Paint Shop Pro 8
Public Beta Release Notes
If this is the first time you have installed Paint Shop Pro 8 beta, please start by reading the Beta 1 Release Notes (Build 20030217.14).
Please remember this is beta test software. Do no use this software in a production environment. Please read this entire document before using the beta. Many of the questions that are asked frequently are answered here.
Beta 3 is a regular beta update that addresses a large number of issues found in both Beta 1 and Beta 2. We recommend that all people running any existing beta build install Beta 3.
You must uninstall any existing beta prior to installing Beta 3 using Add/Remove programs found in your Control Panel.
Beta 3 will expire on April 7th 2003.
The number of issues, both reported and fixed, makes it impractical to list every change that has been made between the Beta 1 and Beta 3 releases. The list below covers the most significant or most mentioned issues. If something you reported has not been addressed there is no need to report it again -- it is still in our database. Issues are prioritized by several different criteria, so it is not possible to say when a particular issue will be fixed.
Though there have been some menu changes since the last beta build, they are extremely minor and you may continue to use workspace files created with Beta 1 or Beta 2.
One of the special joys of beta testing is that sometimes changes are made that break existing files. Now that PSP 8 includes scripting, changes to the implementation of a command often break existing scripts. Since beta 1 was released, the following commands have changed, and existing scripts and presets will need to be edited or recreated.
--- Notes from previous beta releases ---
Beta 2 is an interim release that addresses several startup issues that prevented the program from running.
The issues addressed are:
If you are currently running beta 1 and do not have any of the startup issues described there is no need to download beta 2.
Beta 2 will expire on March 27th, 2003.
Thank you for participating in the public beta testing program for Paint Shop Pro 8. The public beta test is the culmination of development and testing of a new release, and your participation ensures that the product meets your needs and the needs of others, while meeting the quality standards of Jasc Software.
Paint Shop Pro 8 is the biggest upgrade we have ever done. Just about every aspect of the program has been enhanced or changed in some way. With all the changes, you are sure to find many new things to play with.
A product in beta test is not in final form, and is not of the same quality you will find in a shipping product by Jasc Software. If you participate in beta testing you should expect that the product will have bugs. It may crash. You may need to uninstall and reinstall to resolve a problem. Aspects of the program will change during the beta test period, forcing you to recreate scripts, presets, brushes or other resource files.
The purpose of beta testing is to make the product better, and the feedback you provide is crucial to that goal. If you encounter a problem, find something confusing, or dislike how something works, please bring it to our attention (see the section Submitting Feedback).
Beta builds are only available via download. To keep the size manageable, many of the resource files (picture tubes, presets shapes, picture frames, etc.) are omitted from the beta. The number of these files included in the beta is in no way an indication of the number of files that will be included in the final product.
The simplest way to test is to simply use PSP as you normally would. Use the new features if they solve a problem for you, but concentrate on doing what you want to with the product. This not only lets you do what you want, it serves as a way of testing whether the product is suitable for your needs.
If you encounter a bug, see if you can narrow down its behavior:
If you find a bug, please submit it. If the bug is anything more than a simple cosmetic flaw it is prudent to close PSP and restart it before continuing with your work. One bug can often corrupt something in memory, causing other bugs to spontaneously appear. If a bug A only appears after bug B happens then it is likely that bug B caused bug A, and only bug B needs to be reported.
To link to the Jasc Defect submission web page, use the Submit a Defect link on the help menu. This will take you to a database page where you can enter the particulars of the defect you found. Please don’t assume that someone else will have already reported the problem.
Don’t want to test in isolation? Then access the Jasc Software news server and subscribe to the public beta newsgroup. This is a very active, privately hosted NNTP newsgroup where you will find a lively community of beta testers, as well as a number of Jasc employees. To access the newsgroup you will need a newsreader program such as Outlook Express or Agent. The link to the group is: news://news.jasc.com/PaintShopPro8Beta
During testing, you may encounter some problems that are not only repeatable, but also leave PSP in a bad state. That is, operations A, B, and C worked, but D crashed. After the crash, you may find that operations A, B, and C no longer work. If you suspect you are encountering this, here is a list of things to try, in increasing order of severity.
Tip: With the amount of UI Customization (see User Interface Customization) you can do in PSP 8, recreating your workspace can be a painful operation. Once you have PSP configured to your liking, save a workspace file. Now you can simply reload that workspace anytime you need to get back to a known state.
Tip the second: During the beta program we will be updating the product every few weeks, and you may find yourself frequently uninstalling and reinstalling. Usually this will mean resetting all of your preferences as well. Once you reach the point where you are pretty set in your preferences, make a point to record a script (see Scripting) of your setting the preferences the next time you have to reinstall the application. Now that we have scripts, there is no reason not to put them to work
All builds used in beta testing have a built-in expiration date. Once the expiration date has been reached, the build will no longer run. Beta builds expire 5 weeks from the date they were created (not the install date).
The software will prompt you to check for updates 1 week before the expiration date occurs.
Public beta 1 will expire on March 24th, 2003
During the public beta period we will post updated beta builds approximately every 2 weeks.
The last beta will have an extended expiration period so that the final product will be widely available before the beta expires.
PSP 8 can be installed on the same computer as other PSP versions, but should be installed to its own directory.
PSP 8 can read all files created by earlier versions of PSP. Files saved by PSP 8 in the .psp (now .PspImage) format cannot be read by PSP 7.
If you need to save in a PSP 5/6/7 compatible format you can do so by pressing the Options button in the SaveAs dialog, and selecting the version to use. Note that features specific to PSP 8 (such as layer groups or the new layer blend modes) will be lost by saving to a down-level version.
For beta testing we recommend that you keep the save format defaulting to the PSP 8 format.
Now that we have all the procedural information out of the way, let’s get to the meat of the matter -- what is new and different that you will be testing.
The short answer is that just about everything is different in some way, but here are some of the big changes:
There is a lot more that has changed, with more detail later in the document. But why not dive right in and explore?
Compared to PSP 7, the menu structure has been significantly changed. While we think the new layout makes more sense, the changes can be jarring for people coming from PSP 7.
Here are the big changes on the menu:
The hotkeys for showing/hiding all of the palettes have changed as well:
Beta products have bugs. Some we know about, some we count on you to help us find. The ones shown below are known; there is no need to report these or any variant of them.
Since the release of PSP 7 we have changed almost every aspect of the program in some way, and even the list below is not exhaustive. But it does touch all of the significant changes.
PSP 8 has a full blown scripting engine, based on the Python programming language (see http://www.python.org/ for more information on Python). Though you can use Python to write scripts from scratch, in general there is no need to do so. PSP includes a script recorder, and virtually everything in the application can be recorded.
Scripting functionality is primarily accessed either through the scripting toolbar or through the Script submenu of the file menu. From there you can record, pause recording, save recordings, and play, edit or cancel scripts.
Scripts are saved to the one of the scripts directories specified in the file locations dialog. Most scripts can be edited with the built in script editor, but since scripts are text files they can be edited with any text editor. Note, however, that Python uses indentation to determine scoping, so be very careful about mixing spaces and tabs. Use of a Python aware editor such as PythonWin or Idle is a good thing if you intend to hand write scripts.
The batch conversion dialog now has the ability to run a script as files are being converted, allowing you to script operations on multiple files at one time.
Scripts can be run interactively or silently. When run silently all dialogs are skipped and the commands in the script are executed without showing any UI. In interactive mode all of the dialogs are displayed as normal, and the user can change the settings of commands before they are executed.
Python is a full featured programming language, and it can be used to execute malicious scripts. If you only use scripts that come with the program or that you make yourself, this is a non-issue. But if you download scripts from the Internet or acquire them from any third party, you do need to think about the security implications of scripts.
Scripts are essentially small programs that run inside of PSP. This means that some person could make scripts that do bad things like format your hard disk.
To address this, PSP differentiates between trusted scripts and restricted scripts. A trusted script is one that you trust not to do anything bad to your system. A restricted script is simply one that you don’t trust.
A restricted script is prevented from importing dangerous Python modules, and is prevented from executing dangerous PSP commands.
A script is trusted or restricted depending on where it is found. In the file locations dialog you define separate locations for "Scripts-Trusted" and "Scripts-Restricted". Anything on a trusted path is trusted, and everything else is restricted.
Most scripts you record will run as a restricted script. The only PSP operations that are not allowed in a restricted script are Save, Save As, Save Copy As, Close, Close All, Exit, Image Mapper, Image Slicer, File Send, Batch Process, Batch Rename, File Locations, GIF Export, PNG Export, and JPEG Export.
In contrast, most hand written scripts will not work from a restricted path and will need to be placed on a trusted path, since almost no Python imports are permitted in a restricted script.
Treat scripts you receive from a third party as you would an email attachment. If you wouldn’t run an executable file that you receive from someone, you should be skeptical of a script you receive as well. Though at this time we don’t know of any way that a restricted script can damage your system, there is no guarantee that this is the case.
Printing has changed significantly in PSP 8. The print dialog now makes it easy to print a single image at a specific size or scale, positioned anywhere on the page.
The print layout function (formerly multiple image printing) supports print templates that correspond to standard paper sizes. You can use predefined templates or create your own.
Images placed in template cells can be scaled or cropped to fit the cell, and rotated to make the best use available space.
The PSP browser uses a template to print thumbnails, so by changing the browser template you can change how the browser prints.
PSP 8 includes support for a number of new file formats, including:
Postscript support has been improved from Postscript Level 2 to Postscript Level 3.
PSP 8 now supports reading/writing of lossless JPEG files.
In addition, EXIF data is read and written to file formats that support it. The PSP file format now supports EXIF data, so you can open a JPEG file from a camera, edit it, and save as a PSP file without losing EXIF data.
The new file dialog supports presets and the ability to use any material as the background of a new image. It is also possible to create a new image with a vector layer instead of a raster layer. If a solid color is used the image is created with a background layer. If a gradient or pattern is used, it is created as a layer with transparency. (It erases to transparent, not background color.)
The batch convert dialog has been enhanced to include the option of running a script during conversion, and can optionally rename a file during saving. The batch rename dialog simply renames files without having to open or edit them in any way. It is ideal for assigning meaningful names to digital camera pictures -- instead of files named DCP048 through DCP096, you can rename them to "Our Wedding 01" through "Our Wedding 48".
PSP 8 no longer reads .jbr/.abr files directly. These files must be imported and converted to .PspBrush files. The brush importer is on the preset droplist of all the brush tools, or can be accessed via the File->Import menu. Since the .PspBrush format can be read by the browser, you can manage custom brushes visually using the PSP image browser. There is now one and only one brush per file, which makes management of the brushes more similar to other content in PSP like patterns and frames.
PSP 8 includes a picture frame exporter that can save the active image as a picture frame, provided it meets the requirements of a picture frame. Requirements for picture frames have not changed. See below for detail on changes to the Picture Frame feature.
In the JPEG exporter and file save as options, you can now specify the handling of chroma subsampling.
Auto actions enable PSP to automatically perform needed operations to make a command available -- change color depth, convert vector layers to raster layers, float a selection, etc. For example, most effects require a true color image. PSP 8 has an auto action called "Convert image to 16-million colors". Out of the box this action is set to prompt. Suppose you attempt to run an effect like Sunburst on a paletted image. In PSP 7 the menu item would be greyed out because sunburst does not work on a paletted image. In PSP 8 the menu item is enabled because it can make the command available by using an auto action. When you attempt to execute the sunburst command, you receive a prompt asking if you would like to convert the image to 16-million colors.
You can control the behavior of auto actions. Some (like promoting to 16 million colors) you may wish to happen whenever they are needed, without bothering with a prompt. Others (perhaps converting a vector layer to a raster layer) you might consider dangerous enough that you never want them to happen automatically. Finally, some of them you may wish to be asked about. All of this can be set in the general program preferences. Note however, that if you check the box marked "Always take these actions" when you are prompted for an auto action, you are setting that behavior for the action (i.e. promote to 16 million colors), not the command that called for it (sunburst).
The file locations dialog now supports dedicated locations for a number of new file types, and the previous restriction of no more than 3 locations for any file type has been removed.
The new reset preferences dialog can reset various aspects of PSP to the out of the box configuration, without requiring editing of the registry or secret keystrokes when starting the application. Find it by going to File->Preferences->Reset Preferences.
Quick Guides are HTML tutorials that are contained within the application. The tutorials can use scripting to automate procedures for the user, making them a powerful adjunct to learning the program. To access quick guides, go to View->Palettes and turn on the Learning Center palette.
The PSP 7 picture frame wizard has been collapsed into a single dialog. It now supports the ability to rotate/flip/mirror a frame to better match the aspect ratio of the image.
The effect browser has been completely redesigned. It now generates a page of thumbnails. Each thumbnail shows the effect of applying a particular preset for a given effect. Thumbnails are generated for each preset of every effect. You can choose to apply the preset directly or launch the dialog and edit it further. As you save presets from effect dialogs they are automatically added to the effect browser.
The add noise dialog now supports gaussian noise, and a monochrome mode.
PSP 8 includes photo correction tools for correcting pincushion, fisheye and barrel distortion.
In PSP 7 grey world was an option in the manual color correction dialog. It has been made its own filter in PSP 8. In addition, the manual color correction dialog now supports explicit setting of both source and target colors.
This simulates the effect of a photographic soft focus filter.
The lens effect places a magnifying lens over a portion of the image.
The bubbles filter places one or more balls or bubbles on the image. Controllable light sources, bump maps and environment maps mean that this filter can be used to create a number of different spherical objects. You will find this filter ideal for creating any vaguely spherical object. Like all the other filters, it supports presets, so once you find a setting you like you can save it for posterity.
The halftone filter simulates the halftone process used in printing. Pixels in the image are replaced with dots, squares or lines at various screen angles. Note that this is an effect, not something intended for output to a typesetter.
The seamless tiling filter supports a number of different modes to make an image seamless. A selection can be used to protect a portion of the image from modification. This replaces the PSP 7 command of Selections -> Convert to Seamless Pattern
The offset filter is used to shift the image on the canvas, typically wrapping pixels around to the opposite edge as they go off canvas.
The drop shadow dialog has an easier to use control system, and can optionally create the shadow as a new layer.
The lens distortion effect can be used to simulate pincushion, fisheye or barrel distortion in an image.
The polar coordinates filter transforms pixels by mapping them from Cartesian to polar coordinates or vice versa.
The spherize filter alters an image as if it were wrapped around (or into) a sphere.
The page curl filter now supports setting the area behind the curl to transparent.
User defined filters now use the standard effect dialog that supports previewing, proofing, and presets. They also have the ability to compute a divisor value that won’t change the overall brightness of the image.
The plugin host has been completely reimplemented, and supports a much greater portion of the Adobe plugin SDK. A number of plugins that were not supported in PSP 7 work in PSP 8, and plugins that support scripting in Adobe Photoshop can be scripted in PSP 8 as well.
This filter allows you to correct the color of an image by specifying how to adjust at least one of a highlight color, a midtone color or a shadow color.
The histogram adjustment dialog now displays the histogram of both the original image and the adjusted image.
The dialog for loading a mask or selection from a file or an alpha channel has been completely redesigned. New controls allow selections/masks to be positioned and combined in various ways, and a visual preview of all available saved selections/masks is now available. Any supported image file format can be used as a mask or selection.
The layering system in PSP has changed in several significant ways. First, it now supports layer groups. As an organizational tool, layer groups allow common elements of an image to be lumped together, and viewed, moved or hidden as single unit. Layer groups have rendering implications as well -- all the layers in a group are blended together against a transparent background, and then the merged group is blended into the image. This implies that an adjustment layer or mask layer that is placed in a layer group will only affect the members of the group. Layer groups can be nested.
Layer groups in PSP 8 are distinct from layer grouping in PSP 7. Since the PSP 8 behavior is a better fit with the intuitive definition of grouping, the old PSP 7 functionality has been renamed to "link set". What’s the easiest way to create a layer group? Use the menu item new layer group, then drag and drop layers into the group.
Making use of layer groups, PSP now treats masks as a kind of adjustment layer, one that adjusts the opacity of the layers in its layer group. Masks are now implemented as their own layer type. PSP 7 had a mask edit mode -- this is replaced by simply selecting the layer in the layer palette.
PSP 7 also had a view mask command, which showed the mask as a rubylith overlay. PSP 8 supports this overlay mode for masks, adjustment layers and the selection, with a configurable overlay color and opacity.
Because masks are now treated as a type of layer, the old mask menu has been removed -- its functionality has migrated to the layers menu.
Like the effect dialogs, the layer creation dialogs in PSP 8 support previewing, proofing and presets.
Two new merge commands are present in PSP 8. Merge group merges a layer group and replaces it with a single layer. Merge down merges the active layer into the one directly beneath it.
Several new layer arrange commands are implemented as well -- move in to group and move out of group control grouping of layers, and the ungroup command can be used to break an existing group.
PSP 8 has 4 new blend modes -- Hue (True), Saturation (True), Color (True) and Luminance (True). The implementation of these modes actually matches the definition that has always been given -- taking one or more channels from the upper layer while preserving the other channels of the underlying layers. However, these modes do not match PSP 7, so the old blend modes have been retained, but renamed to Hue (Legacy), Saturation (Legacy), Color (Legacy), and Luminance (Legacy).
PSP 8 introduces selection edit mode, where the selection is treated as if it were a layer. In this mode, all of the raster painting/drawing tools and effects can be used to modify the selection marquee. In selection edit mode the marquee is automatically replaced with a colored overlay that indicates the area selected. While in selection edit mode the selection appears as a layer in the layer palette. This both indicates that the selection is being treated as a layer, and gives you a method of changing the overlay color used -- double clicking the layer will bring up the layer properties dialog for the selection.
The selection modifiers have been significantly reworked. All now support the standard proof/preview/preset controls on the dialog. In addition, the view can be toggled between showing the selection against transparency or showing the resulting selection marquee.
The close all command now has a dialog where you can specify which files to save or discard. This replaces a save prompt for each open image.
All of the brush tools (paint brush, airbrush, clone brush, color replacer, eraser, and all retouch tools) have completely new internals. One side effect of this is that the hardness parameter is significantly different, and the brushes have noticeably smoother edges than before. The default hardness has been changed to 50, which is approximately equivalent to a hardness of 0 in PSP 7.
PSP 7 had the notion of buildup/non-buildup. In buildup mode if a single paint stroke crossed over itself the opacity was additive -- it built up. In non-buildup opacity would never get higher than the opacity of the brush. Many brushes could be used either in buildup or non-buildup modes.
In PSP 8, all brushes are either buildup or non-buildup and the mode can no longer be selected.
The following brushes are always buildup:
The following brushes are always non-buildup:
Beyond that, we now have the notion of continuous paint. In PSP 7 non-buildup brushes would only be non-buildup for the duration of a single stroke, where a stroke was defined by mouse down/mouse up. With continuous paint turned on, all input counts as a single stroke regardless of how many times the mouse goes down and up. At any time you can start a new stroke by pressing the New button on the brush options bar. Continuous paint lets you stay in non-buildup mode without having to constantly hold down the mouse button.
The wet look option simulates a brush with a wet edge, where the edge is darker than the center.
In addition to custom brushes, computed brush tips have new controls. Brushes can be square or round, and then can be rotated or compressed with the rotation and thickness controls. Shape, thickness and rotation replace the single shape control that existed in PSP 7.
PSP 8 now supports a large number of brush variance options, tied to significantly improved tablet support. Though a number of variance options can be used with just a mouse (including direction, jitter, fade in, fade out, and oscillating and repeating fades), tablet users can take advantage of varying parameters by altitude, azimuth, twist, z-wheel, fingerwheel, and pressure.
All of the standard brush parameters such as size, opacity, color density, and hardness can be varied by any of the variables list above. In addition, jitter can be used to introduce random fluctuations in any value, which is very useful in attempting to create a more natural look.
In PSP 7 the retouch tools were lumped together as a single tool. In PSP 8 each retouch tool is implemented as its own tool. For tools that have an obvious inverse (i.e. Darken/Lighten, Dodge/Burn), the inverse is available on the opposite mouse button.
The zoom tool now works in terms of percentages rather than ratios such as 2:1, 3:1, etc. This makes it possible to size an image to fit your screen, and the resampling method used at scales of less than 100% is much less likely to lose small details.
The zoom tool now supports quick access to 100% zoom, as well as the various fit to window/image/screen commands. Zooming controls have also been added to the overview window.
The crop tool has greatly improved support for cropping to standard photo sizes. The crop tool can optionally update the resolution value of the image to force the output to match the desired size.
The freehand selection tool has a new mode, called Edge Seeker. This mode is similar to the existing smart edge mode, but it is better at following a weak edge, or following a weak edge next to a strong one. By holding down the Alt key while drawing the selection the mode is temporarily switched from Edge Seeker back to Freehand for dragging or Point to Point for clicking, so it is possible to mix the modes in one selection operation.
The scratch remover algorithm has been changed to get better results for removing objects on uniform backgrounds.
The magic wand now has the ability to antialias the selection.
The dropper now supports multiple sampling sizes, from the single pixel used in PSP 7 up to an 11x11 square.
The text tool is completely redesigned. Most controls are set on the options ribbon bar, and text entry is done on a floating window. Like all other tools, the text tool uses the materials defined in the materials palette.
The line tool and the node edit tool have been combined into a single tool called the Pen tool. A number of new node edit functions exist, including a contour knife for breaking contours.
The raster deformation tool supports a movable pivot point. The pivot point defines the point around which a rotation is performed.
The perspective tool is new to PSP 8. It is designed to fix perspective errors in an image. Locate an object in the image that should be rectangular, and position the handles on the corners of the object. Applying the tool will correct the image so that the selected object becomes rectangular. Be aware that extreme corrections can introduce extreme distortion in areas of the image far away from the area being corrected.
The straighten tool is new to PSP 8. It is designed to straighten a scan or a tilted photo. Simply position the line along an object that should be horizontal or vertical and apply the tool.
The mesh warp tool is new to PSP 8. This is a method of warping an image by distorting a mesh laid on top of the image. Moving the handles in the mesh moves the corresponding pixels in the image accordingly. Entire rows or columns of the mesh may be moved at once. Shift moves handles in a line, Ctrl along a curve.
The warp brush is new to PSP 8. The warp brushes let you distort an image almost as if it were made of rubber -- stretch, shrink, twist, push, etc. It is ideal for making people thinner, making noses bigger, and many other kinds of mischief.
The background eraser is new to 8. It is used to erase the background surrounding an object. To use the tool, place the center of the brush in the area to be erased, overlap the object to be kept with the edge of the brush and trace around the object.
The materials palette has replaced the color palette in PSP 7.Texture controls have been combined with the style controls, and the flyouts for switching between solid, gradient and pattern are no longer needed.
The materials palette also supports swatches, which are saved definitions of a particular material -- anything from a solid color to a rotated gradient combined with a scaled texture.
Rectangular and radial gradients now support rotation, and rectangular and sunburst gradients now support separate center points and focal points.
Textures now support scaling and rotation.
Texture and pattern files are no longer limited to .bmp files. Any supported file format can be used, and pattern files can contain transparency.
The info display is a new tab on the overview window. The info tab displays both general information about the image and information that is specific to the tool being used.
The magnifier is a new floating window. When enabled (from the view menu or via the F11 key), it shows a magnified view of the pixels under the cursor. The zoom scale of the magnifier can be changed by using Ctrl-+ and Ctrl--.
PSP 8 supports extensive customization of the user interface. You can move, add, or remove buttons on toolbars and menus, and create your own menus and toolbars. You can also assign your own hotkeys. Customization is accessed from the view menu or by right clicking on any toolbar.
Workspace files store the state of all toolbars, menus and palettes, so you can even create multiple workspaces that are optimized for specific tasks.
Palettes can be either floating or docked. Docking is enabled on a per-palette basis in the general program preferences.
Scripts can not be tied directly to a toolbar or menu, but there a limited number of slots you can use for attaching a script to a menu or toolbar button. In the UI customization dialog there is a command category called Boundscripts -- these commands do nothing but run scripts BoundScript1 through BoundScript9. By creating and saving scripts of those names, you can attach scripts to a toolbar or menu.
In addition to all of the changes described above, a number of global UI changes have been made: