Andy Shaw tests the latest version of a classic Windows image editor
PaintShop Pro is a PC classic. Originally developed by Jasc Software and released as shareware, it was one of the first full-featured image processors available for the PC, rivalling Adobe’s Photoshop (at the time only available on Apple computers and aimed at professionals) for a fraction of the price.
Corel took over the PaintShop Pro brand in 2004 and while the software has been tweaked and refined over the years, it essentially does the same job it always has: providing you with tools to improve your photos. Whether they just need a crop and straighten, or more complicated retouching, there are plenty of tools available.
Imaging software usually falls into one of two categories: photo-organising tools such as Google’s Picasa, which is able to do a handful of editing tricks from its relatively simple photo viewer; and more complex imageediting packages like PaintShop Pro, which cost more but are also able to do far more.
Getting started
This extra depth is apparent as soon as you launch PaintShop Pro X8. It looks like Corel has tried to squeeze as much as it possibly can onto the screen when you start, which gives you a good sense of the breadth of tools available right from the start.
However, it also leaves very little space for the actual images you’re editing. Our test laptop’s screen is by no means the smallest, yet it was still almost completely filled with toolbars when we first opened PaintShop Pro X8. Fortunately, you can undock the toolbars from the main screen and choose to have them floating instead, which opens up a lot more space for the image you’re editing.
PaintShop Pro’s interface is a good blend between modern and classic. The dark colour scheme with brightly coloured highlighting gives it the look of a modern creative tool, but the banks of icons across the top and down the left-hand-side keep it familiar. If you’ve used a previous version, even one from a long time ago, you should still be able to find your way around.
Basic functions
The software is split into three main sections, which are accessed from tabs at the top of the screen: Manage, Adjust and Edit. Manage is fairly straightforward – it’s where you go to choose your files. Pick a folder from the tree on the left and you’ll see its contents as thumbnails in the middle. Click on an image to highlight it and its EXIF data will be shown on the right (details such as the camera it was shot with and the exposure length). You’ll also see a small preview of the image below the folder tree. Editing tools on offer here are kept to a minimum, though you can perform basic tasks like rotating images. If you’ve taken photos with a phone or a camera that can gather location information, you can view where they were taken on a Google map.
Serious editing
The Adjust and the Edit tabs are both used for more serious editing. The Adjust page offers a wide selection of quick-access tools for things like cropping, adjusting the overall colour and removing red-eye and blemishes. There’s also a smart photo-fix tool that can have a good go at automatically fixing problems it detects with your image.
The idea is to keep the most advanced and complex tools for the Edit tab, but the Adjust section doesn’t really look any simpler. It contains a large number of tools, and many aren’t particularly accessible until you learn your way around the software.
For example, the colour chart in the top left makes it look more scientific, and while the instant effects tool on the right provides thumbnails that demonstrate what each effect does, the icons for cropping and other fixes are hidden away on tabs under the colour chart.
If you’ve got serious editing work to do, head for the Edit tab. You don’t need to reopen the image, and any changes you’ve made so far will be carried across from the previous tools. In this section you can select particular areas of your photo to work on and build layers of effects, which makes it easier to adjust or undo individual changes down the line.
Although floating the toolbars clears up space for your images on screen, there’s still a lot going on in the Editsection and the tools are unforgivingly complex. Helpfully, there is a Learning Center, which you can use to find particular effects, or learn more about whatever tool you’ve got to hand. This goes a long way to helping you learn the processes in PaintShop Pro, but it will be hard work if you’re not already used to the software.
There are several new tools on offer in PaintShop Pro X8, but none are particularly innovative. For example, you can now remove unwanted elements from pictures and have the software cleverly fill the gap with background so it looks like the item you removed was never there. But while that’s a great trick, it’s not new to image editing, so is more of a catch-up for PaintShop Pro rather than any clear advantage over its rivals. It can also now flow words around shapes, which will be useful if you regularly add text to your pictures. But again, this is far from revolutionary – in fact, desktop publishing software and even most Office tools having been capable of this kind of thing for years. Still, it might save you having to open another program during the editing process.
Worth the upgrade?
There are also some new additions and enhancements to the selection and layer tools, but in truth existing PaintShop Pro users haven’t got that many compelling reasons to upgrade.
WHAT YOU NEED
■ 1.5GHz or faster processor with SSE2 support
■ 2GB of memory (4GB recommended)
■ 1GB of hard drive space (2GB recommended)
■ 1,024 x 768 pixels, 16-bit colour display (1,366 x 768 pixels, 24-bit colour recommended)
■ DirectX 9 or higher compatible video adapter with latest driver
■ Windows 7, 8.1 or 10, 32- or 64-bit
OUR VERDICT
The latest version of PaintShop Pro carries on the tradition of solid image editing that the software has held since its inception. It’s one of the more sophisticated image editors but is a little behind in the race for new and innovative tools. However, all the tools it has are tried and tested. Free software such as Paint.net (www.getpaint.net) has many of the same tools but PaintShop Pro is more refined, with an added organiser and shortcuts for particular tasks that the free software doesn’t offer.