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Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI
Price: £89.99

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Jamie Harrison

This review updated: 07/12/2006
Featured in magazine:
Issue 150
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: Corel
Web Address: www.corel.co.uk


Once the daddy of the budget editing packages, Corel Paint Shop Pro (formerly from JASC) may have lost some sales since Adobe entered this market, but it still has numerous fans. It has plenty of striking features too, with excellent browsing and export options, including a calendar option for finding images taken on a particular date or via tags. Although less intuitive than Elements, at least the Corel software is an all-in-one package. It also comes with a CD of training videos to help you get started and a trial of Corel's Snapfire photo-sharing software.

Like its rivals, the software can be used in a simple one-click-fix fashion, or using a variety of powerful image-editing tools for selections, adjustments and so forth. The Depth of Field function is a nice touch, ideal for blurring unsightly backgrounds in portraits. The Suntan feature is handy if you'd like to add a more-natural-than-Dale-Winton tan.

On the downside, the web functions are limited, there are no gallery templates or building tools, though you can send images via email or upload to a photo-sharing site of your choice.

Paint Shop Pro is a fully-fledged imaging package and, at this price, gives even the full version of Adobe Photoshop a run for its money, and with an easier-to-use interface. If you're an advanced amateur photographer and need core editing features with plenty of control, but don't want to buy the expensive – and in many ways overblown –Photoshop, then Paint Shop Pro may be just what you need.

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