I wish Ciao would alert you on new review ratings and comments, I always try my best to return nonet...
I wish Ciao would alert you on new review ratings and comments, I always try my best to return nonetheless :)
Member since:13.06.2008
Reviews:11
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After getting tired of the freebies Picasa and HP Photosmart I decided it was time to get myself a more intricate photo editor. I didn't know much about photo editing at the time but our computer came with a demo of X1, which was nearly 2 years ago. I liked the demo so I thought I would go buy Corel Paint Shop Pro X2.
I paid about £25 for it in total to be shipped from america on ebay. Not bad, considering that other places and shops were selling it for anything up to £40.
I was expecting the CD to come in a plastic DVD case meaning there would be room for an instruction manual. It actually came in a cardboard tyvek sleeve thing, meaning no instruction manual or tips and tricks. The back of the sleeve just stated the things you can do on the program, and gave a little bit on system requirements.
When loading the CD, the menu comes up asking if you want to download the program, a 'videostudio 11 trial' or some sample filters, which is pretty generous. Fortunately there is also an option to view the user guide on this menu, which makes up for the lack of instruction manual.
The instalation of the program itself is pretty tedious, it slows up everything else youre doing and takes about 5 minutes on my XP system.
When you open the program you get a little loading box which can take anything between 5 seconds and 3 minutes to go away, so it has good days and bad days.
Enough moaning now, the photo editor itself when loaded is very good. There are various precision tools and almost perfect noise removal fixers. A word on 'noise' - I noticed recently when viewing the same version of a photo on both X2 and the normal Windows Picture viewer that for some strange reason X2 adds alot of noise to a photo without doing anything, which is a letdown.
You can also download various presets, even some which are designed for Adobe Photoshop which makes the whole thing more versatile. I use X2 to do almost all of my photo editing, mainly for removing noise, the 'clarify' tool (works wonders on bland looking photos), and filter effects.
Personally I only use this program to about 25% of its potential, there are many advanced tools and masks that would come in use to professional graphic artists and photographers.
X2 is also very handy for photographers as it has tools that fix barrel, pincussion, and fisheye distortion, as well as fixes for other common digital camera problems such as chromatic abberation and purple fringing.
This program is one of the best editors you will find, amoungst Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Fireworks. I would even say that it is on par with Photoshop because I prefer the overall user friendly 'feel' of this program, but since there are only few video tutorials on the net compared to the vast amount made by people for Photoshop, it is quite hard to learn all the tricks of the trade.
I would still recommend this program over any other because Photoshop CS3 costs over £500 according to the website, and there do not appear to be adequate reasons to spend that much more money on a program that some thing that costs £20-40 can do just as well.
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I never know what to write on things like this as it is obvious that you know your stuff and I know nothing, so to say well reviewed is demeaning. Well done. Thanks. J.
Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is the ideal digital photography software for users who want ... more
professional-looking photos and new ways to unlock their creative potential. With the widest selection of photo-editing features--ranging from automatic tools wh...
Postage & Packaging: £3.25 Availability: Next Day Delivery
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