Advanced (python) PSP Scripting: where to start.

As a developer I was curious to learn something about how psp scripts works and at first I was unable to find some documentation to understand how to write / edit a psp script by hand. Like an api references and/or some tutorials.

From the PSP guide I've found out this statement:

Available from the Corel Knowledge Base (accessible from www.support.corel.com) is a document titled Scripting for Script Authors, which contains complete and advanced scripting information for Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo. To find this document, choose Paint Shop Pro from the Products and Services drop-list, then enter script in the Search Text field.

But the url doesn't seems to work and even if I go to http://kb.corel.com I can't find that document..

So I googled a bit and found out the corel ftp site:

ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/documentation/PSP/

There you can find this useful documents:

• PSPPXICommandAPI.zip (scripting api)
• PSPX Scripting For Script Authors.zip (scripting guide)

p.s.

I've found the right url for corel support for psp scripting:

http://corel.custhelp.com/ - but on this page the PSP XI version of api isn't listed for what I saw. See: Where can I learn more about the Python scripting used in Paint Shop™ Pro®?

Unpacking Corel Paint Shop Photo X2 Ultimate

This is the italian box.. I've took some picture as I've got it but just downloaded them to my pc today. This post is dedicated to people who are interested in buying PSP, and in particular the ultimate bundle, so they can have a better idea of what they can get. But anyway please not that I'm not sure that it is the same for all.. I mean.. maybe there are differences from country to country and maybe the usb stick is not always branded toshiba and so on.. this is just my box!

First video tutorial: create a stripes pattern on the fly

On this first video tutorial I'll show you how you can create on the fly a simple pattern to create a simple button.. For me it is more a test cause it is my first video tutorial so I had to experiment a bit.. but I hope you can enjoy the results!

(go fullscreen!)

Welcome to learning-psp.blogspot.com!

Hello and welcome to learning-psp.blogspot.com :)

On this first post I'd like to introduce you this blog, why I've created it and

how to follow it in the best way.

Why this blog?

I've started using Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 from few days and now I'm learning to do all the stuff I were able to do in other software, like The Gimp. As I learn new things, I'll share them with you hoping that it will be useful for you too.

You'll find some tutorials, video tutorials and other resources like free brushes, fonts, plugins, gradients, and so on that I'll make or that I'll find on other websites.

Searching for other website or resource for Paint Shop Pro I've come up with a lot of obsolete content.. tutorials for new version of psp that theaches how to make graphics that doesn't looks "current" or that explain to do you things in a more complicated way compared on how you can achieve the same results with the latest psp version. So this blog should contain only "quality" and "fresh" content!

How to stay up-to-date?

You'll be able to follow me by subscribing to the website feed.. just click on subscribe to -> posts on the right sidebar of this page ;)

You can also subscribe to the youtube video channel if you have a google account. Having people subscribed to this blog and/or to the youtube channel will be of great motivation for me to find the time to post new content! ..so thanks in advice if you'll subscribe.

Why Paint Shop Pro?

I always thought that, for what I've to do, Photoshop is too expensive. Many people uses it without having a license and this helps it to be popular.. but I like to use original software and for this reasons I'm a long time Gimp user and I consider myself quite experienced at it.

Gimp is a great piece of software but, to be honest, right now suffers of the lack of some important features.. just to mention a couple: layer styles, layer groups, batch actions and (visual)scripting.

Ok you can do some of that things using some scripts and plugins but the resul is not the same.. But there are also some features of the Gimp that I miss in psp like the ability to resize the selecion with drag-n-drop..

Anyway.. I found out that PSP as a smaller community than it deserves. It has a great potential at a fair price.. but unfortunately it is saw more like a "toy" for "noobs" that just have to remove red eyes with one click..

But this is not true.. maybe this is more a photoshop elements' goal ;) ..Photoshop elements could be a great software too but they limited it so that people will still have a reason for buy Photoshop. But if you are in between the user who needs Photoshop and the user who needs Photoshop elements.. and also if you are more near to the first than to the second.. then Paint Shop Pro is for you. Or at least this is my opinion.

Something about me

This is not a personal blog, however I'd like to share with you a couple of info about me:

• I'm italian so don't please don't blame me if my english is not perfect; your comments are welcome if you write them to help me to improve.. and if you'll learn something from my posts, then we'll have both gained something :D
• I'm not mainly a designer / "a pro". I consider myself a webmaster and mainly a developer, but I always had an interest also in graphics as I always saw it as a whole.. so I'll try to do my best to provide you useful resources and information, but if you are more experienced feel free to provide better information/tips in your comments and I'll update my posts!

Thanks for reading! I hope you'll find this site useful!

p.s.

the layout of this website (at the time I'm writing this) has been made 100% by me using Corel PSP Photo X2. It is a simple one and maybe it is not perfect but I didn't put too much effort into doing it. Just wanted something that, from my point of view, looked nice..