Switching from FWCS6 to PhotoLine

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qoqodqo
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Registriert: Di 08 Okt 2019 14:44

Switching from FWCS6 to PhotoLine

Beitrag von qoqodqo »

I am considering switching after many years from now quite old Fireworks CS6 and from all I saw PhotoLine seems to be the closest to it, so I gave it a shot and I really do like it overall, BUT!

There are things missing in PhotoLine compared to FWCS6, mainly:
* much less layer blends (FWCS6 having like 44, whereas PhotoLine like 20+)
* no "paste as mask" which make creating mask super easy and convenient from existing vector objects
* no feather feature for vector edges with adjustable amount

So my question is wish basically: is there any chance PhotoLine developers would include these functions?

Or are they there already under some other names?
bkh
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Re: Switching from FWCS6 to PhotoLine

Beitrag von bkh »

qoqodqo hat geschrieben: Di 08 Okt 2019 16:20 * no "paste as mask" which make creating mask super easy and convenient from existing vector objects
PL has "Convert Layer to Lasso" which creates a selection from a vector layer, and vector layers can also be converted to layer masks (Layer Mask -> Convert for previous). Not sure which ones you are referring to. If you want to use the clipboard as the source layer, you could record an action and optionally assign a key combination to it.
qoqodqo hat geschrieben: Di 08 Okt 2019 16:20 * no feather feature for vector edges with adjustable amount
The lasso tools have a "soft edge" setting. For layer masks, the amount can be set under "Clipping" in the layer attributes.

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Burkhard
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Herbert123
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Re: Switching from FWCS6 to PhotoLine

Beitrag von Herbert123 »

qoqodqo hat geschrieben: Di 08 Okt 2019 16:20 There are things missing in PhotoLine compared to FWCS6, mainly:
* much less layer blends (FWCS6 having like 44, whereas PhotoLine like 20+)
* no "paste as mask" which make creating mask super easy and convenient from existing vector objects
* no feather feature for vector edges with adjustable amount

So my question is wish basically: is there any chance PhotoLine developers would include these functions?

Or are they there already under some other names?
Welcome to PhotoLine! I used to work with Fireworks myself many years ago.

As for the layer blend modes:
- inverse color dodge and inverse color burn are easily replicated in PhotoLine by using a negative opacity of -100.
Unique to PhotoLine is the ability to apply negative values to the opacity, and effectively using an inverted version of all available blend modes. Which means most blend modes can be inverted.
And to top this off, PhotoLine's opacity range expands the 'common' 0-100% to a whopping -200 - +200%.

- the red, green, and blue blend modes in FW are not blend modes in PhotoLine, but rather channel checkboxes in the layer properties panel. Again, this is FAR more powerful compared to FW, because a layer's channel can be changed to only use B, or a combination of two channels. And this can then be combined with setting a custom layer blend mode. By separating these, PhotoLine offers a much more flexible workflow.

- Fireworks includes a couple of unique blend modes (glow, reflect, freeze, heat) which I haven't seen in any other design software. I am not familiar with their blend math, so I would have to experiment to see if a combination of settings will deliver the same results. I have a feeling some of these were introduced to offset the lack of advanced layer blending and control of channel mixing, but only some experimentation will tell.

For example, I would experiment with the channel mixer adjustment layer in combination with blend modes.

Paste as mask:
In PhotoLine it works a bit differently. Place the vector object/group of objects one layer above the to be masked layer, and invoke the Convert Layer to Layer Mask for Previous command (found in the layer mask menu at the bottom of the layer panel). Or use the shortcut CTRL-SHIFT-M to quickly convert any layer to a mask. Quick and efficient.

Or just right-click the eye icon of the to-become mask layer, and change the setting to 'Clip'. You may want to group the objects first, though, depending on your layer stack setup.

Anyway, no need for a Paste as Mask command. Use the CTRL-SHIFT-M option instead.

PS Layer masks in PhotoLine are light years ahead of Fireworks.

feather feature for vector edges with adjustable amount:
In this regard PhotoLine doesn't keep up with Fireworks, despite FW's age. PhotoLine can't apply live bitmap brush strokes to vector strokes, for example. Or blur the stroke.

That said, there is an option for "Path Painting", which allows for painting along a selected path with a brush. But this is completely destructive, unfortunately. It is one of the things I still miss in PhotoLine, because it limits the artistic potential of vectors.

And if you really do need to blur the stroke, it is relatively simple to create two objects: one stroke, one fill, and apply a blur adjustment layer to the stroke layer.

Other PhotoLine pet peeves of mine compared to Fireworks:
- No symbols (virtual layers mitigate this somewhat).
- No master pages.
- No simple option to share a layer across pages.

I don't really mind the missing brush options for vector strokes, but I do sorely miss these last three options. The majority of other layout applications supports these, and for good reason.

For the past few years I kept asking the developers nicely if they perhaps could find it in their hearts to add these rather essential workflow enhancers, but so far no response yet. Let's hope they will at some point.
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