"In keeping with that laser focus on photographers there’s new support for dozens of RAW camera formats so you can upload your images in their original form."
Rosie Khdir
Corel’s latest edition of the veteran PaintShop Pro software range, is firmly focussed on photo editing and amateur photographers looking to improve their images with a range of tools not available with free software. They’ve even added the word photo to the title to prove it.
We check out PaintShop Photo Pro X3 (PSPPX3) to see whether it Corel have produced a winner.
What we like most
In keeping with that laser focus on photographers there’s new support for dozens of RAW camera formats so you can upload your images in their original form.
There’s improved layout too with Express Lab for common tasks and Full Editor for more tricky adjustments, and to help keep track of all your images it opens in the Organiser view.
Of the new tools Smart Carver and Object Extractor are the most noteworthy. The former allows you to remove objects from an image without distorting the surroundings, and the latter to select complex fine textured areas of photos like hair or fur and generate a mask.
What we like least
The main complaint is the lack of a 64-bit version and hardware (graphics) acceleration. It meant that large selections of photos, which any amateur photographer is going to build up, took a long time to load.
The second is the incredibly cluttered interface; there are a lot of features to be wedged into PSPPX3, but the interface seems confusing to new users with some pretty labyrinth sub menus.
The update makes PaintShop Pro into a solid photo editing suite, with some nice extras – a good purchase for anyone with a DSLR who wants to develop their photography that bit further.
Features
NEW: remove objects without distortion with Smart Carver tool
Download or CD
Both
Compatible with
Windows
System Requirements
- Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Vista or Windows XP with latest service packs installed (32-bit or 64-bit editions)
- 1.5 GHz processor (2 GHz or higher recommended)
- 1 Gb of RAM (2 Gb or higher recommended)
- 3 Gb of free hard drive space
- Minimum display resolution: 1024 x 768 (24-bit colour)
- Windows-compatible DVD-ROM drive for installation
The Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Ultimate software package is Corel’s valiant attempt at taking on Adobe’s Photoshop, which many think has taken over the photo editing software market and won’t let it go easily. PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Ultimate does have one advantage over their competitor, however, and that is the price – it is only a fraction of the hundreds of pounds users have to shell out for the latest Photoshop version.
Paintshop Photo Pro X3 Ultimate offers photo editing, digital painting, Raw image manipulation and a code-free and easy way to create websites from scratch.
Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Ultimate
Its photo editing suite is user-friendly and fairly comprehensive, and there is also a tool to create HD video slidewhos.
To read more about the Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Ultimate software, check out the PC-Site review here.
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