional, it's a deal-breaker, and you're going to want Photoshop.

It's worth noting that Corel has done some goofy things with the UI in the last few versions.  They've split it into three workspaces, seemingly in an attempt to make the product more appealing to amatuers.  Here's some quick info on each.

  • The Manage workspace is a file browser, loosely modeled after Adobe Bridge, but nowhere near as powerful.  You may or may not find it useful.
  • The Adjust workspace is the sort of "let the program do the work for you" automated BS that I absolutely despise.  Do yourself a favor, and don't ever touch it.  It's meant for total amateur photographers to spend two minutes with, and then say, "Look, Honey, I'm editing!"  You won't find it to be useful for texturing at all.
  • The Edit workspace is the traditional Photoshop-like layout that the program has had for many years.  This is where you can access the full suite of creation and editing tools.  While you're doing texturing work, you'll want to be in the Edit workspace at all times.

The overall setup and work flow (in the Edit workspace) is very similar to those of Photoshop.  You'll find that most Photoshop tutorials will translate to PSP, quite easily, once you've learned PSP's basics.  In some cases (like the aforementioned issue with channels), the differences are significant enough that you'll need a deeper understanding of both programs before you'll be able to do the translation.  But usually, it's pretty straight forward.

On the whole, I like PSP, and I actively recommend it to those who can't or won't spend the money on Photoshop, and who find GIMP not to be to their liking.  If you're interested in it, and you've got $80 burning a hole in your pocket, go for it.

 

While we're on the subject of alternative image editing programs, you might also want to check out Paint.Net.  It's free, and it's pretty good.

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