Paint Shop Pro 8 Review A Bit Overdue, But Excitingly New Eric Grevstad
Mon 8/18/03 -- It's rarely a good idea for a software company to wait two and a half years between upgrades. It's a downright bad idea to do so during an explosion of popularity for image editing, with consumers snapping up digital cameras and competitors shipping stellar products like Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0.
That was becoming clear in October 2001, when we reviewed Paint Shop Pro 7 10th Anniversary Edition from Jasc Software -- the shareware pioneer still had plenty of power, but was starting to look rusty and geeky compared to more polished, friendly entries. Frankly, we feared Paint Shop Pro (PSP) was in danger of slipping back into shareware hardcore status, destined to dwell alongside the likes of Linux's open-source image editor The Gimp rather than mass-market offerings from Microsoft or Roxio.
Happily, we were wrong. The finally, completely revamped Paint Shop Pro 8 not only walks a tightrope between ease of use and creative power, but goes further along that tightrope than anyone else: It's still pretty daunting for casual users who just want to crop a snapshot or fix a flash portrait's red eyes, but PSP 8 is remarkably accessible for a program that ranks second among image editors only to Adobe's ark-of-the-covenant Photoshop 7.0 -- at one-sixth the latter's price.
Starting from Scratch
Indeed, newcomers may have a slightly easier time of it than users of earlier versions, so thoroughly has Jasc rearranged Paint Shop Pro's toolbars and palettes -- not only movable, dockable, and customizable on an individual basis, but giving you the option of saving different arrangements or workspaces. (A big monitor helps; 1,024 by 768 resolution feels a little crowded.)
Not only have Windows 3.1-era icons and toolbars been redesigned, but so have dialog boxes -- dabblers get handy previews or try-before-you-apply windows akin to PSP's at-a-glance Effect Browser, while power users can save (and even share) their favorite combinations of parameters or presets for filters and tools.
Newcomers will also be welcomed by an improved help system including a "learning center" palette -- project wizards for tasks such as turning an image into a greeting card -- and extensive, animated tutorial tour. Spring for the $109 CD rather than $99 download version, and you get an attractive 430-page manual (though you'll still have to download a 16MB patch to version 8.01).
