Saving Files

After you acquire your image, correct it, or manipulate it to your satisfaction, you need to save it to your hard drive.

Starting with version 5 and continuing with the present version, Paint Shop Pro has its own file format. If you created new layers or used any of the vector tools during the processing of your image, you should use Paint Shop Pro's native format, .psp , to save the file. This format preserves the layers and their associated blending modes and the vector object information. Saving under any other format, with the exception of the .psd file format (Photoshop's native format), discards any separate layer information and flattens the image into one layer.

Flattening the image is not a bad thing and is actually necessary for formats such as and GIF. However, if you've done extensive work with layers or with vector objects (such as vector text), you may want to save at least two copies of your image. One copy should be in .psp format and the other can be in some other format ”GIF or JPG for a Web-based file, for example. Another factor to consider is saving the image as you work. You might want to create a temporary working directory and save incremental backups of your work. Even with the advanced state of today's technology, computers crash. They most often do so right after you've put in several hours of uninterrupted work and just before you finally decide that you should save the changes you've labored over.

You can save every 5 to 10 minutes or so and use names such as Image001 , Image002 , and so on. When you are finished, you can save the final image (most likely as a .psp file) and delete the Image00x files from your temporary folder.

Besides the Save option, you can use Save As or Save a Copy. These two options are essentially the same, except that Save a Copy doesn't affect the current image in any way.

For example, using Save As to save your image to the GIF format flattens the image and reduces the color palette to only 256 colors or fewer. Using Save a Copy saves a copy of the image with the layers flattened and the color palette reduced but leaves the current image in its unaltered state.