Advice for an ex-Photoshop 7 user?

[Adendum]

Hi people,

 

I suspect I am going to need some help along the way, so a quick introduction, a plea for mercy and maybe a request now for some advice....

 

OK, I'm a long term Photoshop 7 user...until today. I refused to upgrade from PS7 because it did everything I needed it to do and it's pretty much been the mainstay of all my graphics needs (I'm a web developer). I've used it since 2003, so that's 10 years of intimate use and 10 years of PSD files. So you might guess I'm just a tad nervous!

 

This weekend I had to buy a new PC, pre-installed with Windows 8. So everything is up and running, all data is in place and PS7 doesn't work. I managed to get past the scratch disk problem for disks over 1Tbbut any PSD file I open cannot be saved and any new file can't be saved as a PSD file.

 

So I followed some of the advice I have given clients over the years and installed Paint.NET  - plus the PSD plugin!! So that's where I am at right now - zero experience of Paint.NET but will play with it over the next few days.

 

So a final hello from me and hoping to receive plenty of advice and suggestions from other ex-Photoshop users that could cut short my learning curve.

 

 

Paul

[barbieq25]

Hi Adendum, welcome to the forum. I have exactly nil working knowledge of PS. There will be some features that you will probably miss from PS but there are work arounds. 

 

The best advice I can give you & fast-track your learning, is to try out the tutes.

However, where the tutes say to flatten at the end - DON'T! 

 

This e-book has been written to help users for just a tiny cost but the information is invaluable! I wouldn't want to be without my copy  http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/25384-mastering-paintnet-ebook/

 

Keep as many of your layers intact as possible. 

Keep a PDN (native file type) as well as the .PNG or whatever file type that you work with.

Work in a canvas at least 2x what you want to finish will. I do 4x & then resize down by 25%. This creates a smoother image but you need serious pc power with some images. 800 x 600 I always use 4x, 1920 x 1080, I use 2x generally.

Post your images & any problem areas. We will help you where we can...even if it takes a while. 

 

Again a hearty welcome!

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Nice summary from Barbieq25 there   She is very generous in her praise of my book.

A couple of the most obvious differences between the image editors:

PS can use the CYMK colorspace - Paint.NET cannot (using RGBA instead). If print colors have to be absolutely 100% faithful there may be a problem.

Paint.NET is a raster image editor. So it does not do vector graphics.

[SAND33P]

Making 3D stuff in PDN is done the long way, no helpful renders or Z axis. However there are a few 3D shape plugins, they aren't what you would find in Photoshop. 

[Visual]

Hi people,

 

I suspect I am going to need some help along the way, so a quick introduction, a plea for mercy and maybe a request now for some advice....

 

OK, I'm a long term Photoshop 7 user...until today. I refused to upgrade from PS7 because it did everything I needed it to do and it's pretty much been the mainstay of all my graphics needs (I'm a web developer). I've used it since 2003, so that's 10 years of intimate use and 10 years of PSD files. So you might guess I'm just a tad nervous!

 

This weekend I had to buy a new PC, pre-installed with Windows 8. So everything is up and running, all data is in place and PS7 doesn't work. I managed to get past the scratch disk problem for disks over 1Tbbut any PSD file I open cannot be saved and any new file can't be saved as a PSD file.

 

So I followed some of the advice I have given clients over the years and installed Paint.NET  - plus the PSD plugin!! So that's where I am at right now - zero experience of Paint.NET but will play with it over the next few days.

 

So a final hello from me and hoping to receive plenty of advice and suggestions from other ex-Photoshop users that could cut short my learning curve.

 

 

Paul

This seems easy to me. Why not get a separate machine with windows 7 or xp to be able to work with ps? I'm a fan of both paint programs. They each do their own thing and have their own strengths. I have and use 2 machines with more on virtual machines. The cost for good desktops has fallen to a point where its a no brainer. A small investment for real computing power.

Edited April 7, 2013 by Visual

[Adendum]

Hi Adendum, welcome to the forum. I have exactly nil working knowledge of PS. There will be some features that you will probably miss from PS but there are work arounds. 

 

The best advice I can give you & fast-track your learning, is to try out the tutes.

However, where the tutes say to flatten at the end - DON'T! 

 

This e-book has been written to help users for just a tiny cost but the information is invaluable! I wouldn't want to be without my copy  http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/25384-mastering-paintnet-ebook/

 

Keep as many of your layers intact as possible. 

Keep a PDN (native file type) as well as the .PNG or whatever file type that you work with.

Work in a canvas at least 2x what you want to finish will. I do 4x & then resize down by 25%. This creates a smoother image but you need serious pc power with some images. 800 x 600 I always use 4x, 1920 x 1080, I use 2x generally.

Post your images & any problem areas. We will help you where we can...even if it takes a while. 

 

Again a hearty welcome!

 

Barbieq25,

 

Thanks for the welcome and the good advice. I'll look for tutorials over the next few days and I'll consider the e-book if I get stuck (like most blokes, reading the manual is generally the last thing to get done! lol).

 

No worries on layers and keeping native files - that's a long term habit.

 

Appreciate the time and help - I'll be back I'm sure!

[Adendum]

Nice summary from Barbieq25 there   She is very generous in her praise of my book.

A couple of the most obvious differences between the image editors:

PS can use the CYMK colorspace - Paint.NET cannot (using RGBA instead). If print colors have to be absolutely 100% faithful there may be a problem.

Paint.NET is a raster image editor. So it does not do vector graphics.

 

EER,

 

Ah...your book huh. I'll dig it out ... eventually!

 

I'm no longer a CMYK person as everything I do is now web based.

 

Thanks for the post!

[Adendum]

Making 3D stuff in PDN is done the long way, no helpful renders or Z axis. However there are a few 3D shape plugins, they aren't what you would find in Photoshop. 

 

Sand33p,

 

I use 3D specific software so PDN wont be burdened with that requirement, as PS7 wasn't.

[Adendum]

This seems easy to me. Why not get a separate machine with windows 7 or xp to be able to work with ps? I'm a fan of both paint programs. They each do their own thing and have their own strengths. I have and use 2 machines with more on virtual machines. The cost for good desktops has fallen to a point where its a no brainer. A small investment for real computing power.

 

Visual,

 

lol, I did consider it but to be honest as much as I am used to PS7 I realise it is an antiquated bit of software.

 

If it worked straight out on the install process I would continue to use it cos I'm lazy and so familiar with it. But to dedicate a separate PC just for 13 year old software may make sense to you but not to me. It's time to try something new and PDN got the vote. I have CorelDraw XV on the system but I've only ever installed the vector drawing side but that comes with a pretty good photo app too but even that doesn't open PS7 .psd files......err, well I don't think it does, never has over the previous versions and I've been using CDR since v3. And I was a big fan of Xara when it first came out (before Corel bought them) and I was a beta tester for the first few releases but PS7 was always my safe bet.

 

But hey ho, mustn't harp on about PS - I'm a PDN man now!!