Corel PaintShop Pro Photo - X3 Reviewer's Guide

Contents

1 | Introducing Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 . . . . . . . . . 1

2 | What’s included? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

3 | Key features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

4 | Favorite features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Introducing Corel® PaintShop Photo™ Pro X3

As digital-photography evolves, Corel® PaintShop Photo™ Pro X3 keeps pace by offering software specifically designed for the photo enthusiast. Whether shooting on an advanced point-and-shoot or a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera, PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is equipped to help users achieve impressive photographic results. Combining professional-quality tools for photo editing and organization, creative projects, burning, sharing, and even high definition (HD) slide shows in one package, PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is the easiest and fastest way to create stunning images and memorable photo projects.

Express editing and workflow tools

DSLR cameras have revolutionized photography, putting pro-level cameras in the hands of everyday users. But with the widespread adoption of high-quality, high-frame-rate DSLRs, photo enthusiasts are faced with a challenge: How does one manage the large number of photos that can be captured so easily? And once photos are on a PC, how can an aspiring hobbyist improve them and create something memorable? PaintShop Photo Pro X3 answers the needs of today’s photo enthusiasts by providing features to create a custom digital photography workflow and effectively manage their photo library. And with tools for quickly correcting the most common imperfections and easily creating a variety of photo projects, users can ensure they make the most of their images.

PaintShop Photo Pro X3 provides a wide variety of improvements to enhance today’s digital photography workflow. The Organizer lets users customize their digital workflow with a variety of image-previewing options and time-saving multi-photo editing. The Camera RAW Lab helps digital photographers make critical adjustments to RAW images before they’re processed. In addition, the enhanced Express Lab gives instant access to the many frequently used photoediting tools.

Advanced features and performance

PaintShop Photo Pro X3 builds on a tradition of providing top-of-the-line functionality at an affordable price by offering new tools and features that you’d expect to find in more expensive image-editing and photo-workflow

Reviewer’s Guide [ 1 ]

software. The ability to work with a wide range of RAW formats, include HD video along with photos in slide shows, and HDR photo merge and tone mapping make PaintShop Photo Pro X3 an incredible value and uniquely suited to the broad needs of the photo enthusiast. New image-scaling and objectextraction tools and support for industry-standard plug-in effects put PaintShop Photo Pro X3 on par with pro-quality applications on just about every level — except the price tag.

Project creation and sharing

With the new Project Creator, PaintShop Photo Pro X3 adds creative project options. The Project Creator simplifies creating great-looking photo books, collages, cards, and more. And when the project is finished, PaintShop Photo Pro X3 makes it easy to show it off. From uploading to popular media-sharing sites to ordering professional printing, users can give their work the audience it deserves.

Customer profile

Photo enthusiasts: Today’s photo enthusiast is one of the growing number of

consumers who have embraced photography as a hobby, often working with a DSLR. Thanks to the wide array of high-quality camera equipment available today, photo enthusiasts can generate professional-looking results, even if they’re just starting out. Typically, they have upwards of several thousand photos on their PC. If they haven’t already, they may soon find themselves purchasing a larger hard drive for storage and backup.

Photo enthusiasts have often spent a lot of money on their DSLR camera and accessories. And if they’ve upgraded to a DSLR from a point-and-shoot camera, they’ve realized a number of benefits:

• superior image quality, thanks to better optics

• a wider range of options for image capturing and storing

• increased shooting speed, making it possible to shoot 50 to 100 shots at 4 frames per second or greater

• more control over camera settings

Thanks to all of these capabilities, enthusiasts are shooting more photos. In the past, they may have shot dozens of pictures at an event with their compact digital camera, but now DSLR owners are often shooting a hundred photos at a time. They may also want to take advantage of new DSLR capabilities, such as shooting in a RAW format or capturing HD video, and use their camera’s advanced features to create amazing HDR images or other photo projects.

To deal with all their photos, today’s enthusiast photographers inevitably develops their own kind of “digital workflow” — from loading the pictures on their PC, deleting the ones that didn’t turn out and flagging their favorites, batch touchups of exposure and white balance, to ultimately spending time editing a few to get them just right. Their output may be to a photo frame,

Flickr

or Facebook®, their Web site, or even a traditional print.

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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 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 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)

Painter™ Photo Essentials 4 is the ideal way to get started

™

, print or share by e-mail. Combining single and

Corel

photos on a PC, allowing you to scroll through your photos and send them to PaintShop Photo Pro X3 for editing. (English only)

Instant Viewer™: This component provides a quick, direct way to view

Minimum system requirements

•Windows® 7, Windows Vista® or Windows® XP, with latest service packs installed (32-bit or 64-bit editions)

• 1 GB RAM (2 GB RAM recommended)

• 1.5 GHz processor (2 GHz+ recommended)

• 3 GB hard disk space

• 24-bit color display, 1024 x 768 resolution or greater

•DVD drive

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Input/Output device support

• Disc, memory cards (CF/SD/etc.), hard drives, direct camera connections

• Photo files from Windows

-compatible Blu-ray, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-

RAM or CD-R/RW drive

Input format support

• Images: All popular image formats, including BMP, JPEG, PNG, TIF, GIF, RAW, PSPImage, and many others. The full list also includes AFX, BRK, CAL, CDR, CGM, CLP, CMX, CUR, CUT, DCX, DGN, DIB, DRW, DXF, EMF, EPS, GEM, HPGL, IFF, IMG, JP2, JPG/JPEG/JPE/JFIF, KFX, LBM, LV, MAC, MSP, NCR, PBM, PCD, PCT, PCX, PDF, PGM, PIC, PPM, PSD, RAS, RLE, SCT, SGI/RGB, SVG, TGA, WBMP, WMF, XBM, XPM, XWD, WPG. Supported RAW formats include RW, CR2, DNG, NEF, RAW, BAY, RAF, DCR, MRW, ORF, PEF, X3F, SRF, ERF, KDC, K25, SR2, ARW, NRW, MOS, FFF.

• Video: AVI, QuickTime

, Windows Media® Format, Motion-JPEG, and

MPEG4/H.264 (Motion JPEG is required for Nikon DSLR HD video; H.264 for

Canon

DSLR HD video)

Output format support

• Images: BMP, BRK, CAL, CLP, CUT, DIB, EMF, EPS, GIF, IFF, IMG, JP2, JPG/JPEG/ JPE/JFIF, LBM, MAC, MSP, NCR, PBM, PCT, PCX, PGM, PIC, PNG, PPM, PSD, PSP/ PSPImage, RAS, RLE, SCT, SGI/RGB, TGA, TIF, WBMP, WMF, XBM, XPM, XWD, WPG

• Video: QuickTime

, Windows Media® Format, AVI

• Media (for backup): CD-R/RW DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R Dual Layer, DVD+R Double Layer, Blu-ray Disc

™

(data only)

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Corel® PaintShop Photo™ Pro X3 key features

PaintShop Photo Pro has long been known for giving users the ability to maximize the potential of their images. PaintShop Photo Pro X3 offers a powerful photo-editing experience designed for the workflow of today’s photo enthusiast. With new tools and features in addition to its traditional strengths, PaintShop Photo Pro X3 helps users do more with their photos, creative projects, and even video.

Express editing and workflow tools

New! Organizer: A critical part of any photographer’s workflow is the

organization and management of their photo library. The new Organizer reduces the need for additional photo-management software by embedding tools for importing, managing, locating, and quickly touching up image files directly into PaintShop Photo Pro X3.

Photo hobbyists can view images in multiple ways, and photos can be tagged and rated, making them easier to find and group. The Organizer also displays advanced information, such as exchangeable image file format (EXIF) and International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) data.

The Organizer simplifies photo management.

Reviewer’s Guide [ 5 ]

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