Corel PaintShop Pro X9 Ultimate (Old Version)

PaintShop Pro has been around for ages and is the software PhotoShop would love to see disappear from the marketplace. It's the number 1 app in it's category in my opinion, beating PhotoShop in affordability, ease of use, utility, speed, and quality. I have used quite a number of different PaintShop Pro style apps, from free programs like Gimp and others to the super expensive programs like PhotoShop. None of them compare. PaintShop Pro's tons of image alteration functions are extremely fast, accurate, and easy to use. PhotoShop and Gimp are slow, cumbersome, and awkward to use in comparison.I make use of all the advanced features found in PaintShop Pro. I own several versions of it, and have used it since it first came out as shareware many years ago. Originally, it was far behind the competition, but was always very fast. However, over the years it's become the top in it's class. I use it for simple photo cropping, advanced photo alteration and touch up, but I also use it for creating vector art and pixel art for use in professional software packages.I love the fact that there's a "Save Copy As" feature which remembers it's location independent of the "Save As" feature's location. This allows me to maintain a source image in one location, and then save altered copies of it in another location without having to change folders all the time. This is extremely time saving for the work I do, and is a feature most other software lacks.The vector drawing functions in PaintShop Pro are quite unique. They are capable of producing extremely professional results. When I need to make a logo, for example, where all of the lines and curves need to be precise, and need to be resizable without pixilation artifacts, then PaintShop Pro is my go to app. It's perfect for this. It really shines in it's ability to make logos, and other precise 2D objects. You can easily stretch lines, change their appearance, change curves, cut lines, combine lines, change shape colors, shape gradient fills, etc., countless times because they remain as vector data, not raster data. The layering abilities allow you layer raster data with vector data to produce some really complex artwork that can be used for brochures, web art, software splash screens, etc.The pixel editing features of PaintShop Pro are fantastic. If I want to design small images that need precise pixel editing, PaintShop Pro is my go to app. With the snap to grid, and snap to guide options, you can make sure your pixels are all within exact locations on the pixel art you're working on.Of all the apps I've used, Gimp is perhaps the closest in feature set to PaintShop Pro. PhotoShop lacks a lot of the features of PaintShop Pro that I rely on. PhotoShop's photo alteration effects, while comparable in quality to PaintShop Pro, are noticeably slower. While Gimp has a lot of the features in PaintShop Pro, it's slow and awkward to use, it's interface is messy, and it's photo alteration effects are very noticeably poorer in quality. Gimp also doesn't have true vector art functions like those in PaintShop Pro. It's frustrating to use PhotoShop or Gimp to make logos or do pixel art work. While I could use them for most photo editing, there's no advantage in that area, PaintShop Pro is faster with quality comparable to PhotoShop.The only negative I can think of is that PaintShop Pro sometimes crashes when doing really complex work with lots of layers, vector art, etc. Make sure you save your work periodically. I have also had PhotoShop crash, Gimp crash, etc. All of them can crash at some point.PaintShop Pro does pretty much everything PhotoShop does and then some. But it's laid out so differently; if you're used to using PhotoShop, you'll find yourself hunting around for things in PaintShop Pro, thinking you can't find them in PaintShop Pro because they have different names or work so differently that it's not obvious where they are located in the app. There are a few photo effects that PhotoShop has which PaintShop Pro doesn't have and vice versa. Nothing major though. If PhotoShop was a little cheaper, I might recommend it as an alternative to PaintShop Pro, but considering it's super inflated price tag, there's no way I could ever recommend using PhotoShop over PaintShop Pro, unless money means absolutely nothing to you. It's not at all better in any way, and actually has less features. Why pay more for less? It makes no sense. The people at Adobe would love to see PaintShop Pro go away for this very reason.Adobe is currently losing a lot of users to Corel's PaintShop Pro because of their new very costly software subscription model. Since that started, I have noticed some very obviously fake 1 star reviews popping up about PaintShop Pro, with completely inaccurate information in them, made by people who obviously have never used the software before, but who also actually bought it. Very strange indeed. Who would buy the software, not even use it, then make a fake review about it on Amazon? Where are these reviews coming from? Who would do such a thing?The "Ultimate" version of PaintShop Pro is essentially the regular version of PaintShop Pro except that you also get an additional DVD with a bonus pack. The PaintShop Pro app that's packaged in the "Ultimate" version is exactly the same as the normal version. If you don't see yourself needing the extras, why get it. I Happened to buy PaintShop Pro Ultimate from Amazon while it was on sale for the same price as the normal version, so I bought it. I have yet to use the additional material found in the "Ultimate" version's bonus pack, so I won't comment on it in my review until later when I look at them.I am currently using PaintShop Pro X9 (update 3) in Windows 10. It is by far the most stable version of PaintShop Pro when running Windows 10. I found PaintShop Pro X8 would crash a lot in Windows 10. If you have PaintShop Pro X8 and you are using Windows 10, I highly recommend upgrading.There are a few new features in X9. The most useful new feature for me is the new Gradient Fill tool. This is something other similar apps had for some time, which was sorely missing in PaintShop Pro. The new Smart Capture screen shot feature is also pretty handy and works well.What's missing that I wish PaintShop Pro did? Unlike some versions of PhotoShop, PaintShop Pro has absolutely no support for stereoscopic 3D photo processing. I have a lot of stereoscopic 3D MPO photos I took with my stereoscopic 3D cameras which I would like to process as stereoscopic 3D images. While PaintShop Pro can open stereoscopic 3D MPO files, it doesn't process them as 3D photos, it opens them as 2 separate monoscopic images. You can't view them in 3D or edit them in 3D. After they are opened, you need to process the right and left images independently each as separate monoscopic images. You can work with them in this way, but it's cumbersome, and time consuming. If you need to work on stereoscopic images, you'll need something else. While certain versions of PhotoShop have some limited support for stereoscopic 3D photos, it's not it's strong suit; it's missing a lot of features you will need if you are serious about stereoscopic 3D image processing. Unfortunately I don't know of any Paint Shop Pro style app that has full support for stereoscopic 3D photo processing.The batch processing feature in PaintShop Pro is very powerful. If you need a dozen giant photos resized and changed to a different file format for a website, this is easily done in just a few mouse clicks. You can even have complex scripts run in batches on multiple files.PaintShop Pro is a great image editing package. It requires a bit of learning to get the handle of its many features, but it's time well spent. I highly recommend it. It is well worth the price, capable of producing effects found in software costing many times more.

I am a Corel Paintshop Pro lover and I have used the program for many years. About 6 months ago I purchased Corel Paintshop Pro x9 Ultimate (19.2.07x64). I was so excited to update to the latest version. I had been using my older x4 ultimate and was very happy with it. But now, I've bought a new awesome computer, a new and larger graphics tablet so let's update the PSP too and I'll be off and running.The program works great, when it works. When I open the program to get a full days work in (yes, I am a graphics designer) I have to continuously battle the program crashing. I work 24/7 as my body allows. The fact that the program crashes every 5 minutes is literally driving me insane! It does one of two things, constantly.1-The program will lock up, lock up anything else (programs, internet, etc) that's being used to the point that the mouse won't work. The drawing pencil won't work. It's just locked and it does not unlock. I can't save anything. I can't shut down the computer, esc alt delete, or anything else. I literally have to unplug it to get it to shut down so I can restart my putor. Then you get the dreaded black screen about the computer and programs did not shut down properly. omg! You have to wonder if the computer will start correctly. You wonder what PaintShop Pro crashes is doing to you entire computer, let alone the apps you had open.2-The 2nd thing it does, right in the middle of a design with several layers and several hours of work, it just shuts down (the program) and closes itself. This goes on all day long. I'ts really ticking me off. It makes it really hard to get my designs done for my products. It keeps you from saving your work, and it really does shut down about every 5 minutes! Make sure you have auto save on in this version, otherwise you will lose your work!Another thing I noticed: When I first got the program this was not happening at all. Six months after I updated to x9 ultimate (bought the disc set) they came out with Paintshop Pro 2018 and suddenly my x9 starts crashing over and over again. What on earth happened to ruin my x9 shortly after they came out with the newest version? I do not understand this at all. I seriously had been debating getting the newest 2018 version. I was thinking maybe the newest version would not crash, but I have no reason to believe it will be any better than the one I just bought 6 months ago.I design products for a living. At any given time I am working on many different design collections. This x9 Ultimate is seriously cutting into my progress constantly. When your software won't let you progress with your work, it's cutting into your salary, constantly. What the hell Corel? They should be issuing some kind of update patch to fix these crashes. You pay for the product, it needs to work and it needs to work correctly! My love for the product is seriously in question after this version. Buyer beware. On a side note, I use Windows 10, 64 bit. On my laptop, where I have x4 Ultimate.....it worked flawlessly. What happened to the newer versions?So, not happy at all.