lhdal's Full Review: Corel Paint Shop Pro 9 Full Version Volume License...
Jasc made major changes in the previous version of Paint Shop Pro.
PSP 8 became real slow compared to PSP 7 in interface, editing and loading.
PSP 9 does not bring too much changes compared to the previous change.
The interface is much less the same. (Handier for those who like dockable toolbars)
But now the docked palettes can be set to auto hide giving you extra space to work on.
Art media is probably the most significant addition.
You can create real life art works with this feature.
The Art media works are carried on a different layer and art media tools can't be used on raster or vector layers.
I think users probably won't refer to this unless they need to create some specific graphics.
One of the useful additions is the History Palette. You can selectively undo the actions just like many other editing applications do.
Another color selecting method called "Frame" is available now.
It is like Radial(hue) and Square(saturation) united in a
double rectangle interface. Again the outer rectangle determines hue and inner saturation. You can make linear changes to the saturation using the sliders.
(Note: This is the default color chooser, you can change it by clicking the Rainbow tab in the Materials palette)
The Text Tool can now be used to write vertical text.
Anti alias has Smooth an Sharp modes.
The preset shapes menu has immediate selections of rectangle, ellipse and symmetric shape in addition to preset shape.
Also there are some new photo correcting effects and slight additions to existing tools.
After some time spent using PSP 9, I can say that the filters and image editing has become faster compared to PSP 8. This is especially noticable with large images.
But the time earned with this speed can be lost due to program crashes. The 9.01 patch is a solution but does not solve the problem exactly.
In images with vector layers, even changing the vector colors might cause crashes.
There are numerous bugs which have never existed in previous versions. For example I sometimes can choose color with color picker from the existing image when the Color window is open. But sometimes I simply can't choose it.
I also miss the effect application of Photoshop. PSP should have the ability to quickly hide/show effects like Photoshop. Currently you have to work for a further step to create a new layer to apply the effect. Also this is not dynamic and an effect can become obsolete when you change the parent layer content.
But it still is less complicated and more user-friendly compared to Photoshop 8.
To conclude I'm not sure it is right to name this version as 9. It is like a polished version of 8.
The crashing bug can be an annoying thing. But still, its speed compared to PSP 8 makes it a better option to me.
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