Microsoft Picture It incompatability with Windows 7 and alternatives for .mix files.

I kept my XP machine up and running solely to use my PictureIt software and that worked for me for many of the first years.  Unfortunately, with cameras and cell phones being updated to take the best pictures possible, most of my picture files had become too large to open in PI.  So, I either have to remember to set my cameras to a smaller file size or resize my pictures so they will open.  Either option diminishes the picture quality so I have to be careful when ordering larger prints of my projects.

While this is not something I have actually done, I have no doubt that Photoshop Elements and Paint.net could achieve the same result as you describe. Photoshop Elements, for instance, would allow you to select your cutout, save it and then move it back on top of the original one in your collage. You should be able to feather that, but there are things like blending mode which you could probably use instead for some effects. I would have to check that out, which I could do if this is crucial. I find it hard to remember which process has which refinements without opening a photo and trying it - there are so many techniques and my memory is not what it was.. However, anything I want to do I can do.

John Presland

I've never heard of .mix files. I use JPEG, which is the more or less standard format for photos, unless you want to fill a house wall. You can use JPEGs for almost anything. I haven't been able to find any program that uses .mix. Presumably Picture It did. Perhaps it was the format for saving pictures in that program. But you don't need to do that. I used to save Picture it creations as JPEGs, which are extremely versatile.

Both Photoshop Elements and Paint.net save pictures in any of the range of formats it permits, and you can save your collage as any of those. It is then effectively a single picture and you can edit it at any time in either program. i did this with the examples of my own collages which I mentioned. The range of editing possibilities is greater in both programs than in Picture It.

John Presland

35Exactly! Other programs claim to build collages, but nothing does what PictureIt does.

Although programs like Paint Shop Pro had their own editable format (the .psp file that maintains both layers and transparency) that could be later opened and edited, they did not allow for adjustments like changing the degree to which a cut-out was feathered after it had been cut out and and added to the collage. And even Paint Shop Pro was ruined once Corel acquired it.

I will never forgive Microsoft for for failing to make good on their promise to support all Microsoft software in any future versions of Windows. The operating system is only as good as the software that will run under it, and Microsoft really pulled the rug out from under end users who need need a work station as opposed to a game system.