Digital Prints

104
Mastering Digital Printing
Paint Shop Pro
Paint Shop Pro (“PSP”) by Jasc Software is a great program for the average user, especially
for the price, which is about a sixth of Photoshop’s. You can both create and edit images
with it. There are text and drawing tools, photo and perspective correction and enhancement
tools, a fast background eraser, web design tools, and a powerful full-blown scripting
engine that allows users to record, play, and edit any series of repetitive or creative tasks
within the program (similar to Actions in Photoshop). And as with Photoshop, there are
layers, adjustment layers, and layer blending modes. It’s very Wacom-compatible, and it
even has Levels and Curves adjustments. On the drawback side, Paint Shop Pro lacks the
16-bit support, CMYK, LAB, and other advanced modes of Photoshop, and it offers only
the simplest of color management, but compared to Photoshop, PSP is very easy to use.
My main complaint is that it’s only for the PC; there is no Mac version.
The GIMP
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It’s a freely distributed (“open
source”) program, which means that unlike commercial software, The GIMP is under continual
development by a group of volunteers and enthusiasts around the world. The GIMP
is meant for doing things like photo retouching, digital painting, and image composition
and editing. “I’ve found everything I was looking for in The Gimp,” says artist Pat
Thompson. “I’m astounded by all the color-manipulation tools and options. It has layers,
color management including Lab color, an optional animation module, and several tool
options I’d never heard of before.”
The GIMP is expandable and designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions. It’s
written and developed on the UNIX platform, although it also runs on Windows and Mac
(OSX only). To use The GIMP, you’ll need only enough computer expertise to download
it and follow simple directions. For printing, Windows users activate the normal printer
drivers, and Mac users can print through the related but independent Gimp-Print printing
package.
Jasc Software’s Paint Shop Pro is a
lower-priced, image-editing alternative
to Photoshop.
Courtesy of Jasc Software