PSP - the professional choice! (Paint Shop Pro 7.0)

Member Name: Retron

Product:	Paint Shop Pro 7.0
Date:	14/08/01 (132 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb range of file types supported, Powerful filters, Good image browser

Disadvantages: Becoming a bit too large

Paint Shop Pro started out nearly 10 years ago as a handy tool for converting image files from one type to another, together with image adjustments such as adjusting colour levels, resizing images etc.

7 versions later, the core features remain the same - the program is still capable of reading and writing most image formats known to man (including Windows 2 MSPaint format, and various UNIX types). It still has a wealth of filters and image manipulation features, too, ranging from embossing an image, to tweaking hue/saturation/luminance, to posterisation.

This version of Paint Shop Pro has accumulated all the features of previous versions, while adding a few new ones. Sadly the size of the program has grown faster than the new features - it's hard to believe the program is now 40 times larger than it used to be, at 33 Megs.

The old favourite features are still there, such as the ability to paint (using a tablet if you have one) in various simulated media (e.g. charcoal) on a variety of surfaces (e.g. asphalt). Tools are provided for selecting parts of an image, ranging from a simple rectangular selection tool, to a 'magic wand' which attempts to find contiguous areas to edit. Once a tool is selected, its parameters can be changed from a floating tool window - for the selection tool, you can change the shape of the selection, for example. Masks (for adjusting areas of an image) and layering are supported, allowing for some sophisticated image composition - indeed, Paint Shop Pro seems to be trying to become more like Photoshop, the recognized leader of bitmap manipulation.

In fact, the designers of Paint Shop Pro seem to be doing their utmost to fulfill needs that Photoshop doesn't handle well, if at all. For example, Paint Shop Pro sports good vector object handling, with Bezier curves supported. Vector objects can be combined with raster objects, although vector information is lost if you save to a bitmap format
such as JPEG.

PSP still supports a variety of options for saving images, too - you can set the compression amounts of JPEG images and choose transparency options for GIFs, for example. There's a handy batch conversion feature, allowing you to convert say a group of BMP files to JPEGs, plus a GIF animator is supplied with PSP for Web graphics work. PSP is (and has been for a while) fully TWAIN compliant, meaning you can scan photos in from PSP itself. The great image browser is still included - this shows small thumbnail images so you can see your photo collection at a glance. A similar feature was implemented by Microsoft in Windows ME and 2000, but PSP's version is better in that it is integrated with PSP itself.

The new additions to PSP in this version mainly concern additional filters. There's a red-eye reduction tool, plus a JPEG artifact removal option. There are new reflection filters, plus extra artistic filters and predefined vector shapes.

PSP still has some annoying features, though - older versions used a smaller toolbar instead of intrusive floating windows for setting tool options, for example. Also, the annoying SaveAs function defaults to PSP's own format still, and the while PSP 5 and earlier had filetypes listed as 'BMP - OS/2 or Windows bitmap', PSP7 retains the brain-dead 'Windows or OS/2 bitmap - BMP' entry that PSP 6 introduced. This is *really* annoying if you create a lot of bitmaps, as you have to press 'W' five times to get to the BMP entry in the drop-down box, rather than just pressing 'B' once.

Overall, though, despite the 'kitchen sink' syndrome that PSP has developed, plus the more amateur friendly feel that has evolved, PSP is still a pro's tool at heart. Nothing beats it for small, simple image manipulation - especially suitable for the Web. It may have swollen in size over the years, but at heart it's still as good as ever. Highly reco
mmended, even if it is pricey!

Summary: