Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watdragon!dahlia!rsingh1 From: rsingh1@dahlia.waterloo.edu Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Photon Paint Message-ID: <19464@watdragon.waterloo.edu> Date: 22 Dec 89 20:00:40 GMT References: <2740@zehntel.UUCP> <36400031@silver> <63979@aerospace.AERO.ORG> Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu Reply-To: rsingh1@dahlia.waterloo.edu () Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 110 In article <63979@aerospace.AERO.ORG> foy@aero.UUCP (Richard Foy) writes: >I have both PhotonPaint2 and DigiPaint3. Ther I some things I like better So Do I. >on each. I like the user interface better on DigiPaint. Because of this I I find it pretty too. >tend to use it more than PhotonPaint2. PhotonPaint2 has a built in anim >capability. The ability to set the blend curve to any arbitrary manner >across the blend area is nice in PhotonPaint2. DigiPaint only allows setting >the hot spot and the edge levels and wether edge level applies both >horizontally and vertically or either. True. That is a short-coming on Digipaint's part. >DigiPaint has a colorize mode wherein one can rather and >rather well easily colorize grey tone images. That feature alone is almost worth the price of the package. >It also a good range of colors setup. You can select a range of colors >between any two and they use the density settings of the blend tool. >This allows one to fill an area with colors between the two ranges. It >is relatively easy to do do things like sunset with it. I am not sure about >the capability of PhotonPaint2 in these areas. As I said I tend to use >DigPaint more because of the user interface. I think DigiPaint is faster >but I could be wrong on this. DigiPaint I believe is somewhat less >expensive. I have several problems with the Digipaint interface (even though it's pretty :-). The main one is that the menu bar MUST always sit at the bottom of the display. This causes terrible problems when trying to 'USE' the bottom of the display (or scrolling on superbitmapps). Digipaint III gives you great easy access to pick colours, but it is VERY slow when adjusting your 16 colour palette, and the route you have to go through (through the menu) really hurts. The range paint thing is about the most 'useful' thing in the program. It is dificult to create ranges of this sort in photon paint II, and they are not dithered. However, It seems that the dithering Digipaint III does (in it's random mode) is just not as fine as it was in Digipaint I. When it comes to the smoothness of a gradient fill, photon paint can't really come close to digipaint (any version). However, Photon paint II has MANY strengths that Digipaint III doesn't have (yet). A summary: Stencils EASY font positioning (Works with Colour fonts -- Digipaint 3 doesn't!) Grids Shadows Excellent use of background/foreground colours. It never mysteriously 'changes' your painting colour. It provides a 'palette' where you can 'stick' interesting paints. The ham brushes can be blended in perfectly (without need to go into a 'Texture Map' mode. Photon Paint II offers 3D contour mapping, light source control, and several objects you can 'wrap' pictures on to. It virtualy never crashes, and most of the key commands are the same as in Dpaint. What I like the best is that I can easily navigate around the 'Menu' (which provides much more control on screen than Digipaint 3 does), and that I can quickly wipe the menu out, and bring it back (or collapse it), AND move it around. Digipaint 3 IS faster though, in terms of rendering. And it has features I suppose I couldn't live without. But pound for pound, Photon Paint II still delivers more. (Draw in the overscan, instead of 'scrolling' the image around for example). It even animates (to a limited degree). Overall a great program. Both are. But for your first HAM paint program, I would suggest you go with Photon Paint II. It's pretty quick, and works well. Digipaint 3, right now atleast, offers LOTS of features, but it totally lacks several really important features (the brush manipulation/rendering thing is terrible (you can only flip brushes 90 degrees, and the results depend on your screen height/width). Also, DiP3 offers no flood fills, and positioning text is really tough. I also hate that when I change resolutions, it forgets the path of some requesters (like the fonts: requester). I've got plenty enough memory for it to keep track of a few bytes. Give Digipaint III one more revision, then grab it. Jamie Purdon (author) knows his stuff, and you can be guaranteed that the next version will be HOT stuff (Digipaint IV? or will they just go wild and have: Digipaint X :-) One last thing: Digipaint 3 should support real 'background' selection , so you can draw with the right mouse button. (every other package lets you! ?!?!?!). And it should let you have a palette, whereby you can put interesting colours (possibly dithered colours?). Right now, I would rate Digipaint 3 a 7.5, and Photon Paint II an 8.5. Both are WORTH getting. Digipaint 3's arexx interface is wonderful, and the ease of it's superbitmaps are teriffic. The quality of rendering, and VERSATILITY of it's plethora of modes (some hidden), give it awesom rendering power. The new link between Digipaint 3 and Digiview 4.0 make it the most versatile and POWERFUL system around. The things you can achieve with it boggle the mind. >You can't go wrong on either program. I'm with you here too. Either is great. Well worth the $$. >The above opinions are all my own but they are freely distributable. Ditto for mine. I have no affiliation with either companies. >foy@aerospace.aero.org (Richard Foy) /Paul Anton Sop (Esquire?). rsingh1@dahila.waterloo.edu/ /Graphic Designer 4 Spaghetti Western Words and Images / /100 Kinzie Ave, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, N2A 2J5 / /(519) 578-8525/742-0372 (if seriously really desparate)/