Serif PhotoPlus X3

[Bigaldoc]

I'll start a new thread since my other ( Speaking Of Graphics Software ) has gotten a bit convoluted and almost too long to continue.

Many of you know that we've talked about many photo/graphic editing products both here and in the other forum that most of us belonged to: Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Gimp, and Paint.Net just to name a few. MY quest began in an attempt to find a product less problematic and possibly better than PSP.

In spite of my "newbie" status with the program, I'm convinced that Serif PhotoPlus X3 is the product that I'm gonna stick with and try to continue to learn. Its Help, How To and Tutorials are very good and quite comprehensive. Ian Wilson also posted a link to a number of YouTube videos about the product in my other thread. I have learned since I bought the program that their forum members (including staff) are VERY responsive and I've gotten excellent and rapid responses to my early cries for help!

Here's an example. Yesterday I was trying to accomplish what I thought was a rather simple task and having some difficulty getting the job done. Before coming here, I contacted Ian Wilson by PM as well as asking my question on the Serif forum. When I returned home this afternoon I had not only a PM from Ian but a response from the forum as well. Can't beat that for help when you need it!

So now, in keeping with our policy of keeping things in the forums, here is the now solved problem. It involved drawing a simple rectangle around a part of a picture I'd taken yesterday, which in itself is a "love story" and too long for this post. I struggled with X3 but Ian's solution, confirmed in their forum is:

(1) Use the rectangle selection tool to make a selection around the decal.
(2) On the edit menu choose Outline.
(3) Set your desired line width (it seems to default to 2 pixels) and in the Colour dropdown choose Custom, then click the box showing the current foreground colour to select the colour of your choice.
(4) Click OK.

How's that for getting straight to the "heart" of it. Here's the pix:

DSC_0024.jpg

(Apologies for the somewhat long post!)

[Bigaldoc]

And just for posterity, an alternate solution from the Serif forum, albeit a bit more steps than Ian's but it works. I changed a couple of steps about the paint brush that were tripping me up:

• • 1. Make sure the Paths tab is visible in the Studio (right side of the screen).
    2. Choose the Rectangle from the Shape flyout (near the bottom of the left-hand toolbar).
    3. Click the 'Paths' button (second from the left) on the Context toolbar (top of the screen).
    4. Drag out a rectangle around the area you want to highlight.
    5. Slide the node handle down the left-hand side if you want rounded corners.
    6. Choose the Paintbrush Tool. Be sure to set the size to 5-10 and the opacity very high like 90+.
    7. Click the newly enabled 'Stroke Path' button (the one with a paintbrush icon) on the Paths tab (bottom of library.
    
    The path will be stroked with the foreground colour, using the current brush settings. You can now click the 'Delete Path' trashcan on the Paths tab, if you wish.
    
    Note that you're not restricted to using the Paintbrush Tool at step 6. You can also use the Clone Tool or even the Picture Brush Tool.

[jaystarter]

In spite of my "newbie" status with the program, I'm convinced that Serif PhotoPlus X3 is the product that I'm gonna stick with and try to continue to learn. Its Help, How To and Tutorials are very good and quite comprehensive

Thanks for keeping us in the "picture" Big Al. I've been gettin more and more annoyed with PSPX2 of late so will now look at Photo Plus in more detail

[IanWilson]

And just for posterity, an alternate solution from the Serif forum, albeit a bit more steps than Ian's but it works. I changed a couple of steps about the paint brush that were tripping me up:

• • 1. Make sure the Paths tab is visible in the Studio (right side of the screen).
    2. Choose the Rectangle from the Shape flyout (near the bottom of the left-hand toolbar).
    3. Click the 'Paths' button (second from the left) on the Context toolbar (top of the screen).
    4. Drag out a rectangle around the area you want to highlight.
    5. Slide the node handle down the left-hand side if you want rounded corners.
    6. Choose the Paintbrush Tool. Be sure to set the size to 5-10 and the opacity very high like 90+.
    7. Click the newly enabled 'Stroke Path' button (the one with a paintbrush icon) on the Paths tab (bottom of library.
    
    The path will be stroked with the foreground colour, using the current brush settings. You can now click the 'Delete Path' trashcan on the Paths tab, if you wish.
    
    Note that you're not restricted to using the Paintbrush Tool at step 6. You can also use the Clone Tool or even the Picture Brush Tool.

When we PMed I said that I knew how to do what you needed in GIMP, and that would have been a 'stroke path' method like this. But I think that the alternative method I found and suggested (that you have reproduced in your first post) is much easier. And GIMP can't do that (though it can do some other things that PhotoPlus can't do so well).

Ian

[Bigaldoc]

You're a good teacher, Ian and I don't know how you discover all these things! I'm still struggling with the previous question of layers, masks and/or blending. I managed to do it right one time and got an acceptable result. Now I can't seem to repeat it with another picture. But, and this is important, I think these are "Big Al" shortcomings, not the software. I just keep reminding myself how long I've used PSP...