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I was looking at the Humble Bundle of Corel software. I've always been unhappy with GIMP and I was looking at alternatives to improve workflow, and get better versions of stuff like GIMP's magic wand (I don't get how people can use this even after I learned all of the hotkeys and documented options). I've been trying out the trial of PSP, and the workflow is more intuitive for sure. They both seem to do the same stuff though. The magic wand is working almost as badly as GIMP's. Am I missing anything?

The main things I am looking for are real-time previews, the amount of button clicks to do an operation, and the ability to easily mask with 1 click of a magic wand. GIMP is a weird mixed bag that is either great or suffers a lot in these departments.

If I didn't know GIMP already, I'd be a lot more tempted to go PSP, but I do, so I need reasons to justify the change/buy still. Anyone got any?

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PSP has adjustment layers. They stay functional if you export as PSD and open the image in Photoshop. I guess it's the most remarkable and wanted property which isn't implemented in GIMP.

In addition you get many advertisements. PSP has this and that useful, but when you use it you see it's somehow limited. For example you open a RAW photo. No problem except there are quite few common RAW image adjustments available. But you get an advertisement "Do more with your RAW images, upgrade, only $60,- So, if you want to spend more money, PSP has several options immediately available.

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  • That's pretty bleak sounding. How long have you used PSP for? I've been going through trials of the various software included in the humble bundle alongside PSP and the others aren't impressing me, so my only reason for buying would be PSP atm. – kite Oct 15 '19 at 0:20
  • I have had PSP 2019 Ultimate about half a year. I swallowed the hook when they sent a short time coupon of 60% discount (I guess they have quite clever fishing machine). The program is designed to support well a starter but do not expect it's a substitute for premium priced programs. Like GIMP It for ex. knows nothing of CMYK printing. Serif Affinity Photo series succeeds better as a low cost substitute for Adobe's stuff. Please, see my writings as opinions only. – user287001 Oct 15 '19 at 8:14
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I'd look at Affinity Photo if it were me - and if you were looking at the whole humble bundle... look at Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher. I was a longtime adobe Creative Suite user and trainer; I used Corel's various tools with several previous clients years ago, and I've been pretty happy with Affinity's stuff since I switched over - it was convincing enough for me to mostly drop adobe's stuff, given a more-than 15 year investment in plugins and asset libraries I'd either developed myself from scratch or purchased.

Then again, my and your use-cases may well be very different - nonetheless I'd at least take a look and see if they seem to match your needs.

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