Paint Shop Pro Dilemma

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I’ve had Paint Shop Pro for years. I’m sure it does much, much more than I use it for. But my needs are simple (jpg enlargements, drawing arrows and circles, scaling photos down for easy transmission, and the occasional redeye and photo editing tools, and it’s good enough.

Now there is a problem with missing or corrupted python libraries, whatever those are.

To make matters worse, Corel now wants me to pay for tech support for a product I continue to upgrade.

Is now the time to go with GIMP or PAINT (or some other free program) that lets me manipulate picture files, or should I just bite the bullet and buy the upgrade to Paint Shop Pro X2 Ultimate (for $49.99)?

Thanks.

Neal

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Putting on my honorary temporary Moderator hat. Please don’t post the same question in two different forums. If you think you’ve posted to the wrong forum, contact a “real” moderator to have one of them move the thread for you.

This is essentially the same question as in your Dumping Paint Shop thread, but with a follow up.

As far as biting the bullet – it depends on what you need to do and how much you are willing to spend.

For me GIMP or Paint.net are more than adequate for my needs.

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This is essentially the same question as in your Dumping Paint Shop thread, but with a follow up.

Thanks for alerting us mbarron – I locked the thread in the Other MS Apps forum as this is the more appropriate forum

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My take:
Don’t buy any more PSP, it has gone down hill since acquired by Corel.
GIMP, Paint.net or even Irfanview can do what you describe.

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Agree! I have a 20-year old PSP that works better and far faster than the one I unfortunately just bought. Guessing that the new PSP is in Python, slow as stink, click and wait…

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Get “The Gimp” !!!

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Get “The Gimp” !!!

I’m a fan of GIMP too. If you want to deal with red-eye, which you specifically mentioned, there isn’t a red-eye tool “out of the box” in GIMP (though I generally deal with the problem by had, as it were) but there is an extension you can download (and install really easily) that adds a red-eye tool to the menus.

One of the most impressive red-eye tools, I think, comes with Picasa which is free and a lot of the time it works out for itself where the eyes are that you might want to correct.

Ian

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I’m a fan of GIMP too.

One of the most impressive red-eye tools, I think, comes with Picasa which is free and a lot of the time it works out for itself where the eyes are that you might want to correct.

Ian

In re Picasa I LOVE that red-eye feature You can undo it if you don’t like it as well. I am just now starting to get accustomed to GIMP but haven’t by any means mastered or even come close to figuring it all out, so I still revert to Picasa to do batch resizing.

Hey Jude

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I am just now starting to get accustomed to GIMP but haven’t by any means mastered or even come close to figuring it all out

There are some great tutorials at http://meetthegimp.org/ done (in English) by a German science teacher called Rolf Steinort. The Tables of Content link at the right takes you to a listing of the first 110 shows. (He’s now up to number 132.)

Don’t bother to look at Episode 2 “Setting up The Gimp” because he does basically the same show again later for the latest version at Episode 66, and that might be a good place to start.

Ian

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The Tables of Content link at the right takes you to a listing of the first 110 shows. (He’s now up to number 132.)

That’s funny! I knew GIMP was complicated to use but 132 episodes? I know there must be a lot of practical examples, but still, that’s funny, especially in relation to Neal’s simple needs.

I would definitely see if Picasa could meet the requirements first. Also a free program called FastStone Image Viewer, which does far more than the name would imply (sort of like Irfanview), has many tools including a draw board that may meet the need for arrows and circles to be placed on the image and it has the best resize tool filter I know of (Lanczos3), and I think its at least 126 episodes (est.) easier to use!

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That’s funny! I knew GIMP was complicated to use but 132 episodes? I know there must be a lot of practical examples, but still, that’s funny, especially in relation to Neal’s simple needs.

Yes, well, the pointer to the tutorials was a reply to Hey Jude who was talking of getting to grips with GIMP. And you don’t think anything is odd if a photo magazine has a new article in every issue teaching you something new you can do with Photoshop, so what is so strange about an ongoing series of tutorials about GIMP?

And GIMP costs about £627.45 less than Photoshop.

Ian

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so what is so strange about an ongoing series of tutorials about GIMP?

And GIMP costs about £627.45 less than Photoshop

Absolutely nothing strange at all in a comparative relationship between GIMP and Photoshop. The original post indicates “simple” needs though and I was focusing on that. I love the concept of GIMP but when it comes to using it in a productive workflow, I spew fried brain drippin’s. Photoshop is not much better but those clever lads at Adobe came up with Bridge and then Lightroom to help fill in some of the gaping gaps and Lightroom is another $300 (hence, clever) to make the whole package even more ridiculous as far as price goes, so free AND simple is better if it suffices.

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I apologize for the belated reply. Things have been wildly hectic around here.

First, I apologize for the double post. I didn’t know it was bad form and I appreciate the gentle education.

Second, I sincerely appreciate the guidance and sharing of experience. It really helps a lot. The Lounge has always had a spirit of generosity and technical ignoramuses (ignoramii?) like me are grateful.

Though I liked the sound of it, GIMP seemed way too complex. I’ve been using Irfanview, which is just okay. It does enough of what I need for now. When I couldn’t figure out how to add arrows and text boxes in Irfanview, a friend who is a true genius suggested using PowerPoint.

Thanks again.

Neal

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Does PowerPoint have a little photo editing component to it or do you need to import it as a slide overlay and then make changes?

I’ve been using the Draw Board component of Faststone Image Viewer since I found it and recommended it and it is simple and easy to use and of course free. Thought bubbles, shapes (mostly elipses and rectangles but there is a pen tool as well), arrrows and text. There’s even a drop shadow option for items placed which is a nice touch I think.

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<>

I delete the title and sub-title boxes and import the photo (Insert, Picture, From File).

Then I just use the features in the drawing and picture toolbars.

I group and save the image as a jpg. And I can also resize the images for easier e-mail transmission.

Neal

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I delete the title and sub-title boxes and import the photo (Insert, Picture, From File).

If you use the Task Bar and have the Layout choices displayed, you also can click the blank slide to clear the boxes. Probably won’t save much time, but might protect against their future reappearance.

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I delete the title and sub-title boxes and import the photo (Insert, Picture, From File).

Then I just use the features in the drawing and picture toolbars.

I group and save the image as a jpg. And I can also resize the images for easier e-mail transmission.

That’s what I thought, I won Microsoft Office 2007 in a contest so I’ll have to check it out and see if its got something better than Faststone…maybe textured arrows and callout boxes??

Unless your photos are really huge ( greater than 5 mb each) there really isn’t any reason to resize anymore (unless the receipient has a really slow connection or something). One should either upload them to a free photo sharing site or just be sending the links (thumbnails) in the email while the photos are uploaded in the background and can be downloaded at the receipient’s leisure.

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Unless your photos are really huge ( greater than 5 mb each) there really isn’t any reason to resize anymore (unless the receipient has a really slow connection or something). One should either upload them to a free photo sharing site or just be sending the links (thumbnails) in the email while the photos are uploaded in the background and can be downloaded at the receipient’s leisure.

Many companies impose limits on mailbox size. It’s annoying to spend 30 minutes deleting and archiving stuff, and then get a bunch of 2MB photos that undo all that work. Sure, we could just enlarge our mailbox size limit, but then the Exchange experts get really nervous about corruption and recovery times… So I agree with sending a link if possible.

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It’s apparent that most of the replies focus on GIMP, but I encourage you to look at Paint.NET before deciding. Both are actively developed and have active forums; I just feel the learning curve for Paint is a little less steep. A long-time user of Photoshop (started with version 6), I was more comfortable with Paint at first encounter, Ymmv. I don’t know about the “arrows” feature you need – I never had a client that wanted what I think you mean.

Good luck!

Ron Moore

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Now there is a problem with missing or corrupted python libraries, whatever those are.

To make matters worse, Corel now wants me to pay for tech support for a product I continue to upgrade.

This problem in Paint Shop Pro is usually solved by deleting the registry settings for that version of PSP, which then rebuilds its registry on the next restart. This Corel Knowledgebase article gives a step by step method for PSP 8 and 9. Post back if you have a different version… the procedure is the same, but the utility to download may be different.

Rather than contact Corel support, which has been outsourced and cost cut to the point of near uselessness, try one of these user forums…
1. The best is the Corel NNTP newsgroups. You’ll find clickable links to all of them about half way down this page.
2. The Paint Shop Pro User Group forums.
3. Corel’s PSP web forum..

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Rather than contact Corel support, which has been outsourced and cost cut to the point of near uselessness,

It always grieves me when companies do this sort of thing.

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I had a similar problem with Paint Shop Pro X. I simply uninstalled and reinstalled it. It took a while to download all the updates but it works OK now. However, like many other posters on this thread I now use Paint.Net, Picassa and The GIMP.

My main complaint with The Gimp and PSP is then length of time it takes to load up. That could be down to this old nail I’m using though

Picassa is simplicity itself, and both Picassa and Paint.Net are quick enough to load for quick edits.

Yorkshire men are renown for being tight with money (brass), so the big bonus for The Gimp, Paint.net and Picassa is they cost either nothing or a small donation

Regards

Dave

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****FIX****
i realize it has been a while since the original poster asked this question, but i am posting this fix that i found by messing around in the registry for anyone who may go searching and not find any answers like myself

With Paint shop pro there is an issue when the files are copied over from their previous media to a different directory. If you are getting the error message “python libraries are missing or corrupt…” you can fix it by manually changing the reference location in the registry:

WARNING!!!! BACK UP THE REGISTRY BEFORE EDITING ANYTHING !!!!!!

now that that is out of the way…

navigate to start->run or in windows vista/7 click your circle start button and type “regedit” into the field and press enter

expand the keys to the following location

+HKEY_CURRENT_USER
+Software
+Jasc
+Paint Shop Pro #
+File Locations
+Python Libraries

click on the “0” folder and find the key labled DIR and open it
erase whatever is in the field and replace it with the CORRECT location of your python libraries IE: “C:Program FilesPaintshop Pro 8Python Libraries”
(without the quotes) now close out of regedit and locate your .exe and try loading it again..

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Blackice – It seems that you only made this one post on here over four years ago but I signed on especially to thank you for it!

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@WSblackice: I’ve just run into this problem and couldn’t find a fix, but your worked perfectly, even twelve years later! Thank you so much!

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WSNealNYC wrote:

Is now the time to go with GIMP

GIMP is fine.

I use free portable FastStone viewer

FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor. It has a nice array of features that include image viewing, management, comparison, red-eye removal, emailing, resizing, cropping, retouching and color adjustments. Its innovative but intuitive full-screen mode provides quick access to EXIF information, thumbnail browser and major functionalities via hidden toolbars that pop up when your mouse touches one of the four edges of the screen. Other features include a high quality magnifier and a musical slideshow with 150+ transitional effects, as well as lossless JPEG transitions, drop shadow effects, image annotation, scanner support, histogram and much more. It supports all major graphic formats (BMP, JPEG, JPEG 2000, animated GIF, PNG, PCX, PSD, EPS, TIFF, WMF, ICO and TGA) and popular digital camera RAW formats (CRW, CR2, NEF, PEF, RAF, MRW, ORF, SRF, ARW, SR2, RW2 and DNG).

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FastStone Image Viewer

I’ve been using FastStone for years.  It’s handy, although I like to use layers and blending and can’t do this with FS.  I also use GIMP for layers and more but it’s not everyday user friendly.  It takes some effort to get and stay nimble with it.

I haven’t found a free alternative to GIMP.   Suggestions?

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

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TechTango wrote:

alternative to GIMP

TOP 11 ALTERNATIVES TO GIMP IN 2024 (FREE, OPEN-SOURCE & ONLINE)

1 user thanked author for this post.

TechTango

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