[Luthien]

I just wanted to share something that may be of use to those of you who may have used PSP in the past, and upgrading to Photoshop, or using Photoshop (I'm not sure if it will work with Elements), and have found something you wanted to use in PSP format, and you thought you couldn't. You probably can, after all, both Windows and Mac users. I hope I am not violating any rules here by posting this. So far as I can tell, I am not.

There is a small company in Australia, called Telegraphics. They are specialists in open source software, and have created a number of very inexpensive sharewares that are really useful for us graphics users. One of them is a plug in to allow Photoshop users to open PSP files. Now, there ARE limitations, in that if you have a PSP file with several layers in it, you can only open ONE layer at a time, within Photoshop. But you can convert that layer to PNG, which makes it usable to us in Photoshop!

There are also some file "rescue/recovery" programs in there, to salvage damaged or corrupt files that you might not be able to open any other way. One is a beta version right now.

There is also a replacement for Adobe's Filter Factory, called Filter Foundry. If any of you are filter/plugin addicts, and I am one, this is a sanity saver! Free, $5 donation suggested. If you know of Filter Factory filters, you might know that they are the most extensive free filters out there for use in graphics programs. PSP uses them, too. As well as Adobe Photoshop. But Filter Factory hasn't been upgraded in order to work with the later operating systems. But now you can use Filter Foundry, and use all those great filters!

Here's the link to the site. They are free plugins for Photoshop and Illustrator, and other software, though they do ask for a modest donation. Finding this plug in again has really saved my bacon with a lot of my previously created graphics files.

There are some other cute filters here to do fun things, you might want to try. If anyone needs help figuring it out, Toby (the head honcho there) is very nice about being helpful, and I would also try to assist if I can. I am familiar with both Windows and Mac platforms.

http://www.telegraphics.com.au/sw/

Look for the Paint Shop Pro Format header, if you want to open PSP files in Photoshop.

Hugs,

Elaine

[mjz]

I use Mac OS 10.7.3 PhotoShop CS5 and no matter what I try, I cannot open either .png or psp files. I tried installing the plug in and it doesn't help. I was on the phone for an hour with Photoshop techs and they don't know ... any suggestions?

[Cheri T]

I'll give it a try - thanks for the info! I used to use PSP a long time ago just for photo editing (before digi scrapping existed) and still have some things edited and saved as .psp files. Now I have to go to the desktop in our basement, open PSP, convert to .tiff or .jpg, then access the file from my laptop upstairs. Cumbersome to say the least!

[mmkayle]

To open images created in Paint Shop Pro 9 in Photoshop CS5, I save the PSP images in .psd format (in PSP, click File>Save (or Save As)>Save as Type>"Photoshop (*.psd)". The image will then open fine in Photoshop. Unfortunately, you can't do it the other way around (save as .pspimage in Photoshop).