Sooner

I am considering buying PSP X7. How many here use it and would recommend it? Or would PSE 12/13 be a better choice? Thanks for any suggestions/answers

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

I have used older Jasc version of PSP for 16+ years and can recommend it. I am posting here mostly so that I can keep track of the thread and see if any one talks about the advantages of the newer Corel versions.

One advantage to the Adobe products is that there are a lot more people using them.

Mike

viscountdriver Loc: East Kent UK

I use it and it is brilliant. In my opinion as good as Adobe but much cheaper. Why not try the the free download trial. It is also worth getting the Ultimate version.

JoAnneK01 Loc: Lahaina, Hawaii

Currently using PSP X6 Ultimate, on my only Windows OS computer, and it is far better than PSE. Only wish it would work on my Apple computers without having to install the Windows OS.

Zonker Loc: Leesburg, FL

I use PSP 6, which is just a shade under 7. Been using them since Version 2 and I love it.

SandyLee Loc: Minnesota

I use PSP 4 and it is very good. I only use a small portion of it as it's too complicated for me. I liked the older, more simple versions better. Price is right!

hotglassguy Loc: Jeffersonville, IN

Have used PSP for several versions including X7 and have been very pleased. It has a very good organizer, an photo editor similar to Lightroom,and a full featured editor like Photoshop that includes layers and context aware delete. The full editor also has a built - in effects package. A lot of features for less than $100. I agree with the otherswho rrecommend getting the Ultimate version.

HOT Texas Loc: From the Heart of Texas

I have it, I use it, and I love it :thumbup:

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

PSP X6 was very good and I'd bet PSP X7 is equally as good or a little better... but... Corel's tech support is literally non-existent. Email a question and you'll likely never get an answer or several weeks later they'll send you a copy of a page for a previous version's fix that doesn't match your version. Absolutely terrible. I've used PSP since long ago before Corel even owned it and tech support does nothing but get worse. I also bought a nice little word processor from them that was similar to their Word Perfect but limited in abilities (which is fine for me). It worked for a while, started messing up, I begged for support and got nothing. Nothing at all. So since it was just $15 I removed it from my drive and never look back.

I graduated to using Lightroom for most of my editing and then putting the finished JPGs through PSP X6 for touch ups. I did that for a couple years and now I've moved straight into the full-blown Photoshop CC which is $10 a month on the Adobe cloud system.

Life has become much easier now, my workflow is much faster by using the Bridge/ACR/Photoshop bundle together, and I haven't found a situation yet that I can't overcome in my editing because if I don't know how to do it that's my fault but somebody on the Adobe Forum does know how or Adobe's videos will show me how. Tech support there has been top notch when I had an installation problem. I couldn't be happier.

As I said the other day, my editing is such a pleasure now with Photoshop that if I had a comfortable recliner to edit from and a set of headphones to listen to music YouTube videos, I'd probably never leave my office except for bathroom breaks, lose my family who would move out and I wouldn't even know it, and my legs would atrophy from sitting here too much.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

I used PSP X6 and X7 but not the ultimate version. I have had no issues with tech support, I have emailed them a couple of times for installation issues and they have promptly responded the next day and even had a follow up email from them 2 days later.If you can wait till black Friday it might go on sale for a discount price.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

A couple of questions, if I may.

What advantages, if any, did you find moving from the old Jasc version to the newer Corel versions? Any disadvantages?

How did PS improve your workflow when compared to PSP?

I agree with you about Corel support.

Thanks.

Mike

wvatxn Loc: Texas

I have used Paintshop Pro for years and have had really good luck with it. However, I have a Paintshop Pro X5 which worked for awhile but now each time I try to use it I get the message "Paintshop Pro X5 has stopped working." I have uninstalled it and reinstalled it but I still get that same message. Has anyone else had this problem and if so, what did you do to correct it?

Sooner

I want to thank everyone who responded to my inquiry. I am somewhat familiar with PSE since I did have PSE 4 back about 7-8 years ago. I am going to go with PSE and try to catch up. Since I'm old and slow, I sure do need some good Tech support. The help from this group is appreciated, Thanks
Roy

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

The move to the Corel version from the Jasc version was in my early days of post editing so it couldn't really say other than the user interface being more intuitive. Corel changes it occasionally. I think it was around PSP X that they made a sizable change and I had trouble finding some things I used a lot in pull down menus but after getting used to it I was back to normal. Corel also keeps adding automatic buttons for certain features like white balance or auto correcting other things. Instead of pulling down a menu or using a keystroke command to do so, you just click the button and it's done. I kind of like it when they do that.

My conversion to PS from PSP happened gradually actually. While using PSP, I downloaded a trial of PS CS5.1 and bought a PS CS5.1 for Dummies book. I had closed my business in Michigan, hadn't moved to Florida yet, and I had a month to trial the software so I went at it hard and heavy every day for the whole 30 days.

When that was over, I realized how much like PS that PSP is but PS is more complex and has many more features that I still don't use that PSP didn't have and may never have. That sounds like a weird comment but my mind determined that PS was so powerful that I was barely scratching the surface and had things like an intelligent healing brush and intelligent magic selection wand that PSP didn't. I knew PS must be so good that while PSP was at it's end in what it was capable of even with my amateur usage, and PS was a monster I wasn't barely tapping into, that I needed to get involved with it. It was a good move after PS became available as CC and I didn't have to lay out $600 to get into PS.

I also found later on that PSP X5 and X6 were slowing down badly because of how many photos that were on my hard drive. At one point, I had about 35,000 photos on my C drive and had them backed up on an external drive. Unfortunately, PSP would go through my whole C drive and verify where everything was for it's "tree" type filing abilities before the editing desktop became available. I couldn't do anything but sit there waiting. It got to the point of taking almost 5 minutes before I could start to edit. Then if I created a new subfolder to save that photo in, it would spend almost another 5 minutes looking at everything before it would create the new subfolder and place it on the "tree" so I could put a file in it. I finally had to clear off all the photos on my drive (they were backed up already as I said) to get it to speed back up. I thought that was lame. PS Bridge works the same way but it is ready to work almost immediately upon opening it. No more than 4 or 5 seconds of pause.

PSP is only $79 and it only makes sense that it can't be as powerful as a $600 package that virtually the whole professional world uses. Corel sees advancements being made in other software like PS and then finds a way to clone those advancements so they're always one step behind the leaders. That doesn't make it bad or ineffective, just not as powerful.

It's hard to explain. You drive a quiet beautiful standard-engine Corvette with Michelin touring tires for several years and you really enjoy the sportiness of it, the handling, the powerful V-8, the T-tops, etc. and then somebody hands you the keys to a brand new rumbling roaring V-12 Viper with racing suspension, tires that are matched to a specific corner of the car for maximum traction and handling, a speedometer that exceeds 180mph, and enough torque to tear your driver seat brackets off the floor during acceleration. You just know something is very different and it will take you where you've never been before in ways you've never imagined possible. You still love your Vette but this thing is something altogether different. They are both doing the same job for you but you know the Viper is going to do it in a more powerful manner and better.

If Adobe raised the price of PS CC so I didn't want to pay that much, I wouldn't feel bad about going back to PSP X6 or X7 but it would still be a step backward of sorts. I'd likely go back to Lightroom and PSP X6 as a combination again.

About workflow... I've used PS CC since June and I'd say my workflow is 40% faster now than when I was using Lightroom and PSP X6 before that. When I want plug-ins they work immediately in PS CC. I fought some plug-ins that were supposed to work in PSP and I never got them working so I gave up.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Wvatxn, my version x6 was doing the same thing. Corel support advised me to clean my hard drive files and it solved that issue.