Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

Does anyone have anything constructive to say about Corel Paintshop Pro x4. I recently upgraded from x2 and find it to be a decent app., with a lot of features on different levels, especially for the holiday bargain price. I hear the accolades for Photoshop C5 and frankly I feel that price is way high for the non-pro shutterbug. I tried Elements(and Picasa) but couldn't get into them.

nikon_jon Loc: Northeast Arkansas

I use paintshop prox2 and like it. Got a good bargain on prox3 and bought it, but removed it from my puter. It was a good program, but they had taken some features off it that were on 2 that I really liked, so I went back.

Keeping in mind that I am pretty old fashioned, so basic tweaks and adjustments are pretty much all it takes to make me happy. The only 'techy' things I really like on the editing softwares are barrel and pincushion distortion corrections and straighten and perspective control options.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

Yep, just loaded X-4 last night. X-2 was powerful, and I am assuming X-4 is even better. Right away it upgraded itself from the net. I have yet to add my Topaz and other plug-in(s). You know, it gets to a point where we do not need to upgrade except to satisfy the whats around the corner drive in us. I also purchased PSE 10, many tutorials are PS specific, thus follow them and then if desired you can mentally translate to PSP.

I fully agree that PS 5 is very over priced. I read a review once that stated that PSP X-3 was not as good as PS5, the comparison was not to PSE, but was to PS-5. At $29 for my upgrade to PSP X4, that is a big price difference.

Just bought a book Photoshop CS4 The missing Manual. Off Ebay. I chose it because CS5 book twice the price and figured this would be better than PSE book. At 800 pages there is a lot there!!! I think it was about $15.

I also bought a lot of photo books from www.betterworldbooks.com sure, they are old library take outs, but photography has not changed, only the sensors, lenses still follow the laws of physics, f stops and time is still by same calculations and iso is iso. So at $3.50 each and free shipping I am pleased with them.

vciro Loc: Wantagh, Long Island, NY

I have been a Paint Shop Pro user for many years going back to before it was Corel (It was JASC) and find that it can do just about anything that Photoshop can do for a lot less money. I purchased X4 recently, upgrading from X3. It has a ton of bells and whistles as well as the basic stuff. X4 runs a LOT faster than X3 and is definitely an improvement. If you add the Topaz Plug-Ins, I think you'll love what you can do.
One thing, though. As I mentioned on another post, there currently is an intermittent bug in X4 when resizing and cropping as a JPEG. This seems to depend on your PC's processor. Corel has stated that a fix is coming soon.
I also find that any tutorials on the INTERNET that use Photoshop are easily "translatable" to PaintShop Pro. My vote
:thumbup:

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

I fully agree about Topaz, it is a magic mystical tour of fantastic photography. Have had Topaz Suite for two year and Adjust for 3,,, impressed with the free upgrades. I have all but the Lens Effects. Like B&W for my IR Photos. Converted my Canon G-2 to IR only.

VCIRO, what is your feeling about Lens Effects.

vciro Loc: Wantagh, Long Island, NY

Sorry. :-( I am not that familiar with Lens Effects but from what the Topaz site shows, I see limited application for me. However, Topaz Remask and Adjust are absolutely fantastic. Adjust I use almost daily and Remask lets me easily take my grand kids and put them in all kinds of different backgrounds. This is great for creating Christmas shots.

digital_photog Loc: New Hampshire

Best effort by Corel to date!!! My only concern is the lack of cross system compatibility!! Windows works great but not Lion or mac (Yet) Hope they finally realize that Mac operating system users will purchase their product as an alternative to CS5. Get with the program Corel!!!

bbreslow518

Love the new PSP X4. With the exception of a couple of built in effects, I can almost always translate a PS procedure to PSP. I'm far from being an expert with the software, but find it's much less intimidating to use than PS5. I have not tried elements yet so can't compare that.

lustylarry4 Loc: Camarillo, Ca.

I agree with vciro. Paintshop Pro X4 performs just as well as Photoshop CS4 for image editing and in some cases even better.
All this at a much lower price.

Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

Thanks for all the posative input.

oldanalyst

Like one of the other respondents, I use Paint Shop Pro X4 and have used most all of its predecessors well before Corel bought it. I also use Photoshop elements but never have had the urge to buy the overpriced full version of Photoshop. Paint Shop does virtually all of the things I want a program to do and the X4 version does them well. Color exchange is better than ever. Doing HDR work is easy. Editing RAW files has gotten better than ever. But, for me, the strength of the program has always been the ease of setting up printing. Even when I use another program for editing pictures, I generally save the edited files and print them through Paint Shop.

By my standards, you have made a wise choice in going with X4.

gsrunyan Loc: Aurora, CO

I am also a long time user of Corel, both Paintshop Pro and Corel PhotoPaint, part of the Corel Draw suite. I was somewhat disappointed in X4 until Service Pack 1 was released and I installed it. It cures most of the problems, brings color back to the workspace, eases some functions and adds the ability to change the view of the workspace that I don't think it had before. I really like it now.

Glenn

Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

Thanks, I agree, I particularly like being able to "tab" between Manage, Adjust and Edit. Adjust is good for the quick alterations, while the edit module is great for more in depth operations. Plus as mentioned "the price is right." Corel also included a free registration for of Winzip 15.5 with it. What a deal. Glad I stayed with Corel.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

For the last four months I've been using Photoshop CS5 (on their rental plan), Lightroom 3.5, Elements 10, Corel Draw X5, Corel Photo-Paint X5, and Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

I'm returning Photoshop CS5 because it's too expensive and I've found that Paintshop Pro X4 can do everything that Photoshop CS5 does, and possibly a little more, just in different ways.

I'll still call it photoshopping, though.