Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate

Other products by Corel

Product Features

• Support for over 250 cameras has been added for those who shoot in the raw format
• New Media Recovery software is included and can recover images, movies and sound files from memory cards, including SD, miniSD, microSD, CompactFlash I & II, Memory Stick, MMC, xD, SmartMedia and Micro Drive, even if they have been reformatted
• Includes a 2 GB USB flash drive for storing and transferring your digital photos and files
• Express Lab--this easy photo fixing mode helps you view and correct dozens of photos in the time it used to take to edit just a few by letting you edit photos without opening each image file individually
• Red Eye Removal--Eliminate red eye in one click or use advanced red-eye removal that even works on pets

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 9.6 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001EJVQDG
• Item model number: PSPPX2ULTENPC
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 20, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #71 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

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Product Description

Amazon.com

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate combines ease of use with full professional power. Fix brightness, color and photo imperfections like red eye in a few clicks, or use precision photo-editing controls to create photos you'll be proud to share. The Ultimate edition features valuable extras like media recovery software, a creative content pack, Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 and a 2 GB USB flash drive--over $180 in value!

The easiest way to get professional looking photos--fast!

Overview

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 has everything you need to create stunning photos. The integrated Learning Center and a selection of one-click photo-fixing tools make it easy to correct common photo flaws such as red eye, color and sharpness. Unique makeover tools let you whiten teeth, remove blemishes and paint on a tan, so you can make everyone look their best before printing or posting photos online. As your skills and confidence grow, you can harness the power of professional-quality features such as HDR Photo Merge, Histogram, Curves and Levels Adjustment tools to make precision edits. You can even get creative with artistic effects and filters to turn your favorite photos into fun projects to share with family and friends.

• Import pictures from your camera automatically
• Instantly fix common problems such as red eye, color and sharpness
• Add special effects to photos, text and projects with a few simple clicks
• Use advanced editing tools to fine-tune images on your own
• Print, email and share photos

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
Includes:

• New--Express Lab
  • Save hours with this rapid photo fixing mode
• Corel MediaOne Plus (DVD Maker not included)
  • Edit with fast, fun and easy photo & video software
  • Turn pictures and video clips into slide shows, or create collages, calendars and album pages
• Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 video training
  • Learn editing tips and tricks with video tutorials by Lynda.com
• Special effects filters by Nik Software
  • Add stunning effects and styles to transform pictures into unique photographs

The Express Lab lets you edit photos without opening each image file individually, so your workflow runs seamlessly. Click to enlarge.

Use layers to add effects to your images. Click to enlarge.

Ease of use with full professional power. Click to enlarge.

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate
Includes everything in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, plus:

• Enhanced--Camera raw support
  • Enjoy support for over 250 camera raw formats
• New--Background remover plug-in
  • Easily remove the background of a photo and change it to a new scene for more creative impact
• Enhanced--Creative content pack
  • Get creative with your photos by adding fun details. Choose from 150 brand-new, custom-made photo frames, photo edges and Picture Tubes
• New--Certified for Windows Vista
  • Certified for Windows Vista software has undergone Microsoft compatibility tests for ease of use, better performance and enhanced security
• Bonus--USB flash drive (2 GB)
  • Store and transfer your digital photos with this handy thumb drive
• Bonus--Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4
  • Transform your photos into stunning paintings in 3 easy steps
• Bonus--Media recovery software
  • Recover images, movies and sound files, even from reformatted memory cards

What's New

Enhanced--Camera Raw Support
For those who shoot in raw format, support for over 250 cameras has been added.

New--Background Remover
This new plug-in lets you easily change the background in your photos to create unique and exciting effects. Just cut out part of an image, remove it from the background and place it on a different setting. You can even preserve fine image details like strands of hair or smoke.

Enhanced--Creative Content Pack
Ideal for scrapbooking and other creative photo projects, this bonus pack contains 150 brand-new, custom-made photo frames, photo edges and Picture Tubes that allow you to enhance any image with fun graphics.

New--Certified for Microsoft Windows Vista
Certified for Windows Vista software has undergone Microsoft compatibility tests for ease of use, better performance and enhanced security.

Bonus--Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4
This fun program lets you turn a photo into a unique work of art in just 3 easy steps:

1. Choose a photo and the painting style you want to apply.
2. Let the Smart Stroke painting technology create a stunning painting.
3. Touch up your masterpiece by hand if desired.

Bonus--Media Recovery Software
New Media Recovery software included with Paint Shop Pro X2 Ultimate can recover images, movies and sound files from memory cards, even if they have been reformatted. It is compatible with virtually all media card formats, including SD, miniSD, microSD, CompactFlash I & II, Memory Stick, MMC, xD, SmartMedia and Micro Drive.

Bonus--USB Flash Drive
Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate comes with a 2 GB USB flash drive for storing and transferring your digital photos and files.

New--Corel MediaOne Plus (DVD Maker not included)
This fast, fun and easy photo & video software lets you turn pictures and video clips into slide shows, and create collages, calendars and album pages.

Get photos from your PC, camera or scanner automatically with Express Lab. Click to enlarge.

Easily apply artistic effects to individual layers, such as drop shadows, embossing and reflections. Click to enlarge.

Merge photos of the same scene taken at different exposures or with different brightness/contract settings to create a final image that features the full range of detail in the highlights and the shadows. Click to enlarge.

Features

View, organize and edit photos quickly

• Rotate, resize, crop, straighten and remove red eye fast in Express Lab mode
• Import photos automatically, including raw images
• View thumbnails of all images on your hard drive
• Tag photos with keywords for easy reference
• Search for photos by filename, folder name, keyword tag, caption text or image metadata

Express Lab
This easy photo fixing mode helps you view and correct dozens of photos in the time it used to take to edit just a few. The Express Lab lets you edit photos without opening each image file individually, so your workflow runs seamlessly!

• Get photos from your PC, camera or scanner automatically
• Adjust photo details, such as brightness, shadows, highlights and saturation
• Rotate, resize, crop, straighten and remove red eye
• Retouch and restore to remove flaws

Autopreserve Originals
Automatically store a copy of your original photo when saving an edited version.

Crop to New Image
Quickly separate multiple images that you scanned at the same time. This tool automatically creates a new file from the cropped area and keeps the original scan open so you can easily separate individual image files from the group scan.

Enhanced--Camera Raw Support
Download photos from your camera to computer effortlessly, including raw image formats produced by many digital cameras. By working with these "digital negatives," you can achieve the results you want with greater artistic control and flexibility, without overwriting the original raw files.

Support for Over 50 Formats
View photos and video clips in more than 50 file formats. Easily import files and ensure accurate color quality for your images.

Share Photos Instantly
Email photos or slide shows to family and friends.

Retouch your photos like a pro

• Retouch with unique makeover tools to look your best in photos you print or post online
• Whiten teeth, smooth wrinkles and remove blemishes with a few clicks
• Edit quickly with easy tools
• Cover distractions or remove unwanted objects
• Change the color of anything in your photo
• Remove noise, grain or discolorations

Makeover Tools
Make sure the people in your photos look their best with tools that are fun and easy to use. Help your subjects look thinner in seconds, whiten bloodshot eyes, smooth wrinkles, paint on a tan and remove blemishes.

Smart Photo Fix
Instantly correct lighting and color problems with automated tools, or make manual corrections on your own.

Red Eye Removal
Eliminate red eye in one click or use advanced red-eye removal that even works on pets.

Color Changer
Easily change the color of objects in your digital photos, such as clothing, walls and furniture. Rather than simply replacing a color, the Color Changer detects and analyzes variations in brightness, then makes the necessary adjustments to produce a realistic effect.

Remove Digital Camera Noise
"Noise" artifacts are small specks of color that interfere with the clarity of your digital image.

• One-Step Noise Removal--smooth photos with a single click
• Digital Camera Noise Removal--precisely control how these same corrections are applied

Straighten Tool
Fix crooked photos taken at awkward angles.

Correct Perspective
Get rid of unwanted distortions by changing perspective.

Repair Damaged Photos
Restore old, damaged photos by removing scratches and fading.

Remove Distracting Objects
Improve photos by covering up unwanted background objects, such as lamp posts, trees and buildings.

Enhance with professional tools

• Combine exposures to get full details in highlights and shadows
• Simulate black & white film or convert to sepia
• Adjust levels, curves or histogram settings
• Fix brightness, color, contrast, saturation and sharpness
• Experiment with more advanced editing tools by fine-tuning details on your own

HDR Photo Merge
Merge photos of the same scene taken at different exposures or with different brightness/contract settings to create a final image that features the full range of detail in the highlights and the shadows.

Enhanced--Black & White Photos
Create dynamic black & white images by simulating the look of taking photos using a colored lens filter.

Layers and Adjustment Layers
Maintain image quality when applying changes to color or tone. Edit photos with precision by adding multiple adjustment layers to test various color corrections or to see how corrections look when they're combined.

Adjust Levels & Curves
Change photo exposure using advanced features, including Levels, Curves or Histogram Adjustment tools.

Sharpen Out-of-Focus Pictures
Turn fuzzy photos into crisp images, without compressing or degrading the quality of the image.

Fix Lens Distortions
Easily remove fish-eye, barrel and other lens distortions.

Depth of Field Effect
Draw attention to a specific area of an image. Depth of Field applies focus to a region of your photo while applying an out-of-focus blur to the rest of the image. This allows you to create an effect in seconds that usually requires precise manual lens aperture adjustments.

Professional-Level Options
Work with a variety of advanced features, including 16-bits-per-channel editing, color management settings and raw file conversion.

Visible Watermarks
Take credit for your photos by easily adding a visible watermark to label your work.

Create and share one-of-a-kind photo projects

• Give photos a unique look with vintage and artistic effects
• Simulate the look of film using vivid, glamour and vibrant foliage filters
• Decorate your favorite photos with Picture Frames and Picture Tubes
• Use layers to add drop shadows, glows, reflections and embossing to your images
• Design scrapbook pages, cards and collages to share with friends and family

Layer Styles
Easily apply artistic effects to individual layers, such as drop shadows, embossing and reflections.

Picture Tubes
Decorate your photos with 30 new sets of professionally designed artistic elements. A longtime user favorite, this tool lets you paint on photos with readymade art that features a variety of themes. For example, add butterflies and beetles to a picnic setting or fill an aquarium with fish.

Picture Frames and Photo Edges
Easily add eye-catching final touches to your images with 20 new Picture Frames. A variety of styles and the ability to edit give you more creative possibilities.

Time Machine
Go back in time and give photos a retro look using effects that replicate the unique appearance of photos taken in the 1800s, 1950s and other points in history.

Black & White Photos
Easily covert your color photos to black & white, mimic infrared film or add a touch of class by making them sepia-toned.

Special Film Effects
Produce interesting, eye-catching photos with a range of effects inspired by classic film and filter types. Simulate the unique look of slide or portrait film, mimic the effect of using color filters on your camera lens, or apply a Film Look to model the effect of using different types of film in a traditional camera.

Captions
Add shapes or words to your photos to add creativity, raise impact, or note important dates and events.

Enhanced--Creative Content Pack
This bonus pack contains 150 brand-new, custom-made photo frames, photo edges and Picture Tubes that allow you to brighten up any image with fun graphics.

Product Description

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate combines ease of use with full professional power. Fix brightness, color and photo imperfections like red eye in a few clicks, or use precision photo-editing controls to create photos you¿ll be proud to share. Includes everything in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, plus: ¿ Enhanced! Camera raw support - Enjoy support for over 250 camera raw formats ¿ New! Background remover plug-in - Easily remove the background of a photo and change it to a new scene for more creative impact ¿ Enhanced! Creative content pack - Get creative with your photos by adding fun details. Choose from 150 brand-new, custom-made photo frames, photo edges and Picture Tubes ¿ New! Certified for Windows Vista - Certified for Windows Vista software has undergone Microsoft compatibility tests for ease of use, better performance and enhanced security ¿ Bonus! USB flash drive (2 GB) - Store and transfer your digital photos with this handy thumb drive ¿ Bonus! Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 - Transform your photos into stunning paintings in 3 easy steps ¿ Bonus! Media recovery software - Recover images, movies and sound files, even from reformatted memory cards

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better Than the Number One, December 17, 2008

By	Richard L. Steiner (OREGON United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been negligent in reviewing the Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate image editing program because I wanted to be sure about what I suspected when I began using it a couple of months ago. "This program is better in many ways and cheaper than the top rated Adobe Photoshop Elements version 7."

I was reluctant to believe that hunch at first. I have both programs installed on a VISTA laptop. Both installed easily and without problem. Both function perfectly without any of the crashing and buggy performance described by other reviewers. I have been using the two programs interchangeably for awhile and eventually noticed that I was opening and using the Corel Paint Shop Pro program more often than the Adobe software. That was the prompt that I needed to offer this review, but my observations do not intend to say the Adobe Photoshop Elements program is necessarily inferior--I simply prefer the Corel software and find it less complicated to use. I will attempt to tell you why.

First, the Corel home screen is easier to see. I found the Adobe Photoshop Elements screen sort of dark and foreboding. The two screens are similar in how the toolbars and menu items are arranged, but not all that much alike in how they are applied. I think the Corel program is more intuitive and logical than the Adobe system.

Both programs have all of the usual features like red eye removal, cropping, brightness adjustments and cloning. These are mostly straight forward, but the Corel program strikes me as less complicated in these areas than the Adobe.

I should admit at the onset--I have yet to master the "Layers" functions in either program. Be that as it may, I am pretty familiar with the rest of the tasks offered by both programs.

Adding images to the organizer pallet at the bottom of the main Corel window is a snap. The "saving as a copy" option in the Corel program is very helpful. Image color adjustments can be made in a number of ways in both programs, but Corel Paint Shop offers better options for changing hue, saturation and texture. I was happy to find how easily edits can be reversed with undo opportunities along the way. The image straightening and adjusting perspective features are worthy of note as is the skin smoothing and tooth whitening options. There is even an option in the Corel program to make a person appear thinner. I never thought I would use that tooth whitening thing, but I have.

I found the Corel feature called "Browse effects" to be particularly useful because it brings up a familiar outline style listing of everything the program does all in one place. One doesn't need to click around on various icons and menu items in order to find the function desired. Clicking through this "Browse effects" list brings up thumbnails that illustrate the choices involved. One could almost use this feature and ignore the array of icons and menus situated around the main window.

I have used the Corel "time machine" function a few times to give vintage appearances to certain photos and find it to be fun if nothing else. The same is true for the frames and distort features along several other artistic effect functions that I doubt most people would use very often. The reason I mention these options is to point out the presence of several functions that are really just amusing to use and probably not essential to serious photo editing.

The ability to adjust the appearance of the home window in the Corel program is appreciated, but I have not messed with that at all. I like the looks of it as is.

Oh, one more thing--adjusting the "layers" in an image may have been included in both programs as a means to humble the user. Just kidding...

If you are trying to decide which program to buy and think the Adobe Photo Shop Elements program is definitely number one you should certainly consider the Corel alternative. I would recommend you buy the Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate instead of the Adobe Photoshop Elements program Version 7 not because they are so different in what they do, but because they are so similar in almost everything else except the price and ease of use. The Corel Paint Shop software is easier to figure out and it is significantly less costly than the Adobe program. Then of course there is the matter of how I found myself using the Corel program more often than the Adobe program. I think that says something.

40 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars X2 without the bugs, October 19, 2008

By	Chawks - See all my reviews

X2 Ultimate is faster than X2 and seems to be free of bugs. In addition, X2 Ultimate includes Background Remover 3 from Image Skill software.

My only complaint is that Smart Photo Fix applies the "suggested fixes" before I can make adjustments. Because of this I have to undo the "suggested fixes" and then apply my fixes.

Smart Photo fix works very well in dark environments but it does not work well in bright climates. Everything is way overexposed! The technology appears to have been developed in Russia where the sunlight exposure is much lower than the southern U.S.

This same overexposure problem affects "One Step Photo Fix". Corel would be well advised to return to the "One Step Photo Fix" from version 9. My clients were absolutely amazed by the one step photo fix in version 9.

Nevertheless, Paint Shop Pro X2 Ultimate is by far the best photo editor available for the price. While not as powerful as Photoshop, it is much easier to use and more powerful than Photoshop Elements 6 or 7. The only product that is close in power for the price is Serif's Photoplus X2.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT PRODUCT!, October 9, 2008

By	Lucas's Mommy (USA) - See all my reviews

This product is wonderful, it allows you to do anything with a photo. It is not a sit down and start using program and does take some time to learn. The book is well worth reading because it is a bit complicated. However, once you learn how to use it, its super simple and can easily change any photo into a great portrait.