Customer Reviews

Paint Shop Pro X for Photographers

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I upgraded to Paint Shop Pro X from Jasc's PSP 7. One of the obvious changes in the product was how the Version 7 500-page manual has been reduced to 100 pages for Version X. The boxed manual covers the basics, but if you are new to PSP and/or want to get to grips with the more advanced features then it is not enough. How-to books for PSP are rather thin on the ground, so it is good to see that McMahon & Nichols have produced a well written supplementary volume that digs more deeply into the program while maintaining an easy-to-read style.

Production of the book is excellent, with gloss paper, clear text and lots of colour illustrations. The organisation is also well thought out. Each chapter begins with a table setting out the particular features and tools that will be covered and coloured tabs make it easy to go to a particular chapter. The index is comprehensive, and I have not had any trouble finding a particular reference (so far!). A bonus is a chapter devoted to Corel Photo Album 6, bundled with PSP.

If you are a Paint Shop Pro user who wants to do more than the most elementary adjustments for digital photography then I recommend this book.

Paint Shop Pro X, as released by Corel after buying the software from JASC, was supposedly a revision of the program in a new user friendly, learning friendly direction. Unfortunately, the program's on screen help is horrible, and the official manual is nearly worthless. PSP 9 had a much better manual, and if you upgraded from PSP 9 and already understood the program then you may not need this book. But if you're new to PSP, you desperately need some kind of substitute manual, and this book is the best I've seen.

PSP has loads of features beyond the one click fixes. This book is far from being a "turgid" study of each feature. There is so much to cover, it's more of a highlight reel. In fact, that's this book's main problem. It shows, both for photographers and--to some extent--painters and web designers and others who use PSP X, how to do many things, but sometimes it doesn't explain fully enough what one is doing. It runs through some steps without explaining what each step does. If users had that understanding, they could better use the program to do additional things. In fact, that's why I'm writing this review: to encourage the authors to put a little more detail in future editions.

Having said that, I would guess that for most users this book can be very useful in pointing out many of the things they can do with PSP X. It'll take considerable addition experimentation on screen to fully figure out PSP X, though. But it would be awful to try to figure out PSP X without this book's help. And no, the "casual user" cannot do well by just hitting the one click fixes and not learning more: the one click fixes aren't good enough, and the more is too valuable to miss.

This book does a good job of explaining the powerful tools available if you are using Paint Shop Pro. PSP is far more powerful than most users realize and Paint Shop Pro X for photographers can help you get the most out of this program.

this is one of those turgidly comprehensive manuals, albeit a bit prettier than most. It gives every conceivable detail of the program, and I will keep it as a reference, but it doesn't do me much good when I just want to learn a few cool techniques to fix up a picture.

This book is great for the digital photographer (and who isn't these days?), who may or may not be new to Paint Shop Pro. It teaches all the great techniques for not only improving pictures, but also has many suggestions for using them in fun and interesting ways.
PSP X is so economical it may seem to be like many of the other simplified graphic programs. However, it is a very powerful program if one knows how to use it. It is much easier to learn than it's pricier competitor, but it is impossible to learn it's many features without a book like this. It is a great deal more informative than the manual.
As one person pointed out, it doesn't teach all the newest features, but Corel has gone into great detail on these new features in their learning center, and the book directs you there. Why duplicate what Corel has done a good job on?
I have used PSP since version 4 (under JASC ownership), and found that I learned quite a lot of new info. Loved the book!

Full color, easy to follow, step-by-step projects to practice what you've learned in each chapter, PLUS there's a companion website in which you can download the same photos that are used in the book to practice with.

A very good coverage of what Paintshop Pro can do. Although it has for Photographers in the title it is really a general purpose coverage of all aspects of the program. It is a great way to get up and going because it looks at all areas of operation.

This was a wonderfully helpful book and was so much better than the one I received with the program. I was amazed at how much this program can really do and it made me love the program. I read through it once briefly to see what it said about the programs, and use it often as a reference guide.

Really helpful! I am a beta tester for Corel and thought I "knew it all". Well, the book pointed out strengths that I had not been aware of. The scratch remover is great for removing blemishes and the "tooth whitener" is better than any dentist!

Very good book, that gives good advice on how to achieve more from PSP.