fran,
>"I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with using 'Patches' on FRANZIS Giveaway Software?"
In the past, I have looked at the page you referenced, but the patches have always been for older versions of the software. I just went back to check it out again. I downloaded one to see what it contains (COLOR Projects). It is a setup file, and it was in German, so I did not continue. Since I didn't go through with it, I cannot tell if it is a real "patch" the way the word was originally used with software. Their use of the word "Patch" may not be different from a full install of a program.

The original idea of the word "patch" for software was to replace parts of a program without having to install the entire program again. The original use goes all the way back to the days when programs were on punched tape. A section of the tape could be cut out and new section used to replace it (patching) the program. In the mainframe days, the time required to install a program could be a considerable amount of time. Rather than do a complete install, a "patch" file could be used to replace parts of the installed program.

As software programs became more of a mass production for large numbers of users (early personal Computer days), getting the "path" from the developer was also a concern. Either the developer had to use postal mail to ship out the "patch" (expensive) or patches could be downloaded from a bulletin board/remote computer using a dial-up modem. Rather than download a full installable program, the user could download a patch a lot quicker.

To create the patch file, the developer would create a corrected version of the software, then compare it with an un-patched version. The differences could be saved in a small file. Once in the hands of the user, they used a binary editor, or used a "patch editor" either manually, or an automated one that read in the different patch parts and where in their program those parts were to replace. The process was a lot quicker than doing a full install of course.

Sometimes patches replaced a certain number of bytes with the same number of replacement bytes, or they could "insert" new bytes, or do a combination of both. Patch handlers improved, and now, very often, a program can "path" or "update' itself.

Patches were not necessarily considered "enhancing" the program, as much as "correcting" it. It could be to correct a misspelling, or even change a language. A very common patch was to correct a security issue. The patched program did not have any new features, nor even worked differently, but now a security vulnerability had been eliminated.

These days, with faster Internet connectivity, we do not see the word "patch" as often; programs can easily "correct" themselves. So you never know what some other company means by the word "path" anymore.

Brian,
Simple. The registration code you entered to install the program will be the same registration code you'll enter to activate the program.

Brian,
Just found out that you enter the registration number as the serial number. I tried this before but it didn't work...this time it worked.

Rob Green,
Enter the registration number you received into the serial number box to extend past the 30 days trail.

Sylvia,

Read my comment #5 about the tiny text/fonts issue on high-DPI displays. Maybe that can help you.

Sylvia,
>"Could someone tell me how to save it as a .jpg?"

When you are finished with the settings, under the File menu, there is the option "Save final image Ctrl+S"

After clicking that option (or pressing Ctrl+S), your image will show up in a new window. You might not even realize it is a new window over top of the "editing" window because it might open up at the same size. It does look a little different (drag the top bar of this window to see the editing window behind it). Anyway, at the bottom right of that window, you will have a "Save" and a "Cancel" button. You can enter a title on this window as well. Click the Save button, and you should now see the standard Windows style Save dialog.

Even though you may have originally started with a jpeg image, the default save option will show the filename with the TIF extension, and below the filename, the Save as type choice will likely be TIF 8-Bit (*.tif). If the program you want to do further editing (or viewing) with does not support the TIF file format, you can choose another file type.

If you click on the TIF 8-Bit (*.tif) or use the down arrow at the far right, you will see the different file types you can save the image in. You should get at least two for jpeg (8-Bit (*.jpg) and 16-Bit (*.jp2)). The most common is the standard 8-Bit jpg. Choose that one and your image will be saved as a jpg file format.

By default, the file is saved back to the same folder as your original image. Depending on other settings, your save to filename may end up being the same as the original. It is always a good idea to copy any image you wish to work with to a different folder, just in case you accidentally save a file over your original.

Keep in mind that jpg is not a file type like other file formats. Every time you save a file as a jpg file, the jpeg compression algorithm is applied to the image. It is a lossy format, meaning what is removed for the compression can never be restored. If you were to do nothing to a jpeg file but just save it, then start with that file, open and save it again, repeating the process over and over, finally, your image would slowly turn into a much more worse image.

The amount of compression applied each time is usually in some settings elsewhere in a program, if it is not offered to you when you start to save the file. In the case of COLOR Projects, you need to go into the Extras Menu (top row), then choose Settings. The Settings dialog has 4 tabs (Program, Export, Save formats, and Automatic). Click the Save formats, and you will see the default settings for JPG files.

The default "quality" setting is 95%. Some programs use a default of 90%. You can think of it as the amount of your original image quality that you want to keep, however the re-compression does work exactly like that; in fact, at 100%, there is still some loss. the main point is that the lower that number is, the more compression will be applied. At even 25%, you might not notice a lot of difference initially (depending on the image) unless you repeat that open and save process I mentioned. The lower that number, the faster the image will deteriorate if you were to do the save, open, save repeat cycle.

The jpg file format was intended for compressing images (specifically photos) that have a lot of data that would not be noticed if missing, when presented on the computer screen, such as on a webpage. It works well with things like trees and grass, but not so well with a clear sky that slowly changes color from foreground to background, and even worse for anything that has straight lines in it, such as buildings or with text. Sadly, a lot of images with text on the Internet have been saved with the jpeg file format, and often over and over until they are hardly readable. I try to never save in the jpeg file format because there are better options, such as PNG.

As a result, you might want to consider saving your images in another format, such as PNG, which is not a lossy format, or the TIF file format.

The most concerning part of your comment is "It wants to save in it's own format and then you can't open it in any other program."

The second part of your statement "then you can't open it in any other program" is far from accurate. Most graphics programs, especially photo editing software programs should be able to open the TIF file format, and other common photo image file formats.

""It wants to save in it's own format"
Also, the TIF file format is not Franzis or COLOR Project's file format. It is a very common graphics file format, and it does have several advantages over the jpeg file format. It has been around since before Franzis was producing photo software.

Without knowing what other program you are using, or its version number, I do not know why you would not be able to open other common file formats. Most image processing (or image viewing) software also have the file format choice under the file name when you go to open a file. Click on it to see if you can then see the other file format choices.

Regardless, best of luck to you; at least you should now be able to save your file as a jpeg (*.jpg) file.

Sylvia, to save a result:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3o6dtdxajkmpucd/Opslaan.png

Ron, Enter your personal user ID and the registration code in the designated boxes of the software.

Maria , Thanks for reply but I did enter the ID and code in the boxes only to be told they are incorrect. once the trial period expires I will delete it.

Just Me, I actually think that is a bad idea, as I have been registered with Franzis for a long time and the only negative is once in a blue Moon they sent me an e-mail in German, although they seem to have greatly improved on that recently. The reason to use a real e-mail address is for the ease of downloading future downloads.

HMarx, Interesting, Franzis tweaked most of their software to work well on 4k displays a while back, I guess CP5 happened just before that.

rob, In what way? I don't think this software supports Raw file importing (you need the Standard or Pro version) but will happily work with JPEGs and TIFFs.

rob, it's not camera specific, if it works for 1 canon it will work for all cr2 files. I would never send a camera raw file to a non-raw editor, edit it properly then export out as a 16 bit tiff.

dave, not true. Several older versions of photo editors do not support newer codex. Windows 10 doesn't even support the new 6D MkII

JohnL, The description, above, led me to believe it did support RAW. Regardless, when attempting to open a file, the app can not display the thumbnail for RAW images from my camera. It also allowed me to open the RAW file, but the entire image had a dark shade of purple.

Gary, I wouldn't worry about the retail pricing, as if you want the #6/Pro version you just want to subscribe to their newsletter and wait for a deal. For example the 16th March newsletter had it for $59, a Jan newsletter had it for $69. #5/Standard was $25 in the Feb 16th Newsletter.

Realistically they give these things away hoping a percentage of people will upgrade, and ideally to generate a little buzz. I think Elements is still a decently fun thing for people to play about with and I suspect a lot of people would just stay with that.

JohnL,

I totally agree; I do keep track of their offers via newsletter and several other software sites. My point was for anyone that might not realize that this was not the full package, which they have given away for other pieces of their software in the past when a new version comes out. The retail price is just an clue that it is not the full package, but if someone didn't also know about the retail prices, they might think it is the full package.

The "elements" edition is a great software package on its own, and like you said, it is what a lot of people would be fine with.

P.S. "buy" not "but" and right-mouse-button the image to see the unmodified version...

Paul90, I found once I had an account with them, very easy to register new software..yes they need name and email, but who said needs to be proper name or birthdate..I think Franzis just wants to make sure not getting overwhelmed by bots.