Entered CNET Catalog: 07/01/2003
SKU: 0743651888886
Manufacturer: Corel Corp.
Manufacturer description
Paint Shop Pro 8, a part of the Paint Shop family of digital imaging and photography products, is the most complete, easy-to-use software for creating professional digital imaging results. By combining automatic and precision tools with an integrated learning system, Paint Shop Pro helps you produce professional results with power and ease. In an exploding digital imaging market, Paint Shop Pro 8 rises above the rest. With the unparalleled power of Automated Productivity Scripts and Dynamic Personalization, Paint Shop Pro increases productivity and enhances workflow like no other digital imaging software on the market. Paint Shop Pro is your complete solution for print and Web. Paint Shop Pro's new effects make creating breath-taking graphics a breeze. Now, novice and advanced users can produce professional results with power and ease.Product summary
The good: Powerful new editing tools; redesigned interface; built-in tutorials; improved graphics engine; highly competitive price.
The bad: Cant type text directly onto an image.
The bottom line: With its advanced tools and streamlined interface, budget-priced Paint Shop Pro 8.0 can nearly go head-to-head with Photoshop 7.0.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: Yes
- Reviewed on: 07/14/2003
 Built-in tutorials provide step-by-step instructions for seven advanced photo projects. |
Not sure where to start? Jasc built 30 tutorials into the interface. The lesson topics range from basic tasks (such as creating a new image) to full-blown projects (such as converting a photo into a greeting card). Menu-accessible product tours provide animated introductions to the tools, the palettes, and more. Photoshop 7.0 introduced two features that wowed the graphics community: the Enhanced Liquify tool increased the precision with which you can distort an image, and the Healing Brush brought the ability to remove scratches and blemishes while maintaining original shading and texture. Paint Shop Pro 8.0 brings its own set of useful advanced tools, most of them clearly aimed at photo enthusiasts. Perspective Correction repositions off-center objects. For example, if you photograph a building from an odd angle, you can pull it into place by clicking its four corners and manipulating virtual handles. The Warp Brush lets you creatively distort portions of an image. You can stretch, shrink, push, and twist to generate unexpected shapes. Both Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro can remove pixels based on their color. The Background Eraser, as it's called in the Jasc app, is ideal for retaining fine details, such as in hair and fur, that you want to isolate from the background.
 One Step Photo Fix can automatically adjust a picture's color balance, saturation, contrast, sharpness, and more. |
Photoshop handles some features more elegantly. For instance, you can add and edit text directly within an image in Photoshop; Paint Shop Pro makes you type it in a separate window. On the other hand, Paint Shop Pro has the edge with the EXIF (Exchangeable Image File) data that many cameras store with each photo. One advantage is that you can select the types of EXIF data the program will display. Paint Shop Pro 7.0 slowed to a crawl when you added a few layers to an image. Fortunately, version 8.0's graphics engine is greatly improved. Using a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 system with 768MB of RAM, we were able to apply eight layers without significantly decreasing rendering speed.
Most tasks take a second or two to complete. One of the program's more processor-intensive functions, One Step Photo Fix, intelligently adjusts color balance, saturation, contrast, sharpness, and other key settings through a chain of automated effects. Despite the complexity, our test system finished the work on a 2,048x1,536-pixel shot in just 13 seconds. In addition to the built-in tutorials and product tours, Jasc offers toll-free tech support Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. CT. The company's Web site has even more tutorials, as well as a searchable knowledge base. With this level of support, you could learn a wide range of image-editing techniques.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14out of 14 user reviews
Not worth the effort
Pros: Free on my computer
Cons: Terrible user interface
out of 14 user reviews
Have trial version
Pros:
Cons: I tried to play with it twice since receiving my new computer. It froze up my whole system and seemed like it took hold and wouldn't let go. I don't know about this product. I would have liked to see it work, but it's not worth buying it to find out it fr
out of 14 user reviews
Right up there with photoshop the industriess program
Pros: so many thngs it can do, it is quite amazing, especially for the price
Cons: I still havent gotten used to the tool bars, docking then and undocking them. I find my self "digging" my way to my project
out of 14 user reviews
Almost everything you could want
Pros: If I had $600 + I didn't need, I'd buy PhotoShop, but PSP8 gives 90%+ of Photoshop's features for $500 less.
Cons: No healing brush or history brush
out of 14 user reviews
its great! best program i've ever used
Pros: fast, so many features... you can make anything look the way u want it to!
Cons: hard to figure out all the meanings of the vector and what-not...
out of 14 user reviews
8.1 Update is worth it.
Pros: $$$ compared to PS Functionality Scripts User Community EXIF Data mainenance JPEG 2000 SVG file formats among others
Cons: Limited CMYK No write support for PDF
out of 14 user reviews
An excellent program gets better
Pros: Does just about everything I need to do to professionally restore photos
Cons: A little slow when using large brushes
out of 14 user reviews
Made it unnecessarily complicated compared to earlier version & in trying to imitate Photoshop.
Pros: Cluttered up the work area with drop-down boxes even bigger & clummsier than Photoshop (while photoshop is streamlining to be more like the old Paintshop). Can't customize the toolbar anymore. All the disadvantages of PS with none of the advantges (c
Cons:
out of 14 user reviews
Released way too early!
Pros: Some really cool new features and functionalities from PSP7 - when they work.
Cons: Even after installing the 13 meg service patch from JASC, the program continues or freeze and shows major problems. I find that because of instability of 8, I have had to retain PSP 7 to do 95% of my photo editing functions, and only utilize PSP 8 for fe
out of 14 user reviews
Recommended for basic use
Pros: Fairly easy to use, low cost, good value for the money
Cons: More advanced features are harder to master, cumbersome to apply text to photos
out of 14 user reviews
Easier than Photoshop and just as effective.
Pros: Great layering capabilities, photo editing, special effects, interface is easy, super help file and photo retouching.
Cons: Doesn't cut it on a resume'.
out of 14 user reviews
The best of the 5 programs I use for photos.
Pros: The framing and matting is superb and no other product does that as well. The clarifying feature is also outstanding. I use it on 98% of photos I work with. Just finished over 600 photos and used Clarify or Adjust Brightness and Contrast on almost all of
Cons: There are a few features that are not quite as good as PhotoPaint from Corel but Corel does not have the framing, matting and its clarifying feature is much harder to use.
out of 14 user reviews
Outstanding for changing, fixing digital photography...and easy.
Pros: It is so easy to use that I can "play" with it (I am not a graphic designer) and figure out how to use all the options. It is great with digital photos, especially. Sometimes it only takes one step to make the photo perfect.
Cons: Have problems with the program communicating with my Epson printer. I found a way around it, but wish I could find the answer as to why it does that.
out of 14 user reviews
Way To Go JASC !!!
Pros: PSP 8 is a completely new program. I have been using PSP for many many years and this is a complete rewrite. Scripting has been added giving a lot of versatility. Lots of new effects have been added. Customization has been much improved.
Cons: A little slow on startup, but my PC is not the swiftest on the market! Still a couple of bugs to be ironed out ( I have experienced NONE) but some users are having printing and scanning problems. Also there are some having problems saving jpgs, which agai
