Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI (Full Product, PC)

• Reviewed by: eshalon47

  Strengths: Pretty versatile, does a lot

  Weaknesses: A little slow, and some things hard to figure out

  Overall: Its a good program but it takes somegetting used to. I came from and older version of Adobe Photoshop, and upgraded to this. I have been pleased with the quality of what I can do, but I am still learning the ins and outs. It has the option to add lots of custom brushes, that's always a plus. In the end, I would spend the $ to buy it again.

• Reviewed by: gazrcom

  Strengths: Price. Features. Nice manual. Automatic updates (when available). Free upgrade to Snapfire Plus add-on (requires rebate).

  Weaknesses: Requires a PC with lots of RAM (at least 2GB) and good video card for good performance.

  Overall: I have been using PSP since the early days with JASC (before Corel took over). Corel have not improved the program much to be honest, and have added several bells and whistles at the expense of functionality. Having said that, you can find this program on sale for very cheap every now and then (next to nothing after rebate), which is a steal. If you are not a professional requiring Photoshop, I would recommend using PSP for your everyday photo needs without hesitation.

• Reviewed by: kgivens

  Strengths: Lots of power, handles PhotoShop plugins fine

  Weaknesses: Sizeable learning curve, like most photo-editing software

  Overall: I like having options. I have both PaintShop Pro and the latest version of Photoshop Elements. Each has its strengths. I use them both equally, depending on the job at hand. Neither is a quick study. Both are caked with menu options and sidebars (many of which you can customize, hide, etc), which tends to erode the available screen space for actual image editing. If you can afford it, and your video card is set up for it, running two monitors makes a huge difference---you can drag menus, etc to one screen, leave the image on the other.

• Reviewed by: drissi

  Strengths: Learning Center, Price, Professional Editing without Brain Drain, Animal Red Eye Removal, Tutorial CD, and many fans with Forums

  Weaknesses: Organizer can bog down your computer. 3rd party remote host PSIService

  Overall: I?ve used Paint Shop Pro 7 thru 10 with each generation having new features. Paint Shop Pro XI is a great photo editor. I like to work with photos individually. From using fun Filters to adding Text. Deleting unwanted objects to fixing broken smiles. I have Photoshop C2 and it?s amazing how Paint Shop Pro can almost equal the same results for a few hundred dollars less. The learning curve is a lot easier than Photoshop, but if you?re new, play with it. It?s not your simple Sharpen, Crop, Brightness/Contrast editor. XI has an exposed Learning Center and Tutorial CD. There are forums online that share fun ?tricks?. I?m never going to use all the functions or come even close to it. I do not like ?organizers? where you photos are tag, classified, sorted, etc. It just ties up your computer to no end. This includes any freeware or paid organizing software. With the cross referencing and big collections, it takes longer to open and get started. Some professionals need it to batch their photos for clients.Check out Corel?s 30 day ?trial? of Paint Shop Pro. Those photos that looked doomed can be fixed. If you have old family photos and a scanner, you?d be surprised on how you can restore them. Have fun!PS I don't know why there's a third party remote host. You'll see it in the Task Manager as PSIService.exe

• Reviewed by: Robaire

  Strengths: Good features, fairly easy to use, supports raw.

  Weaknesses: Slow performance

  Overall: I've been using Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 for some time. Unfortunately, Adobe is not providing any more updates or patches for it, and it won't work properly on Vista. I tried out Elements 5.0 and didn't find it to be any real improvement over Elements 3.0. So, I thought to try out Corel PaintShop Pro Photo XI, and liked it immediately. With the 11.2 update, most raw formats for digital cameras are supported, and raw files from a Nikon D200 are not a problem. It has more included features and options that, imho, are easier to use and more intuitive than in Elements. There is also a reasonably good manual to get started with in PaintShop. It's true that you can find plugins for Elements, and a number of them are free, but all of those and more are already included in PaintShop. There should be more than enough included in the program for all but the most serious and demanding photographers without needing to add anything more. It also appears that Corel is listening to its customers and providing patches to address concerns. If you're looking for photo editing software, IMO, PaintShop Pro is a better choice than Elements at a better price. The only real downside I've found is the slow performance, even on a fast computer. My system has a core 2 duo processor, 2GB RAM, and GeForce 8800GTS, and it still runs on the slow side. Do a one step noise removal, for example, and you might feel like stepping outside for a cup of coffee and coming back. However, the results are usually worth the wait. If Corel is able to improve the performance, I'd give it a 5/5.