Herbert Van der wegen
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That is expected behaviour. A tiff does not officially support transparency (Photoshop introduced a multi-layered tiff format at some point), but does support alpha channels. This alpha channel is present in the channel palette, and can be used to generate a layer mask, for example.
A PNG file supports true transparency. In this case the transparency is not saved as an alpha channel, but as transparency in the pixels bits. (As far as I know.)
In Photoline a tiff with an alpha channel is loaded up as a two layer file, with the alpha channel layer at the top of the layer stack, and hidden. By activating it as a clipping mask, the background becomes “transparent”.
It depends a bit on the software used how a tiff’s alpha channel is treated. And tiff files can contain more than one alpha channel.
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode -
This could be done with smart objects, and fortunately Photoshop CS3 does have that feature. Load up the proxy version in CS3, convert that layer to a SO. Then apply the effects. Save, and open the file on your mean machine – and replace the SO content with the new high-res version.
Actual destructive effects will NOT work, though.
In that case you might also wish to try setting up an action that repeats the same steps – although certain filter settings would affect the higher resolution version in a different manner.
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode -
Do you happen to work in 16bit mode?
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode -
Nope, that is expected behaviour. The brush engine has never been optimized to make full use of all the cores on your CPU (as far as I am aware) – hence the laggy performance. Perhaps you can find solace in the fact that you are not alone. And increase the spacing.
Switch to different painting software if you require better performance.
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode -
Guys, I think this is spam. Only one post, and a link to a typical website. 99% this is spam.
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode -
Pixelmator is so-so. Although fine for general image editing, it lacks important features which make it unsuitable for more serious work: no Lab colour space, no 32bpc, no EXR support, no HIS workflow (which is neither supported in Photoshop, btw), no standard Photoshop plugin support, the curves dialog is simplistic, layers cannot be instanced, a layer mask is still intrinsic part of a layer (same issue in Photoshop), …
And only available for Mac.
If anyone is on the lookout for a viable professional alternative, Photoline will provide what you seek:
– full 16 and 32bpc Lab, RGB, CMYK, and greyscale support,
– 47 non-destructive adjustment layers,
– 18 layer effects,
– multi-layered EXR import and export (not available in Photoshop, and the ProEXR plugin has issues with large EXR files),
– instanced layers that update in realtime when the source layer is edited,
– layer masks that behave as regular layers(!) (can be grouped, and instanced!)…All functions, adjustments, effects, filters, layers and masks work with 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit images. Liquify is non-destructive and stackable. Bitmaps can be converted to vector.
Layers in Photoline can be any bit-depth and colour space COMBINED in the same layer stack! No more need to switch image mode!
All transformations are non-destructive by default. All the retouching tools of Photoshop are available, and some original ones as well (filter brush).
And colour corrections (curves, levels, etc.) can be made in RGB, Lab, HIS, and HSV colour spaces without the need for image mode switching as well. This alone offers such a freedom compared to Photoshop.
And multiple page support!
Downsides? No 3d or video components. Painting is not as good as Photoshop. Photoline works really well with Krita (open source, and Krita arguably offers a much improved painting and drawing experience compared to Photoshop).
And Photoline can turn just about any other image editing tool (including vector applications such as InkScape) into a “plugin” through its round-tripping app connection functionality.
It IS on par with Photoshop in terms of image editing power. And outpaces it in a number of vital areas (layer system, HIS workflow, and others).
All that, and for some obscure reason it is still one of the web’s best kept secrets.
Inexpensive, and a full license to own for both Mac and Windows. Photoline runs off a USB stick, if required. The website looks horrid, but the tool is excellent.
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode -
The Hue/Saturation adjustment layer does exactly that?
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode -
I did some testing myself. Photoshop’s bmp export lacks any dithering option, which explains your results. In theory we should be able to reduce the number of colours first, and apply a dithering method to visually reduce (most) of the banding.
My workflow:
1) create the gradient (black to red/green/blue)
2) reduce the number of colours to 32, and apply a dither method to remove the banding
3) save as a 16bit bmp.This works really well in Photoline: the gradients looks smooth, even for 1024×1024 dimensioned images.
However, when I tried this workflow in Photoshop, I hit a snag. In Photoshop, in order to reduce the number of colours to 32, we first must switch to index mode, and set a custom number of colours to 32, with either noise or pattern dithering. So far, so good.
Switching back to RGB/8 is required to save the BMP as a 16bit one. And something goes wrong when saving the file as a bmp: an ugly bump is introduced in the gradient by Photoshop while saving.
(These additional steps are not required in Photoline, because there is no need to switch image modes: a simple “Reduce Colours” option is available in the color menu.)
Initially I believed this to be a problem introduced by the mode switch in Photoshop. I therefore installed Quantizer from XiMagic (https://www.ximagic.com/q_index.html) to circumvent that step, and reduced the colours to a dithered 32.
Then I attempted another save, and unfortunately Photoshop’s bmp export destroyed the gradient again.
Therefore, it seems that Photoshop is incapable to save a proper 16bit red/green/blue bmp gradient. Which is strange, since the identical steps in Photoline produce a very nice usable result.
PS: when I import Photoline’s r/g/b gradient (32 colours dithered) bmps into Photoshop, and then save out a 16bit bmp once more, there are no issues with the gradient.
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode -
You are correct, the stroke path function is not a real-time tool – so you will have to perform those steps manually each and every time.
Creating a shape does not result in the same stroke, of course.
If this bothers you, why not use Illustrator for your line work instead?
Alternatively, download Krita for free here: https://krita.org/
In Krita the “stroke path” function is automatically applied after drawing a path with the path tools (when used on a bitmap layer).This indeed makes much more sense than PS’s archaic approach. Besides, for drawing and (digital) painting Krita is quite a bit ahead of Photoshop as it stands.
And best of all: open source and free!
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode -
I would not bother trying to fix that manually – since it is such a simple image, why not recreate it from scratch, and fake it?
– add a solid color layer with the orange background colour
– add a white vector circle with perhaps a yellow stroke. Convert to a smart object, and apply a slight gaussian blur to fade out the edge
– add a larger circle in the background, apply a circular gradient and pick up the colours from the original.Some fine-tuning, and done! For a more realistic effect I also added a bit of granularity to the edges for the “Sun”, and applied a bit of noise.
PS I did this in Photoline, but the process is exactly as I described. This is arguably easier & quicker to pull off in Photoline than in Photoshop, because of Photoshop’s rather horrible outdated and quirky gradient editor. In Photoline any gradient can be edited “in place”.
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System: Win7 64bit – i7 920@3.6Ghz, p6t Deluxe v1, 48gb (6x8gb RipjawsX), ATI 7970 3gb, EVGA 590 3GB, Revodrive X2 240gb, e-mu 1820. Screens: 2 x Samsung s27a850ds 2560×1440, HP 1920×1200 in portrait mode
