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| | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review: ( 180 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
114 of 131 found the following review helpful:
 Never thought I would ever say this, but... Nov 26, 2011
By Scoot395
...for the first time since 1998, I will not be buying the latest version of Paint Shop Pro.
I have been a loyal user of PSP since version 5, back when JASC Software was the company developing and publishing it. Paint Shop Pro has always been an exceptional program, and it was made even better by its affordable price tag. But now it saddens me to see what Corel has done.
Like a couple other reviewers have stated, Corel has chosen to stuff this program with bloat and design rather than function. In fact, I would go so far as to say this new interface is very counter-intuitive. For example...
There is an Organizer palette at the bottom of the screen that reappears no matter how many times it is turned off. Some people may find this palette useful, but there is no way to permanently turn it off. I DO NOT need an organizer palette, I know where my images are and I am very capable of getting to them. I would much rather have my editing pane utilize the space taken up by this useless palette.
Manage/Adjust/Edit tabs at the top of the screen are a joke. In previous versions, everything contained in these tabs was available in the drop-down menus. Now, Corel wants you to switch tabs to access each type of function, and to make matters worse the tools in the Manage and Adjust tabs are not in a tool bar but in yet another palette on the left side of the screen which robs you of even MORE work space! Also, if you have an image open in the Edit tab and then switch to the Adjust tab, guess what... the image closes and you have to REOPEN it. But, Corel must have missed something, because if you are in the Edit tab you have the full array of drop down menus, which include all the file management and adjustment functions available on the other two tabs... so WHY do the other two tabs even exist???
Apparently, Corel doesn't like you being able to browse a file tree to find your images. On the left you can search your Collections tab, or choose the Computer tab which looks like it would let you open up an Explorer-type file tree... not so. You can click on your C: drive, but nothing opens up. All that happens is the [+] next to it disappears and no tree system opens. You can go up to the Open icon at the top and get a file-tree, but if you use the Manage/Adjust/Edit tabs the image is closed and you have to reopen it.
It appears that most of the people buying this product are being misled. Contrary to Corel's claims, there is NOT much new in this version of PSP. (As some people may not realize, things like effects filters that are listed in What's New are not really features. Those are add-on plugins.) Everything is rearranged, and Corel is referring to their pretty Manage/Adjust/Edit tabs as a new feature, but people, EVERYTHING in these tabs was present in X3 and even X2! They just moved stuff around! The only new features are some effects, and there appears to be only two of those... Selective Focus and Vignette. And both of those can be downloaded as third-party filters... They are saying that things that have been in PSP for YEARS are new features, for example, the window with all the photo information. That has long been available in the Image menu under Image Information. Adjustment Layers is another old feature they are claiming is new...
The amount of time I have put into using this product so far has been very frustrating. I cannot fathom what was going through the minds of Corel's programmers when they thought up this product. It is the same old, same old... except they have taken quite a few steps backward with the interface. There is nothing streamlined or flow-oriented about it.
As a long-time PSP user, I would suggest to other previous PSP users that you stick with what you have. If you are a new user, I would suggest that you download the trial version from Corel's website before you hand over your hard earned money.
65 of 73 found the following review helpful:
 Great software, Great Price! Sep 13, 2011
By 5055
"tbb"
If you're an avid PaintShop Pro user of previous versions, you may want to know before hand that it has completely changed. If you decide to buy the new version, just make sure you have the correct mind set for these new changes...If you're not a person for change, then you may want to hold off for a bit. Me on the other hand, these new changes were something different for me, but in no time I adjusted to them quite fast. The new changes are noticeable to point out, and you will soon realize how beneficial and great these features are. Here are a few of the changes in the new version...
NEW Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0--includes over 250 effects and styles, along with 30+ emulated film types in 52 easy-to-use filters
NEW Custom photo book--showcase your best work
NEW Images from Fotolia--download your 21 royalty-free, high-resolution photos from this incredible image bank of photos and illustrations
NEW Picture Tubes--get a selection of Picture Tubes from our extensive collection
NEW HDR module--merge photos with different exposures to create incredible images
NEW Photo Blend--combine photos of the same scene to include the best details and remove unwanted elements
NEW Selective Focus--mimic the effect of expensive tilt-shift lenses and turn a scene into a miniature world
NEW Interface--Complete re-design of the interface has been implemented. Built for ease of use
NEW Windows 7 Integration--Now includes taskbar previews of your layered projects.
**You can also go to the Corel site, just so you know a bit more about What's New!**
The only thing I did not like, is the integration with the Windows 7 taskbar previews while dealing in layers, as far as I know...You cannot turn this off. It is a minor setback, and can be dealt with.
Overall, this is a very positive change from Corel, and I like where the PaintShop series is heading....Which is indeed headed in the right direction so far. This is a professional package, for an affordable price. I definitely choose this over Photoshop any day, just because of the price and features of the product. I definitely recommend this to anyone who likes to edit or create certain image projects who are on a budget, but can still achieve professional results. Get your hands on this, it will definitely be helpful if you need it. Like I said, it is headed in the right direction...From here on out....This product will only get better and better.
*UPDATE 09/14/2011*
I have been tinkering around some more, and would like to point out a couple of menu options that have been changed in this new version.
When doing a mirror effect (Ctrl M) in previous versions, you would go to Image, Mirror to do so. In the new version, they have renamed it to Image, Flip Horizontal. I just wanted to point this out, just in case people got confused.
For those of you who like the old classic look and would like to change it, and not use the Graphite/Darker theme...I am sorry to say, I am almost positive you can not change this anymore. For me on the other hand, I think the Graphite/Darker look is more easy on the eyes and more appealing.
About a third party plugin:
If you use Filters Unlimited Plugin, some images require you to open using a non transparent background when editing. If you run into problems while using this plugin, just make sure to Open with the Transparent box unchecked...You'll know what I mean if you run into problems. That is of course if you utilize this third party plugin.
28 of 29 found the following review helpful:
My Quick Look at PSP X4 Sep 16, 2011
By Lynn - Crystal River Users Group
By Lynn Page Webmaster/Newsletter Editor Crystal River Users Group (CRUG)
I have had the opportunity to spend a little time looking at Corel PaintShop Pro X4 and am pleased with the changes to an already excellent product. I will be doing a full review for my user group (CRUG) but want to provide a few initial observations.
The Getting Started/Welcome screen that opens in front of the workspace will be a benefit to new users and I found it worth the little time it took to look through the explanations. PSP X4 has moved to a more traditional tabbed interface most of us have come to love. The easily spotted tabs in the middle of the title bar make it simple to move between the Manage, Adjust and Edit tasks whether you have the application full screen or not.
The Manage tab contains the Organizer in the bottom pane and a Navigation pane on the left. In the past I generally did not use the Organizer very often but did note some nice features on the Manage tab. The auto hide feature for the Navigation pane provides room for a much nicer preview of a selected photo. Dedicated photographers will appreciate the additional information about the photo displayed in the right pane. The Organizer task bar now includes a Share icon to easily share a photo through email or on FaceBook or Flickr. There is also an icon to Auto Group photos taken within a period of time up to a minute. What I liked the best is that PSP remembers where I was in the Organizer and goes to that location when I return.
The Adjust tab is a beefed up version of the Express Lab. With the addition of controls for color balance, brightness/contrast, fill light/clarity, local tone mapping, and digital noise removal it can now truly handle many if not most routine photo fixes. Selecting photos for adjustment is simple as the Organizer is readily available in the bottom pane. I may now find myself starting on the Adjust tab instead of going directly to the full editor.
The full features of PSP X4 are available on the Edit tab. The Organizer is again available in the bottom pane and a single click of its Show/Hide Navigation Pane icon opens it to the left of the image in the workspace. So I no longer have the need to keep Windows Explorer open to get to my photos. I have focused my time in looking at some of PSP X4's new editing features while quickly reviewing some of my favorites. To look at the new HDR exposure merge I took a series of photos from our stairway landing towards the morning sun behind a wall of windows. My camera does not have an automatic setting for this so I just manually selected an aperture and altered the shutter speed. After selecting the set of photos that looked the best creating a single merged shot was simple. In Edit select the photos to merge form the Organizer panel then in the File drop down menu select HDR and then Exposure Merge. PSP starts the process. In the merge step you can choose settings and do custom editing. I just clicked Process to move on to the next step. Here you can choose from preset settings or make your own adjustments to temperature, contrast, highlights and midtones before clicking process. After completing the merge I adjusted the perspective of my photo before trying out the new Fill Light/Clarity adjustment. It is great for saving photos that may seem too dark. Use the sliders to bring light into the dark areas while maintaining detail. It is a wonderful tool. Next I used the new Vignette photo effect to create a faded white edge and finally added a photo frame. This resulted in a photo ready for display from a series of unusable shots.
Another new and notable feature in PSP X4 is Photo Blend. It is a simple way of getting the best parts of a series of photos. Just paint in the potions to keep on each photo and paint out the areas not wanted. I tried it out and was able to get the whole family looking good. Photo Blend is straight forward enough for anyone to try. No need to worry about understanding layers and filters.
These new features make PSP X4 a definite upgrade candidate or a perfect choice for someone looking for a photo editing application. As with any upgrade there is a learning curve and I did have a couple of little stumbles. My major one was that it took me a while to realize the workspace is tabbed. After duplicating an image I could not find it so by the time I realized my mistake I had 3 copies. It also took me a minute to try the esc key to cancel and back out of Smart Photo Fix.
I have also been using PSP X4's extensive artistic capabilities. It is easy for a user like me to just focus on editing digital photos to get the best possible image. By doing that we miss out on the wonderful array of artistic effects available through PaintShop Pro. The artistic features make PSP X4 a great tool for scrap-bookers and beginning digital artists as well as photo editors.
25 of 28 found the following review helpful:
Continues to be a bargain Nov 06, 2011
By D. DEGEORGE
Recent releases of Paint Shop Pro (henceforth often to be abbreviated "PSP") have seen it go the way of much software, adding features that make it more comprehensive, even as it overlaps its functions with several other competing products. (Paint Shop Pro had an early start at being a multi-function product, having always been a combination photo processor and creative "paint" product. When Corel bought JASC, they re-branded Paint Shop Pro as Corel Paint Shop Pro X, the X originally indicating version 10. Subsequently there was Paint Shop Photo Pro X2, Paint Shop Pro X3, and now Paint Shop Photo Pro X4. Products can become somewhat cumbersome and bloated in their attempt to be all things to all people, a condition that afflicts almost all major software today. An example of this is the 3-tier structure that the X3 product introduced, and which continues in X4, namely, an organizer ["manager" in X4], an "express lab," ["Adjust" in X4] and a full editor ["Edit" in X4]. I have used X3 for many months now and find that I almost always jump straight to the full editor after putting up with the slight inconvenience of having to go through the organizer screen first.)
Every photo-software product seems to think it has to have a photo manager or organizer in spite of the fact that Picasa probably leads that field and is free. Nevertheless, I grant that there may be some advantage in having the photo manager integrated with the processing software one uses. In addition, the Express (Adjust) tab is no doubt useful to people who need to process a lot of photos fast; but for me, even when speed is of the essence I still prefer to go to the full Edit tab, where a quick One Step Photo Fix is available.
X4 looks a lot like X3, and that is something of a relief, given that for twenty years PSP has been rattling customers by too-frequent complete overhauls of its user interface. X4 distinguishes itself from X3 with some relatively inconsequential re-arrangement of the furniture, and in the following ways: it streamlines the user-interface with workspaces, adds a Photo Blend function for combining multiple photos, optimizes HDR workflow, adds a Remove Object function, yields better performance, and has a new set of color effects.
Some bugs and deficiencies that I observed include the following:
1. Registration glitch: If first impressions count, it's never a good thing to aggravate the user with product registration problems, which I had: although my initial attempt at registering the product on-line was in fact successful and acknowledged by Corel, the registration window kept popping up each subsequent time that I started PSP. After finding no solution on the Corel web pages (which included at least one broken link to customer support), I called Corel; and after an average hold time with a somewhat odd but pleasant soundtrack I reached helpful humans for whom North American English seemed to be their first language. We worked out a very simple fix for the endless registration loop, tech support assured me the problem rarely occurred, and the overall support experience was a good one.
2. Unclear documentation of bonus material: The retail package includes two CD-ROMs, one of which is the main product, and the other a Bonus Pack containing plug-ins that were not identified as plug-ins. Some explanation of just what I was installing would have saved me the trouble of looking for desktop icons or other ways to access these new features. They consisted of the aforementioned set of color effects, accessible several layers down the menu structure.
3: Multiple-photo selection: when one selects a group of photos from a Windows Explorer window, right-clicks, and does an Open With..., only one of the photos opens in the edit window of PSP X4. It would be nice if all the selected files opened and simultaneously accessible in both the Edit and Manage tabs. (Even though I stated above that I am not a fan of built-in photo organizers, once I have opened a number of pictures in the Editor, it can on rare occasions be helpful to look at the Manager to get an overview of what I'm working with.)
4: Limited cropping presets: In the cropping options, various standard sizes (e.g., 5x7, 8x10-in.) are provided; it would be nice also to have presets for common aspect ratios such as 3:2, 4:3, and (especially since it's a calculation hard to do in one's head) 16:9, which is handy for cropping photos to fit exactly into the frame for a DVD slide-show.
5: Lack of sorely-needed tools: Two of the most common flaws in photographs are bad focus and blurring. When photo-processing products can effectively deal with those, they will really have matured. Unfortunately, that time has not yet come, at least not for focus--not for a reasonable price. For motion-blur, however, inexpensive or free plugins are available, but not for PSP, only PhotoShop, and therein lies perhaps the greatest disadvantage of PSP--it does not attract the wealth of plugins that PhotoShop does. Because of that it would behoove PSP to integrate an anti-blurring function of its own. PSP has been around for twenty years; it is not unreasonable to hope that such an obvious photo-fix feature would be provided. Oh, but PSP and its competitors are all too happy to give us a "depth of field" feature that deliberately makes backgrounds look OUT of focus--that's easy; and really, they shouldn't call it an "add depth of field" feature because technically speaking it *reduces* depth-of-field rather than enhancing it.
There is one missing tool that should be a no-brainer: There is a set of "paintbrushes" that enhance photos by "painting" the effect onto the photo: things like brightness up/down, saturation up/down, burning, dodging, sharpening -- a dozen functions altogether that can be applied selectively to parts of a photo without having to go into elaborate layering or masking schemes; yet one of the most obviously needed of these types of adjustments, a contrast applicator, is not to be found. Almost every picture one makes of a vast landscape, as in the mountains, for example, contains distant features that are washed out by haze. If one applies contrast to the entire photo, the foreground becomes garish in the attempt to clarify the background. No trailblazing new code needs to be added to the product; contrast is a basic adjustment; why can it not be available as an easily applied "brush," too? C'mon, this is Version 14 already!
Given all the important capabilities that we photographers would like to have, it is somewhat irksome to find so much attention given over to special effects, such as warp filters; however, we cannot fault PSP for being true to its original mission to be a hybrid photo-processing AND "paint" product. Still, I keep hoping against hope that developers (in all companies -- Corel is merely typical) will somehow get the message that they need to spend their time fixing bugs and providing truly useful enhancements to their products. I want the developers to make my software do the heavy lifting and to do it in a user-friendly way rather than adding a bunch of gimmicks that sell well but are relatively useless. I can already organize my own pictures using Windows itself, and there are certainly many easy ways to upload photos to Facebook without my needing a "feature" in PSP to do it.
Moving on to what I like in the way of new features in PSP...
The object-remover tool is a wonderful addition, but there are a few kinks to work out: The bottom status line had some unclear usage hints referring to a selection rectangle and some obscure differentiation between using the Ctrl & Shift keys, or none, while applying the tool. Normally, the Learning Center pane would give fairly detailed instructions for using the function, but evidently the developers have not yet provided any help text for the Object-Remover tool; instead, the pane reverts to information pertaining to whatever function one was using immediately beforehand.; so as of this writing one has to refer to the manual and then do some experimenting to figure out how to use the tool.
In spite of the deficiencies noted above, once I figured out how it worked, I found it rather useful; it attempts to do a subtle replace of the object with background that you choose with any of PSP's selection tools. A very small button in the palette bar, "Smart blending," if checked will make a vague substitution; if not checked, the chosen background is a straightforward and thus stark substitution that is useful in some situations. You may want to uncheck this box as you are learning to use the feature just so that you can see in no uncertain terms what the feature does. The object-remover tool is a much faster way to remove objects than the old way, which required one to use the Clone brush and then diddle around a while to remove the artifacts thus introduced.
Enhanced HDR: This is perhaps X4's biggest improvement, and worthy of being a major selling point. I had not bothered with the rather primitive version of HDR in X3, but I finally decided to give X4's heftier version a try. The new version allows one almost infinite flexibility in choosing which parts of which photos to include in the final composite, very important if your camera does not have built-in HDR function and you're not using a tripod. Unfortunately, PSP is not particularly smart in automatically matching up images from a sequence of handheld shots, and a better approach than having to eliminate sections of photos to omit from the merge process would be to provide better ways to align hand-held photos. For example, the product could be designed to produce a trial superimposition of two or more photos that the user could then use tilt, zoom, and move functions to align manually. It would be even better if the product could do it by itself, although even with today's powerful computers it might take a while for the product to do the hundreds or thousands of trial-and-error matches internally before presenting an acceptable result to the user; I for one, though, would love to have PSP offer to make the effort after warning me that I might have to take a dinner break while it did it.
PSP's HDR also has the nice feature that if you make a mistake, it is easy to go back and tweak each aspect of your work (in addition to the usual "undo" capability). An added convenience is that many of the most useful editing/adjustment features of PSP are contained in Steps 2 & 3 of the HDR process, except that in Step 3 cloning didn't work, so I had to wait until I had saved the combined image to finish up that little bit of editing.
Bottom line:
PSP X4, even with the shortcomings noted, is a very useful and usable product, one that I have enjoyed for 18 years, all the way back to Version 3! Its beefed-up HDR, improved performance, upgraded RAW tools, and a number of smaller enhancements make this a worthwhile upgrade, deserving of four stars. And all this comes at an amazingly low price.
Footnote & recommendations:
If you've made it this far in this lengthy review, you're a brave soul; or you've wisely skipped to the end in hopes of a concluding recommendation. You will have probably noticed some vehemently negative reviews of PSP from Amazon customers here. When, for whatever reason, software won't run on one's computer, it is extremely frustrating; and it is entirely understandable that a customer would flame out in print. It is important to realize, however, that this is the way of software, where there are millions of different environments in which it has to operate, and no software can anticipate every situation. This is not to excuse mediocrity, and I myself have to question why I have encountered registration problems with both PSP X3 and X4 and why, eighteen months later I have still encountered broken URL links on the Corel website.
I checked the customer reviews of PSP's much more illustrious competitor, Photoshop Elements, and found an overall rating about the same as for PSP. Full Photoshop CS5, at ten times the price, gets a better rating, but a far from perfect one. So I suggest being realistic; the odds are that you will be no more nor less happy with PSP than software in general or its photo-processing competitors in particular.
Recommendations: If you are new to photo-enhancement software and want more functionality than available from free products, you may want to buy Photoshop Elements; it has an excellent reputation from critics and has the great advantage of having many more plugins written for it. Most independent tutorials on how to edit photos use Photoshop and/or Photoshop Elements as examples. On the other hand, Paint Shop Pro is a little less expensive and yet has a more extensive feature set if you count the "paint" functions for people who want to take their creative impulses a step further.
If you have an earlier PSP version and are happy with PSP in general and are trying to decide whether the upgrade is worth it, a lot is going to depend upon how old a version of PSP you have, and, as always, your individual needs. Even if you are as current as X3, if HDR is a hot-button with you, the upgrade will be worth it; likewise, it may be worth it to you for the other enhanced features listed above and in Corel's product description. The very good news is that the user interface is essentially the same between X3 and X4; you will not face the learning curve you may have encountered in other PSP upgrades. I had optimistically hoped for more improvements in areas of PSP that I use almost every day (like that non-existent contrast brush I mentioned); instead it gave me new tools (HDR & object replacement) that I expect to be using frequently. As a Vine reviewer, I did not have to pay for this upgrade; however, knowing what I know now, I would have been willing to purchase it.
19 of 22 found the following review helpful:
An ongoing bad experience Nov 10, 2011
By W. Metcalf
I have been using PSP since the days when it was free. I was finally forced to give up my beloved PSP8 version when I moved to Win7 64-bit. Though I actually purchased this version from Corel, my experience with this product and the company has been so negative I felt others should know. For 2 days now I have experienced repeated failures in getting this software to install and run. (I have a high level of knowledge and experience, going back to the Commodore Vic 20) I have tried many different installation methods, including those suggested by Corel. Perhaps more frustrating than the software is the horrible experience I have had with the company. In spite of having paid for the product, received a serial number, and gone through the web site registration process, I am forbidden access to the website for any sort of communication, even to post in the forums or send a contact e-mail. Only registered users are allowed the privilege, and though I'm registered...I'm not. The only recourse was to wait out a long distance phone call for 40 minutes in order to reach support (which, so far, has been useless). You're allowed one free call BTW. Each one after that costs $20! At this point I feel like some criminal organization has bilked me out of $60 and left me to flounder. I could install and open X4 once. Then, each time I closed and re-opened it, it would refuse to run, bringing up the same error about my copy having been damaged or illegally installed. I was able to get a taste of the program during these brief snippets. Sadly, what used to be a relatively simple-to-use and very capable program now suffers from bloat and an overabundance of "features." Gone is the simple, clean interface of past versions, which allowed one to do a day's work without encumbrance and confusion. The work area is now fractured into a complex of separate panes, a virtual rip-off of Microsoft's Expression Web. New and experienced users alike will spend lots of time trying to locate a simple function. Functionality is also hindered by an almost unusable gray color scheme, someone's idea of dee-zign (already bearing an onslaught of user complaints). Worst of all, the former re-sizable browser window with its variable thumbnail array, where the bulk of the management chores took place, has been replaced by a scrollable horizontal banner that runs across the bottom of the work area. A limited number of thumbnails can be displayed here at one time (even on a wide-screen monitor), leaving one to constantly scroll back-and-forth to view bits and pieces of the thumbnail library. It apparently can be expanded vertically, at the expense of squeezing all other panels into the top of the screen, but gone is the ability to view and manage a large array of thumbnails at a glance. In short, my brief experience demonstrated that the old, easy-to-use PSP, which offered pros and semi-pros, like me, A wide array of effective tools in a relatively clean and useable interface, is gone. Corel now offers a program crammed with salable "features" few will ever understand (or use), and has eliminated a very functional work-a-day interface, replacing it with one who's main features seem to be confusion, complexity, and eye-candy. Tragically, for Win 7 users there is no viable competition without moving into very expensive territory. Who knows, if I could just get it to install and run, I might find it workable in spite of its bugs and unbelievably awful interface.
Addendum: I was able to turn up clues that X4, unfortunately, employs DRM protection(!), and recognized that my installation failures were probably related. After 2-3 hours online with a very nice Corel tech assistant, the infernal DRM software defeated any and all attempts to allow us to get X4 running. Corel finally had to resort to allowing me to download a disk image and try running from that. After three days of efforts, X4 is up and running. I thank Cameron for the informative tip, which reminds me this program is going to require some relearning. Still, I feel that a program that used to allow all functions from a single screen, and now requires mousing back-and-forth between three different interfaces to get the same things accomplished, is not progress. Perhaps experience will change my view, but it' really irrelevant since there are few alternatives.
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