IrfanView - PaintShop Pro thumbnails?

[Terry Pinnell]

I've just noticed that IV is not displaying thumbnail views of any PSP
or PSPimage files.

Could someone please check whether this is possibly a flaw in the
latest version 3.98? If not, then it's down to my system or setttings,
but so far not isolated the cause. I do have all the latest plugins
installed.

I checked the PSP box within Options|Properties|Extensions|'Associated
file extensions with IrfanView' yet it made no difference. I also
tried using the 'Load custom file types' but that didn't help either.

BTW, I ensured the extension of the file I was testing *was* 'PSP' and
not PSPimage - but should PSPimage be displayable too?

FWIW, I also no longer seem able to get *some* PSP and PSPimage
extensions to show thumbnails in Explorer or My Computer windows. And
I do have the program PSP Thumbnail Handler installed, which is
supposed to make PSP thumbnails displayable.

I'm even wondering if perhaps this might be related to the patch I
applied yesterday to protect against the latest MS security exposure,
the so-called 'WMF Vulnerability'?

Any thoughts would be appreciated please.

 

[CharlieDontSurf]

I've just noticed that IV is not displaying thumbnail views of any PSP
or PSPimage files.

Could someone please check whether this is possibly a flaw in the
latest version 3.98? If not, then it's down to my system or setttings,
but so far not isolated the cause. I do have all the latest plugins
installed.

I checked the PSP box within Options|Properties|Extensions|'Associated
file extensions with IrfanView' yet it made no difference. I also
tried using the 'Load custom file types' but that didn't help either.

BTW, I ensured the extension of the file I was testing *was* 'PSP' and
not PSPimage - but should PSPimage be displayable too?

FWIW, I also no longer seem able to get *some* PSP and PSPimage
extensions to show thumbnails in Explorer or My Computer windows. And
I do have the program PSP Thumbnail Handler installed, which is
supposed to make PSP thumbnails displayable.

I'm even wondering if perhaps this might be related to the patch I
applied yesterday to protect against the latest MS security exposure,
the so-called 'WMF Vulnerability'?

Any thoughts would be appreciated please.

Don't know if it'll be much help to you, but I have the exploit patch
installed and a new version of Irfanview (3.98 from within the last
week). The PSP filetype is *not* ticked in IV's association options.
Plugin for PSP viewing is installed. I picked up a .psp file off the net
and plonked it into a directory. IV rendered it without trouble in
Thumbnail view.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Don't know if it'll be much help to you, but I have the exploit patch
installed and a new version of Irfanview (3.98 from within the last
week). The PSP filetype is *not* ticked in IV's association options.
Plugin for PSP viewing is installed. I picked up a .psp file off the net
and plonked it into a directory. IV rendered it without trouble in
Thumbnail view.

Thanks. That is actually very helpful, as it at least shows that the
problem's not inherent to IV.

Do you actually have any version of PaintShop Pro installed?

Is the PSP extension currently associated with any program (i.e. in
Explorer, via Open With, or via Tools|Folder Options|File Types)>

One other odd aspect I've just discovered about viewing thumbnails in
Explorer is that *some* PSP files do display, and others don't! So far
I've not found the decisive criteria. But for example a black and
white scanned photo was not rendering, yet when I opened it in PSP8
and increased it to 16M colours, it *did* then get displayed.

I've emailed Irfan too.

 

[CharlieDontSurf]

Do you actually have any version of PaintShop Pro installed?

Yes and no. A couple of months ago, I added a second hard drive from an
old PC that had bombed. I discovered a while later that it has an
ancient shareware copy of PSP 3.12 (!!) installed that I had forgotten
about. Clicking a PSD file raised it. I guess somehow Windows is reading
the registry hives on the old drive, because I never installed PSP or
set filetype associations for it on my current system. I dunno.

Is the PSP extension currently associated with any program (i.e. in
Explorer, via Open With, or via Tools|Folder Options|File Types)>

PSP files are associated with Irfanview.

One other odd aspect I've just discovered about viewing thumbnails in
Explorer is that *some* PSP files do display, and others don't! So far
I've not found the decisive criteria. But for example a black and
white scanned photo was not rendering, yet when I opened it in PSP8
and increased it to 16M colours, it *did* then get displayed.

I don't know how current they are, but I was just perusing the help
files that come with Irfanview. If you use the index to go to Plugins
--> Supported File Formats and click on the PSP hyperlink, it raises an
info popup that says the plugin will only render the first layer in a
PSP file. Maybe the files you're having trouble with have an empty
background layer?

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Yes and no. A couple of months ago, I added a second hard drive from an
old PC that had bombed. I discovered a while later that it has an
ancient shareware copy of PSP 3.12 (!!) installed that I had forgotten
about. Clicking a PSD file raised it. I guess somehow Windows is reading
the registry hives on the old drive, because I never installed PSP or
set filetype associations for it on my current system. I dunno.


PSP files are associated with Irfanview.


I don't know how current they are, but I was just perusing the help
files that come with Irfanview. If you use the index to go to Plugins
--> Supported File Formats and click on the PSP hyperlink, it raises an
info popup that says the plugin will only render the first layer in a
PSP file. Maybe the files you're having trouble with have an empty
background layer?

Thanks for the follow-up.

I don't know exactly how 'normal operation' was resumed, but since my
earlier post I did these things, not necessarily in this order:
- Reverted back in IV settings to previous state, with PSP not checked
under Associations (and reinstated under Explorer settings).
- Uninstalled and re-installed the program 'PSP Thumbnail Handler'
installed, which is supposed to make PSP thumbnails displayable in
Explorer.
- Rebooted

Happily, IV Thumbnail Browser is now correctly showing *all* the PSP
and PSPimage files as thumbnails.

BTW, prompted by that footnote you found, which I hadn't seen, I
experimented by adding a few 'multi-layer' PSPimage files to the
folder as well. It seems that IV *will* show these if they are
*vector* layers. For example, a file with an original background
(whether left as a background or promoted to a layer) plus two
separate vector layers, one containing say a shape and the other some
text, *does* get displayed correctly as a thumbnail.

Should add that I'm a complete novice to layers; it was while trying
to teach myself about them that the thumbnail issue cropped up.

In My Computer/Explorer windows, I still have the puzzle I described,
that some PSP files do display as thumbnails, while others don't. I'd
be interested to hear if anyone else gets that behaviour. I'd assume
is down to a combination of Explorer and PSP Thumbnail Handler. Here
are a couple of resized files (235 KB and 149 KB respectively) to
illustrate it:

http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/Images/OriginalBW-DoesNotDisplay.psp
http://www.terrypin.dial.pipex.com/Images/16M-Displays-OK.psp

If I download both, move them to a folder and select Thumbnail view,
one renders a thumbnail and the other does not.

 

[CharlieDontSurf]

I don't know exactly how 'normal operation' was resumed, but since my
earlier post I did these things, not necessarily in this order:
- Reverted back in IV settings to previous state, with PSP not checked
under Associations (and reinstated under Explorer settings).
- Uninstalled and re-installed the program 'PSP Thumbnail Handler'
installed, which is supposed to make PSP thumbnails displayable in
Explorer.
- Rebooted

Happily, IV Thumbnail Browser is now correctly showing *all* the PSP
and PSPimage files as thumbnails.

I'm glad you got it working again. Maddening though, innit, when
something fixes itself and you're not really sure why?

In My Computer/Explorer windows, I still have the puzzle I described,
that some PSP files do display as thumbnails, while others don't. I'd
be interested to hear if anyone else gets that behaviour. I'd assume
is down to a combination of Explorer and PSP Thumbnail Handler. Here
are a couple of resized files (235 KB and 149 KB respectively) to
illustrate it:

If I download both, move them to a folder and select Thumbnail view,
one renders a thumbnail and the other does not.

I can't be of any help with those, since I use Explorer exclusively in
Detail view. Switching to Thumbnail view, I've just discovered neither
those, nor any of the other common image formats like JPG, GIF, BMP will
render. Oddly, I *do* get thumbnails from video files. Weird.

Here's a snippet from the Thumbnail Handler's FAQ that might explain why
the original indexed-color pic isn't rendering (note the last line):

"PSP Thumbnail Handler displays thumbnails by extracting the embedded
thumbnail from the PSP file. If the file does not contain a thumbnail,
or the thumbnail is not in the expected format, PSP Thumbnail Handler
will fail and the default PSP icon will be displayed instead."

"Previous versions of Paint Shop Pro did not embed thumbnails. Opening
files originally created in these previous versions in PSP 7 or newer
and saving the file may not add the thumbnail. You must do a Save As in
order to get the thumbnail added (you can give the file the same file
name)."

"In addition, files that are 256 colors or less may not contain a
thumbnail."