PSP8 Survival Kit: Page 9

This list is kind of self-explanatory.... These are the items that I didn't included on the "Bells and Whistles" list, but thought worth mentioning just the same. I'm hoping to update this list with some more screenshots and information when I get more time to explore. (Please note that all of this is still a work in progress). So, without further ado . . .

Favourites Folders Now this feature is really handy. You can now save your files directly to different folder locations, exactly where you choose, keeping a permanent record of them in a drop-down menu on the dialogue box (see below). There are all kinds of possibilities for this. For instance, if you run your own website, you can now save all your images for your site directly to a folder called "Files_for_uploading", or something similar. Working on a special digital project and want to keep all your digital photos in a separate folder of their own? One that you can save to time and again from within PSP? You get my drift..... It's a great timesaver.

          

Auto Actions. Nothing to do with Photoshop actions, these are the little warning messages you get if PSP needs you to carry out a specific step before you're allowed to carry on working. An example of this is the warning that will pop up in PSP7 about needing to reduce the color depth of an image if you want to save it as a transparent gif, or if you want to save an image as a jpg. and you haven't merged your layers first. This feature (which has quite an extensive list of warnings and options btw) can be toggled on and off quite easily. File>Preferences>General Program Preferences>Auto Actions.

Layers. The Layers have been completely overhauled...I didn't include them in the "Bells and Whistles" list because, to be totally honest with you, I haven't had time to find out yet exactly what the new changes are.....but from what I've read in the Jasc introduction to the Beta you can now create special groups of layers, and you can save presets here too. So far I've only been using them the "old-fashioned" way. I'll update this information (and possibly add this to "Bells and Whistles") when I have more time to play with them. Ditto for Masks, which have also been revamped.

Mousing over an image now gives you more information. When you run your mouse over an image you can now see several different things, depending on your settings: the RGB value of an image (when your eyedropper is toggled on), a fabulous zooming feature (see more on the zoom tool below), and ditto for the new magnifying glass.

Zooming. This is a BIG improvement (excuse the pun ;-). You can now zoom from a setting of a miniscule 1% right up to 5,000%! (So big it'll probably send the rest of your image out into the backyard ;-) I don't know about you, but this depth of detail kind of blows my mind!

The Mesh Warp tool This tool is so cool to play around with.....it's great fun just to sit there and see what it can do! What it actually does, is place a mesh grill over your image, and then you can go in drag all those little individual nodes and lines around the screen to your heart's content stretching your image every which way from Sunday. Everybody can become instant Picassos with this tool. ;-) If you want to explore this tool in a little more detail, I have a tutorial on how to use the deformation maps that come with it.

New file types support PSP8 now supports several new file types, including AutoFX and Adobe pdf files. And also...ta da....(big drumroll for this one!) you can now save jpeg's in a lossless format. (I'm personally thanking the graphic gods for that one :-) While we're on the subject of file types, the file extensions for several PSP native formats have now changed. For instance, instead of a file being called 'myimage.psp' it will now be saved as 'myimage.pspimage', 'mytube.tub' is now 'mytube.psptub' and so on. These files will not be compatible to read in V7, unless you click on 'options' when you save your V8 file, and use this setting:

However if you haven't already saved your file like that, all is not lost. All you have to do is to open it up in V8 and 'save as' again with the 'save as compatible V7' settings. (If you want to do it the other way around, all V7 images will open in V8 with no problem). However, when I tried this method with a tube it was a little more tricky..... I ended up literally copying and pasting the V8 tube (resaved and renamed as V7 compatible) straight into the V7 tubes folder. Even though it showed up in V7 as being in the tubes folder, it didn't show in the actual tubes box iself. So, I tried opening it from the tubes folder in V7, exported as a tube then and there and it finally worked.