PaintShop Photo Pro X3 From Corel Inc.

Product Description

If creating great pictures is your passion, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is the photo-editing software for you. Featuring a brand-new RAW Lab and easy batch photo processing, it’s the only advanced photo-editing software to combine photo management, creative projects, photo sharing and even HD video slideshows in one package. It’s everything you need to get professional-looking results you’ll be proud to share. Ideal for DSLR cameras!

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1247 in Digital Software
• Brand: Corel Inc.
• Model: ESDPSPPRX3EN
• Released on: 2011-06-30
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows XP
• Format: Download
• Original language: English

Features

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• PaintShop Photo Pro X3 lets you manage, adjust, edit and share your digital photos - all in one place
• Accelerate the way you organize, rate, tag and sort with new photo management tools
• Manually adjust groups of RAW photos during the loading process with the new RAW Lab
• Quickly fix common photo flaws in the enhanced Express Lab
• Email photos, print online or at home, and send directly to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Product Description
If creating great pictures is your passion, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is the photo-editing program for you. Featuring a brand-new RAW Lab and easy batch photo processing, it's the only advanced photo-editing software to combine photo management, creative projects, photo sharing and even HD video slideshows in one package. It's everything you need to get professional-looking results you'll be proud to share. Ideal for DSLR cameras.

If creating great pictures is your passion, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is the photo-editing program for you.

The Organizer simplifies photo management. Click to enlarge.

The Express Lab has tools for the most common digital photography problems. Click to enlarge.

Smart Carver lets you remove objects and change the aspect ratio. Click to enlarge.

The Depth of Field effect focuses attention on a specific image area.

PaintShop Photo Pro X3 simplifies creating great-looking photo books. Click to enlarge.

HDR Photo Merge.

Perspective Correction Tool.

The Project Creator has a variety of slide show options. Click to enlarge.

Overview

PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is the most rewarding way to enhance your photos and create professional-looking images. Now with a complete RAW workflow, this photo-editing program lets you manage, adjust, edit and share your digital photos--all in one place. Accelerate the way you organize, rate, tag and sort with new photo management tools. Make automatic fixes in the enhanced Express Lab, or go deep with a full set of advanced editing tools. Then upload to Flickr, Facebook and YouTube, create high-quality photo books and projects, print, email or back up photos on disc. It's your entire photo workflow in one high-performance package.

• New--RAW Lab--manually adjust groups of RAW photos during the loading process
• Enhanced--Express Lab--quickly fix common flaws in this speed-editing mode
• New--Advanced editing tools--edit fast with Smart Carver, Vibrancy and more
• New--HD photo and video--import and export HD video
• New--Integrated projects--create photo books, HD slideshows, cards and more
• Enhanced--Photo sharing--email, print online or at home, and send directly to Facebook, YouTube and Flickr
• Bonus--Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4--Turn photos into paintings in three easy steps!

What's New

This is a must-have upgrade for PaintShop users and DSLR camera owners! The fastest version yet, this photo-editing software features exciting new professional-quality features, like the Smart Carver, a new RAW Lab, easy batch processing, and a photo Organizer. Learn how to speed up your entire workflow and get the best-quality results. Improved Digital Workflow

Enhanced--Photo Organizer
Customize your digital workflow with new photo management capabilities. Use multiple views, including thumbnails and image previews, to quickly select photos.
New--RAW Lab, Image Quality and Control
Make RAW adjustments during the loading process and work with even more RAW camera formats--faster than ever before.
New--Easy Batch Processing
Make adjustments to one photo, then easily apply the same changes to multiple other photos right in the enhanced Organizer.
Enhanced--Speed and Performance
Get more speed and editing horsepower with more multi-threading support for multi-core processors.
Enhanced--Express Lab
Apply common edits in just one click. Remove noise, sharpen images, and quickly adjust contrast, local tone mapping and more.
New Advanced Photo-Editing Tools

New--Smart Carver
Seamlessly remove objects from an image with professional quality. The Smart Carver also lets you expand or contract objects without distortion.
New--Vibrancy
Boost color in the least saturated areas of a photo without affecting the rest of the image.
New--Object Extractor
The integrated Object Extractor isolates an object--even challenging cases such as flyaway hair and fuzzy pet fur--so it can be copied to a new background or a new background can be pasted behind it.
New--On-Image Text Editing
With the updated text engine, it's easier, faster and more natural to apply text to an image. Adjust font, color, placement, position, size and wrapping of the text in context of the image. Reselect the text on the image and continue typing, or apply text on a path.
New--HD Video Slideshows
As an increasing number of DSLR cameras capture HD video, PaintShop Photo Pro now offers tools that let you combine photo and video projects. Create HD slideshows and movies of your photos and videos, all with the same tool.
New--Windows 7 Compatibility
PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is fully compatible with Windows 7, as well as Windows XP and Windows Vista. Take advantage of new Windows 7 speed and performance to experience a whole new level of creativity.
Bonus--Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4
This fun program lets you turn a photo into a unique work of art in just 3 easy steps:

1. Choose a photo and the painting style you want to apply.
2. Let the Smart Stroke painting technology create a stunning painting.
3. Touch up your masterpiece by hand if desired.

Bonus--KPT Plug-in Filters
A natural addition to your photo-editing software, KPT plug-in filters help you quickly create remarkable image transformations and original effects. PaintShop Photo Pro X3 includes KPT Goo, KPT LensFlare, KPT Projector and KPT Equalizer.
Built-In Photo Projects and Sharing

Easy Photo Sharing
Quickly share photos and videos directly on Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. You can also email, print at home or order prints online*.
Built-in Photo Projects
Using the new Project Creator, its fast and simple to make great-looking photo books, HD slideshows, collages, cards and more

What's included?

Main application
Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3: Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 gives you the power to easily organize, edit, and share professional-quality photos. Make photo improvements faster in the enhanced Express Lab, or go further with powerful new editing tools. Create amazing photo books and projects, upload to Flickr, Facebook or YouTube, print or share by e-mail. Combining single and multi-photo editing tools, online sharing and simple HD video integration, your entire digital workflow is now available in one high-performance package.
Supporting applications
Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4: If you want to do more than just edit and print photos, Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 is the ideal way to get started with digital art. Using the unique Auto-Painting palette, you can create a stunningly realistic work of art from a photo in just three easy steps. (English only)
Corel Instant Viewer: This component provides a quick, direct way to view photos on a PC, allowing you to scroll through your photos and send them to PaintShop Photo Pro X3 for editing. (English only)

Simplify your digital workflow

Enhanced--Photo Organizer
Customize your digital workflow with new photo management capabilities in PaintShop Photo Pro X3's Photo Organizer. Use thumbnails and image previews to quickly select your photos.
New--Easy Batch Processing
Make adjustments to one photo, then easily apply the same changes to multiple other photos. Edit one, apply to many, right from the Organizer.
Enhanced--Express Lab
The new interface makes photo editing faster than ever. Preview photos and videos or make changes in this speed-editing mode. Quickly adjust contrast, apply local tone mapping, remove noise and sharpen images. You can also adjust levels, clarity and white balance, batch-edit multiple photos and more.

Do more with advanced photo-editing tools

New--Smart Carver
Seamlessly remove objects from an image with professional quality. Smart Carver also lets you expand or contract objects without distortion.
New--Vibrancy
Boost color in the least saturated areas of a photo without affecting the rest of the image.
New--Object Extractor
The integrated Object Extractor isolates an object--even challenging cases such as flyaway hair and fuzzy pet fur--so it can be copied to a new background or a new background can be pasted behind it.

Fix it fast in Express Lab

Don't let the small stuff slow you down! Enjoy one-click access to common photo fixes. Learning Center
The award-winning Learning Center empowers anyone to harness the power of advanced photo editing, regardless of your previous software experience. It builds your confidence and makes it easier to develop your skills by helping you complete tasks within seconds of launching PaintShop Pro Photo.
Makeover Tools
Make sure the people in your photos look their best with tools that are fun and easy to use. Help your subjects look thinner in seconds, whiten bloodshot eyes, smooth wrinkles, paint on a tan and remove blemishes.
Enhanced--Remove Digital Camera Noise
Remove "noise" artifacts that interfere with the clarity of your digital image--faster than ever! One-Step Noise Removal smooths photos with a single click. Digital Camera Noise Removal gives you precise control over how these corrections are applied.

Get creative with projects and photo sharing

Enhanced--Built-in Creative Projects
PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is the only pro-quality photo enthusiast software package to so closely integrate creative projects with photo editing. The new Project Creator is a fast and simple way to make a great-looking photo book, collages, cards and more--all in addition to PaintShop's easy online sharing options.
New--Easy Photo Sharing
Share photos and videos where and how you want, using email, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Print at home, order prints online, email or quickly burn a DVD to enjoy on your TV.
Layer Styles
Easily apply artistic effects to individual layers, such as drop shadows, embossing and reflections.

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews
149 of 161 people found the following review helpful.
Somebody please stop Corel from ruining good software
By Nerd3D
Since Corel acquired Paint Shop Pro it's been all down hill. X3 is the Apollo 13 of paint programs. A total disaster. If you have more than a few images on your computer be prepared for a 2-3 hour installation ordeal. The program will crash and freeze several times as it attempts to catalog the entire contents of our computer. Thanks, but I already know where my pictures are, really. Should a "Pro" program be brought to it's knees repeatedly by a large catalog of images? Corel evidently thinks so.

The cause of all this trouble is the "Organizer". Man oh man what a train wreck. It's whole purpose in life seems to be so you can rate your pictures. I really don't need to rate my picture. Really? rate my own pictures... OK but I generally just delete the lousy ones but what ever. It would be of some use if you could use it like a browser, but no. There is no way the keep the "Organizer" open after selecting an image to edit. You can't even keep your place as opening an image automatically closes the "Organizer". When you go back your at square one go find it again. If I want to open several pictures from different folders... well let's just say it's much less than useless. If you don't want to use their exact work flow you are up a creek, a very slow creek as switching between editing and "Organizing" is glacial.

Well we got one new tool! Oh goody, I can do a lousy job of taking somebody out of a picture in one click. Whoop-de-doo! They did make the Text editing tool less stupid that it was, but it was pretty stupid. The new method is less awkward but still needs work.

What didn't we get? Well the majority of the editing tools are still 8 bit. If you want to work with your raws and maintain 16 or 32 bit per channel keep looking because there has been no improvement.

Now for the bad news when you decide to uninstall the demo. Corel really wants to put the screws to you for daring to uninstall their epic bloat ware. The uninstall literally took 45 minutes, It was stuck on 36% for at least 30 minutes.

In summary I would only recommend this to people I really don't like.
134 of 148 people found the following review helpful.
So much potential, yet so disappointing
By Geoffrey
I'm an avid Photoshop/Lightroom user, but I like to examine other products that can improve my workflow and digital retouching. Photoshop is a great program, but simple changes are often time-consuming. Lightroom, while great 95% of the time, does not do everything for me. With that, when I saw that Corel released PSP X3, I was compelled to examine the product.

I've tried PSP in the past with mixed results, but thought I would try the new X3 version through the 30-day free trial available on Corel. I immediately had several problems. My machine is a workhorse (8GB, Phenom II X4), and while loading pictures into the catalog during initial startup, the software completely crashed multiple times on me. Okay, not off on a good foot, but I finally got my pictures loaded and began playing with some of the editing features. The menus were a little obtuse, and sometimes it is not easy to find editing options through the Full Editor. The Express Editor, while a little bit better, also had settings that were a little too deep in the menus. This is not really a flaw, though, since with a little bit of use I got fairly comfortable with the options.

I noticed that the presets in PSP X3 were really good and that I can really make a photo look good with less work (time) than I would need in Photoshop for the equivalent output. However, my gripes are as follows:

*Buttons for commands are really outdated and look rushed. They don't flow well with the rest of the program and they are somewhat hard to click consistently.
*Product clearly wasn't tested with any level of depth. On any given hour, PSP X3 will crash at least once, which is unacceptable, especially given that I've run this on such a powerful machine.
*The histogram isn't what you'd expect to see if you're used to Photoshop or looking at your camera's histogram. It could use some improvement.
*In one case, the white balance in "Express Editor" is completely inverted. While the function works, it registers 2000 as "warm" and "7500" as cold, when it should be reversed. This isn't a big gripe and can easily be fixed, but demonstrates the lack of testing.
*No LAB color mode. This isn't a big surprise, since PSP has never supported this, and truthfully, only a small fraction of people probably use LAB, but I'd like to see it eventually since it is a big part of my workflow.
*MY BIGGEST GRIPE: When you edit a photo and go back to the library (Organizer) view, it always puts your cursor back to the first photo of the library. For example, you have 250 photos from your kid's birthday party. You look at them in the bottom organizer panel and pick #115 to edit. If you close #115 and go back to Organizer, it will not remember your place, so the view will start from photo #1.

There is really a lot of potential here that could easily shine with a patch update. However, given Corel's history with X2 and X2-Ultimate, I don't expect them to address these issues anytime soon. If they fix a majority of these problems (name product stability and the Organizer issue), then I'd recommend it, especially for the price.
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Extremely disappointing
By LC
I have been a fan and a customer of Corel for many years, and upgraded to the X3 version of PaintShop because of its potential, but only to find it very disappointing. To start with, the activation will not recognize the Internet connection, so it forces you to call. OK, not too bad, I think. So, I call the number provided (an 800 number) only to find out that I have to call another number (not a toll free number, mind you) to activate the product I just purchased from Corel itself. This bothers me, but I thought it should not be too bad, so I checked their business hours, and called well within them (right in the middle of their business hours on a business day), but only to find a recording telling me that their office is closed. The call is then disconnected, and so am I from Corel. Enough is enough. This is becoming a joke.

Looking at the software itself, the idea of incorporating the photo organizer in the program was a big step back, not forward. On first load, it takes forever to index all the images I have in my computer (literally thousands of them, since I use them for work). It just reminds me of another version of the cheap Corel Snapfire, rather than a serious, professional product as this claims to be.

The GUI looks like it has been just thrown together, without all that much planning and thinking. Very awkward to use, especially with the integration of the organizer, which will return you to the first image, forcing you to scroll through your hundreds of images before you can get back to what you were working with. It forces you to use their own work-flow, which is quite awkward if you work with a lot of images from different locations. All in all, you might say you can get used to the new GUI, but that "organizer" is an absolute disaster, and should not have been embedded in the program.

I am afraid that my long term relationship with Corel as a customer is coming to an end. I have seen several of their products get worse and worse, especially if you plan to use them in a semi-professional or professional manner.
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