More functionality than photoshop CS4 at a fraction of the price?

[ravells]

Something I've ranted about often. The cross platform support for Serif's own products is near non-existant.

Pageplus doesn't support/can't import native drawplus files.

Compare this to adobe where you can import an .ai file into ps. and it keeps all your layers intact. I think that PS was originally meant to be used purely as a photo editing tool until artists discovered it and then it took off as an image creation too and adobe started to support that side of the product too.

[Sigurd]

I look forward to a review.


Anything to escape the marketing droids....

[armoredgear7]

I think that PS was originally meant to be used purely as a photo editing tool until artists discovered it and then it took off as an image creation too and adobe started to support that side of the product too.

This is certainly in keeping with my experience. I hardly do any photo editing anymore; Photoshop is my painting program.
Regardless of whether or not Serif PhotoplusX3 is actually the more functional software with a better interface, they'll have a lot of ground to cover to catch up with all the resources that are available for the Adobe Creative Suite.

It just seems to me that this product is the slightly-less-poor man's Photoshop.

[Alecthar]

Even if that's true I'll still be interested. I'd have to sell someone else's child to afford CS4.

[StillCypher]

But... Photoshop runs on a Mac!!!!

[töff]

But... Photoshop runs on a Mac!!!!

But not on Linux ... %$#!@!$%&#$@ ...

[ravells]

It's arrived and I've been playing with it for an hour and I must say, I'm pretty impressed.

I'll skip the bits about photography and go to mapping:

Brushes:

Has pencil and brush options
The brush edit menu is much simpler than PS's (see image) but the level of options is easily good enough for mapping. You can make your own brushtips too.

Layers:
The bits which look and feel exactly like PS
Has layer masks, quick masks and making masks from vector selection.
has channels
has layer adjustments
has blending modes
Has an instant 'depth map' layer button which I think could be very useful for mapping - it's basically a bevel and emboss layerstyle - good for mountains. It's like having a 'render lighting effects' in the fly where the bump map is like a layer mask or vector mask.

Layerstyles are a bit different (see second image for menu) but it supports all the things I have in CS2 including pattern fills. It doesn't quite have the high end stuff that PS has, for example bevel/emboss options don't have chisel hard / chisel soft (although there is a softness slider) and can't make your own bevel curve map.

For the price though I think that for mapmaking and drawing and photography this beats the spots off Adobe Elements in terms of features. Compared to CS2 it has everything that CS2 has except for the 'top end' tweaks and sliders for brushes and layerstyles.

I think what I'll try to do is to make a map using it and see where that gets me but so far...I'm very, very impressed.

Edit: big downside - not many keyboard shortcuts supported.

[ravells]

Practice map going really well. This thing has a look and feel so close to PS it's almost uncanny. This is great for me as I don't have to go through a whole new learning process so the learning curve is shallow.

The only thing I'm missing are the keyboard shortcuts so far.

Filters:

The filters that come with it mirror PS filters pretty much - there are a couple of different ones (e.g. page curl - which Paintshop Pro has) - may be useful if you want a map with a page curl I guess. Native filter list in the image below.

My version shipped with a third party filter set called 'Machine Wash' which specialises in producing a 'distressed' look - perfect for old maps. Haven't been this excited about a new filter since the 'jiggle' filter in Eyecandy. It has 240 effects, each one adjustable.

So far this is getting 2 thumbs up from me all the way.

It's also got a screen capture feature which I missed from my paintshop pro days. It looks like these guys have put the best of PSP and PS together....I'm now even more impressed than I was a couple of hours ago. File menu drop down list attached along with what the general interface looks like.

I'll try to stay objective but I can feel 'fanboi-dom' coming on. Must....avoid...fanboi.

[ravells]

OMG the sales pitch was right....and here is where in terms of non-destructive editing this thing excels: You can make 'filter layers' these are adjustment layers with filters applied where you can go back and edit the filters...I think I'm in love!

[Midgardsormr]

OMG the sales pitch was right....and here is where in terms of non-destructive editing this thing excels: You can make 'filter layers' these are adjustment layers with filters applied where you can go back and edit the filters...I think I'm in love!

Incidentally, Photoshop does have that feature now, too. A filter applied to a smart object becomes a "smart filter," which behaves much like a layer style. I'm not sure when that was introduced, as I skipped from version 7 to CS3.