Motivation: Get the most out of Paint Shop Pro and its tools
Software: Paint Shop Pro 8
 

One of the most improved interfaces over the past 2-3 versions has been the dialog controls in Paint Shop Pro. The latest version 8 has reorganized, standardized and added some new flair to one of the best previewing tool for digital darkroom editing. Lets face it more of the tools in graphics editing are not like the crop pen or brush point-of-contact tools but a more like the color adjustment or special effects which act over the whole image. These type of whole image edits have 3 characteristics: 1)complex, many factors to control; 2)wide range of settings for each adjusting factor or setting; 3)need to preview before and after results on a small scale before commiting. What Jasc has done is to make these edit dialogs standardized plus easier and faster to do. In our example shown above, we want to apply the Effects | Artistic | Chrome to an image. There are four settings or factors the Chrome dialog allows users to control in

order to determine the Chrome tool's resulting output: 1)Flaws, 2)Brightness; 3)Use original color and 4)Color. But before looking at these controls lets consider the standard fixtures or control settings available in the Chrome tool and about 100 other Effects, Adjust, Layers, and Select commands and associated dialogs.

In the top row, there are four standard control settings. The Presets dropdown allows a user to recall some saved Preset setting and use that as the starting control settings instead of the "last used" or "factory default" settings. Note the default for all dialogs is to use the "last used" settings. This is a real time saver because once you get a setting on users can count on it bing available the next time even if it was not saved as a Preset. However, for frequently used controls like the Manual Color Corrrection dialog relying on "last used" is a bit perilous. In that case, I have four presets - HazeRemover, UnderExposed, TooCool, and TooWarm. I use the Preset pulldown to immediately switch to the close if not exact settings.

Note the naming - they are memorable and suggest the correction to be applied. For the Chrome tool I have two presets - SilverEdgy and SilkyColor. The next control, the small floppy disk icon when clicked allows a user to save a new Preset including writing over an existing one. The trash icon when clicked allows for the deletion, after user confirmation, of a an existing Preset. Finally, the Hooked arrow icon resets the dialog to default settings - a quick way to start from scratch again.

Previewing Controls

The next line or group of setting controls determine how the results of the dialog or command can be previewed. This is one of the real strengths of PaintShopPro that give it an advantage over powerhouse Adobe Photoshop. First, the default is to show before and after thumbnails. The first two controls, they look like minus and plus magnifying glass, either widen or magnify the detail shown in the thumbnail. One can change the thumbnail view by just dragging on the left of before image and dragging on it. The cursor changes to a hand indicating the thumbnail can be moved. Alternately the third icon, the

crosshairs icon causes a popup window to appear which then allows the user to navigate or move the preview thumbnail exactly where on the image that the user wants to see a preview of the effect applied - this is very useful in an era of ever larger mexapixel images. The next icon is a show/hide toggle which controls whether a before and after preview will be shown. When the icon is pressed in, the before and after preview is switched on. When the icon is out, the before and after thumbnail views are removed as shown in the screen shot below. Turn off preview when the image is small or when the effect can be applied fairly quickly. Use the thumbnail previews when the effect will take a long time to apply or the before and after comparison is useful. The next two Proofing icons control exactly when and if the effect is applied to the complete image.in preview mode - Cancelling out of the dialog will always stop any application of the dialog's effect. The first icon, a small eye with a lock in the bottom right corner, is a toggle just like the Show/Hide Preview toggle. When locked in the out position, the default, Auto-Proofing is turned off.

The Navigate thumbnail tool

When pressed in, Auto-Proofing is turned on and any change to the effects setting will be immediately made to the complete image - users get a "live-update" as to what the finall effect will be. For some effects such as the Color Curves or Sharpening masks - this constant live info may be vital and so Auto-proofing will be turned on despite the delays to apply the effect - noticeable after about 2MB or larger images depending on your processor and the effect being applied. But for some effects like Edge Preserving Smooth or Enamel - the wait for each small adjustment can be 10-30 seconds, in which cas users will want to selectively turn on proofing (press the second , eye-only icon) or use the preview thumbnails. It is this flexibility of chossing exactly how previews and full image proofing is to be applied that makes Jasc PaintShopPro so handy.

The simple, no-preview Chrome dialog

In contrast, Adobe Photoshop has very few comparison thumbnails and no full image proofing controls in its effects dialogs.

But we are not finished, Jasc has two more unique goodies. The Dice icon controls the Randomizer settings. Now what good can be a control that goes through each setting or control in a dialog and sets it to some random value ? Honestly, I used to scoff at such a "gimmick" device. But no more. For complex dialogs like the Histogram Adjust, Brush Strokes, or Lights - one of the fastest ways to discover all the possibilities is to preview them by pressing the dice/Randomizer icon a half dozen times and get all new previews of how the process works. Its an improved way to experiment and learn all the PaintShop Pro commands and effects.

The Effects Browser

New to version 8 of Paint Shop Pro is a vastly improved Effects Browser. One of the hard things to do is to learn all the effects and special command/filters available in all of the graphics programs. Paint Shop Pro has always had an effects browser; but
not like the new one. Version 8 has added two innovative improvements. First there is a treeview on the left of the Effect Browser (see above) where all the Presets are sorted by menu item. This is as far as the old system went. The difference is in the middle thumbnails. If you click on a folder like Brightness Contrast (as we have done in the example above), all the different Brightness and Contrast commands and any of their saved setting are generated in thumbnail fashion. The thumbnails are generated remarkably quickly in most cases and give a preview of the default and all the user saved presets available for a group of commands if you click on a folder) or a specific command (if you click on an end node).

This is a very effectiive way to either become acquainted with or find a specific adjustment or effect. The thumnails inform/remind the user what the general effect will be. Users can click on the Apply button and the effect will be applied to the image or click the Modify button and the appropriate adjust/effect dialog will be triggered closing the Object Browser. Again this is a time saver in discovering and finding the right adjustment or effect to be used. Kudos to Jasc.

Summary

The combination of a nifty thumbnail-previewing Object Browser with a standard set of adjust/effect command dialog controls makes PaintShop Pro that much easier to learn to use and remember how to utilize. As a graphics editor, I really appreciate the many alternatives for previewing effects in PaintShop Pro. This puts a nifty helpful polish on an already impressively versatile product.