I recently took the plunge and upgraded my ageing Paint Shop Pro 7 Anniversary Edition to the latest, now Corel owned, version of Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate. I could have took the 30 days free trial to see if it suits my needs but the upgrade price was reasonable enough so off I went and ordered it from their website. It arrived quick enough but I had to wait a few days to get the opportunity to install it and give it a go.

One of the first things to notice is the distinctly difference visual interface. Fortunately, the key elements are still there and the darker colour scheme is much easier on the eye. I still have to find a way of hooking into my Wacom graphic tablet – looking at the Wacom product support page it does say the product supports both Pressure and Eraser settings whereas Photoshop supports Pressure, Eraser, Tilt, ToolID, and Airbrush.

Whilst the application now leans more towards a camera work centric perspective there are still a useful number of features on offer including the object removal tool, media recovery software, layer styles and the make over tools. X2 Ultimate adds a number of features of X2 including the creative extras pack, photo essentials 4, the media recovery software, Raw format camera support and several other features. Paint Shop Pro Photo is currently up to version 12.01.

Looking ahead – I am still undecided between Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw – I like Illustrator but the price is too high for me. If all goes well with Paint Shop Pro I plan to revisit Corel Draw, currently up to Corel Draw Graphics Suite X4, a product I was quite fond of a number of years ago and I also plan to take a look at Painter and Sketch Pad. It has been a while since I have used Corel products but it is quite timely as I am actively looking for a vector based graphics application for my cartooning work.

Related

• Inkscape – A Vector Graphics Editor
• Upgrading Windows 2003 Server SP2 to R2
• IT equipment on the shop floor
• The Mac vs PC debate
• Create and Edit Images Free Online With Pixlr