Paint Shop Pro 7.
PSP 7 Graphics Software Review

Paint Shop Pro 7 (JASC)

8th April 2003

Every genre of software has its David and Goliath. In the field of image processing, Adobe Photoshop is the latter, whereas for quite some time, Paint Shop Pro has been the former. Initially a budget, basic image manipulation package, PSP in its 7^th incarnation is now a more than serious rival for Adobe’s powerhouse. Especially as recent versions have supported layers and come bundled with Animation Shop (currently at version 3) – an intuitive, if slightly quirky package for constructing animated GIF files. The mainstays of Paint Shop Pro in recent versions have been: smart image resizing, a good selection of image effects, picture frames and picture tubes (for applying scattered, themed objects over an area).

So what’s actually new in this version? The function anyone designing for web output will find most useful is the image mapper and slicer, which makes the task of breaking large images into smaller pieces a cinch. PSP 7 will even write the JavaScript rollover code for you! For users working with scalable vector graphics, the good news is that Paint Shop Pro allows you to add gradients, textures and patterns to any object before it is rendered. The range of photo enhancing tools has expanded, boasting automatic colour balance, saturation and contrast adjusting, along with the staples such as red-eye and artefact removal.

Apart from these main enhancements, there are the obligatory interface and appearance tweaks. Tool option, image preview and layer palette windows, are all floatable, with automatic roll-up functions, allowing you to personalise your workspace in a very Adobe fashion. Images can be optimised interactively, allowing you to see exact results of differing compression levels in the case of JPEG and PNG files, before you save to disk. JASC have now thoughtfully provided a customisable auto-save function.

Best of all is the price difference, while Photoshop retails for over £500, Paint Shop can be had for just a fraction of the cost, at £60 or less. While the professional graphics designer would swear by Adobe’s twin pillars of graphics software: Photoshop and Illustrator, Paint Shop Pro 7 offers the most commonly required functionality of both of these packages. It is a competent image processing application, worthy of any software library, whose comprehensive list of features and attractive price make it a must-buy.

Tony C

[ Software ]