Help with image editing software

[2dogmom]

I think the PC that I've been using to run Photoshop 6.0.1 is about to die so I have no choice but to upgrade. And the PS software was on it when I got it so if I want Photoshop 6.0 I'll have to buy it.
Can anyone who is familiar with image editing software please give me some advice? I'm not doing photo editing, I'm editing technical images. I don't care about things like redeye, I need to be able to crop, resize, add text, lines, arrows, copy and paste portions of images, change contrast, brightness, hue saturation, invert color. I don't need it to do animations. All I really care about is that it works reliably without crashing.
Does anyone have any software tips for me?

 

[GoldyCat]

Adobe has just come out with Photoshop CS 5, the equivalent of version 12.0. PS 6.0 probably won't even run under the newest computer operating systems. I know I can't use it any more on my Mac. If you don't need the full Photoshop I would recommend Photoshop Elements. You can check it out here to see if it has all the features you need. You can even download a free trial. I think you have something like 30 days to use it, then the trial version shuts down.

I use the full PS so can't tell you exactly what is in Elements, but I have several friends who are very happy with it. I think I'll try downloading the trial version just to see what it has.

 

[2dogmom]

Thanks so much! Elements sounds like it might work for me - I hardly used most of the features in PS 6.0.

Don't laugh, I am probably going to be using a PC running Win ME (this is for my business, I don't buy new computers unless I absolutely have to.

) Most are used along with dedicated equipment that has expensive proprietary software (like $7000 if I want to update the OS

) so I am kind of stuck with older operating systems in many cases. My Win 98 SE machine (the one with PS 6.0) is dying, I am getting an upgrade that might replace the Win ME PC, so that one would be available for my image editing station with the frame grabber. I think the software for the frame grabber won't work with anything newer than Win 2000.

 

[GoldyCat]

Yikes! You may have some major problems here.

Okay, I've never used a PC and don't know where ME comes in the lineup. However, it looks like the last 4-5 versions of PS or PS Elements require Windows XP, Vista, or 7.

Your best bet might be to buy PS 6.0 on eBay. That way you'll have a program that you already know and that you're pretty sure will work with your operating system. Just be sure you get one that's listed for PC and not Mac. It's also likely to cost less than buying the newest version of Elements.

 

[strange_wings]

Double check your software. However, unless you use old 2000-ish, type technology you may run into problems of it just not supporting ME. At the very least if you can switch to win2k it would be better than ME. (the last windows I used was win2k pro, with enough tweaking it's useable to where ME gets corrupted pretty easily)

What's going wrong with the current computer, btw?

 

[2dogmom]

I could switch to Win 2k without having to buy new software for the frame grabber (I think it currently runs about $1500-2000.)
I suspect the hard drive is going. It freezes a lot, but what really scared me is that the shell for a program called GLI Steamline no longer functions. I get the toolbox but not the shell, so I can't work with the program at all. That means no image acquisition, no image analysis. For now I can grab an image using the freeware snapshot feature and store it as a bmp. For some reason though my PS 6 won't open the bmp file because it can't parse the format, so I have to open the bmp in paint, store it as a jpg and then PS will open it. If I want to do any image analysis I have to use another computer - not sure how THAT will work.

Anyhoo thanks so much for the replies!

 

[xocats]

GIMP has the features you are looking for and it's free.
http://www.gimp.org/
I have found it to be user friendly.
For your needs, it might be worth a try.

 

[strange_wings]

^But for commercial work there may be some issues using that. However if one wants, going from photoshop there is a modded version of gimp called gimpshop. iirc, paint shop pro 8 should still be a free download, too.


Ok, 2dogmom, I want you to try something...I hope ME will handle it ok. You need to do a scandisk for errors on the hard drive. You're looking for bad sectors. Unless you physically hear terrible sounding noises from your hard drive, this will often be what goes wrong.
Sometimes you can fix a few bad sectors.

If your hard drive is dying there are other options than doing a complete reinstall of everything. If the rest of the computer is good you can use disk copying tools to make a complete image of your hard drive and to put it on a new hard drive. I've used Norton Ghost in the past as it's fairly simple, but some hard drives come with free tools for this.
If you can use the software you do on a daily basis, this is very much within your skills to do.

You have to put the new hard drive right back into the old pc, though, as windows does not have the ability to load itself up on a different computer (won't recognize the hardware).


The third option, if the hard drive turns out being perfectly fine, it's just that it's ME and your registry is so full of garbage that it's slowing everything down, corrupting, and freezing. This is a typical windows issue, not just an ME one. If it's just this, clean your registry. (after backing it up, of course) RegCleaner is a popular tool for this.

Hopefully you can get away with no more than the cost of a new hard drive and/or something like Norton Ghost.

FTA: I can't believe I forgot about the hard drive issue with 98 and ME. If you choose to stick with with ME you could run into the 48-bit LBA issue if you have to pick out a new hard drive or a new computer. Win2k will at least let you add that support as will XP (I think it's automatically in service pack 1 or 2 for XP and in one of win2k's, too).

 

[2dogmom]

strangewings - thank you for the suggestion.
The PC that is ailing has Win 98 SE OS.

And my problem right now is that the shell for GLI streamline isn't loading, just the toolbox. That hurts bad because I need that program every day. I tried reinstalling it but the problem persisted.
I would think if I clone the hard drive I need the exact same (ancient) hard drive in order for it to work? And maybe it's just that the registry or some dll are corrupted anyway? Like the shell needs something in order to load? I do clean the registry (I use Easy Cleaner) so I'm thinking maybe it is some dll file that is corrupt. Is there a way to see what dll files a program needs to run properly?
If I clone the hard drive onto a newer HD, the Windows OS won't run because it will see that something has changed, and once that happens I'm back to needing a replacement for PS 6.0.
I'll struggle with it at work for a few days - maybe I can get away with using something like Serif Photo Plus.

 

[strange_wings]

You'd have to look up what dlls the program uses.

Though I wonder if something else wasn't messed up along the way. You haven't have any BSoD or bad shut downs around the time this first started did you?

I've cloned hard drives and used different brands. It's manly things like your motherboard that it won't like you changing.

Were you able to see if there was anything directly wrong with the hard drive?

 

[2dogmom]

No BSOD but a ton of bad shutdowns. If I hit shut down Windows it never quite shut down all the way, I'd have this blinking DOS cursor and have to push the restart button on the front of the tower.

 

[strange_wings]

Ouch, no sense saving that install then (unless it's as simple as you not having installed the shutdown bug patch). I hope you can get things fixed up and going again from scratch. It's certainly no fun setting up a windows computer (no matter what anyone says, linux is now a lot quicker to set up). Good luck.

 

[2dogmom]

Hey you seem to know what you are talking about so I would like to pick your brains - what do you think of an "over the top" installation of the Win 98SE OS over the existing one? Would it make a bigger mess than I already have?

 

[strange_wings]

What will you be installing from? A windows restore disc or just the straight windows 98 disc? The former will make it easier, but the regular disc will work, too.

What you're thinking of is a repair install. It can patch your system for now, but won't fix everything. You will need to go into your windows folder and back some stuff up from in there.. um stuff like start menu, profiles, all users, local settings, desk top, and application data. I suggest you look up "repair install windows 98" (that should work...) just in case I forget anything.

Here's one link

You'd need to make a start up floppy. Use that to boot and set it to start the cdroom.

My instructions are terrible.

So read through that link - I only skimmed it and see if you can find more info in detail. Maybe there's even some on microsoft's site.. Make sure you have discs to everything in case you need them.

But it is very important that you make sure your hard drive has nothing wrong with it. Any bad sectors and this either won't work or won't be much help for long.

ETA: the reason I suggest you double check everything on repairing is because it's been close to ten years since I did this on an ME computer (needed to get stuff off of it).