• Price: 77 . 850

  • Company: Laurence King

  • Pros: Very reasonable price. Boasts Photoshop-equivalent effects, enhanced Camera RAW support, Web-optimization tools, and powerful retouching and correction tools.

  • Cons: Windows only, and not as powerful or integrated as Photoshop or Fireworks. Interface is busy in places, and some tools display quirky behaviour.

  • Our Rating: We rate this 7 out of 10 We rate this 7 out of 10

Paint Shop Pro has been around for years, but this is the first major version to be released after its acquisition by Corel. While often seen as a poor man’s Photoshop, there’s enough here to satisfy people who infrequently edit images, such as 3D modellers and animators, and video editors and compositors. At £99, it’s also a lot less expensive.

border=0 />Corel’s revamp includes many of the new photo tools seen in Photoshop CS 2, including healing brushes, an object remover, one-click red-eye removal and blemish removers, while effects tools include lens correction, perspective correction, and image warp. </p> <p> RAW format support for SLR cameras and high-end compacts is included. This is fast becoming a de rigueur component for professional image editors – so it’s good to see it here in such a low-cost package. Enhanced in this edition, Paint Shop Pro X now supports over 40 camera RAW file formats, though 3D types will be disappointed that HDR components of images are not supported. </p> <p> The Paint Shop Pro X software bundle also includes a RAW utility in the shape of RawShooter Essentials by Pixmantec, though this is freely available from the company’s Web site (www.pixmantec.com). </p> <p> Paint Shop Pro X also brings its own unique tools to the party. Paint Shop Pro has featured Tubes for several versions. This is a type of Image Hose for painting images onto a scene.?However, the makeover tools – with a wrinkle fixer, tooth whitener, and Suntan Brush – are new, in addition to the Photoshop CS 2-style fixing tools. </p> <p> <img src= Print

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