Re: filmscanners: PS 6.0 v. PS 5.0 LE v. Jasc Paintshop Pro 7.02

["James L. Sims" <jlsims@knology.net>]

Matthew,

There are many others subscribing to this mail list that can better advise
you than I but this is my opinion:

While there is no question that Photoshop is a powerful and precise
graphics application, to the beginner, it is also very intimidating.
Jasc's Paint Shop Pro (version 7.02), on the other hand, is much more user
friendly and includes most of the features you will be needing - at least
as you learn the techniques of digital imaging.

Some of the features that Photoshop include (that Pain Shop Pro does not)
are; a choice of color management profiles and a very good, albeit
complex, monitor calibration feature, 48 bit, greater control of levels
and curves, and more advanced tool and layer options.

Paint Shop Pro offers only one color management profile (sRGB) and, I
believe, is not quite as precise a graphics application as Photoshop.
Paint Shop Pro includes a large library of preshapes that can be used in
raster and vector layers, an impressive choice of tools, and does not
require the computer resources that Photoshop can.  Paint Shop Pro is very
user friendly and will most likely meet your needs (at least in the
beginning) for about a fifth the price of Photoshop 6.0.

My opinion, Photoshop LE and Photoshop 5.0 (that is now included in some
scanner bundles) are not as good a choice as Paint Shop Pro v 7.02.

I use Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro because I believe both applications
offer distinct advantages.  I started out using Paint Shop Pro because it
was cheap.  It has evolved over several years to a much more powerful
application and has remained a very easy program to learn and use.

One bit of caution.  When it comes to rotating an image to align a tilted
image, neither of these applications do it well.  Image alignment should
be done by carefully aligning the image in the scanner.  90 and 180 degree
rotations are handled very well with both applications.

My suggestion to you, Matthew is to start out with the latest version of
Paint Shop Pro and move up to Photoshop when, and if, you think you are
ready.

If your scanner is supported by Vuescan, I would also highly recommend
it.  You will need to output to 36 bit in Paint Shop Pro but it does a
very good job.

Jim



"S. Matthew Prastein" wrote:

> I'm new to all this, just getting my feet wet, and have a very basic
> question about image processing software.  It's clear, from all the
> content here, that PS, and in particular PS 6.0, is the Rosetta stone,
> an essential professional tool for achieving image quality, and
> uniformity, in publishing.
>
> But what about lower-class people like me?  I'm an amateur, with very
> modest equipment (an Acer Scanwit 2740S and an Epson 900), very much
> in the learning mode.  Should I shell out the $500+ bucks, plus the
> learning time, to get a grip on 6.0?  Will 5.0 LE serve me better, at
> least in the learning phase and possibly for all time?  And what about
> the Jasc program?  It receives rave reviews in popular (i.e.
> non-professional) reviews, especially in computer publications, but I
> don't recall any reference to it in this list.  Why not?  What
> capabilities is it missing, that I really ought to have in order to do
> quality work?
>
> Put another way, how do I choose software that matches the
> capabilities of the rest of my system, and yet provides a reasonable
> path for future upgrade?