I've been using PSP 7 through 9, but I'm becoming frustrated with its ability to resize. Registrations, for instance, are sometimes readable at only just the right distance from the aircraft. (I use the text tool in a separate file on a separate layer at 10 or 12 points, then resize that image to get the size I want on my 1024x1024 repaint file.)And when doing curves (anti-aliased), PSP sometimes looks awfully jagged, and I find myself reducing the opacity pixel by pixel to get it better.Is Adobe Photoshop any better at "doing the math"? For almost $600 I would hope so, and there are times that I think about spending that $600. This is one of them.Have I figured out that the really serious repainters use Adobe?Thanks for any info.Dave WilkinsFalcon307

When I first started painting I used PSP7.. I never really liked it. The only thing that I liked was the way you could easily do curves. I only use Photoshop (CS) now and I doubt I'd go back to PSP.. and learning how to use the path tool it is just as easy to do curves. I don't know why but I find Photoshop to produce a better image and paint scheme over PSPThat is of course my own opinion and experience..

>>Have I figured out that the really serious repainters use>Adobe?Hey Dave,I'm not sure if you'd put me in the category of serious painter, but I've managed to paint a few planes using PSP-7,8 exclusively. :)For registrations and other small text, a few tricks I use are to convert the standard vector text layer to a raster, the use resize or deform to scale it down to size. Vectors are not known to scale down nicely. Resize is usually more acurate (I use either Smart or Bilinear for the resize type..NEVER use pixel!), but the deform tool is so quick and awesome to use that I find I use it more unless the the quality gets too bad.As for jaggy lines, Reducing the opacity is a good trick, but try duplicating the layer, set the new layer (now on top of the original) to multiply and reduce its opacity as a whole layer and see if that works better/faster. ;) You might have to play with the original layer's opacity/RGB to get the color just right too. Make no mistake though, jagged lines is not a problem that only PSP suffers from. :)I've got nothing against Adobe PS, but for aircraft painting, PSP has been able to fill the requirement in my case. Its the program I taught myself to use, and I'm generally happy with it. You can't ignore the price difference either...that's a lot of upgrades to the PC in my view. :-lolRegards,Steve Drahttp://img47.photobucket.com/albums/v144/S...Dra/banner1.jpgDownload my planes at Avsim here:http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID...&Go=Change+View

Hmmm.....serious repainters, is there such a beast? :-lolOk, I use PSP, but I would say this, they are both as powerfull as each other, depends on your personal experiance and personal preference.I have been using PSP in my day job since version 4, many moons ago, as such I am pretty well versed in PSP and is my preference, and to this day I havent found anything PS can do that PSP can't ;).Dan.

I have PSP 7 and 8...... great programs. But.... Photoshop is better. It lets you do alpha channels like a layer. PSP will too, but it so much easier in PS. I got PS 6.0 free from someone that switched to PS 7.0. Look around and see if someone just upgraded. I offered to pay for it but they gave it to me.Joe W.

I use Adobe Photoshop CS (having used Adobe Photoshop 5.5 before) and I've found it will do everything I want and gives good quality images. I particularly like the way it makes creating and modifying Alpha channels easy.One annoyance I've found is that I have to re-validate CS afer a XP System Restore. It's easy enough - a couple of mouse clicks - but it suggests Adobe haven't got to grips with the real world of XP.

Yep, I was using pixel resizing. I tried both Smart and Bilinear with good results.I tried the layer-over-layer trick, and it seemed to emphasize or add to the problem. I'll try again when I have more patience.Thank you for the tips. That's how we learn.DaveFalcon307

Thank you to everyone who replied. All excellent thoughts.Following my customary practice, I've thown money at the problem and pre-ordered Photoshop CS2.DaveFalcon307

Hmmm... Photoshop is whole other league...I'm using Photoshop and Fireworks MX ;-)Tried PSP but don't like it...Large texture loading at 1024 x 1024 hehehe....Succes with your choice but no jaggies for me ;-) and the math no prob...Andr

I use Photoshop CS. I do have PSP and I do use it on the rare occasion I have to do night textures, but otherwise Photoshop is superior. I get paid to paint planes so it has paid for itself. If you know someone in college they can get an academic discount on Photoshop. I got my first copy for less than half of the retail price while I was still in college. From there you can update for a nominal charge (my last upgrade was around $170). I use my own method to paint curves (I have mentioned this before) that gives me razor sharp edges. I don

I use Fireworks MX but haven't figured out how to create Alpha with it. I'm a newbie so it's probably just me. It works nicely but I'm thinking about trying PSP after reading some of the posts here.Charles

I received Photoshop CS2 on April 30th and have read and re-read the Help.pdf (almost 900 pages) and a 900 page book. Okay, not every chapter.I've now repainted three aircraft including an AIA B734 in Alaska's Disneyland 50th Anniversary colors with Tinkerbell trailing pixie dust.I'm glad I got CS2. It's capabilities are nearly unlimited. But it's complicated. Operations seem to be more complex than in PSP (For 6+ times the price they'd better be!), but maybe that's because I'm learning CS2 more diligently.CS2's capabilities far surpass an FS repainter's requirements. I just don't see myself creating stuff for a CYMK six-color press.PSP was like dials and gauges. CS2 is a glass cockpit.Dave WilkinsFalcon307

There is a Photoshop user magazine, if you can find it on the stands. It isn

Ok. Monday evening, after posting here, I went home to work on a POSKY 747-400 PW I'm painting in Eastern Airline colors for personal use. Mind you I've been painting the same Meljet 777-300 in JAL colors for about four months. I've stopped and started that project numerous times out of frustration. Anyway, yesterday I cranked up my Macromedia Fire Works and started painting the 747. The focus of that repaint are the two blue lines that run down the axis of the aircraft. I looked at the texture of an aircraft I really liked and drew two pairs of lines in the appropriate colors down the axis - one in dark dark blue and the other in aqua blue (my totally non-technical description!). My plan was to use the paint bucket to fill in the segements between each line being mindful of the rivets and seams within each segment. Each time I tried the paint bucket/fill function it over filled the area I was hoping to paint. I kept reducing the tolerance but even at tolerance zero Fire Works was coloring nearly everything blue. After closing down and re-booting twice with the same result, I downloaded the trial version of PSP. Using the exact same method with PSP I was able to fill the areas within the lines without painting over rivets and seams with tolerance set at twenty. It took all of about five minutes to do both halfs of the aircraft! I intentionally chose the Eastern livery because it is one of my favorites and because it is fairly easy to paint. I should add that the base color is white for this first effort. So, my initial experience with PSP has been a good one. The learning curve is a little high but I've found the program to be fairly intuitive. Thus far, it is at least doing what I am asking it to do -fill, etc. I'm a historian by profession and have basic skills working with grapic applications. Most of what I've learned has come through reading and re-reading POSKY's Painting tutorial and excellent instructions and suggestions such as are in this thread and more generally in this forum. So I say thank you to those of you who take time to make suggestions because they really are helpful.So if there are other newbies out there struggling like I am who don't have the funds to throw into CS PS then I would definitely recommend giving PSP a try. I'll try to follow up this post with more insight into PSP from a beginners perspective.Thanks for your indulgence!

No question; if you are just starting out and don