Please see below the note I posted in another newsgroup about a program that
may end up being my FORMER favorite, Paint Shop Pro. I just looked in
Photoshop Elements, and lo and behold, it appears that the Exif data does
NOT get saved with new versions of the same photo - and as you'll see below,
that's the way I WANT it, cuz my files have to be REAL small!

I'll be interested on any input - and I sure hope Adobe doesn't "upgrade" me
out of THEIR program as well! (This seems like it should become a switchable
feature, re: saving/discarding Exif data on saves!;-)

---
Folks,

I was afraid of this - has PSP "update" taken me BACKWARDS in a key part of
what I do for a living? Am I gonna be glad PSP 7 is still on my PC?;-)

I write news and take pix for a Website. I am under strict filesize limits
on the pix - not just pixel-width, but maximum file size - 11.6K or so, for
example, for a front-page pic at 250 pixels wide.

A few years back, PhotoImpact was my favorite program. Then I upgraded it,
and taking the same size pix, same resolution, and setting compression to
save around the same maximum filesize - the pix looked horrible!

I learned from a tech that the problem was that now, the "new" PI was saving
Exif data WITH EVERY SAVE OF THE PHOTO, even after cropping, retouch,
compression, etc. Needless to say, that was eating up my precious bytes, so
compression was much worse.

I then moved on to PSP and was quite happy. Tonight, I installed the upgrade
and immediately did the test of what I just described - and again, while the
same file size in PSP 7 looks fine, and there's things I love about PSP 8
(improved one-touch prettyfying for us klutzes) - the SAME PROBLEM emerged -
same file, uggggly jagged (looks like I'm saving a 5K pic not 11.5K! The one
saved in PSP 7 looks three times better than PSP 8 - at same file size! I
gotta figure it's the same darn Exif-data "saving" problem;-/

Is there an option somewhere to turn OFF the saving of the Exif data? Last I
heard with PI (this was after 6 to 7 upgrade), the tech said he'd add that
fix to the list for the next upgrade. Needless to say, I didn't wait - this
is my work we're talking about.

So... am I outta luck? Have I learned that old lesson about upgrades - one
step forward, etc.? I can send the pix to whomever wants to help but isn't
sure what I meant - that or I can explain further.

I'll accept a kludgy workaround, but if it takes numerous steps to get back
to what I was getting in PSP 7, why should I bother? I hope there's a
software switch to throw somewhere;-/
Thanks!

Barney Lerten--Bend, Oregon


Senior reporter - [url]http://www.bend.com[/url] and the Bend Bugle - Bend, Oregon