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© 2001 by Peter McCormick. All Rights Reserved.
This is the first is a series of articles comparing Corel PHOTO-PAINT 10 with Adobe Photoshop 6. Photoshop has enjoyed the reputation as the program of the "Professional" while PHOTO-PAINT has been thought more as the "Joe Lunch Bucket" application for the masses. Anyone who feels this way has simply not made an effort to compare the two programs. I have always taken the position that image-editing programs can be compared to the tools of a carpenter. Just as no one hammer or saw will work for every job neither will one graphics application provide all the tools and effects needed by today's graphic artist. Such is the case with Corel's PHOTO-PAINT and Adobe's Photoshop. They both can do things the other can't do or one can do better than the other. Just what these differences are, is what these articles will be about. Because image editing is the power of each of these applications, we will begin with a comparison of each programs' masking tools.
Masking is the essence of image editing. Masks allow the user to isolate specific areas of an image. Once an area is defined with a mask the user can do all kinds of things like adjusting color or applying effects to the area within the mask or outside the mask. Lifting the mask area out of the image and using the area as a floating selection or object is another common use of masks.
PHOTO-PAINT has seven basic masking tools to Photoshop's eight. This number is somewhat misleading, as there are numerous variations for most of the tools. Let's just say the number of ways to mask and image is about equal in both applications. While the function of each masking tool is similar between the two applications, the functionality and the ability to quickly modify a mask is what separates the two.
Before we begin with a tool for tool comparison, it must be pointed out that each program uses context sensitive tool bars that display settings which allow you to quickly modify the way the selected tool behaves without going into any of the menus. PHOTO-PAINT calls their context sensitive tool bar the "Property Bar". Photoshop calls theirs the "Tool Options Bar". PHOTO-PAINT also has an additional tool bar called the Mask/Object tool bar that offers even more instant control over masks.
Figure 1 shows the PHOTO-PAINT Tool Box and the seven basic mask tools on the mask flyout along with the Mask Overlay command shown on the Mask drop-down menu. Figure 2 shows three mask icons circled in red on the Photoshop Tool Box. Clicking and holding on the Rectangle and Lasso buttons reveals flyouts that contain a total of seven different mask tools. The third button in the outlined group is the Magic Wand mask tool. Photoshop does have one additional quick mask control located at the bottom of the Tool Box. It's called the Quick Mask Mode and works very much like PHOTO-PAINT'S Mask Overlay mode.
We will begin our tool-by-tool comparison with the Rectangle Mask tool. The process of creating a basic rectangle mask is exactly the same in PHOTO-PAINT as in Photoshop. The difference lies in what attributes can be changed during the creation of the mask and how easy it is to modify the mask after it has been created.
Let's look at just what attributes can be affected during the actual creation of a rectangle mask in each application. As you can see in the first graph, PHOTO-PAINT has four additional controls over the initial creation of a rectangle mask. With the exception of the Paint on Mask shortcut on the Mask toolbar, three of the four I consider important. I will agree that both PHOTO-PAINT and Photoshop have shortcut keys that allow you to select the entire image without choosing any buttons. However in the case of PHOTO-PAINT's ability to toggle the marquee on or off I consider this a important plus over Photoshop which requires you to go three deep into the View menu to make the "Marching Ants" go away.
Figure 3 (above) shows PHOTO-PAINT's Property Bar and the Mask/Object Tool Bar after a Rectangle Mask has been created on screen. Figure 4 (below) shows Photoshop's Tool Options Bar after a Rectangle Mask has been created on screen. You can see PHOTO-PAINT's Property Bar has seven more settings than those on Photoshop's Tool Options Bar. Add the nine additional options that are on PHOTO-PAINT's Mask/Object Toolbar and you have 16 more instant mask controls in PHOTO-PAINT than in Photoshop.
Graph 2 points out the similarities and differences between the applications that can be applied to a Rectangle Mask after it has been created.
As you can see from this second graph PHOTO-PAINT has thirteen additional instant controls over a Rectangle Mask after it has been created. Of the more important added controls I consider the Align and Invert controls the most important for everyday image editing.
During the initial creation of a Rectangle or Ellipse Mask the differences are basically the same in both PHOTO-PAINT and Photoshop with the exception of the ability to create rounded corners on a Rectangle Mask in PHOTO-PAINT.
Both applications allow you to interactively scale, rotate, distort, and put perspective on masks. After using Photoshop's method, which does not require you to click each time to select a new mode, I feel it provides a quicker and smoother transition between the modes.
Both PHOTO-PAINT and Photoshop have Magic Wand tools that work just about the same. They are each based on masking by color. Just how accurate the mask, is based on color tolerance. PHOTO-PAINT lets you choose HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness). PHOTO-PAINT gets the edge here.
Photoshop's Lasso tool works completely different from PHOTO-PAINT. Photoshop's Lasso tool actually works very much like PHOTO-PAINT's Freehand mask tool in that they both allow you to draw masks using straight lines or freehand curves.
PHOTO-PAINT's Lasso tool is based on color tolerance or HSB like the Magic Wand tool instead of sampling a color you draw a freehand shape around a portion of an image you want masked and the mask is "pulled" inward until a color change is "sensed" based on the first color sampled when the lasso shape is drawn.
Photoshop's Magnetic Lasso tool works very much like PHOTO-PAINT's Scissors Mask tool. Neither one of these tools does a very good job but I would give the nod to Photoshop on this one.
PHOTO-PAINT’s Mask Brush tool works differently than in Photoshop’s counterpart. The Mask Brush tool is accessed from the Mask flyout in PHOTO-PAINT. In order to use a brush to create or modify a mask in Photoshop you must select the Paintbrush tool while in Quick Mask mode. I personally feel these Mask Brush tools are the most useful of all the masking tools. It allows you to draw masks using the shape of the brush (nib). This ability to choose from the many nibs supplied with PHOTO-PAINT or Photoshop and the added ability to use any transparency built into the nibs creates endless possibilities.
In conclusion I feel that in this first comparison between PHOTO-PAINT and Photoshop's masking tools, PHOTO-PAINT wins pretty convincingly. With that said, there is another application that's even better than either Photoshop of PHOTO-PAINT. It's a "One Trick Pony" that puts all other masking tools to shame and it's called procreate KnockOut™. If you do a lot of masking you owe it to yourself to check this little application out.
What do you think? Discuss it in the Graphics Unleashed Discussion Forums.
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