How many here DON'T use Photoshop

[David M]

Alas, I'm no expert, so I can't help with troubleshooting. I did find that after the most recent update, my VueScan refused to work until I had updated it.
PDF is a good idea. That you.

 

[Ian Grant]

I've used PF files since the 1990s to send work out for printing, usually a combination of graphics and scanned colour photos for 4 colour litho printing, but also shorter runs on Canon/Xerox laser printers. Blurb, Bob books, etc use similar laser printers. Unless you've locked the PDF to prevent editing or password protected them they are easily editable.

I know The Darkroom Cookbook (Steve Anchell) and Way Beyond Monochrome (Ralph Lambrecht) were both sent to Focal Press in PDF format. Ralph sent me two chapters I'd collaborated on, he had a neat trick of using the name of the person he sent files to as the Password so he'd be able to tell who leaked files I'd don't think any were, but the 3rd Edition of the DCB was in it's complete finished form.

Should have added that's why I've been using CorelDraw for about 25 years, and why I'm now using CorelPhotoPaint which is an integral part of the Graphics suite.

Ian

 

[Joanna Carter]

I've used PF files since the 1990s to send work out for printing, usually a combination of graphics and scanned colour photos for 4 colour litho printing, but also shorter runs on Canon/Xerox laser printers. Blurb, Bob books, etc use similar laser printers. Unless you've locked the PDF to prevent editing or password protected them they are easily editable.

Sending word processing documents as PDFs isn't just about security, it's more about recipients not having the same software installed or even if they do, not having a compatible version.

Us Mac users have the choice of Apple's Pages, which is excellent and comes free with macOS but Windows users can't read the files unless we either convert them to PDF, which anyone can read, or to Word format for the sake of Windows users who need to edit them.

 

[Stephen Batey]

And even that depends on having the right version of Word! I often get Word documents attached to emails that my version of Word (2003) can't understand, and have to upload them to Microsoft OneDrive and use WordOnline to read them.

 

[Ian Grant]

Sending word processing documents as PDFs isn't just about security, it's more about recipients not having the same software installed or even if they do, not having a compatible version.

Joanna, I was thinking more about Graphics heavy documents in my case and also maintaining the layout. Steve Anchell sent me part of the text for the DCB 3rd Ed in Word format, Ralph Lambrecht as PDF because he was designing/editing the 2nd Edition of his book in some type of Desktop publishing software, I know they wanted to keep coasts down.

I agree about word processing documents the assumption is we all use Microsoft Office even Windows users, I haven't for over 11 years (work), longer at home. It's no coincidence that all UK Government documents are available as PDFs for the reasons you describe. PDFs are even better for sharing say Indesign, Illustrator, CorelDraw etc files.

Ian

 

[Sal Santamaura]

I only dipped my toe into this arena (after a lifetime of darkroom-only hobby photography) several years ago. Not being interested in 8-bit processing alternatives, or willing to pay Adobe monthly software rent, I purchased Serif PhotoPlus X8, and am completely satisfied with it for my purposes. If faced with the same decision today, I'd get Serif Affinity Photo.

 

[David M]

Joanna,
This may be relevant only to me and the people I correspond with, but I find that .docx documents can give trouble and rewriting the file extension to .doc can sometimes make the file legible. Rewriting the file extension may work with other kinds of file too, but I haven't done any systematic trials, merely used it as a last resort. I offer no promises.
There are programs like NeoOffice, LibreOffice and so on, that people save in a proprietary format that only actual users can read. Bah Humbug.

 

[Ian Grant]

David, Open/Libre Office can save in many formats, it's native default is the Open Document Format which Apple also supported until 2015.

It isn't helpful that Apple and Microsoft won't work on common formats.

Ian

 

[Joanna Carter]

It's not just Apple and Microsoft that no longer support OpenOffice.org.

From Oracle:

In April 2011, Oracle stopped development of OpenOffice.org and fired the remaining StarDivision development team. Its reasons for doing so were not disclosed; some speculate that it was due to the loss of mindshare with much of the community moving to LibreOffice while others suggest it was a commercial decision

From Apache:

As of 2015, the project has no release manager, and itself reports a lack of volunteer involvement and code contributions. After ongoing problems with unfixed security vulnerabilities through 2015 and 2016, in September 2016 the project started discussions on possibly retiring AOO.

As a software developer myself, I have grave doubts about committing to anything that describes itself as "open source", which usually means that, if a bug is found, you have to wait for the steering committee to get around to asking for someone to (voluntarily) fix it… a bit like Linux, which I also tried out many years ago and dropped like the proverbial hot potato.

Unfortunately, whilst some developers (usually hobbyists) support open source and give their time for free, I have to pay my bills and can't afford to spend vast amounts of time working for nothing.

 

[David M]

Ian and Joanna,
I don't doubt that these programs can save in different formats. It's the users who seem unable to do it.
Yes, it is a pity that there's no common document format. As Apple users say: "...if only Steve were here..."

 

[Ian Grant]

It's not just Apple and Microsoft that no longer support OpenOffice.org.

Most of us switched to Libre Office once Oracle and Apache got involved, and that has had significant improvements that later get added to Open Office which lags behind. There's support for commercial developers to work on Libre Office and some forks of Linux from governments who just can't afford Microsoft's (or Apple's) commercial licensing, so it's in their interest to give financial support.

Linux has come a long way in recent years, some distributions are excellent, my brother-in-law, a maths professor at Oxford, has used Linux at work for many years.

Ian

 

[David M]

So parts of HMG are using open-source software? MoD? HMRC? NHS?
"...if a bug is found, you have to wait for the steering committee to get around to asking for someone to (voluntarily) fix it…"
"...developers (usually hobbyists) support open source..."
Not really a topic for this forum, but you've got me worried, Ian.

 

[Ian Grant]

So parts of HMG are using open-source software? MoD? HMRC? NHS?
"...if a bug is found, you have to wait for the steering committee to get around to asking for someone to (voluntarily) fix it…"
"...developers (usually hobbyists) support open source..."
Not really a topic for this forum, but you've got me worried, Ian.

It's you inferring UK government David They usually get ripped off having bespoke software written for them.

The quality of Open Source software is very high, particularly Libre Office and GIMP and they are well established and robust. A great many people use GIMP instead of Photoshop.

Ian

 

[David M]

I've heard horror stories but I put the problems down to interference by indecisive and ignorant politicians. No political bias and not appropriate here anyway.
I began Photoshop with a copy kindly donated by an employer.
I'll lie awake worrying a little easier now.

 

[James T]

No PS on Linux.
My analogue to digital flow is:
Scan with vuescan to raw for mono and to tiff for colour.
Adjust levels etc in RawTherapee
Gimp if anything more radical is needed.

 

[Joanna Carter]

Eeeeekkk!!!

Members of our photo club are always asking about cheap (as in free) photo editing software, so I thought I would try Gimp to see if it was worth recommending.

I work on Mac computers.

First impression was that it is an exceedingly badly laid out UI; difficult to navigate without resorting to the manual.

Then I tried to open a RAW file, only to find that they are not supported and that I would have to use something like RawTherapee to do the initial "conversion" to something like TIFF. When I tried this, I ended up with a ridiculously small file and couldn't find how to change the size.

As with Gimp, RawTherapee suffers from really small font size (when viewed on a high resolution screen) and the layout of both is very cluttered/disorganised.

I use DxO for digital work, which allows me to change the RAW development, even after altering non-RAW stuff. I also have a copy of Photoshop CS3 which I paid an absolute fortune for as part of the Creative Suite package and which I still prefer over all other software for scanning and editing LF stuff. If I could find a legit copy of CS6 which I could continue to use under macOS Mojave, it would mean I wouldn't have to keep my old MacBook Pro just to run CS3, which is only 32bit.

As for Linux, I know it is free but I found it to be too limiting and complicated to manage. Even with the newer "desktops", it has a sort of weird, not quite Windows, not quite Mac, feel to it that is quite disturbing.

Even if I didn't make a living writing Mac an iOS software (that requires a Mac), I would still rather stump up to buy the cheapest Mac Mini (less than £500) with a separate screen simply because then I am not tied in to Microsoft's eternal subscription model and endless updates and bug-fixes, and it comes with loads of free software, including an image processing software called Photos, which can also cope with RAW files.

macOs is every bit as secure as Linux as they are both based on Unix and, at least for macOS, there are so few viruses and exploits out there, I also don't have to pay subscriptions for AV software.

Please excuse the ramble; I'm finding the hunt for "free/cheap" image processing software, for our members, that works on Windows and Mac and is easy to use very frustrating. On top of that, I really resent all the money I spent on CS3, just to be told I have to pay Adobe every month for a product that, for me, does nothing more than CS3.

 

[Joanna Carter]

Photoshop for me.
I use Illustrator and Indesign too, but I have stuck with last versions that I can own outright. I didn't and don't approve of paying protection money to Adobe. The versions I have can do much more than I need, anyway. I have Lightroom too but have no idea what to do with it, although it seems popular.
When Affinity bring out their long-promised publishing software, I may switch to an all-Affinity setup. Sooner or later, I suppose, OSX will be updated beyond my Adobe programs.

Just noticed your post David.

Even though I have Illustrator and InDesign as part of the CS3 bundle, I now use Affinity Design for vector graphics. I was even able to open an Illustrator file in Affinity!

I also now use Pages for layout instead of InDesign and, so far, it has coped with everything I used to do in inDesign.

 

[David M]

Joanna,
I am always astonished when people with five grand hanging round their neck ask for free software.

I'm currently trying out Affinity Publisher Beta. It seems to work well so far. When it becomes a real (Alpha?) application, I may switch over entirely to Affinity. I have the other two already. Affinity Designer is good at exporting in all sorts of formats.
The next iteration of OSX will be fully 64-bit and will no longer support InDesign 6, which is only 32-bit. I'm told that Photoshop 6 and Illustrator 6 will continue to function, but there are gentle hints that there may be problems.

 

[Alan Clark]

When my last hard drive crashed and I lost my software including an old version of photoshop, I refused to shell out £10 a month for the latest version. A friend recommended Affinity Photo. I had a free trial, liked it, and bought it for £49. I find it does everything I want and is better than Photoshop Elements which I also had on a free trial, and would have cost me £89 had I bought it.

Alan

 

[Ian Grant]

I've noticed GIMP improve significantly recently, I did trial and early Beta of Version 3 some time and and older computer ago, that will be a very significant when it's eventually rolled out.

In the past I've used CorelDraw for small book and catalogues which go to the printers in PDF format. Corel had an excellent program Ventura which was slightly better than InDesign but they dropped it in 2002, I'd consider Affinity Publisher but first must try Scribus which many seem to like.

If Adobe were to offer a Student/Home version of their Creative Suite I'd be interested, essentially that's what Corel do with their CorelDraw suite and it's more powerful than the Serif (Affinity) alternatives.

Ian