Corel® PaintShop Photo® Pro X3 Ultimate. by John Ferritto I have been a long time user of the leading photo editing program. When the opportunity to review the new Corel product came along, I was ambivalent. My current program is working fine. Do I need to mess with a new program and risk compromising my computer with a bad install? Looking at the software package, I became intrigued by the additional items - KPT Collection Filters and Painter Essentials. I have used these in the past and while limited, they were fun to play with. So here are my unbiased reactions. The install was made on a 6 month old Dell 9100 computer (I7 with 12MB ram running Windows 7 in 64 bit mode), a new and rather fast computer. The CD started in auto run mode and gave me a menu of each item to install. The software would not install in a trial mode and is licensed for one computer installation only. It prompted me for internet access to register the program. While the process ran smoothly, it was slow. I attribute that to the size of the files written, 1.89 GB. The program is a 32-bit program, and I let it install in the default directory, Program Files (x86). After the install, I checked my old photo editing program to see if it still ran. It did, and I was relieved - no permanent damage. The software reset my file associations for jpg and tiff files, now to be opened by Corel Instant Viewer. Corel PaintShop Photo started with a click on the Windows menu, and I was off to explore. The program comes with a 137-page printed manual and a PDF manual. The software includes the following: • PaintShop Photo Pro X3 - easy-to-use software for photo editing • Corel® KPT® Collection filters – 24 creative photo effect filters • Corel® Painter™ Essentials 4 software – sketch, paint and photo-paint

Corel PaintShop Pro When the program opens, the user is given a divided screen with the directories on the left, images below, and metadata on the right. Clicking on an image, brings it up in the center preview window. I was relieved that the program recognized my CR2 and NEF raw files as well as my PSD files. Moving around the directories was a very slow process as the program built previews. I was able to customize the appearance by resizing the screen into a familiar browsing appearance. I have dual monitors and was able to stretch the program across both monitors. I saved the workspace, and it was there the next time I opened the program. Next, I adjusted the preferences and was surprised to see that it had a 250- undo step default. It has a color management option and automatically recognized my color calibrated monitor profile. The COLOR MANAGEMENT option under FILES also has a printer proofing button to display printer profile color transformations on the monitor. I did have to set the color space to Adobe 1998, my preference. The default is sRGB.

Raw Images My first task was to open a raw image, my usual file type. I found a Canon CR2 raw image and double clicked on it. The following screen opened. While it is quite adequate, it pales in comparison to other programs. While probably not suited for a high-end professional, it is well suited for most average users.

Photo Editing Once the image is opened, the following toolbars become visible. Most of the tools were familiar although some were new or rearranged from what I was used to. The tools include: pan, pick, selection, dropper, crop, straighten, red eye, makeover, clone, paint brush, lighten/darken brush, eraser, background eraser, flood fill, picture tube tool, text, preset shape, pen, warp, and oil brush. Many of the tools have further breakdowns such as the clone tool shown below. The picture tube brush is a pattern stamp tool.

My first task was to crop and resize the selected image, both a rather straight forward process. The resize option requires one to select the ADVANCED SETTINGS option as shown below .

The next task was to adjust the brightness of the image using the histogram adjustment tool. The tool is found in the ADJUST dropdown menu, then BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST, as shown below. This tool was a combination of the classic levels tool and the curves tool in a single application. Unfortunately, the adjustment could not be made on the 16 bit original image. The image had to be converted to an 8-bit format as shown below.

The BRIGHTNESS AND CONTRAST section also has a tone mapping adjustment which did a good job of increasing contrast, and a fade correction adjustment. The image is saved in the default Corel pspimage format, but there are a variety of formats supported including the PSD format.

Other Stuff The program has HDR support, extensive import and export features, and batch processing. Soft proofing is accomplished as noted above. Finding the layers took a bit of detective work. One must go to VIEW then PALLETES and turn on layers to see them. The same goes for seeing the history. The layer properties were familiar to me, having the same layer properties I used in the past. The following illustrate the layers pallet and the layer properties.

PaintShop Photo Pro X3 integrates photo projects with editing. The Project Creator, a separate program, is a way to make a photo book, collages, cards and more—all in addition to PaintShop's online sharing options. You may share photos and videos using email, Flickr®, Facebook® and YouTube™. You may print locally, order prints online, email, or quickly burn a DVD to watch on your TV. Additionally it does HD slideshows burned to a DVD New or enhanced items for this revision include: Smart Carver - Seamlessly remove objects from an image with professional quality. The Smart Carver also lets you expand or contract objects without distortion Vibrancy - Boost color in the least saturated areas of a photo without affecting the rest of the image.

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. 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. 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. 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. Easy Batch Processing - Make adjustments to one photo, then easily apply the same changes to multiple other photos right in the enhanced Express Lab - Apply common edits in just one click. Remove noise, sharpen images, and quickly adjust contrast, local tone mapping and more.

Let the Fun Begin Now is the part where the fun begins. I experimented with some of the filter effects. The first image below used the filter Black Pencil under Art Media Effects. The second image below used the KPT Pyramid Paint plug-in, a bonus contained as part of the KPT Collection. The filter tools are fun to play with. However, the results are subject to the personal taste of the viewer. In my opinion most are limited and require considerable adjustment in parameters before something of beauty results. In fairness, many plugins share this problem. These filters and plugins are somewhat simplistic. For example, the Pyramid Paint tool has only minimal color modification sliders and lacks the ability to adjust the brush stroke.

Conclusion I am amazed at how much one receives for a list price of $99. Amazon.com sells it for $55. It has all the tools necessary to process a file from any high-end DSLR camera although the arrangement may take a bit of adjustment. Many areas are comparable to the leading program costing substantially more. Other areas lack the refinement. This is certainly a valuable tool worth strong consideration. While it may lack the refinement required for a professional or serious amateur, it is given a strong recommendation for suitability to new photographers on a budget. The system requirements are as follows Microsoft® Windows® 7, Windows Vista® or Windows® XP with latest service packs installed (32bit 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 color) Windows-compatible DVD-ROM drive for installation

Corel Corporation,1600 Carling Avenue,Ottawa, Ontario,K1Z 8R7,Canada Purchase by Phone: 1-877-582-6735 (Mon - Fri 9AM - 7PM EST),On Line Support for Installation Only

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Content/1152796555474 Street Price $55