Paint Shop Pro Photo 11

By Dale Farris, Reviews Coordinator Golden Triangle PC Club May 2007 General Overview You know what you want — something that’s going to let you create the image you have in mind. Whether it’s a photo, graphic, or digital art, Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 is going to help you get that vision out of your head and onto the screen. Your pocketbook doesn’t have to suffer for your art and you don’t have to settle on the pricey standard for quality. What you need is right here. Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 has been described by experts to be very close to Adobe's Photoshop CS in functionality, yet it costs hundreds less. Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 is also much easier to learn than Photoshop, while including a ton of customizable editing firepower. PC World magazine says Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 is easier to use than Photoshop, with an excellent red-eye removal tool and good background manipulation features. Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 allows the user to work with multiple layers of the photo—this feature is common in better software, but not seen as often in less-robust software. Experts say it is easy to grow into Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 once you master the basics, as you are not confined to the wizard system for editing photos. While some software forces you to work only with a wizard (which takes you through a process, step by step), Corel lets more adept users stray away from the handholding of a task wizard. About.com’s Sue Chastain includes Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 in her top two picks for both beginner and advanced editors, giving testament to the flexibility of the program. Chastain notes, “Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 feels ‘all grown up.’ The workspace has been streamlined and updated, there are new tools and effects, productivity enhancements, and personalized options.” Corel includes several built-in effects tools from beginner to advanced, ranging from simple red-eye correction, to color and contrast auto-fixes, to an animation shop for creating animated GIF’s. The interface is not flashy, but it is capable of getting almost any editing job completed quickly. Anyone with an interest in digital photography and digital images will want to give serious consideration to this latest version of Paint Shop Pro Photo 11. In version 11, Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 continues to impress with all its many, many features that are packaged in this very reasonably priced program. Customers who own an older version of Paint Shop Pro will also want to upgrade to this new version. Students learning digital image editing also can use Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 to begin learning the many things that can be done today with computer images. The Corel Corporation now owns Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 and long time customers of WordPerfect and Paint Shop Pro will be delighted to learn that Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 continues under the arm of Corel. What's New in Version 11? Your creativity has no limits, neither should your software. Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 continues to set the standard for affordable, professional image editing. Version 11 builds on Paint Shop Pro Photo's legacy of creative innovation with a new suite of Art Media features, professional photo editing tools, and precision graphic design capabilities. This version also features several industry innovations that greatly reduce time spent on production tasks. Edit photos, create graphics, draw, paint and animate, all within a highly personalized workspace environment. NEW Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI builds on the core values set forth by Paint Shop Pro users themselves: easy-to-use yet powerful tools designed with the photographer in mind. Not only does NEW Paint Shop Pro Photo XI improve on existing features, it also incorporates all-new, one-of-a-kind enhancements including a fully-integrated photo organizer -- giving users a single application that covers their workflow from start to finish. NEW The Organizer A one-stop photo management center that takes the guesswork out of finding photos by letting you search for images on your computer by filename, date, file type, or folder location. NEW Color Changer Tool Easily and realistically change colors of any objects in your photos. NEW Time Machine An amazing special effects filter plus a history lesson all in one! It shows what photos would look like if they were taken in another era, ranging from the 1800s to the 1990s. Some of the photo techniques featured include: Daguerreotype Albumen Cyanotype Platinum Brownie Camera Early Color Cross Process NEW Depth of Field Effect Apply realistic depth that is usually only captured with expensive lenses and a digital SLR camera. It quickly simulates an out-of-focus background to draw attention to the main subject. NEW Skin Smoothing Automatically remove wrinkles, scars, or signs of aging from faces in digital photos NEW Film and Filter Effects Make photos look like they were taken with a specific type of film or filter. Choose from over 50 different combinations or create and save your own look using these mix-and-match options: Film Looks Vivid Vivid Skin Tones Muted Reds Vibrant Foliage Creative Filters Glamour Cooling Warming Night Density NEW Enhanced Crop Tool This makes it easier than ever to get specific print sizes in a flash. NEW Levels and Curves Get exceptional control over some of the most critical image adjustments such as contrast, color depth and levels. NEW lynda.com Training Videos See Paint Shop Pro Photo in action. Get helpful instructions on how to use new tools and other familiar features in two hours worth of informative videos. NEW Email Features It's easier and faster than ever to share photos with friends and family. Send as attachments or embed photo directly in the body of an email. Paint Shop Pro Photo automatically resizes photos for email so you don't have to open and resave. NEW Corel Painter and Corel Painter Essentials Compatibility Open, edit, create and save images as RIFF files to create a seamless workflow with the world's most popular painting and illustration software. NEW Video Preview Review, open and organize videos and extract single-frames from video clips. Targeted Customers With this latest version 11, Paint Shop Pro continues to impress with its extensive array of useful features that are all nicely designed in a very user-friendly design and priced very reasonably. While Adobe's Photoshop CS may continue to dominate the high-end, technical level of digital image editing, Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 now combines more powerful features than ever and is certainly much less costly than Photoshop CS. Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 has become a "heavyweight" in the digital image editing software market, and will definitely appeal to all customers who use an older version, as well as serve as an excellent entry-level program for those new to digital image editing. Once customers become accustomed to the power and functionality in Paint Shop Pro Photo 11, I suspect most will be hard pressed to move to any other digital image program for any reason. The shift in emphasis from image creation to digital photography is signified by the use of the term Photo in the name of the software, creating Paint Shop Pro Photo 11. This nifty program remains an excellent choice for those seeking Photoshop-like powers at a Photoshop Elements price, although Corel Photo Album is no longer bundled with the product. For managing and sharing your digital photo collection, a new addition to Paint Shop Pro Photo 11, the Organizer, takes up some of the slack. This feature is a resizable, dockable palette that is nicely integrated with the Paint Shop Pro Photo program, instead of being a separate application like Photoshop's Bridge or Photoshop Elements' Organizer. The Organizer has all the image-browser basics: raw-format support, scalable thumbnails, searching, keyword capabilities, a rating feature, metadata editing, and an instant slideshow creator. A nifty innovation lets you save still images from frames in video files. Snapfire Plus SE, a form of the $39.99 Snapfire Plus, also comes with Paint Shop Pro Photo 11. For the first 30 days, it has all the capabilities of the full version. After that, if you choose not to buy it, the functionality reverts to that of the free downloadable version (plus some project templates). On the whole, this shift in image-management strategy makes the product less an editing and organizing package, like Photoshop Elements, and more a straightforward image editor with some built-in organizational features. Fortunately for long time Paint Shop Pro users, image editing is where Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 has long shone. However, while the program's formidable power is undiminished in version 11, the new editing features do not necessarily bring a lot new. When used on typical multi-megapixel photos, the Skin Smoothing command is so sluggish you might feel yourself aging as it fixes skin tone and wrinkles. The Depth of Field command emphasizes the photo subject by softening the background focus, but it offers little you could not achieve in any image editor by isolating the foreground and blurring the background. The Depth of Field feature is also pokey and gives you only a freehand lasso tool for selecting complex foreground objects. However, the new Color Changer tool does an amazingly good job of re-coloring image objects with a single click and a little tweaking of the tool's sliders. The Levels and Curves commands and the Crop tool have also been given helpful enhancements. While printing professionals will want to stick with Photoshop, those in search of a versatile editing / organizing / sharing solution may be better off with Photoshop Elements. However, Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 retains the formidable image-editing power of its previous incarnations. The product nicely fills its distinct niche as a robust program for beginners and experts alike, offered at a very affordable price. Also, any long time Paint Shop Pro customers will want to seriously consider upgrading to this newest version 11. Paint Shop Pro has been around for so long on so many computers, it has one of the largest established customer bases of any software now on the market. This newest version 11 is definitely a must for all Paint Shop Pro customers. System Configuration Requirements Minimum System Requirements 500MHz processor Windows Vista, XP (SP2), 2000 (SP4) 500MB free hard disk space 256MB RAM 1024 x 768 resolution display, 16-bit color IE 6 Recommended System Configuration 1GHz or faster processor Windows Vista, XP (SP2) 500MB free hard disk space 512MB RAM 1024 x 768 resolution display, 32-bit color Corel WordPerfect MAIL, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Outlook Express, or other MAPI-compliant e-mail software CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, or DVD+R burner Apple QuickTime 7 player Microsoft DirectX 9 Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 has achieved Works with Windows Vista qualification. It is recommended that you install the free Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo 11 Vista update prior to upgrading your computer to Windows Vista. Please click on the update message bubble or go to the Help > Check for Updates menu in Paint Shop Pro Photo to see if you need the update and to start the automatic update process. Price $89.99 - Retail - Download $89.99 - Retail - Box $54.99 - Upgrade Retail - Download & Box About Corel On October 14, 2004, the Corel Corporation, one of the industry's top ten packaged software vendors, acquired Corel Software, Inc. This acquisition has yielded real benefits to all Corel Paint Shop customers. Corel intends to put the powerful R&D resources of the newly-combined companies behind the popular Paint Shop family, ensuring that next-generation Paint Shop products will continue to flourish. Also, Corel continues to provide service and support to all Paint Shop customers. Their primary goal is to ensure that your critical needs are effectively met. Corel is a leading global packaged software company with over 40 million users. The Company provides full-featured, easy-to-use productivity, graphics and digital imaging software and enjoys a favorable market position among consumers and small businesses. The Company's award-winning product portfolio features popular, globally recognized brands, including CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Corel Painter , Corel DESIGNER. Corel WordPerfect Office, WinZip, and iGrafx. With hundreds of industry awards for leadership in software innovation, design and value, Corel's products have built a loyal following of customers and partners around the globe. Corel's products are sold in over 75 countries through an international network of resellers and retailers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and Corel's global websites. Well-known for its highly responsive and flexible partner strategy, Corel has formed long-standing strategic relationships with companies including HP, Dell, Lenovo, and NEC. Years of development and testing have gone into Corel products, and we are proud of the high quality software we deliver to the market. In fact, Corel has received over 500 industry awards celebrating excellence and innovation. The Company is focused on offering products that are easy to use and learn, and can interoperate with major file formats. WordPerfect Office Suite, WinZip, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite Corel Paint Shop Pro, and Corel Painter enjoy widespread brand recognition and have millions of users worldwide. Corel's productivity product line features the WordPerfect Office family, WinZip and the iGrafx family of process management solutions. WordPerfect Office is the world's leading alternative to Microsoft Office and includes Microsoft-compatible word processing, spreadsheet and presentation applications. WinZip is the most popular compression utility for Windows with over 150 million downloads per year. iGrafx is a recognized leader in delivering Business Process Analysis solutions. The Company's graphics and digital imaging product line features CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, Corel Snapfire, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo, Corel Painter, and Corel Designer. Corel's product line includes software designed to address the unique needs of design professionals, small business users, professional photographers and hobbyists. Founded in 1985, Corel has built a global following through over 20 years of innovation. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, the Company has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Asia. Corel's stock is traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol CREL and on the TSX under the symbol CRE. Contact Corel Corporation 1600 Carling Avenue Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1Z 8R7 Corel Minneapolis 7905 Fuller Road Eden Prairie, Minnesota 55344 52-934-8888 FAX 952-930-9172 www.corel.com