PhotoImpact

[JimMayor]

It sort of appears that Corel is abandong PhotoImpact. Is Paint Shop Pro the "replacement?" Will it do everything PI does? Will it support google's webp image format?

[LeviFiction]

PaintSHop Pro is not the replacement. It is it's own well established editor that's been around for a long while. It's version 4 came out in the same year as PhotoImpact's version 3.

I don't have a direct comparison but no they don't all have all of the same tools as each other. THere are things that PaintShop Pro does well and things PhotoImpact does well. PhotoImpact had its own way of doing things, even commands of a similar name are not guaranteed to work in a similar fashion though the standard tools probably will. Their fundamental approaches to layers and objects is also different and I don't know of anyone making a list of functions that are comparative to each other.

PSP can support the google's image format through the use of a format plugin. There's reference to it somewhere on the forums though I don't remember where. Whether or not it'll natively support it is impossible to say at this point.

[JimMayor]

Thanks for the reply and information. If I may ask two questions:

Is Corel abandoning PI?

Would PSP be a good substitute/replacement for PI? I will have to learn something new if your answer to the previous is "yes."

[LeviFiction]

I don't know if they are dropping PI or what. Though all indications are that they have dropped it.

Having only tried PI for a few weeks (and hated it, no offense to PI users) I can't say if you will think it's a good substitute for PI. PaintShop Pro is an excellent photo editor with lots of wonderful functions that are easy to use and very effective. And still more that were moved to a special "hidden" area because other tools took on some of that functionality. Though there is some functionality that has been removed from the program (we're trying to get them to give it back) that we think was a step in the wrong direction. Also these hidden options sometimes provide a very dedicated change that is preferred to the newer commands.

It does photos, vectors, even replicates paint and art media. It can use a number of Photoshop based plugins, though not all, and is very powerful in many regards.

While X3, especially when it first came out, has been somewhat of a bomb we have high hopes for the next version.

My suggestion would be to do the trial (don't forget to install all patches) and learn about it anyway so that you can make an informed decision for yourself. A number of PI users here truly preferred PI to PaintShop Pro, I have seen others who made the switch and didn't look back because they didn't need all of the other tools that PI had.

How you use PI and what you're expecting is the only real issue here. PSP is a very good program as was PI. How people used it, and what they were used to, determined which one they wanted.

[JimMayor]

Thanks for the concise reply. You seemed to achieve a nice result without appearing biased, something I could never do, e. g., WP vs. Word. It sounds like it is worth a try, but I will keep PI in the wings.

Thanks again.

[teknisyan]

hello JIM,

I replied to your other post "http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... 30&start=0". The best thing to do is to just download the trial from there you can decide and most probably even answer your question if PSP X3 is a good substitute to PhotoImpact.