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More Paint Shop Pro users than Photoshop

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:24 am
by alfielee
I added up the number of users of this site & it would seem of those that answered the curren t Q, there were more responses from PSP users than PS. I guess it may be different in industry but I really like PSP myself & for a less than absolutely perfect result I believe that PSP does everything that PS does but costs heaps less.

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 10:35 am
by HaraldHeim
I guess you refer to the current poll. You are right, currently there are slightly more votes for PSP than Photoshop. I guess there are a lot of Photoshop users that also use PSP from time to time. On the other hand pure PSP users won't use Photoshop occasionaly, because of the huge difference in price.

This should explain the poll results.

More PSP users than PS users

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:04 pm
by alfielee
Interesting point. I had no notion of PS users using PSP. I know PS is widely used in business but on the same hand I also think that when starting with both products there is a huge difference between levels of difficulty. I found when I was attempting to use Photoshop early on that it was really much more difficult than was PSP.

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 2:52 pm
by HaraldHeim
Photoshop was initially designed for the Mac, so maybe that's why Windows user have more problems getting used to it. PSP on the other hand is a native Windows application.

I myself never found Photoshop more difficult to use than PSP. I expereienced that when it comes to doing complex things with layers and masks that Photoshop lets me do it much faster and more conveniently. But I still use PSP from time to time for more simple tasks.

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 5:15 pm
by Jaci
I guess it depends on the industry. If you are working with professional printing then Photoshop is the way to go (PSP can't handle CMYK properly!), but for web graphics and/or on-screen images then you can go either way and PSP has the advantage of being far less expensive.

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2006 8:57 am
by plugsnpixels
Harald has a point when he says the preference runs along platform lines. But for some time now PS has been cross-platform, while PSP hasn't. And Jaci is correct about PS's use in industry (and the lesser perception of PSP).

Perception is a powerful thing, and can cripple otherwise wonderful software in the marketplace. For about 10 years I have used the cross-platform Canvas X for image editing, illustration and graphic design, including for the creation of my current ezine, along with PS and various plug-ins.

Have you heard of Canvas? Probably not. But Adobe has, and they've copied many things from it over the years. ACD (of ACDSee fame) purchased Canvas about three years ago, and is using its code to create lesser products, such as the Windows-only Photo Editor (I won't dignify it with a URL ;-) ).

Mac users such as myself can now easily run Windows-only software on the new Intel Macs (and this setup works just great; now there's less reason for Windows users to buy straight PCs such as Dell and the like). Of course Mac users would prefer to work in OS-X instead of Windows when possible, so most likely haven't explored PSP (or ACD's products).

I try to maintain balance on my website, so I hope to add Corel's latest graphics products (including PSP) to the site soon.

I enjoy esoteric software so I've also explored GIMP and Paint.Net, a couple of worthy freebies.

It's late and I'm rambling... ;-)