Customer Reviews

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(22)

 

 

I've been a loyal PSP (paint shop pro) customer since the 4.x era. I really loved PSP and have used it up to my current version which is 9, or was, until I upgraded to XI. My opinion in a nutshell is: PSP XI is not only a step down, but a whole flight of stairs down from PSP 9. Why? First let me explain what I use PSP for:

- Managing a large image library (over 70,000 images on a NAS)
- Web design artwork / digital imaging for my business
- Vectors, layers, lossless formats
- Tablet work, filters
- Personal photos on the side, with anal attention to contrast, saturation, color balance, etc.

Given why I use PSP, PSP XI is worse than PSP 9 because:

- It takes forever to start the program compared to PSP 9.
- The browser window, which I use extensively, is very slow, unintuitive (at least for a PSP 9 user), and is impossible to use for large folders (> 1000 images) because it takes hours to load all the images.
- The GUI in general is prettier, but a lot of the menus are in different places so it's basically like having to learn a whole new (okay, half new) program all over gain. Plus, the GUI seems to respond slower than with PSP 9. Personally, I'd rather have a fast, simple GUI than a slow, pretty GUI.

Personally, the speed and browser issues killed the program for me, and are the main reasons I've gone back to PSP 9. I admit, I haven't used PSP XI for more than a few weeks, and I suppose if you had the patience, you could get used to the performance of PSP XI as well as learn the new menu placements and such. But I simply don't have the time or patience, given my schedule.

My conclusion is that going from PSP 9 (or 8, which I still use) to PSP XI is like going from a lean, mean, imaging machine to a bells-and-whistles, dressed up package for people with a lot of free time. I'm not saying that it's bad for everyone; I'm just saying it's bad for me, as well as people who share similar concerns and preferences in their software.

I own both PSP XI and Adobe Photoshop CS. I paid 700.00 for Adobe and about 80.00 for PSP XI. I really like PSP for editing my photos and creating slides. It has a lot a great features that are MUCH easier and faster to perform in PSP than they are in Adobe PS. It is a little buggy in that it does shut itself down every now and then, but it opens right back up. I am a software application manager and developer and I can tell you NO software comes without bugs. The ones I have found here are not enough to keep me from loving this program.

For the money, it is a great buy. I am sure Corel will have a patch for the shut down problem soon, as long as users report the problem.

Bottom Line: If you wnat an affordable solution to edit and create fun and beautiful photos and slide shows, this product does very well!

This is my 5th version of Paint Shop Pro and this version is the best! I have been using Paint Shop Pro Photo XI for about one month now and do not understand the negative reviews of this program. I haven't had any problems at all! The times I have had to use Corel's support in the past they have helped fairly quickly and efficiently. I haven't had any problems at all working with large files. No freezing up, no slow processing.
I understand some are still upset over the loss of Jasc, but Corel, IMO, is doing a great job with the software that Jasc so strongly stood behind.
My main hobby is photo restoration and Paint Shop Pro has met my never-ending needs each time I use it.
This newest version includes some new fun tools.
The Time Machine gives a very cool effect to photos, realistically transforming them back in time with just one click.
The new Organizer is invaluable. You can view, organize and even e-mail right from the application. No need to open up another program. You can also view video clips from your digital camera!
The color changer tool works very well. It just takes a little practice. The results are so much better than having to carefully select the object, then floodfill THEN lower the opacity so the texture shows through. Very handy.
All in all this is an excellent release from Corel. I highly recommend the upgrade. If you are a previous owner and if you are a beginner, you won't find a better image editor at this price! The Learning center makes learning the program easy. The tools are smart and powerful enough for the more experienced.
It rivals the powerful Adobe Photoshop at hundreds of dollars less. You really can't go wrong.
Don't let a few disgruntled people steer you away from a great program. You won't find better.

Sincerely,
Laura Hawkins

I've been a digital artist for 5 years and always loved and supported PaintShopPro and Corel products. I have to say I am very disappointed in the new version, PSPXI.

No problems with the download, but the program crashes easily, you can not drag and drop as fast as in 9, basically is slower in everything you do. I am a photographer, and looked forward to the new photo features, which work, but for panoramas and complicated work others than one photo forget it. Just hangs up and so slow you could go have dinner in between.

I have searched the net and support wise, the upgrades and patches have not helped. Corel is not solving the problem and maybe they can't. This is not a PC problem which they so want us to believe. I have plenty of memory and speed on my PC. It may be something involving how the XI stores it's cache. Not sure. But the changes are not workable, sadly.

I think there are some corrupt files or driver problems that Corel desparately needs to fix and supply us with, or they will find themselves out of the PS market. This is not just me talking, it has happened to alot of loyal fans. Because it could be the better than Photoshop if they fix it. If you really want the program, download the free trial first and or try the X or 9 version, especially if your PC is an older model.

I upgraded to version XI when I read a review that said it would open Nikon D200 RAW (.NEF) files. I hoped that it would open my .NEF files from a Nikon D80 and Kodak Raw (.KDC) files from a Kodak P880 Camera. Both the Nikon and the Kodak RAW file formats are in the "Open" Dialog, but opening a .NEF file yields an "unsupported file" error. Attempting to open a .KDC file yields a "missing parameter" error. An email to customer support asking if these formats should or would be supported got me an email response that was totally unrelated to my question.

XI takes a long time to load, the browser window changed to something unusable a couple versions ago, and I have not discovered any significant new features.

I've used Paint Shop Pro since it was shareware. My recommendation would be to stick with older versions of Paint Shop Pro; preferably one from before Corel bought Paint Shop Pro from JASC.

I've been using PSP since it was a free program. At least 10 years. It is my favorite, and this program allows for almost all the fun stuff that I've come to expect. Still, as soon as I find my PSP 8 CDs I will revert back because this version isn't my favorite.

1) This version is keeping my hard drive humming. What is it with computer programers these days? They don't seem to be happy unless they can get 55 processes running in my CPU. I have the fastest computing machine I've ever owned yet this version of PSP is slowing down my computing like never before. This has nothing to do with the images I'm working on. It has to do with the programming choices they made. One thing I've yet to figure out how to get rid of is the Yahoo Toolbar integration.

2) But they got rid of other cool programs. There is no animation shop. "Dear Santa, Please tell Corel to put Animation Shop back in PSP."

Like many other long term hobby digital photo fans I have used Paint Shop Pro for more than 10 years from version 4. It has always been a frustration that the programme was written for creating paint type graphics and photos were almost an add on. As Digital photography became more and more a real option the earlier versions of Paint Shop Pro became more of a frustration and I tried everything else. At last Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo feels like it was written for photo editing. It is easy to use with all the assistance a beginner could want, but dig deeper and it will go wherever you want to go, and more. I'm sad to see Paint Shop Album almost redundant, but it is great to have the organiser on tap. It runs on a less than optimal computer system unlike others that are too large and slow for many of us to consider.

My 11 year old needed to clip images from the web and modify them and paste them together for a school project. We downloaded PSPP 11 for the 30 day trial, and I completely left her alone to figure it out. She was up and running without any help literally in minutes and loving the ease of use of this product. The end result was astoundingly professional. I was completely surprised, and proud of her creativity.

Now she wants a permanent copy of PSPP 11 for Christmas, so she can clean up digital photos and add them to her web pages and blogs (she's really into it).

Thanks, Corel for a product that's easy to use, fully featured, and affordable.

This photo editing software package is unreal. It has more features and functions than you can shake a stick at. Right out of the box I began some serious photo editing and got outstanding results. Beats any other software in it's price range. I have yet to read the manual or instructions as it intuitive. Two things - don't even bother with the free version of Snapfire, which is included. It is redundant with Pro Photo and rather simplistic without much value. It is included as a teaser to get you to spend more money with Corel by way of an upgraded version. And unfortunately the software is NOT well behaved and crashes to frequently. If it were not for this stability issue I would have given it a (5) star rating. Corel - nice job but get it working better!

Before purchasing this product I did the trial of Photoshop for 30 days and then the trial of this one. Paint Shop Pro (PSP) won hands down! While they both have similar features, the learning curve on Photoshop is ridiculous...PSP is so intuitive, you can figure out most of the features on your won, but the help feature is great...side by side help as you click through the menus and buttons. I was impressed! The red-eye fix is excellent and flexible, with ability to change to pet eye, different eye colors, WOW, there is just so much and all ready to use out of the box without any complicated aftermarket manuals needed. I have restored some antique photos with very impressive results. So far I have not had the instability issues that others cite, but my PC is heavy on the graphics capability and memory, perhaps that helps.