Say Hello to New PaintShop Pro X8
It gives me great pleasure to announce the launch today of the new Corel PaintShop Pro X8 — now at www.paintshoppro.com and soon to be available at resellers all around the world.
X8 marks a huge milestone for the PaintShop Pro family. 25 years ago, Robert Voit started JASC software in Eden Prairie, Minnesota and set in motion the rise of PaintShop Pro — a photo editing and graphic design package of incredible power and creativity, yet one that was and continues to be inherently democratic and accessible to pretty much anyone. All due to a killer photo editing and design feature set that’s easy to learn and use and way more affordable than Adobe Photoshop — another great photo editing title celebrating 25 years this year.
While times have changed from early days of the PC revolution, for me, it’s a thrill to know that the photo-editing rivalry between PaintShop Pro and Photoshop is still going strong. In some ways, it’s more relevant than ever:
Photoshop is unquestionably a photo-editing behemoth — a creative juggernaut looming large over the software landscape. Its brand awareness and market reach are among the reasons why Adobe has been so successful in imposing subscription on Creatives everywhere.
Yet this move to subscription has opened doors and minds to PaintShop Pro. Still subscription-free, and still available for $79 or less, PaintShop Pro stands ready to unleash the creativity of anyone with a PC who doesn’t want to shackle themselves to subscription, month after month, year after year. Whether you’re a photographer, designer, scrapbooker, or you need photo editing or graphics tools at work, PaintShop Pro is an amazing value.
Consider the new PaintShop Pro X8 Ultimate… similar to the Adobe Photography subscription, it includes photo editing software, plus photo workflow software in the form of AfterShot 2. Where Adobe provides more Creative Cloud options, Corel offers additional tools in Perfectly Clear 2 SE by Athentech and the excellent ON1 Perfect Effects 9. Here at Corel’s photo team, we’re trying to provide something different and real choice for Creatives and photo enthusiasts — something we’re really proud of.
Today’s Web — and today’s world — has become so visual, making photo editing software incredibly relevant and important both at home and work. With PaintShop Pro X8, anyone with 80 bucks can buy the software, watch our free training videos, and over the course of a weekend build up a practical proficiency in photo editing.
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What’s new
But enough introspection — let’s get to the good stuff! PaintShop Pro X8 has been designed with a strong focus on fundamentals. Every version gets faster, more productive and more creative. Consider this snapshot of some of our top X8 features:
New! Text Wrapping
As PaintShop Pro’s name suggests, there’s a lot more than simple photo editing in here. Our innovative new Text Wrapping tool builds on our wide variety of raster, vector, art media and text tools to introduce new ways to achieve creative effects with text. Wrap text inside any vector shape or selection. It’s an ideal effect for posters, scrapbooking, brochures, collages, websites and other projects.
New Magic Move
Our users were thrilled with the debut of content-aware fill tool Magic Fill in X7. In X8, we’ve added Magic Move — a new content-aware tool that automatically replaces the background when you move an object or person.
New Batch Processing
One of the many characteristics that makes PaintShop Pro different than PhotoShop is the way we combine photo management, quick adjustment and hardcore editing in one. Together these three modes make a cohesive photo solution — pretty much everything you need in one app. Building on this is our improved Batch Processing tool. Now it’s much easier to select a group of images and apply the edits you want. Maybe you’re adding a watermark, text, or perhaps you want to apply a custom script that you’ve saved to automate some part of your photo editing work. Batch processing is better than ever.
New Lens Corrections
Here’s another feature that puts the Pro in PaintShop Pro — X8 now includes a database of lens corrections to automatically correct common issues. We have an extensive database of lenses and there will be more in the future.
Improved accuracy and control app-wide.
Comb through PaintShop Pro X8 and you’ll find that we are constantly working to refine commonly used features. Whether it’s new tolerance settings for smart edge, to more detailed ways to define selections, to brushes that feel more responsive–it’s the little things that will make your PSP experience feel just right.
More speed and power
Another fundamental: speed and performance. If your application feels slow in any way, it really impairs the creative experience. PaintShop Pro X8 includes performance gains that save you time and make editing tasks more responsive and enjoyable:
- Faster brushes for a more responsive feel — PSPX8 adds speed gains of 40%–120% for brushes.
- Larger maximum brush size — Cover more area, more quickly with a maximum brush size of 3,000 pixels
- Enhanced Smart Edge — See up to 50% faster performance when using the Smart Edge feature, working with several tools help keep your brushstrokes “inside the lines.”
- Faster saving — .pspimage files save up to 50% faster to keep you in your creative groove .
New! High resolution 4K monitor support:
Photo editing, and, well, pretty much everything, is better with a 4K monitor. New High DPI support means you can see each detail, read more clearly and appreciate every aspect of your photo or composition. All-new icons and enhanced workspaces are compatible with Ultra High DPI displays (up to 250% zoom with 4K resolution).
This is just part of the story. For a full list of features, please visit www.paintshoppro.com. We’re really excited about the new applications and have more in store in the weeks and months ahead.
Here at Corel, we love the idea that we can empower anyone to “Imagine their best photo ever” (as our tagline says). It’s an idea that started 25 years ago, and one we continue to embrace today.
You can try the new PaintShop Pro X8, free for 30 days, over at www.paintshoppro.com.
Happy Birthday PaintShop Pro! And to all the people who’ve contributed to our success over the years, here’s to you!
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