PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Limited Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have used Paint Shop Pro for years and I love it, but it is getting kind of old. So when I saw this new version, I was delighted. I installed it and tried it out, and it worked great. It does all the things Paint Shop Pro does, and lots more besides. It is clean and intuitive, and I can see how I would use it to get a lot done. It works great for cleaning up digital photos, and I especially like the "thinify" tool, which makes me look more attractive than I actually am. So why am I giving it 1 star?
Unfortunately, I had to delete this fine software from my system. I simply can not agree to the license agreement. Here is the part I can't agree with:
1.19.3 You hereby acknowledge and consent to Corel: monitoring your Use of the Product, authenticating and periodically verifying your licensing rights in the Product, collecting, transmitting, using and sharing with Corel's third party marketing partners, data relating to you and your Use of the Product for advertising, marketing, operational and other purposes, accessing, utilizing and altering the existing functionality, including any default settings, of the computer system on which you Use the Product, and receiving in-Product messages from Corel and its third party marketing partners, all in accordance with Corel's Privacy Policy located at [...].
My privacy is important to me. This license agreement goes too far.

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Get everything you need to create fantastic photos--plus $250 in extra value in Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Limited Edition. An Amazon.com exclusive, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Limited Edition combines the outstanding photo-editing capabilities of PaintShop Photo Pro X3 with bonus software for creating unique photo effects, digital paintings and photo back up and encryption, plus a free USB stick! Ideal for owners of DSLR cameras.
Work with even more RAW camera formats

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Photo Explosion 4.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have been using Adobe Elements 4 to improve my pictures but I was forced to make a change when I recently purchased a new PC running Windows 7. Upgrading my Adobe Elements would have cost $100 so I looked for alternatives. I was a bit suspicious of Photo Explosion. After all, its price was $30 with a $10 mail-in rebate. However, it turns out to be a great package. Easy to use and far more capability that I will probably ever use. And, the software comes with a very useful manual. I haven't had a decent manual in years from anyone else. I recommend, without any reservations that you buy Photo Explosion.

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Photo Explosion 4.0 Easily transform a series of photos into 360-degree or wide-angle panoramas.View larger.

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Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)I used 3.0 all the time to open up a photo, add some quick text for a logo on top of my photo. I would then add a frame around the photo (there were several different options of cool effects), to block out some of the background stuff in the photo.
The new version, does not have a simple Insert Text feature like 3.0 did. 3.0 allowed you to insert text, and grab the selection bar windows to easily move it around, rotate it, make the text bigger, etc.
With 4.0, you first have to select the text tool, then increase your font (and change it if you wish). If you want to move the text, you have to then select the move tool (another step). If you want to rotate it, you then have to go to the menu, and go through a couple of steps before you manually have to put in what degree angle you want to rotate it. It was much simpler and easier in the old version because you could do it all from one place.
I used the magic effects and frame features all the time in 3.0, there was alot of cool black and white effects that you can make a pic look really elegant (I'm a cake decorator so I used it to block out the background so the cake would be focused better). In 4.0, you can't do it in the Image Editor.
The step in 4.O:
1. Create a new project in Project Studio
2. Add your photo.
3. Add your border (which are horrible,theres no magic effects anymore, and no elegant black and white effects to place around your pic).
4. If you find one you like, you then have to save your project.
5. Then you have to export it to a jpg.
I'm really surprised they took out some functionality of 3.0 and made everything more difficult. I'm now searching for a software that will allow me to quickly add text and some elegant photo effects around the edges.

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Corel Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Check online reviews also. No improvement over X2's slow performance. Lot's of crashes, eats up system resources. Corel very slow in responding with fixes. This is another "not ready for prime time " release.

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Get the total photo- and video-editing solution with Corel's Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle. With incredible power and ease of use, it includes everything you need to create professional-quality photos and videos, including PaintShop Photo Pro X3 and VideoStudio Pro X3, plus valuable extras like Painter Photo Essentials 4, DVD Movie Factory Pro 2010 and Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4--all for a great value.

Overview The new Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle brings photo, video, DVD and Blu-ray authoring software together so you can create your best-ever photos and videos--all in one place. Easily organize and manage your photo and video collections. Make your photos look extraordinary, then show them off in photo books, HD slideshows, cards and more. Create polished movies with studio-quality effects, titles, transitions and sound, then share them everywhere, from YouTube to Blu-ray Disc and everything in between. The bundle also includes a variety of powerful and creative plug-ins, templates and extras, giving you the complete photo and video package.
Organize your entire photo and video collection
Fix photos and videos fast or go deep with advanced editing
Create HD slideshows, photo books, cards and more
Produce polished movies with studio-quality effects
Share everywhere--print, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, mobile device and more

What's Included
PaintShop Photo Pro X3:Advanced Photo-Editing
Enhanced--Photo Organizer
New--Camera RAW Lab
New--Easy batch processing
Enhanced--Express and Advanced editing modes
New--Integrated photo projects
Enhanced--Online sharing and easy backup
VideoStudio Pro X3

VideoStudio Pro X3:Powerful Video-Editing Software
New--Faster HD editing and rendering
New--Professional HD-quality templates
New--Studio-quality effects and filters
New--Express and Advanced editing modes
New--Blu-ray authoring and burning
Enhanced--Online and mobile sharing

Valuable Extras
Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4
DVD Movie Factory 2010
Over $500 worth of RevoStock templates
NewBlueFX filters
KPT plug-in filters
Royalty-free music from SmartSound

PaintShop Photo Pro X3
Simplify your digital workflow
Enhanced--Photo Organizer Load, find, view and edit photos faster with the integrated Organizer. New photo management capabilities let you customize your workflow with tools for rating, tagging, locating and quickly touching up image files. Select photos fast using both thumbnails and previews.
New--Easy Batch Processing Capture changes made to one image and easily apply those edits to multiple photos, removing the tedium of making the same changes over and over again.
Enhanced--Express Lab Quickly access the most-used photo-editing tools all in one place and make quick fixes to common flaws. The Express Lab now includes Color Balance, Local Tone Mapping, Contrast/Brightness, Sharpen and One Step Noise Removal.
Camera RAW Support Make RAW adjustments during the loading process and work with the latest RAW camera formats.
Do more with advanced photo-editing tools
New--Smart Carver Achieve impressive results quickly by seamlessly and realistically removing objects and scaling without distorting the image.
New--Vibrancy Boost color in the least saturated areas of a photo without affecting the rest of the image.
New--Object Extractor The integrated Object Extractor isolates an object--even challenging cases such as flyaway hair and fuzzy pet fur--so it can be copied to a new background or a new background can be pasted behind it.
Depth of Field Effect Create effects that you can't do with a camera lense alone. Draw attention to a specific area of an image by focusing on one region and applying an out-of-focus blur to the rest of the image.
New--On-Image Text Editing Adjust font, color, placement, position, size and wrapping of the text on an image. Reselect the text on the image and continue typing, or apply text on a path.
HDR Photo Merge Quickly merge photos of the same scene taken at different exposures, or with different brightness and contrast settings, to create a final image that features the full range of detail in the highlights and the shadows.
Layers and Adjustment Layers Adjust the color or tone of your images without actually modifying the pixels on each layer.
Adjust Levels & Curves Precisely adjust tone, color balance and exposure with exceptional control.
Fix it fast in Express Lab
Learning Center The award-winning Learning Center empowers anyone to harness the power of advanced photo editing, helping you complete tasks within seconds of launching PaintShop Pro Photo.
Makeover Tools Make sure the people in your photos look their best with tools that are fun and easy to use. Help your subjects look thinner in seconds, whiten bloodshot eyes, smooth wrinkles and more.
Enhanced--Remove Digital Camera Noise Remove noise artifacts that interfere with the clarity of your digital image--faster than ever!
Get creative with projects and photo sharing
Enhanced--Built-in Creative Projects The new Project Creator is a fast and simple way to make a great-looking photo book, collages, cards and more--all in addition to PaintShop's easy online sharing options.
New--Easy Photo Sharing Share photos and videos where and how you want, using email, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Print at home, order prints online*, email or quickly burn a DVD to enjoy on your TV.
Layer Styles Easily apply artistic effects to individual layers, such as drop shadows, embossing and reflections.

VideoStudio Pro X3
More speed across the board
New--Launcher From one convenient location, start express editing, more advanced video editing, DV-to-DVD conversion, or launch DVD Movie Factory 2010.
New--GPU and CPU Acceleration Dramatically speed up your entire movie making process with NVIDIA CUDA and Intel Core i7 optimization.
New--VideoStudio Express Make quick edits, and combine video clips, photos, music and voiceover to create a professional-looking movie in just minutes.
Enhanced--User Interface The redesigned interface keeps all your tools within easy reach so you never have to interrupt your creative flow.
New--High-Speed Filters Accelerate the video-editing process by previewing your effects in real time. Less time waiting means more time creating!
Smart Proxy Editing Edit HD content faster, even on basic PCs. Smart Proxy lets you work quickly in a lower resolution until you're ready to render your project in HD.
Studio-quality templates and effects
New--Movie Templates VideoStudio Pro X3 includes over $500 US worth of high-quality templates from RevoStock. Turn video clips into polished movies in an instant, with Hollywood-style titles, transitions, pans and zooms, credits and more.
New--RotoSketch Transform videos, video frames and photos into animated clips and hand-sketched drawings in a few clicks.
Enhanced--Title Effects Create stunning titles in seconds by adding multiple title tracks and effects, then customize your work to get the perfect look.
New--Multi-track Overlay Effects Apply filters on overlay tracks, including titles and images.
New--NewBlueFX Filters The NewBlueFX Pack includes a variety of animated effects, including the Detail Enhancer for strengthening edges and bringing out detail in a dull or foggy scene, and the Active Camera for simulating every variety of camera jitter.
New--Mood Music from SmartSound Load a multi-layered audio track as background to a video, then fine-tune individual instruments to ensure that the music complements your movie, not distracts from it. Add even more music and sound effects with two new audio tracks.
End-to-end HD video production
Enhanced--HD Capture and Import Import HD video from anywhere, including HDV, AVCHD, Blu-ray Disc and JVC HD camcorders. Import standard video from DV, analog camcorders, the Web, USB and still image cameras.
Enhanced--Blu-ray Authoring and Burning Create your own Blu-ray titles, and author menus for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, including BD-J menus.
New--H.264 Compression Get HD quality in smaller files by creating HD MPEG-4 files with the H.264 codec.
Unlimited video sharing
Enhanced--Online sharing Upload your videos and slideshows directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and Flickr.
Enhanced--Format Flexibility Save movies to AVI, FLV, MP3 encode, AC3 5.1, AVCHD, HD MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and more.
Enhanced--Copy, Convert and Burn Copy movies to your device of choice, including iPod, iPhone, MP3 players (USB) and PlayStation Portable (PSP). Burn CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray and AVCHD discs.

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Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate & VideoStudio Pro X2 Bundle Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have used adobe products in the past, full versions and essentials. The main difference Ive seen between this and them (the industries so called leaders) is useability. Anyone can sit down to Corel and use it. Very straight forward, and delievers alot of proffesinal quality features.
The biggest seller for me came from VideoStudio. Making full dvds with menus couldnt be easier. Ive made dics with mulitple layers of menus, just like real movie dvds and Ive only opened the manual a few times.
Paint Shop Pro Photo has a very nice layout and ease of use. Some more advanced users in photo editing will find a few missing features, or more likely a little less freedom to do some things. But for anyone who takes photos for fun, or as an ametuer hobby, this is more than powerfull enough.
Painter Essential Photo - takes pictures and turns them into paintings. A good easy to use program, but it will take time to master. Each photo will behave differently, so you have to "repaint" the photo many times to get the outcome you want. Still a nice throw in.
Recover- I dont know if this is even listed, but it comes with a memory card recovery program. So if you accidently delete, or in the case of my parents, format, your camera's memory card, you can still get your pictures. My dad accidently formatted his 4gb SD card with about 1gb of photos on it. I was able to not only pull off the 1gb of photos, but the program found another 2gb of photos they had deleted months earlier.

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The Corel Photo & Video Bundle gives you everything you need to edit photos and videos like a pro. Remove flaws, organize and enhance your photos, and turn your favorite shots into creative projects for sharing with Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate. Turn video clips you capture from handheld devices, digital cameras and HDV, AVCHD, Blu-ray Disc and JVC HD camcorders into stunning movies, complete with animated menus, music and special effects, with VideoStudio Pro X2. You can even edit photos with Paint Shop Pro and then import them into VideoStudio to create stunning slide shows and custom menus!Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate: Ease of use with full professional power Download pictures from your camera automatically Instantly fix common problems such as red eye, color and sharpness Add special effects to photos, text and projects with a few simple clicks Use advanced editing tools like HDR Photo Merge and Levels and Curves to fine-tune images Print, email and share photosVideoStudio Pro X2: Professional-quality video solution Capture, edit, author, burn and view the latest high-definition video Create montages and picture-in-picture effects with multiple video, audio and title tracks Turn stereo audio into immersive Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with one click Improve video with Auto Color & Tone correction Create a polished video in 3 easy steps with the Movie Wizard

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ACDsee 8.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)ACDSee 8 is a great file-level manager, and easily surpasses most, if not all, of its competitors at the file-level manipulation and organizational functions that are the basis for creating an efficiently structured and effectively manageable digital photograph library of thousands of photographs in size, and larger. ACDSee 8 also sports a basic image editor, a slideshow and screensaver module, and a backup module. Compared to Corel Photo Album 6, ACDSee is missing a creative projects module, which ACDSystems sells in a separate product, as PhotoSlate 4. ACDsee is a great choice for those who need to manipulate a massive number of files regularly. However, ACDSee 8's cumbersome implementation of metadata management features -- the meat of a digital photograph manager -- makes the program difficult to recommend the program to mainstream users.
What makes metadata support so important? A photograph may be worth a thousand words, but not always. Without aid, the casual viewer may not understand or remember a picture's content or context. (E.g., When and where was this picture taken? What is this a picture of? Who are these people? Why did I take this picture?) Even the photographer himself may not remember these things one or five years later. In an analog photograph, one could write a description on back of the print itself. With digital photos, this sort of information is kept as metadata. Without metadata, that interesting digital photograph (Holiday Party 2005: Roy and Ciara with Mayor Mike. Unbeknownst to Mayor Mike, Roy and Ciara rose to power by wasting hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars.) is just another anonymous picture. It is metadata that imbues digital photographs with their context and meaning, and that enables digital photograph collections to be quickly organized or synthesized in a wide variety of ways - by timeline, event, location, person, etc.
ACDSee 8 uses three separately maintained subsystems to support image metadata - a proprietary internal database that stores thumbnail images, ratings and category information; and two other subsystems to support the EXIF and IPTC metadata standards. IPTC is the preferred standard for storing picture descriptions; EXIF is the standard for camera information (picture timestamp, exposure settings, etc.). Support for EXIF and IPTC metadata is important, because these two standards enable photograph descriptions (complete memory = photograph + metadata) to be accessible seamlessly:
- outside of ACDSee, relegating product lock-in to the past;
-across online photo sharing sites (such as Fokti and Flickr);
-by family, friends, or other users who don't use ACDSee;
-by posterity, if ACDSee were ever to be discontinued.
While ACDSee 8 has the most complete metadata support of any consumer-grade digital image manager, it is quite cumbersome to use. Searching for a picture or music file? It isn't easy to do in ACDSee. ACDSee has Google-like simplicity only when searching for information in its internal database. To look for data stored in EXIF, IPTC, or ID3 (for music files) metadata, you'll need to specify the field(s) to search, a Boolean condition for the search (is, starts with, contains, etc.), and the data you're looking for. It's as painful as it sounds.
ACDSee's IPTC metadata subsystem is new to Version 8, and is not as developed as the ACDSee internal database and EXIF subsystems. While the program supports batch operations (working on multiple files simultaneously, e.g., assigning the description Grandpa's Birthday to a collection of photographs) for ACDSee's internal database and EXIF subsystems, batch operations are not supported for IPTC metadata. IPTC metadata entries must be painstakingly made on a per picture basis in ACDSee. Experienced users may look to PixVue, a free Windows Explorer extension, for a full IPTC/XMP metadata editor that supports batch operations, so at worst ACDSee users will find it burdensome to transfer information from ACDSee's internal database or EXIF metadata subsystem to IPTC. ACDSee does not support Unicode, so foreign language support (for recording foreign toponyms and friends in your photographs without the need for Romanize them) is limited.

ACDSee 8 continues to be a great file-level digital image library manager, best for those with thousands of pictures and those who don't care about metadata. With improvements to its search and IPTC metadata features, ACDSee could be a standout product for everyone. Interestingly, since ACDSee 8 supports searching through ID3 metadata (albeit painfully), future versions of ACDSee may potentially be good music managers, too.

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ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My wife and I saw a demo of this at a education industry trade show and very impressed on the overall photo management capabilities, they have a more sophisticated term called digital asset mgmt. I had photos in so many different folders and drives, especially our wedding photos. This program automatically identified them, helped us organize quickly into categories and help rate them in importance to us. The program looks identical to the windows operating system so our user experience was a breeze. The photo editing feature is good, but not great. We bought this for the management part and its worth every penny just for that. I highly recommend to anyone with alot of photos and who feel they are unorganized on their computer.

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Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Lets face it, Adobe Photoshop sets the standard for photo editing, but it's not in most people's price range. The latest version of Photoshop is between six and ten times more expensive Than Corel Paint Shop Pro PHOTO X2. (Wow, what a horrendously long and annoying name.) Photo X2 (as I'll call it from now on) approaches Photoshop in complete feature richness and with a decent interface, yet at a fraction of the price.
Notice I said "feature richness" in describing Photo X2. If you are a relative beginner or you don't retouch your photos in certain ways, I'd actually recommend Photoshop Elements over Photo X2. Elements has a better interface, more "automagic" features and works faster than Photo X2 and is about the same price.
I've used Photoshop, Elements, Corel Photo Paint and also JASC Paint Shop Pro (and some other things, too). So why didn't I buy the latest version of Elements or Photoshop instead?
1. Photoshop is too expensive for me to justify for my personal and hobby use. I use it at my work for image editing since my workplace pays for the software license there. But when I'm paying I'm looking more closely at price vs. performance. Though Photoshop has the performance, it doesn't rate so well on the price scale.
2. Elements is really nice for me to use about 85% of the time, but then there is the horrible 15% of the time that I want to use a feature that Adobe has gutted out of their software for the "Elements" version. Then I have to play around with copying the image into another program (some of them free) to adjust the curves (or whatever) and then copy it back in afterwards. The gutted feature set of Elements is a large, though occasional, annoyance. Plus I really don't use most of the fluffy side of its feature set (like "quick fixes," or "photo creations").
I think for people like me, Photo X2 is a better choice because it gives most of the advanced features that Adobe guts out of Elements at the same price point. These would be features like a curves dialog, batch processing, creating/saving masks (and many more).
Photo X2 has a lot of good sides. It can do a lot. It produces high quality results. It is much more feature rich than Elements. It has very good help files. It even has some nifty unexpected features built-in like HDR image mapping and RAW file support for many digital SLR cameras (including mine).
The down side is that in some places the interface isn't quite as good as Adobe's. It's still pretty usable, but there are minor annoyances. In Photoshop you can zoom/shrink the view and pan an image around while a dialog box is open so you can see the results easily and in a large preview. In Photo X2, you can't zoom in/out and move things around except in the before/after view in the dialogs themselves (not a deal-breaker, but a little bothersome). The startup time and image processing time seem to be slightly slower than in Photoshop, also. Many issues are minor, but they make the product feel a little less polished than Photoshop or Elements.
At least one reviewer has complained about long install and startup times. I noticed the long install time. And my initial startup after installing was 30 seconds or more. After the first time (and a computer reboot), my startup time for Photo X2 was about 8 seconds, which isn't bad. After, loading and closing it and then reopening it in the same Windows session, the loading time was on the order of 2-3 seconds. I don't find these times to be a problem at all, but if you're worried about the performance on your system you might want to download the 30-day fully functional trial from Corel's web site (though it is a 300 MB download or something). It might also be useful to download it to take a look at the features and get a feel for the program if you've never used it before.
In the end, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is good software that is feature rich and a good choice for medium to advanced-level users who have outgrown Photoshop Elements and can't justify spending 6 to 10 times the price to buy Adobe Photoshop.

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Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is the ideal choice for any aspiring photographer's digital darkroom. Fix brightness, color, and photo flaws in a few clicks and use precision editing tools to create the picture you want. Give photos a unique, exciting look using hundreds of special effects, and much more! Plus, the new one-of-a-kind Express Lab helps you quickly view and fix dozens of photos in the time it used to take to edit a few. Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 even includes a built-in Learning Center to help you get started, it's the easiest way to get professional-looking photos - fast!

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ACD Systems ACDCD70860WI Pro Photo Manager 3.0 Camera Software Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have tested mostly all the RAW workflow softwares(Lightroom, Bibble, Capture One and Silkypix) and this suits best for me.
Why did I choose this SW?
1. I use Olympus camera and ORF files are opened perfectly in ACDsee. Other/All other SW opens with white balance shift and not giving the same quality of Olympus Master.
2. Wonderful light adjustment, the best in market. You have high level adjustment and separate intensity level adjustment.
3. Color adjustment is also like light adjustment, which gives better controls.
4. Good image management(not the best one).
The non destructible processing does not apply to other tools like vignette and borders. I would be very happy if they have provided for the tools too.
Finally, if you are working on RAW files and need a good, easy to work and cost effective software then this one is for you.
Update on 24 July 2010
After using little less than year. I have been very much pleased with this software. It is very much stable and reduced my time working with raw files.

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Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Since Corel acquired Paint Shop Pro it's been all down hill. X3 is the Apollo 13 of paint programs. A total disaster. If you have more than a few images on your computer be prepared for a 2-3 hour installation ordeal. The program will crash and freeze several times as it attempts to catalog the entire contents of our computer. Thanks, but I already know where my pictures are, really. Should a "Pro" program be brought to it's knees repeatedly by a large catalog of images? Corel evidently thinks so.
The cause of all this trouble is the "Organizer". Man oh man what a train wreck. It's whole purpose in life seems to be so you can rate your pictures. I really don't need to rate my picture. Really? rate my own pictures... OK but I generally just delete the lousy ones but what ever. It would be of some use if you could use it like a browser, but no. There is no way the keep the "Organizer" open after selecting an image to edit. You can't even keep your place as opening an image automatically closes the "Organizer". When you go back your at square one go find it again. If I want to open several pictures from different folders... well let's just say it's much less than useless. If you don't want to use their exact work flow you are up a creek, a very slow creek as switching between editing and "Organizing" is glacial.
Well we got one new tool! Oh goody, I can do a lousy job of taking somebody out of a picture in one click. Whoop-de-doo! They did make the Text editing tool less stupid that it was, but it was pretty stupid. The new method is less awkward but still needs work.
What didn't we get? Well the majority of the editing tools are still 8 bit. If you want to work with your raws and maintain 16 or 32 bit per channel keep looking because there has been no improvement.
Now for the bad news when you decide to uninstall the demo. Corel really wants to put the screws to you for daring to uninstall their epic bloat ware. The uninstall literally took 45 minutes, It was stuck on 36% for at least 30 minutes.
In summary I would only recommend this to people I really don't like.

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If creating great pictures is your passion, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is the photo-editing program for you. Featuring a brand-new RAW Lab and easy batch photo processing, it's the only advanced photo-editing software to combine photo management, creative projects, photo sharing and even HD video slideshows in one package. It's everything you need to get professional-looking results you'll be proud to share. Ideal for DSLR cameras.

Overview PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is the most rewarding way to enhance your photos and create professional-looking images. Now with a complete RAW workflow, this photo-editing program lets you manage, adjust, edit and share your digital photos--all in one place. Accelerate the way you organize, rate, tag and sort with new photo management tools. Make automatic fixes in the enhanced Express Lab, or go deep with a full set of advanced editing tools. Then upload to Flickr, Facebook and YouTube, create high-quality photo books and projects, print, email or back up photos on disc. It's your entire photo workflow in one high-performance package.
New--RAW Lab--manually adjust groups of RAW photos during the loading process
Enhanced--Express Lab--quickly fix common flaws in this speed-editing mode
New--Advanced editing tools--edit fast with Smart Carver, Vibrancy and more
New--HD photo and video--import and export HD video
New--Integrated projects--create photo books, HD slideshows, cards and more
Enhanced--Photo sharing--email, print online or at home, and send directly to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr
Bonus--Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4--Turn photos into paintings in three easy steps!

What's New This is a must-have upgrade for PaintShop users and DSLR camera owners! The fastest version yet, this photo-editing software features exciting new professional-quality features, like the Smart Carver, a new RAW Lab, easy batch processing, and a photo Organizer. Learn how to speed up your entire workflow and get the best-quality results.
Improved Digital Workflow
Enhanced--Photo Organizer Customize your digital workflow with new photo management capabilities. Use multiple views, including thumbnails and image previews, to quickly select photos.
New--RAW Lab, Image Quality and Control Make RAW adjustments during the loading process and work with even more RAW camera formats--faster than ever before.
New--Easy Batch Processing Make adjustments to one photo, then easily apply the same changes to multiple other photos right in the enhanced Organizer.
Enhanced--Speed and Performance Get more speed and editing horsepower with more multi-threading support for multi-core processors.
Enhanced--Express Lab Apply common edits in just one click. Remove noise, sharpen images, and quickly adjust contrast, local tone mapping and more.
New Advanced Photo-Editing Tools
New--Smart Carver Seamlessly remove objects from an image with professional quality. The Smart Carver also lets you expand or contract objects without distortion.
New--Vibrancy Boost color in the least saturated areas of a photo without affecting the rest of the image.
New--Object Extractor The integrated Object Extractor isolates an object--even challenging cases such as flyaway hair and fuzzy pet fur--so it can be copied to a new background or a new background can be pasted behind it.
New--On-Image Text Editing With the updated text engine, it's easier, faster and more natural to apply text to an image. Adjust font, color, placement, position, size and wrapping of the text in context of the image. Reselect the text on the image and continue typing, or apply text on a path.
New--HD Video Slideshows As an increasing number of DSLR cameras capture HD video, PaintShop Photo Pro now offers tools that let you combine photo and video projects. Create HD slideshows and movies of your photos and videos, all with the same tool.
New--Windows 7 Compatibility PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is fully compatible with Windows 7, as well as Windows XP and Windows Vista. Take advantage of new Windows 7 speed and performance to experience a whole new level of creativity.
Bonus--Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 This fun program lets you turn a photo into a unique work of art in just 3 easy steps:
Choose a photo and the painting style you want to apply.
Let the Smart Stroke painting technology create a stunning painting.
Touch up your masterpiece by hand if desired.

Bonus--KPT Plug-in Filters A natural addition to your photo-editing software, KPT plug-in filters help you quickly create remarkable image transformations and original effects. PaintShop Photo Pro X3 includes KPT Goo, KPT LensFlare, KPT Projector and KPT Equalizer.
Built-In Photo Projects and Sharing
Easy Photo Sharing Quickly share photos and videos directly on Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. You can also email, print at home or order prints online*.
Built-in Photo Projects Using the new Project Creator, its fast and simple to make great-looking photo books, HD slideshows, collages, cards and more
What's included?
Main application Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3: Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 gives you the power to easily organize, edit, and share professional-quality photos. Make photo improvements faster in the enhanced Express Lab, or go further with powerful new editing tools. Create amazing photo books and projects, upload to Flickr, Facebook or YouTube, print or share by e-mail. Combining single and multi-photo editing tools, online sharing and simple HD video integration, your entire digital workflow is now available in one high-performance package.
Supporting applications Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4: If you want to do more than just edit and print photos, Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 is the ideal way to get started with digital art. Using the unique Auto-Painting palette, you can create a stunningly realistic work of art from a photo in just three easy steps. (English only)
Corel Instant Viewer: This component provides a quick, direct way to view photos on a PC, allowing you to scroll through your photos and send them to PaintShop Photo Pro X3 for editing. (English only)
Simplify your digital workflow
Enhanced--Photo Organizer Customize your digital workflow with new photo management capabilities in PaintShop Photo Pro X3's Photo Organizer. Use thumbnails and image previews to quickly select your photos.
New--Easy Batch Processing Make adjustments to one photo, then easily apply the same changes to multiple other photos. Edit one, apply to many, right from the Organizer.
Enhanced--Express Lab The new interface makes photo editing faster than ever. Preview photos and videos or make changes in this speed-editing mode. Quickly adjust contrast, apply local tone mapping, remove noise and sharpen images. You can also adjust levels, clarity and white balance, batch-edit multiple photos and more.
Do more with advanced photo-editing tools
New--Smart Carver Seamlessly remove objects from an image with professional quality. Smart Carver also lets you expand or contract objects without distortion.
New--Vibrancy Boost color in the least saturated areas of a photo without affecting the rest of the image.
New--Object Extractor The integrated Object Extractor isolates an object--even challenging cases such as flyaway hair and fuzzy pet fur--so it can be copied to a new background or a new background can be pasted behind it.
Fix it fast in Express Lab Don't let the small stuff slow you down! Enjoy one-click access to common photo fixes.
Learning Center The award-winning Learning Center empowers anyone to harness the power of advanced photo editing, regardless of your previous software experience. It builds your confidence and makes it easier to develop your skills by helping you complete tasks within seconds of launching PaintShop Pro Photo.
Makeover Tools Make sure the people in your photos look their best with tools that are fun and easy to use. Help your subjects look thinner in seconds, whiten bloodshot eyes, smooth wrinkles, paint on a tan and remove blemishes.
Enhanced--Remove Digital Camera Noise Remove "noise" artifacts that interfere with the clarity of your digital image--faster than ever! One-Step Noise Removal smooths photos with a single click. Digital Camera Noise Removal gives you precise control over how these corrections are applied.
Get creative with projects and photo sharing
Enhanced--Built-in Creative Projects PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is the only pro-quality photo enthusiast software package to so closely integrate creative projects with photo editing. The new Project Creator is a fast and simple way to make a great-looking photo book, collages, cards and more--all in addition to PaintShop's easy online sharing options.
New--Easy Photo Sharing Share photos and videos where and how you want, using email, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Print at home, order prints online, email or quickly burn a DVD to enjoy on your TV.
Layer Styles Easily apply artistic effects to individual layers, such as drop shadows, embossing and reflections.

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Serif DrawPlus X4 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I bought this to replace my previous version of Corel Draw, which was not compatible with Win7. It has many of the same features, plus several that Corel did not have. The interface is fairly intiutive, but like most programs there is still a learning curve (and I'm still learning).
As mentioned by another reviewer, there seems to be a wide variation in pricing for this product, and the lower-price version (which I bought) only comes with the disc. In order to register the product (which isnn't necessary for using it), you'll need to call the company and listen to them attempt to sell you the manuals. While the price for the manual isn't a lot, considering most software these days does not come with paper anymore, I do object to being "steered" into calling the company to register, and then listen to a (polite) sales pitch for something that should have been an order option when buying the product to begin with. Not the best marketing strategy in my opinion. Would have preferred a simple check box asking me if I wanted to inlcude the manual for X dollars.
I have had only one crash with the software so far, which seems less buggy than Corel had been. Will do a follow-up review in a few months.

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DrawPlus X4 is the powerful, fun, and versatile designer that makes creating beautiful artwork and graphics easier than ever. Design attractive logos and documents for print, create eye-catching Web graphics and banners, paint and sketch with easy tools that let you edit at any time, enhance your photos by quickly transforming them into stunning pieces of art, turn drawings into animations, and output your designs at high quality and at any size--whatever your level of experience.

Design Unleashed
DrawPlus X4 makes it easy to achieve creative results fast.
Easy to UseBe creative with DrawPlus X4, whatever your experience, with video tutorials to smooth the way.
Instant ResultsReady-to-use designs and an on-screen gallery of instant art and symbols get you results fast.
Versatile for Any ProjectGo for it! You can tackle fun, serious, print, Web, large, small, static, and animated graphics.
Professional PowerUse high-end tools, techniques, colors, color management, and professional graphics formats.
High QualityGet high-quality artwork out of DrawPlus X4 at any size with dynamic printing and exports.
Go Back and Edit AnytimeAll the shapes, lines, paintbrush strokes, text, and effects you create are editable--all the time.
Create Stunning Artwork
Sketch and paint naturally using realistic brushes and media.
Paint with Realistic BrushesPaint with lifelike watercolor, oil, charcoal, and many other brush tips--without mess--plus a handy Undo button, freedom to edit stroke paths, and change the brush tip; even for existing strokes.
Natural paint and brush textures
Pressure-sensitive response for added realism
Special effects brushes for fog, cloud, and smoke
Use designer textures to add realism and age
Paint photo-quality stitching, glitter, and more

Intelligent Drawing ToolsQuickShapes, curve smoothing, and smart tools all help non-artists achieve fantastic results.
Advanced Vector PowerEnhance your drawings with editable perspective, warps, skewing, roughening, and shape blending.
Professional Blend ModesAchieve unique artistic effects by combining the color and brightness of objects in smart new ways.
Amazing EffectsApply and customise impressive effects like bevels, glows, surface textures, and Instant 3D.
Achieve Even More with a Graphics TabletGive your artwork even more hand-made realism with a graphics tablet. Pressure-sensitivity offers your strokes natural faintness and depth for better brushwork, sketching, writing, shading, and more natural flair.
Pressure StudioAutomatically calibrate your tablet(s) to suit light and heavy strokes or manually tweak and test your pressure sensitivity in an impressive, all-new Studio.
Dynamic ToolsCustomize your tablet's buttons, wheels, sliders, and ExpressKeys (found on Wacom Intuos4 tablets) for the highest level of productivity and ease of use.
Logos & Web Graphics
Craft high-impact and high-quality graphics for print and the Web.
Ready-to-Use GallerySimply drag and drop instant artwork and also reuse your own favorites from your own Gallery.
One-Click Graphics StylesRealistic styles for your headlines and logos include marble, metal, glass, wood, and organic textures.
Logo-Friendly Design ToolsUse perspective and cool warps, add Instant 3D, and work on graphics in isolation in Solo Mode.
Rollover Web ButtonsMake attractive and professional-looking Web buttons that change with mouse-cursor interaction.
Animated Web BannersGive your Web site a slick, polished banner featuring your own title, imagery, message, and hotspots.
Plus... Charts and PlansLive connectors make charts and diagrams easy and 2D plans are a breeze using scaled dimensions.
Transform Your Photos
Enhance, cut out, or transform your photos into works of art.
Powerful PhotoLabMake sure photos are at their very best and turn them into stunning pieces of art with the all-new PhotoLab, offering over 70 easy adjustments, corrections, filters, and instant artist effects.
Remove blemishes and fix photo flaws
Apply artistic photo filters
Turn photos into watercolors, oils, and more
Limit stylish changes to specific areas
Change or undo image settings at any time

AutoTrace Images into Editable Shape ArtTurn sketches, logos, Web graphics and photos into high-quality vector artwork you can easily recolor, tweak, silhouette, and resize without losing quality.
Remove Backgrounds the Easy WayQuickly and accurately cut away image backgrounds to give subjects total focus, or use parts of a photo as shape art to use as silhouettes and much more.
Easy Animations
Create jaw-dropping Flash Web animations and fun cartoons.
Make Flash AnimationsThe creative power of DrawPlus X4 brings you more than printed artwork, more than Web graphics... you can also create jaw-dropping cartoons and interactive animations in your own unique style!
Keyframe mode automatically smoothes motion
Make your own Flash animations
Use interactivity to create games and puzzles
Go pro with ActionScript commands
Save as Flash, movie files, animated GIFs

Interactive DemosUse interactive animation features to showcase products and more.
Stopframe MoviesStopframe animation mode gives you total, frame-by-frame control.
Make a ScreensaverEnjoy your animated creations any time as movie screensavers.


Highly Compatible
Share your artwork in standard formats and fully edit PDFs.
Get Artwork and Images from AnywhereOpen or import artwork and documents from almost anywhere, with support for 18 popular drawings, graphics, and image formats.
Incredible PDF EditingOpen and fully edit PDFs from other computers and programs, changing text, layout, pages, colors, images--anything--and simply save as PDF again.
High-End Graphics SupportCollaborate with other artists using EPS, SVG, AutoCAD, and Adobe Illustrator files.
Export OptimizerCreate the right image every time; preview the quality and size of up to four image types at once.
Share on DrawPlus.comShowcase your work and chat with other DrawPlus users in the free DrawPlus.com community. END

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Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 & Premiere Elements 9 (Win/Mac) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I grudgingly purchased Elements 9 because I wanted to use some of the photoshop brushes and files that I could not use with my old favorite program Paint Shop Pro 8. I had held out as long as I could, but finally, my stubbornness was holding me back from getting things done. I tried Gimp, but I just did not like the interface. It was buggy as heck. I've used the professional versions of Photoshop, and I knew that this version of Elements 9 was sort of "in sync" with the Pro version. So, I would feel familiar when moving up from Elements to (InDesign or CS5 or whatever it is right now). Now that I am using Elements, I wish switched over from Jasc PSP to Adobe Elements years ago. They both have layers, but wow, what you can do in Element's layers is mind boggling. There is the misconception out there, I think, that photoshop Elements is just a "photo organizer" ... or just for people touching up their family photos. This is absolutely incorrect. The program is a full on graphic editing program. I've only been working with it for a week or so, but as far as I can tell, I could build an entire website, slice it up, and optimize it for the web, just with Adobe Elements 9 alone.
I really purchased this for the Premiere 9 Video Editing Program, and figured I might as well make the switch over to Elements 9 while I'm at it, so I purchased the bundle. Strangely enough, I've been enjoying the graphics program so much, I haven't even started a video project yet with Premiere Elements! I do have some feedback though, on the subject, that is important for others. After installing Premiere Elements 9, I tried to open the program and open up a project and immediately started getting errors about my Nvidia Graphics Driver. I had the latest drivers, but still spent hours troubleshooting and updating drivers, dealing with Adobe support. In the end, the problems seems to have been that my computer hardware was not enough to run the program. I was running Windows XP, Nvidia GE Force 6150le on board graphics card, I think my computer only had 1 GB of Ram altogether. It wasn't a huge deal to me, because I suspected that my computer was going to get maxed out soon, especially now that I was getting into video editing.
So, I was in the mindset that I was going to be needing to upgrade the computer soon and this experience gave me some guidelines on what I needed for video work: a graphics card with at least 1 GB ram of it's own and at least 4 .. preferrably 8 or 12 GB ram for the computer memory. I did some homework and found a good site called videoguy dot com (I think) who gives some very clear guidelines for a good workhorse setup.I added up what it would cost for me to upgrade my current HP computer with a better video card, and max out the ram to 4GB, and then I would have to add a better power source for the fan to keep it cool. I was better off retiring the old computer to lighter duty, and getting a computer that could handle the job for years to come. So, when I installed the Premiere Elements on the Windows 7 computer and opened a new project, it flew open without a hitch, ready to go! Unfortunately, I am so engrossed in my Photoshop Elements graphics projects, I have no interest in doing any videos right now!
One last comment about Elements... I did spend $25 on a month at Lynda dot com so that I could work through the awesome tutorials there. (I love Lynda dot com) If I hadn't done that, I might have felt lost. I also have found many amazing tutorials on youTube just by searching for Photoshop Elements 9 and you can see all the powerful things you never imagined you could do with this great piece of software.
To sum it up: For under $100 this software is an awesome deal. I think the the Elements program will work on any decent computer. It's worth the time it takes to learn all the powerful tools built into it.
Premiere Elements: if your are bored with the built-in Windows Movie Maker, like I was, then moving up to a more feature rich video editor might also mean moving up to a more powerful computer. Video editing, is a memory hungry process. Adobe should be a little more up front about the hardware requirements, maybe. But, you are going to be miserable, if you have "just enough to make do." I had a little time to play with the titles and captions and a few other tools and those things alone are enough to make me glad I spent the money on this software. I'm very happy with this purchase. And I feel like when I spoke to support at Adobe, they were extremely helpful and honest with me. A good experience. I'm glad I bought this.

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Great value! The #1 selling consumer photo- and video-editing software, Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 & Adobe Premiere Elements 9 gives you powerful options that make it easy to use photos and videos together. Create extraordinary photos and incredible movies, and share on Facebook, in convenient web DVD viewing experiences, and more. Now enjoy a complete solution for photos and videos whether you use Microsoft Windows or Mac OS.
Easily make every photo look its best.

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Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (Win/Mac) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I upgraded from Photoshop Elements (PSE) 6 for Windows to PSE9 for Mac and was glad to see that the Mac and Windows versions were essentially the same. Since I use iPhoto for organizing, I can't say anything about PSE's Organizer, but I gave the Editor a workout.
Elements is at the high end of what I'll spend for a photo editor, and I buy roughly every third version to keep the price reasonable over the years, so it's time, and I'm happy to say that 9.0 fits my needs . . . and then some.
Like PSE6, PSE9 it is a great overall photo editor. It does a good job of enhancing photos, either with a click of a button or just a few clicks if I happen to disagree with the Auto Smart Fix. It can process batches of photos that all need the same work done to them. And it has enough manual controls (histograms, contrast, brightness, shadows/highlights, red eye, color correction, layers, etc.) to do just about anything to a photo you can imagine.
Pros:
* It works smoothly with iPhoto; I could switch back and forth easily and quickly and open multiple photos at once for editing.
* It's fast on my MacBook Pro.
* The editor hasn't crashed yet, and I'm running through thousands of photos.
* All of the features that I'm familiar with from previous versions still work well, and some, like the magic lasso, work even better than before.
* Content-aware healing can perform minor miracles in my hands. In the hands of an expert, or someone with more patience, it can probably perform major miracles.
* The Guided Edits helped me visualize the steps involved for some of the more complicated features, which helped me make better use of the Full Edit.
* PhotoMerge Group Shot is incredibly easy to use. I had two photos shot at different distances, and PSE had no trouble making the necessary adjustments.
* Removing clutter from photographs is simple.
* Oh happy day, Elements now has layer masks, a feature that used to be the domain of its pricier sibling. Now you can make parts of a layer more or less opaque, allowing for some really neat effects. I won't use this often, but a few of my photos are just crying out for it.
Cons:
* The Welcome Screen is still annoying. Fortunately, you can set it up to go straight to the Organizer or Editor.
* It still can't batch process the Save for Web feature. Sigh.
* My camera has a panorama assistant but doesn't stitch them together, so I was interested in PSE9's enhanced panorama stitching. For the most part, it's very easy. PSE does most of the work. Unfortunately, it created an enormous file--117mg--out of my five 5mg photos and ran out of RAM before it could finish everything--even after I maxed out the RAM in Preferences. I ended up with a very nice panorama but had to reduce the file size before doing some of the final touches myself. Then the final jpeg size turned out to be smaller than any of the individual photos.
* Yeah, I would have liked a manual.If you are currently using PSE 8, there may not be enough new features to warrant an upgrade yet, though the content-aware healing might make it worth it. From version 6? Definitely.
If you have never used Elements, this is a great application with a bit of a learning curve. Get the free one-month trial, and borrow a book on it from the library. That's where I'll be headed once the manuals for version 9 show up.

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Simply unlimited! The newest version of the #1 selling consumer photo-editing software, Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 delivers powerful yet easy-to-use editing options that help you tell your life stories in amazing ways. Make every photo look its best. Quickly share your memories on Facebook; in Online Albums; and in printed photo books, cards, calendars, and more that look just the way you want. And automatically organize and help protect all your photos and video clips.
Quickly find, view, and protect your photos and videos in a powerful media-management hub.

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