Corel PaintShop Pro User Reviews
Outstanding
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"Terrible program! Don't buy it!"
Version: Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Pros
None that I can see. I had PSP X3 and it was hell to uninstall.
Cons
Can't even install and run it. Crashes at splash screen. No help from Corel tech.
Summary
Do not buy! You've been warned!
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"The best for the money but X3 users can probably wait"
Version: Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Pros
None better for the price. For new users or before X2 should get this. Easy to use for common tasks, and GUI intuitive enough. Works well with my Raw files. Colot management adequate. Improved 16 bit.
Cons
A bit buggy. Monitor calibration does not work, for instance. Very slow for large files, and for detailed 8X10 or larger will occasionally crash, but not as bad as previous. Lots of not very useful stuff.
Summary
Not as good as the best reviews and not as bad as the worst. Still the best for the money of its type, and it makes sense for a new user who is not certain how deeply they will get into photo and graphical editing. Improved 16 bit performance, poor lage file performance.
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"Manage/Adjust/Edit paradigm very poorly implemented"
Version: Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Pros
Essentially the same tool set available since PSP X2 plus a few bells and whistles for beginners. Nothing really new except for the second (in a row) gratuitous UI re-design.
Cons
Folder control should be parented by thumbstrip). No synchronization between active file in Edit and active file in Adjust. Apparently no document tabs in Adjust. (!) Distinction between "Adjust" mode and "Edit" mode is specious and unnecessary.
Summary
Most veterans of PSP will not like this redesign. It just gets in the way. What happened to the modeless editor concept?
Come on Corel guys. You nearly had it in PSP XII... all it needed for perfection was a preview panel in the manager tab. Instead you messed up X3 with multipli-unnecessary, disconnected windows. Now with PSP X4 you make things even worse with a gratuitous "LightRoom envisioned by a 3-year old" redesign that is even more limiting and an atrocious approach to a tabbed documents UI. Look at Zoner (Zoner.com) or (free) XnView (XnView.com) for how to do an image manager + editor interface correctly.
At this rate Corel will never get any more of my money. Sticking with PSP XII, which I still like very much. -
"Will not be upgrading from X3 yet"
Version: Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Pros
X3 is a good product X4 has been limited
Cons
1. You can not go into cascade mode easily.
2. I used to be able to scroll in and out and the system would adjust the position on the screen automatically.
Now I Have to take my eyes off my work to look for and use the horz and vert sliders.Summary
X4 is Totally unproductive compared to X3 for the reason above.
I am hoping it is a bug and not a design change. -
"Buggy release, still unusable - switching back to X3"
Version: Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Pros
Almost as good as PSP X3
Feels nicer than PSP X4Cons
Very buggy, keyboard shortcut support got worse
Killed my PSP X2 installationSummary
I honestly am puzzled by all the good reviews I've been seeing so far. PSP X4 feels like a big step backwards to me. I've been trying out PSP X4 for an hour today and I'm failing to even accomplish the basics without jump through lots of hoops. This new version still has so many bugs that did not exist in the X3 version.
Also, everyone is saying that this new version is faster. I'd say I feel the opposite...
Issues in detail:
Adjust Mode:
Ctrl-F4 doesn't close the current file/window in Adjust Mode
Where's the filename?? I never know which file I'm currently working on...
So I quickly switched back over to the Edit Mode:
Ctrl-O opens the "Save As" Dialog...
Most Dialogs: When entering a value by hand, e.g. "20" I end up getting 2.0
X4 now shows a pixelated image while rendering a preview - this makes it impossible for me to see the before/after effect
Preview computation: ESC key has no effect.
Hitting Okay without waiting for the preview to finish is equivalent to hitting the Cancel button!
Problems In RAW mode (Nikon D7000), sharpening and noise reduction, whenever I change the sharpening value it appears that the noise reduction is being ignored in the preview. I gave up and used the JPG version of my image...
I'd love to try out the new features but I'm afraid that I just don't have the patience to work my way through to them.
There's so many problems right now that I'll wait at least until Q2-2012 before giving X4 another try... Till then X3 will do just fine :-)
Version 14.0.0.332 -
"very similar to X3 which is a pretty great product"
Version: Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Pros
still very similar to PSP X3 so it makes it easy to use and switch from X3 to X4 without a lot of problems. nice tool palette arrangement for each screen (edit, manage, express).
Cons
monotone color scheme - very drab and boring, making it difficult sometimes to locate the menu item you need.
Summary
I don't see much difference between PSP X3 and PSP X4 other than the price....
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"Really love the improvements, sufficient for most users"
Version: Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Pros
Ease of use.
Cons
HDR not that good.
Summary
Much lower learning curve than PhotoShop should make it more enjoyable for the amateur to improve their photos.
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"Nice upgrades to an already great application."
Version: Corel PaintShop Pro X4
Pros
New tabbed interface makes moving through tasks easy. Beefed up adjust tasks handle most routine photo corrections. Paint in or out pieces of similar shots with Photo Blend. Fill Light/Clarity adds light without loosing detail.
Cons
Wish there was a way to use Photo Blend with photos not quite identical in composure. Maybe resize and the areas to be painted in.
Summary
I had the opportunity to spend a few days looking at the prerelease of Corel PaintShop Pro X4 and am pleased with the changes to an already excellent product. I will be doing a full review for my user group (CRUG) but want to provide a few observations.
The Getting Started/Welcome screen that opens in front of the workspace will be a benefit to new users and I found it worth the little time it took to look through the explanations. PSP X4 has moved to a more traditional tabbed interface most of us have come to love. The easily spotted tabs in the middle of the title bar make it simple to move between the Manage, Adjust and Edit tasks whether you have the application full screen or not.
The Manage tab contains the Organizer in the bottom pane and a Navigation pane on the left. I generally did not use the Organizer much but did note some nice features on the Manage tab. The auto hide feature for the Navigation pane provides room for a much nicer preview of a selected photo. Dedicated photographers will appreciate the additional information about the photo displayed in the right pane. The Organizer task bar now includes a Share icon to easily share a photo through email or on FaceBook or Flickr. There is also an icon to Auto Group photos taken within a period of time up to a minute. What I liked the best is that PSP remembers where I was in the Organizer and goes to that location when I return.
The Adjust tab is a beefed up version of the Express Lab. With the addition of controls for color balance, brightness/contrast, fill light/clarity, local tone mapping, and digital noise removal it can now truly handle many if not most routine photo fixes. Selecting photos for adjustment is simple as the Organizer is readily available in the bottom pane. I may now find myself starting on the Adjust tab instead of going directly to the full editor.
The full features of PSP X4 are available on the Edit tab. The Organizer is again available in the bottom pane and a single click of its Show/Hide Navigation Pane icon opens it to the left of the image in the workspace. So I no longer have the need to keep Windows Explorer open to get my photos to edit. I focused my time in looking at some of PSP X4's new editing features while quickly reviewing some of my favorites.
To look at the new HDR exposure merge I took a series of photos from our stairway landing towards the morning sun through the wall of windows. My camera does not have an automatic setting for this so I just manually selected an aperture and altered the shutter speed. After selecting the set of photos that looked the best creating a single merged shot was simple. In Edit select the photos to merge form the Organizer panel then in the File drop down menu select HDR and then Exposure Merge. PSP starts the process. In the merge step you can choose setting and do custom editing. I just clicked Process to move on to the next step. Here you can choose from preset settings or make your own adjustments to temperature, contrast, highlights and midtones before clicking process. After completing the merge I adjusted the perspective of my photo. The tool is still simple and straightforward to use.
Next I tried the new Fill Light/Clarity adjustment. It is great for saving photos that may seem too dark. Use the sliders to bring light into the dark areas while maintaining detail. It is a wonderful tool. Then I used the new Vignette photo effect to create a faded white edge and finally added a photo frame. This turned a series of unusable photos into one ready for display.
Another new and notable feature in PSP X4 is Photo Blend. It is a simple way of getting the best parts of a series of photos. Just paint in the potions to keep on each photo and paint out the areas not wanted. I tried it out and was able to get the whole family looking good. Photo Blend is straight forward enough for anyone to try. No need to worry about understanding layers and filters.
These new features make PSP X4 a definite upgrade candidate or a perfect choice for someone looking for a new photo editing application. As with any upgrade there is a learning curve and I did have a couple of little stumbles. My major one was that it took me a while to realize the workspace is tabbed. After duplicating an image I could not find it so by the time I realized my mistake I had 3 copies. It also took me a minute to try the esc key to cancel and back out of Smart Photo Fix.
I look forward to more time using PSP X4 and working with its many artistic capabilities as well as the photo editing features.
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