This was taken from an email sent to me from a Paint Shop Pro user group.
It will help you fix some of the errors you receive after running the program over a long period of time.
It will help you fix some of the errors you receive after running the program over a long period of time.
Resetting PSP to default.
Resetting PSP to default (deleting PSP's registry) can fix many problems within PSP, errors caused by a corrupt registry missing or greyed out tools and other irregularities.
The big draw back from resetting is the loss of custom settings you have made and having to redo the preferences. To delete and re-write PSP's registry (reset defaults) do the following:
Go to START/PROGRAMS/Jasc Software Inc/ PAINT SHOP PRO 7. Immediately after you click on the PAINT SHOP PRO 7 icon press and hold CTRL+ALT on your keyboard.
Paint Shop Pro will ask you if you would like to delete the registry settings for Paint Shop Pro. Select YES.
When Paint Shop Pro opens it will have all the restored features of initial installation.
Freeing space in the PSP Program Folder.
When you applied the PSP Patch 7.02 , Version 7.02 created a backup of version 7 in a folder called Unpatch ( C:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Pro 7\Unpatch folder)
The same would apply if you installed the 7.04 patch, a back up of 7.02 would have been created. If you have ran PSP patched versions with no problem then it is unnecessary to keep this folder on your hard drive.
You can copy it to a cd for safe keeping if you like and delete the Unpatch folder, reclaiming up to 62 mgb of disk space.
Freeing memory
Lower the "undo" storage for files
File/Preferences/General Program Preferences, hit the Undo tab and set the undo storage to 15 MB.
If you are working with large graphics and use the undo frequently you may need to set it to 40mgb.
Browser Caches
PSP creates a browser cache when using the browse function in PSP. This enables faster loading of graphics. However if graphics are moved around, stored elsewhere or deleted the browser cache remains the same size and can get very large taking up valuable space. It is advisable to delete them frequently to allow a build of a fresh cache in your files. To do this go to Find files and type in "jbf" without the quotation marks. You will see all the pspbrwse icons appear. Select them all and press delete on your keyboard. The next time you browse in PSP new caches will be built.
Autosave
When PSP crashes or freezes for some reason and you haven't saved your work, you can lose everything,
Go to File > Preferences > Autosave settings.
This will open the Autosave Settings dialogue box, Tick the 'Enable Autosave' box. Set the time schedule you require, 5 minutes should be sufficient. Click OK. Autosave is now enabled and your work will automatically be saved to the temp file every 5 minutes. If PSP crashes you can re-open and your work will be loaded as before.
Save Worktop
When you save your workspace, you will be saving settings for your toolbar, palettes, also settings for your rulers and grids plus image information including image position in your workspace etc., so that you can return to your project at a later time.
Go To >File > Workspace > Save. The standard "Save as" dialogue box will appear. It will ask you for a file location you wish to save your workspace to. Workspace will be saved in a .wsp format, so you need to give it a name eg: project2.wsp.
Next time you open PSP go to File > Workspace > Load. The workspace will remember the locations of your graphics so it is important that you do not move them after saving the workspace.
Tools greyed out
The majority of tools will only function on a image with a colour depth of 16.7 million colours (24 bit). To restore your image to 24 bit, Go to Colours > Increase Colour Depth > 16 Million. Now all of your tools should be active except the tools that require a selection.
Using Fonts in PSP
Having too many fonts installed on your system can cause PSP to load slower, as it has to load all the fonts. PSP can use any font that is not installed. Open the font file you wish to use, by double clicking on the font icon, and minimize it on your desktop. That font will now show up in the font list in the 'Text' dialogue box.
Screen Shots
If you want to make a screen shot of your work or tools in PSP, or anywhere else on your computer. Press the Print Screen key on your keyboard, right click on your PSP workspace and "Paste as new image" you can then crop your screen shot down to size and use.
Previous File Formats
PSP, by default will want to save all your new images as .psp files, which can be annoying when working mostly with jpg's To avoid this, open the General Program Preferences, hit the Dialogues and Palettes Tab, check the box "Remember last type used in file save-as dialogue".
Floating tool bars/palettes
While working on a project particularly when lasooing an image, the tool palettes tend to get in the way. Just press the tab key on your keyboard to make them disappear and press the tab key once more to make them reappear.
Crop Tool
Make your selection on the graphic, and double click outside your selected area still on the graphic and your picture will crop automatically
Always use the crop tool and not the selection tool to "cut" an image for a clean outline. The selection too tends to leave and edge of white pixels (unless using for a seamless selection)
Sharpen Option
When making a graphic smaller, got to effects > sharpen once, this will bring back the clarity of the pixels that are lost when shrinking the graphic.
Applying Shadow
While the image that you are applying shadow to is surrounded by the selection go to Selections > Modify > Contract and contract by 1 pixel this will prevent a ragged white appearance around the graphic after shadow has been applied.
PSP Colour Palette
For those of you who like to have a range of colours and the hexadecimal value for stationery etc. Got to File > Program Preferences > Make sure the hexadecimal preference box is ticked and untick " use standard Windows colour picker". This will give you a slider bar choices on hues/sat/light and red/blue/green along with other useful information in the colour dialogue box. Which will enable you a far greater range in colours.
Colour Option Effect
This is a very little used option in PSP that enhances the colours of graphics. Effects > Enhance Photo > Automatic Colour Balance.
A nice little tool that allows you to make the colours look warmer or cooler. I find it invaluable.
Likewise the option of Effects > Enhance Photo > Clarify enhances and clarifies the colours.
The effects that are under the tools of "Enhance Photo" are very useful effects and are not restricted to Photo's.
Try them out on your graphics.
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