Photodraw cannot SAVE AS GIF, JPG or PNG

Question

PhotoDraw V2 has been working perfectly for over a decade on my various computers. Something happened the other day and now I cannot use the SAVE AS (or save for use in) to save a file in a format such as GIF, JPG or PNG. There is no error and no file is saved. I have already removed and reinstalled the software with no change in performance. I found an old copy of eraser2k but that seemed to crash after a short time.

I remember having a similar problem years ago - perhaps in Windows XP - and somehow it was solved, but I cannot remember how.

I realize that there are other drawing programs available for purchase and that Microsoft no longer supports this product. I also know first-hand that this product worked with Windows 8 with 100% compatibility (without any custom settings).

So if you have an idea how this program interacts with the export of JPG, PNG and GIF files and how I might get this to work again, I would appreciate any suggestions you might have.

Answer 1

Hello,

I had exactly the same problem.

PhotoDraw is awesome, it was just developed way before it's time unfortunately.

Anyway, I came here looking for a fix and saw Phids's response - Run the program as Administrator - and it works great now. Thanks Phids!

Answer 2

I had this same problem happen to me.  I'm not sure what caused it, but I was able to get around it by running Photodraw as an administrator.  Now I'm able to save in jpg and png formats.

Answer 3

Thank you for your suggestion. I removed photoDraw and removed all the filters from the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\GRPHFLT. When I reinstalled it didn't work. So I removed the filters, uninstalled, then went into the registry and found entries for the graphics filters that were slightly awry. I erased those entries, installed irfan plus plug-ins, reinstalled photodraw, and now the SAVE AS has entries that look correct (before some of them looked like "????? .png") but still NOTHING is saved on any drive when I use SAVE AS.

 

I am lost as to what to do now. I am not getting error messages, so I do not know what the problem could be.

 

If you have any further suggestions, I would really appreciate it.

============================================

Is PhotoDraw the only app that is affected?

For example...does Paint and IrfanView 'Save As' correctly?

Maybe it would be worth a try to do a System Restore to a

time before the issue began.

Answer 4

Thank you for your suggestion. I removed photoDraw and removed all the filters from the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\GRPHFLT. When I reinstalled it didn't work. So I removed the filters, uninstalled, then went into the registry and found entries for the graphics filters that were slightly awry. I erased those entries, installed irfan plus plug-ins, reinstalled photodraw, and now the SAVE AS has entries that look correct (before some of them looked like "????? .png") but still NOTHING is saved on any drive when I use SAVE AS.

I am lost as to what to do now. I am not getting error messages, so I do not know what the problem could be.

If you have any further suggestions, I would really appreciate it.

Answer 5

PhotoDraw V2 has been working perfectly for over a decade on my various computers. Something happened the other day and now I cannot use the SAVE AS (or save for use in) to save a file in a format such as GIF, JPG or PNG. There is no error and no file is saved. I have already removed and reinstalled the software with no change in performance. I found an old copy of eraser2k but that seemed to crash after a short time.

 

I remember having a similar problem years ago - perhaps in Windows XP - and somehow it was solved, but I cannot remember how.

 

I realize that there are other drawing programs available for purchase and that Microsoft no longer supports this product. I also know first-hand that this product worked with Windows 8 with 100% compatibility (without any custom settings).

 

So if you have an idea how this program interacts with the export of JPG, PNG and GIF files and how I might get this to work again, I would appreciate any suggestions you might have.

=================================================

I would suspect that the graphics filters are missing

or damaged.

Before proceeding it would be a good idea to create a

System Restore point.

Windows 8 - How To Create a System Restore Point

http://www.groovypost.com/howto/windows-8-7-create-system-restore-recovery-point/

Since they are shared files...a simple reinstall of a

program will not work. First the graphics filters must

be found and renamed. Then a reinstall of a program

that includes graphics filters should replace them.

JPEG filter     - JPEGIM32.FLT

GIF filter          - GIFIMP32.FLT

PNG filter        - PNG32.FLT

TIFF filter        - TIFFIM32.FLT

EPS filter        - EPSimp32.FLT

PCX filter        - PCXIMP32.FLT

BMP filter         - BMPIMP32.FLT   

WMF filter        - WMFIMP32.FLT

Do a search for .flt or try the following path:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Grphflt

Example...rename them from :

JPEGIM32.FLT  to  JPEGIM32.OLD

GIFIMP32.FLT   to  GIFIMP32.OLD

Now install a program that includes graphics filters...

Try reinstalling PhotoDraw and it that does not work...

installing the freeware IrfanView may be worth a try..

(FWIW...it's always a good idea to create a System

Restore point before installing software or updates)

Download IrfanView

http://majorgeeks.com/IrfanView_d4253.html

(filename  :  iview435_setup.exe)

(uncheck the box if you do not want Google Chrome)

Get the plug-ins too...

IrfanView Plug-ins

http://majorgeeks.com/IrfanView_PlugIns_d4908.html

(filename  :  irfanview_plugins_435_setup.exe)

Good luck...