Best freeware alternative to Paint Shop Pro?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Latter
  • Start date Start date
Are there are any good freeware alternatives to Paint Shop Pro?
Click to expand...

Try The GIMP
http://www.gimp.org

or have a look here
http://freeware.quantum.2ya.com/photoeditor.htm

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The GIMP Installer packages for Windows
http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/


/CoMa
Click to expand...

Hi Coma,

Thankyou for the link - and I'm glad there's an installer package
having had a look at Bebop & Rocksteady's Tor Lilqvist link!

B & R's link also listed a number of other programs but I was
interested in the 'disclaimer' contained for GIMP cos it says gif
files aren't catered for - is this a disadvantage?

Up until I downloaded HTML-Kit a coupla days ago I had been using
AOLPress which doesn't allow jpegs as background - presumably HTML-Kit
will (I know I could soon check but I'm doing half-a-dozen things at
once at the mo9ment!).

Anyway, thanks again for the link - I'm off to download it now!

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John Latter

The 'Socially Acceptable Violence' website:
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Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism
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The GIMP Installer packages for Windows
http://www2.arnes.si/~sopjsimo/gimp/


/CoMa
Click to expand...

Hi Coma, tis I again!

On the GIMP windows download page it says:

"LZW support for The Gimp. Required if you wish to save GIF files.
You need license from Unisys to be able to download this plugin if you
live in a country where the patent is still valid. "

Any idea where I can find out if the patent is still valid in the UK?

--

John Latter

The 'Socially Acceptable Violence' website:
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/sac.html

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html
 
John said:
On the GIMP windows download page it says:

"LZW support for The Gimp. Required if you wish to save GIF files.
You need license from Unisys to be able to download this plugin if you
live in a country where the patent is still valid. "

Any idea where I can find out if the patent is still valid in the UK?
Click to expand...

The US patent expired this past June.
The UK patent expires June 18, 2004.

Reference-
http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw
 
| Any idea where I can find out if the patent is still valid in the UK?

The patent is still in force in Canada, the U.K., Japan, Germany,
Italy, France an their dependencies. It will finally expire in July
2004. It is illegal to use or distribute to these countries unless
either the software is under license or unless you obtain a license
directly from Unisys Corp.

I know of no generally available freeware which is under license,
though a great number of programs which pirate the gif/tiff
compression exist. And I've heard from someone who should know that
Unisys intends to enforce their patent (though whether we'll see any
great surge in cases until after the patent expires completely and
maximum damages can be claimed, is open to speculation).

More than you asked, but there is a good, patent-free alternative to
..gif in the .png format, which is supported by nearly all recent
browsers.





- return address is altered slightly to reduce spam.
 
The US patent expired this past June.
The UK patent expires June 18, 2004.

Reference-
http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw
Click to expand...

(deletes "damn!") oh well! Anyway, thanks for the info Ben - speaking
as a newbie, would I be losing anything if I used GIMP for jpeg files
(assuming I can install GIMP ok) and then use another program to
convert to gif? Am I allowed to do this?

--

John Latter

The 'Socially Acceptable Violence' website:
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/sac.html

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html
 
| Any idea where I can find out if the patent is still valid in the UK?

The patent is still in force in Canada, the U.K., Japan, Germany,
Italy, France an their dependencies. It will finally expire in July
2004. It is illegal to use or distribute to these countries unless
either the software is under license or unless you obtain a license
directly from Unisys Corp.

I know of no generally available freeware which is under license,
though a great number of programs which pirate the gif/tiff
compression exist. And I've heard from someone who should know that
Unisys intends to enforce their patent (though whether we'll see any
great surge in cases until after the patent expires completely and
maximum damages can be claimed, is open to speculation).

More than you asked, but there is a good, patent-free alternative to
.gif in the .png format, which is supported by nearly all recent
browsers.





- return address is altered slightly to reduce spam.
Click to expand...

Thanks Danin - I think I've got a better idea what its all about: I'm
not supposed to use any kind of gif right?

And ty for the info re png but is there any drwabacks to using jpg
images?

--

John Latter

The 'Socially Acceptable Violence' website:
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/sac.html

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html
 
John said:
(deletes "damn!") oh well! Anyway, thanks for the info Ben - speaking
as a newbie, would I be losing anything if I used GIMP for jpeg files
(assuming I can install GIMP ok) and then use another program to
convert to gif? Am I allowed to do this?
Click to expand...

It's been a long time since I used GIMP but I imagine if you limit the
amount of colors you use when creating a graphic to 256 it should convert to
a GIF with little change in color. JPEG doesn't support transparency,
though.
You could use a program like Irfanview http://www.irfanview.com to convert
between file formats.

You might also want to try Pixia. It's been a while since I used this
program, too. Pixia also features layers and masks but as far as I know
still doesn't support the GIF format.
 
It's been a long time since I used GIMP but I imagine if you limit the
amount of colors you use when creating a graphic to 256 it should convert to
a GIF with little change in color. JPEG doesn't support transparency,
though.
You could use a program like Irfanview http://www.irfanview.com to convert
between file formats.

You might also want to try Pixia. It's been a while since I used this
program, too. Pixia also features layers and masks but as far as I know
still doesn't support the GIF format.
Click to expand...

Hi Ben,

I admit I haven't persevered very much but I found GIMp so daunting
that I've started another thread asking if there are any 'newbie
user-friendly' programs'.

I saw your other post with the link to Pixia in - ty! :)

--

John Latter

The 'Socially Acceptable Violence' website:
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/sac.html

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html
 
John Latter said:
Hi Folks!

Are there are any good freeware alternatives to Paint Shop Pro?

--

John Latter

The 'Socially Acceptable Violence' website:
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/sac.html

Model of an Internal Evolutionary Mechanism
http://members.aol.com/jorolat/TEM.html
Click to expand...

Actually, if you look in the right places, you can get a copy
of PSP dirt cheap. 3.1x is an older version albeit but still useable.
I just got my copy a few weeks ago for 50 cents. I picked up two extra's
for future trade bait :)

Look for the something called the Netscape Composer Power Pack. It comes
with what seems to be a full version (hence no registration or payment
seems to be required or is asked for.)

There doesn't seem to be many free paint suites out there, but
for 50 cents, you hardly need one.


dos-man
 
| And ty for the info re png but is there any drwabacks to using jpg
| images?

No, unless you want to do non-rectangular images which have a
transparent background. That was one of the big reasons to use .gif,
and the .png format does similarly support making areas transparent.
Png has a lot of fancy transparency, and as "Blinky" pointed out, not
all browsers support any but the basic transparency (and gif files
never had anything but basic transparency anyway). But .jpg is fine
for normal rectangular images.





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Danin said:
| And ty for the info re png but is there any drwabacks to using jpg
| images?
Click to expand...
No, unless you want to do non-rectangular images which have a
transparent background. That was one of the big reasons to use .gif,
and the .png format does similarly support making areas transparent.
Png has a lot of fancy transparency, and as "Blinky" pointed out, not
all browsers support any but the basic transparency (and gif files
never had anything but basic transparency anyway). But .jpg is fine
for normal rectangular images.
Click to expand...

Far as I know, only IE doesn't. Gecko-based browsers are okay with it
(Moz, NS, Galeon...); Konqueror is okay with it, and I think that implies
that Apple's Safari can handle them; Opera doesn't choke on them. The
format isn't new, after all.
 
"LZW support for The Gimp. Required if you wish to save GIF files.
You need license from Unisys to be able to download this plugin if you
live in a country where the patent is still valid. "

Any idea where I can find out if the patent is still valid in the UK?
Click to expand...

Personally I don't use Gif, never have and never will, for this very
reason, it is also dated technologly and the pantent issues and has shot
itself in the foot...

The open source equalivalant PNG is just as good and the GIMP supports this
as does many commercial packages. Including Macromedia Fireworks, Adobe
Photoshop, and Corel PhotoPaint.

PNG was developed for this very reason.

You are not at any dis-adavantage by not using gif

Hope this helps

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----------------------------------------
Quantum Illusions: http://quantum.2ya.com
Pegasus Mail Support Site: http://pegasus.quantum.2ya.com
Freeware Site: http://freeware.quantum.2ya.com
DATA Solutions: http://datasolutions.quantum.2ya.com

If you truly want to contact me click the link
http://quantum.2ya.com/email.htm
 
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