Which software to use after PI (not Photoshop)

[jolo]

As we are all aware of the situation that PI is considered to be "dead", as far as Corel is concerned, I think it is time for PI users (I am a long, long time user of PI and use X3 currently), to look for an alternative.

I think it would be great if we can help each other in this little PI community of ours by sharing our experiences.

I would like to mention one part of this. I think any comparisons to Adobe's Photoshop, which is a $600-700 software should be left out of this discussion. Perhaps Photioshop Elements can be included.

It appears that the price of Corel's PaintShop Pro X2 Ultimate has tumbled. However, Corel will not give any Corel PI users upgrade type pricing toward it or any other of their products, therefore, I don't think it is important to have any customer loyalty to Corel, however, I did to Ulead.

One of the items that has amazed me, is that it appears that Corel's newest version of Paintshop Ultimate, X2 Pro (we have to shorten that name), is that it is "media" and "paper" oriented. That there aren't any features to where so much of the photo albums/slide shows and photos and graphic images wind up, on the web, which truthfully shocks me.

PI is still way ahead in having some features that allow for the making of a photo album/slide show to port to an individuals web site. Like I do. I don't use the commercial, advertisement based services like Flicker, etc.

With the latest Version of Paintshop Pro being sold at $40, it certainly is inexpensive enough, but if it is relegated to "media" and "paper" bound photos, graphics, photo albums and sideshows it would be somewhat too archaic for me.

I would love to hear what you think.

Wouldn't 't it be great if Corel allowed the PI source to become open source and the community can take it and make it to a level that it deserves to be ? Just a "pipe dream".

Thanks,

Jon

[Ron P.]

I think it would be great if we can help each other in this little PI community of ours by sharing our experiences.

How do you mean this? If to include discussions about other competitor's software, than no we can not allow that, since this web board is the property of Corel. It would be different if it was owned, maintained by a private person. We do have a section for General Discusssions, where there is no limitation to Corel only.

There are no plans to remove, or close the PI forum. So as long as there are members posting questions, this will be here to provide the help.

[jolo]

I understand vidorman,

However, this is the only forum that I can think of, whether it is hosted by the vendor or not, that disallows discussions and comparisons of third part products
If that is not allowed, then this is not about the Corel community, but a advertisement.

However, this is a unique situation. PI is dead, so what do we use ? This was Corel's decision. I mean how can it be to not allow comparison's with other products, pros and cons. Corel hasn't offered an alternative to PI users ? It can't be used as an upgrade to any of the other Corel line ?

Corel wins, as all the other vendors do. They find out about what their customers think, where they need to improve, what are their perceived strengths and weaknesses and base their upgrades directly from customer feedback.

Look at all of the surveys that might come popping up on a web site, with companies hiring third party companies to find out what is on the customer's mind ? It is of enormous help to get this information.

They also find the perceived strengths and weaknesses of their competitors.

It build's loyalty.

For the heck of it, I went to Adobe's forums, one's that are on their web site. I did a search, just on their Elements form and did a search on Corel.
Over 14 pages were found !! .

I am active on the Divx forum and we are always discussing alternatives and have discussions with the developers about features in others that might be incorporated and comparisons.

I use a wonderful product from J River's called Media Center. There are always discussions regarding other products, as they relate to features and comparisons to Media Center.

Where better to get information is there, than to get it from the user's itself.

Therefore that "ban", on anything other than Corel, is something unique to Corel's forums and I wonder if it came from something that has become a "culture", a administrators decision from years ago or from Corel itself ??

Personally, I don't think they care.

However, to have an independent forum could be easily arranged.

This is NOT about criticizing Corel and their products, but to have the community search for alternatives to a product that Corel doesn't care about any more. They have the right to stop support and enhancement's to their software.
I mean, maybe it turns out that Paint Shop Pro Ultimate Pro is hands down, the best replacement for PI, I don't know. ??

I can tell you what I would remove. If someone puts in something stujpid like "Corel sucks", or anything else "sucks". As a comment.

I think it would be great if we can help each other in this little PI community of ours by sharing our experiences.

How do you mean this? If to include discussions about other competitor's software, than no we can not allow that, since this web board is the property of Corel. It would be different if it was owned, maintained by a private person. We do have a section for General Discusssions, where there is no limitation to Corel only.

There are no plans to remove, or close the PI forum. So as long as there are members posting questions, this will be here to provide the help.

[Ron P.]

When Ulead established this web board, those rules were put into place, and since then Corel has affirmed them. That rule applies to this specific forum. It is meant for help with PI. As I stated above the General Discussions section where you could post such discussions.

Start a thread in the Imaging Editing forum, about PI. Those interested could contribute in that forum.

I guess think of it as you're needing to use a telephone for help. However someone else is using it to just gossip. With the forum, those needing help need to wait and scroll through the general conversations to find the help. So we reserve these program specific forums for the help, and use the General Discussions for just that...

[sjj1805]

As we are all aware of the situation that PI is considered to be "dead", as far as Corel is concerned,

Said who?
Photoimpact is still for sale on the Corel Websites and you may be interested to know that all of the former Ulead staff that developed PhotoImpact still in fact work for Corel. Just because a new version has not come along yet does not mean it is "dead."

[VikingAnimations]

As you yourself noted, Steve, PI X3 was not listed on Corel's UK site. If PI isn't dead, then let's see Corel prove it.

[Xyzzy2]

Photoimpact is still for sale on the Corel Websites and you may be interested to know that all of the former Ulead staff that developed PhotoImpact still in fact work for Corel. Just because a new version has not come along yet does not mean it is "dead."

Actually it's the PSP staff that has been laid out (see http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080313PD200.html ; they developed PSP in Minnesota afaik).

There must have been major problems after Ulead acquisition, because instead of releasing a new products and cashing in on upgrades, they decided to cash in on promotions. And the products are growing old, competition is not standing in place.

[bobinorlando]

Was just informed by a Corel phone rep that PhotoImpact has been discontinued by Corel.

Now as to alternatives, the obvoius question is, what about Corel's other offerings? How about the Corel Draw Digital Studio - or is that just the same old Corel Draw that is impossible to use (unless you enjoy drawing each and every little pen and ink stroke by hand with a computer)?

[sjj1805]

If they drop PhotoImpact and I have no reason to doubt what the Corel rep told you, then the next nearest thing to PhotoImpact is Paint Shop Pro.

[Luna Esterhuizen]

This is a useless discussion on this type of board, we all feel like jolo and have the same question as him/her. What I want to know is: I use PI12 for photo editing, but also for creating Menus for Video Studio X2, does one of the applications mentioned provide this function? I would be disappointed if it cannot. Thanks!

[Ron P.]

Luna,

The only program that allows working with UFO files is PhotoImpact. UFO files are also what VS and DVD MF use for the menus. Corel has been asked if the Paintshop Pro Photo program will add the UFO format to its list of working files. They've also been asked if they're going to change the DVD menu format to PSP. To date no answer to that.

[Luna Esterhuizen]

Thank, I just did something that I never thought I would do and that is I purchased PIX3 online on there special deal. Just for the sake of making menus, I previously used ver 12 but had to do the plug in for the menus so with the final Windows 7 nstalled I thought may be I must used the latest 2 year old version while it is still available.
Thanks for your response.

PS Do you never sleep at that side of the world? By the time I wrote my reply it must have been well after midnight!