Healing Brush on Mac

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greenmorpher
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Healing Brush on Mac

Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Hello

Newbie here, trying the demo.

First let me say that I am absolutely incredulous at the general quality and capabilities of the program. Where has it been all my life? I am also afraid to say that from where I sit, as a marketing consultant and small publisher (of books -- there's no money in it folks! :?) the program is pretty seriously under-priced.

I would be happy to pay more so long as it did what it is supposed to do ... on a Mac. Dual 1.25Ghz G4 MMD, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, OS X.4.9.

1) HEALING BRUSH

Fantastic. Unfortunately, I had two 300 dpi pix on an A4 page, and after half a dozen clicks, which did some remarkable healing of pimples on a young friend's face, the program reported a "serious error" and refused to do any more healing. Saved as a PL32 file, closed and opened it. Still wouldn't work, although it no longer reported an error. Quit PL32 and relaunched -- still wouldn't do any more healing. When I clicked, I got a green circle corresponding to the brush ... but no healing was going on.

I saved again as a 144 dpi JPEG, then when I opened this in PL32, the healing brush worked on this for a dozen or so clicks before I completed the example I wanted to generate. It worked fine.

What is a "serious error" -- is working in 300 dpi a problem?

Oh, I was at 200% or more magnification too.

2) RESIZING PICTURES AND ADJUSTING RESOLUTION

I cannot find out how to do a basic action of picture editing and publication production -- resize a picture and adjust its resolution so I can have the same sized picture, e.g. 4cm x 3cm, with different resolutions, 300 dpi for printing and 72 dpi for web use, after starting with an image from my camera which is 72 dpi and 115 x 86 cm.

Can I do that in PL32? If so, how? If not -- why not?

3) FONT MENU

After just about going nuts searching through the menus and palettes for a font palette/menu, I finally found myself staring at p.148 of the manual in disbelief:
7.4.16 Text/Font
Only Windows: You can open the font dialog of Windows with this
function in order to select a font.
"This must be some kind of a joke," I thought. "All the text manipulation stuff is here, but I can't select a font or a font size! It makes all the type functions totally useless!"

When is this going to be fixed? This comes back to the question of the cost of the program, I suspect. If fixing this can't be done because of lack of funds, then you are not charging enough for the program. Having access to type is pretty basic for this program.

4) PDF EXPORT

PL32 PDF exports TT fonts, but not PS-1 -- is that correct? This is a problem in a professional environment -- which generally PL32 is more than good enough to operate in -- because some RIPS don't support TT fonts. Newspapers, magazines, etc. pretty much standardize on Acrobat Distiller as their PDF generator of choice -- and it converts all fonts to postscript, as I understand it. This means that one "flag" newspaper and magazine people will use to pick non-Acrobat PDFs, which they will reject out of hand without testing the goodness of them, is the presence of TT fonts. It would be preferable if PL32 complied with industry practice in this matter so that purchasers could submit PL32 PDF output to print outlets with confidence.

5) SPOT COLORS

What of spot colors? Pantone swatches and so forth? Are they available in any form? There is a clever little utility on Mac called Spot Picker which adds a spot color capability (if you have some old Adobe swatches lying around) to Cocoa programs and, the maker says, some late Carbon ones (which use the OS "Show colors" command ), but that won't work with PL32.

--

I have some sympathy with an earlier writer who was questioning your rather individual naming of functions/actions/tools. This does make life more difficult for the new user -- particularly people over 50! (I am over 60, which makes it even more difficult).

If you want to use different terms, how about a glossary to tell the world what they are equivalent to in other programs. Whether we like it or not, Photoshop is the standard -- even people who don't use it know the P'shop terms.
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Gerhard Huber
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Beitrag von Gerhard Huber »

HEALING BRUSH
I don't get this problem here. Can you send me your problematic PLD file to test?
RESIZING PICTURES AND ADJUSTING RESOLUTION
There were many discussion about resolution of raster images in the past. So I won't do this again.
Fact is that you can setup the resolution of a raster image at "Layer/Layer Properties". If you want to scale a layer use "Layer/Scale Layer". You can setup here a percentual scaling or a absolute scaling. You can setup the unit of the absolute scaling with a right click on the input field.
FONT MENU
What you found in the manual is a special windows dialog for font settings. Normally you setup the prefered font in the "View/Toolsbars/Layer Settings" dialog. Here you can setup the font, font size and so on for the selected text.
PDF EXPORT
I have to ask our PDF expert for this.
SPOT COLORS
Since we don't have so much money as other companies have, we are not allowed to use Color Paletts from other big companies.
But PL32 can read the Color Paletts from many other programs. Open the Color List Panel and right click on it to open Color Paletts
Photoshop is the standard
Perhaps, but users who spend so much money for a program won't be our customers.

Gerhard
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Koyaanis
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Re: Healing Brush on Mac

Beitrag von Koyaanis »

greenmorpher hat geschrieben:Hello

Newbie here, trying the demo.

First let me say that I am absolutely incredulous at the general quality and capabilities of the program. Where has it been all my life? I am also afraid to say that from where I sit, as a marketing consultant and small publisher (of books -- there's no money in it folks! :?) the program is pretty seriously under-priced.
The only reason you might think it is under-priced is because Adobe has been raping the world for 2 decades now and everyone has been letting them do it.
If you want to use different terms, how about a glossary to tell the world what they are equivalent to in other programs. Whether we like it or not, Photoshop is the standard -- even people who don't use it know the P'shop terms.
I for one am very glad that PL32 does not follow PS conventions. If they did then PL32 would be just as ancient in capabilities as PhotoShop. I like PL32 just as it is -- because it is BETTER than PhotoShop. As the old saying goes, "If even 5 billion people are saying, doing, and believing a foolish thing it remains a foolish thing." I have never considered PhotoShop any kind of standard. In my mind the only kind of "standard" that PhotoShop represents is the #1 over-priced bloatware that was forced onto us by manipulative and underhanded greed-mongers. That is my idea of what kind of "standard" that PhotoShop represents. I still don't like PDF files, when RTF files are just fine for use and were supported by every computer in existence without any monopolistic Adobe software to read it. But no, the business world demanded that we all use Adobe's PDF format now. The ONLY reason PS is a "standard" is because they forced everyone into it, and everyone was blind enough to let them.

If you are having a difficult time trying to unlearn bad habits that you learned by wasting your time with PhotoShop, and need to learn newer and better ways of doing things in PL32, then you might find this cross-reference list handy. It needs updating though, so many newer features and even older ones in PL32 were not listed. http://www.geocities.com/advanced_pser/ ... erence.htm
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greenmorpher
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Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Gerhard Huber hat geschrieben:
HEALING BRUSH
I don't get this problem here. Can you send me your problematic PLD file to test?
I dumped it Gerhard, but I just tried again with the full file and it worked fine. In this case, I was working at 72 dpi, rather than 300 dpi, BUT with the full 7.1 megapixel file running and it worked fine. I am really blown away by the functionality of that healing brush!
RESIZING PICTURES AND ADJUSTING RESOLUTION
...you can setup the resolution of a raster image at "Layer/Layer Properties". If you want to scale a layer use "Layer/Scale Layer". You can setup here a percentual scaling or a absolute scaling. You can setup the unit of the absolute scaling with a right click on the input field.
Excellent -- exactly what I wanted to do. Can I suggest it would be great if the two functions (changing resolution and changing dimensions) could be melded into one dialog?
FONT MENU
What you found in the manual is a special windows dialog for font settings. Normally you setup the preferred font in the "View/Toolbars/Layer Settings" dialog. Here you can setup the font, font size and so on for the selected text.
Got it! That's fine. A most unusual place to have a font menu, though, I must say! :wink:
SPOT COLORS
Since we don't have so much money as other companies have, we are not allowed to use Color Palettes from other big companies.
But PL32 can read the Color Palettes from many other programs. Open the Color List Panel and right click on it to open Color Palettes
Help! I tried that -- it recognized (apparently) .PAL files from Canvas and "no suffix" (.EPS) files from InDesign 2, but when I "opened" them, all I got were empty boxes with ffff next to them. Looks as though these spot colors are not going to work. Bad luck, but not too big a deal.

Now I need to know how to get back to PL 32s own colors ...

Ah! I quit the program, then deleted the preference "DafaultPalette" in User~/Library/Preferences/PhotoLine/DefaultPalette. Relaunched and I have the PL's own colors back again. Is that the correct way to fix it or is there a better way?

Is the black that is between the transparent and white boxes in the palette the registration black?
(Photoshop) users who spend so much money for a program won't be our customers.
True, Gerhard, and I am not a Photoshop user myself either, since a long way back when it had about a quarter of the functionality that PL 32 offers! :D

BUT -- and it is a big but. I suggested that you should list the equivalent names/functions in PL 32 <-> Photoshop because there are tens of thousands of magazines and web articles and tutorials around about how you can do things in Photoshop, which can be easily translated into getting the best out of PL 32.

Now I am primarily a Canvas user which has some image stuff similar to Photoshop and which does some things differently. I've learned a lot about using Canvas' image tools by following Photoshop tutorials. That was relatively easy, though, because Canvas' image mode is not nearly as complex as PL 32 (which is why I am looking at PL 32 very seriously) so the equivalent tools and function were pretty easy to recognise and access.

In the process of learning from Photoshop tutorials, by the way, I think PL 32 users will become even more strongly loyal than they are now.
They will be blown away by just how strongly PL 32 stacks up against the premier program in the category, the full Photoshop, which costs about 15 times more! Certainly, I am! :D

Best regards

Geoffrey Heard, Publisher
The Worsley Press

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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greenmorpher
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Re: Healing Brush on Mac

Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Koyaanis hat geschrieben:
greenmorpher hat geschrieben: I am afraid to say that from where I sit, as a marketing consultant and small publisher (of books -- there's no money in it folks! :?) the program is pretty seriously under-priced.
The only reason you might think it is under-priced is because Adobe has been raping the world for 2 decades now and everyone has been letting them do it.
Koyaanis, that's not quite true. I am looking around, and being VERY pleasantly surprised coming across PL 32, because my major program of choice, Canvas, is about to be orphaned on Mac. Canvas is being orphaned for a number of reasons, and not enough money to continue development is among the biggest of them. Canvas gives marvellous functionality but the small team of programmers finally hit the wall. As a program gets bigger, it needs more and more programmers because it takes more and more work to take smaller and smaller steps. It's a question of complexity.

On the other hand, I appreciate that Adobe has been making a lot of dollars for years -- but I wouldn't go so far as to say "raping the world". That's too serious a charge in my view. If you say that about a software company, what do you say about people who make and drop scatter bombs?
Koyaanis hat geschrieben:
greenmorpher hat geschrieben: If you want to use different terms, how about a glossary to tell the world what they are equivalent to in other programs. Whether we like it or not, Photoshop is the standard -- even people who don't use it know the P'shop terms.
I didn’t say "conventions" I simply asked for a list of equivalent terms/functions. I have explained my motivation in my previous post in response to Gerhard. But when you say it is "better than Photoshop", if you haven't compared them, how do you know? And if you have compared them, why? ... when you say you don't regard P'shop as any standard?
Koyaanis hat geschrieben:I still don't like PDF files, when RTF files are just fine for use and were supported by every computer in existence without any monopolistic Adobe software to read it.
RTF was set up by a range of developers including the biggest monopolist of all, Microsoft, which then proceeded to corrupt the standard so it was (and is) no longer a "standard". PDF is valuable, in my view, because of document security and the fact that you can do things like turning a PL 32 page into a universally accessible format so others can see it on their screens exactly as you can see it having composed it. RTF can't do that. Full stop.
Koyaanis hat geschrieben:If you are having a difficult time trying to unlearn bad habits that you learned by wasting your time with PhotoShop, and need to learn newer and better ways of doing things in PL32, then you might find this cross-reference list handy. It needs updating though, so many newer features and even older ones in PL32 were not listed. http://www.geocities.com/advanced_pser/ ... erence.htm
Since the list is majorly incomplete, by your own description, Koyaanis, then it is pretty useless, isn't it? But thank you for the gesture all the same. Nevertheless, I would have appreciated the offer without your childish hyperbole which is quite inaccurately targeted as far as I am concerned anyway.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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Gerhard Huber
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Beitrag von Gerhard Huber »

PL32 PDF exports TT fonts, but not PS-1 -- is that correct? This is a problem in a professional environment -- which generally PL32 is more than good enough to operate in -- because some RIPS don't support TT fonts. Newspapers, magazines, etc. pretty much standardize on Acrobat Distiller as their PDF generator of choice -- and it converts all fonts to postscript, as I understand it. This means that one "flag" newspaper and magazine people will use to pick non-Acrobat PDFs, which they will reject out of hand without testing the goodness of them, is the presence of TT fonts.
We talked about this here. It seams that PL32 exports "Opentype-Fonts". Here it can include TT fonts, most of Type-1 fonts but no PS-1 fonts. Since it is much effort to implement PS-1 fonts and there are no users at the moment who want to get it, it will be at the bottom of our wish list :-)
Help! I tried that -- it recognized (apparently) .PAL files from Canvas and "no suffix" (.EPS) files from InDesign 2, but when I "opened" them, all I got were empty boxes with ffff next to them. Looks as though these spot colors are not going to work. Bad luck, but not too big a deal.
OK, the problem is, that PL32 doesn't support Spot Colors at the moment.
You are right, that PL32 can't import the palette files you mentioned. If you had paletts of Photoshop or Paintshop, it would work. If you want, you can send me a sample palette file and I will try to create an import for it (support@pl32.com).
If you loaded a extern palette file in PL32, and right click on it, you will get a context menu with several entries at the bottom. Here you should be able to find the "Standard" platte as well as your loaded. This way you can switch back to the original palette file.

Gerhard[/quote]
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greenmorpher
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Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Gerhard, thanks for those responses. Incidentally, I have recommended PL 32 to the NisusWriter list and to the PageMakr (& InDesign) list.

One question you didn’t answer:
Is the black that is between the transparent and white boxes in the palette the registration black?
Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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Beitrag von Gerhard Huber »

greenmorpher hat geschrieben:Is the black that is between the transparent and white boxes in the palette the registration black?
sorry, but we have no registration black at the moment.

Gerhard
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greenmorpher
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Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Gerhard Huber hat geschrieben:
greenmorpher hat geschrieben:Is the black that is between the transparent and white boxes in the palette the registration black?
sorry, but we have no registration black at the moment.

That's an essential next step then for color separated output.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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greenmorpher
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Beitrag von greenmorpher »

HA, HA!

One of the Windows guys on the PageMakr (sic) list was asking how to get a sepia tone into a photograph he was processing in Photoshop 6. I suggested he try PhotoLiner 32. :P

Got to have a bit of fun! (At least he hasn't been sucked into buying the latest upgrades to Photoshop.)

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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Beitrag von greenmorpher »

Forgot to add, I did tell him how to find it.

I had found it by accident only shortly before. I tried to find it using the manual, but apparently there is no mention of "sepia" in the manual.

Cheers, Geoff

Geoffrey Heard, Business Writer & Publisher

"Type & Layout: Are you communicating or just making pretty shapes" -- Revealed! The secrets of how you can use type and layout to turbocharge your messages in print. See the book at http://www.worsleypress.com
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