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As a graphic designer and photographer with over 15 years of experience, I‘ve worked with just about every image editing program under the sun. Few have impressed me as much as Corel PaintShop Pro for its combination of professional-grade features, ease of use, and affordable price.
While Adobe Photoshop remains the industry standard, PaintShop Pro has steadily evolved into a compelling alternative for many photography and design use cases. In this in-depth PaintShop Pro review, I‘ll share my perspective on the latest 2024 version and help you decide if it‘s the right fit for your creative workflow.
What is PaintShop Pro?
First, a little history. PaintShop Pro traces its origins all the way back to the early 1990s. It was originally developed by a company called Jasc Software, but in 2004 it was acquired by Corel, the well-known creative software company behind CorelDRAW and other products.
Over the past two decades, Corel has steadily developed PaintShop Pro into a robust professional-level image editor for Windows PCs. While not as well known as Photoshop, it has attracted a loyal following, especially among photographers, thanks to its intuitive interface and strong photo editing feature set.
The latest 2024 version delivers a slick, modern interface and includes just about every tool and capability you would expect in a premium image editor: advanced selection, layers, retouching, HDR, batch processing, drawing and painting tools, and much more. All at a very reasonable price, as we‘ll get into later.
That combination of power and value is the key selling point of PaintShop Pro. It aims to deliver everything most photographers and designers need, without the complexity and high cost of Photoshop. But does it succeed? Let‘s take a closer look.
User Interface & Ease of Use
The first thing that struck me about PaintShop Pro is its clean, logical interface. As a longtime Photoshop user, I felt right at home. All the key tools and panels are where you would expect them, and the iconography is intuitive.
PaintShop Pro offers a lot of flexibility to suit your workflow. You can choose from several preset workspace layouts optimized for different tasks like photo editing, illustration, or web design. These put the most relevant tools and settings at your fingertips for the job at hand. Or you can fully customize the interface to your liking.
I appreciate the "Learning Center" built right into the interface. This is a context-sensitive panel that automatically shows helpful tips and tutorials based on the tool or task you‘re using at the moment. It really flattens the learning curve, especially for users who are new to image editing.
While PaintShop is very accessible for beginners thanks to its intuitive design, it also offers plenty of depth for power users. Hover over just about any option or menu and you‘ll find useful keyboard shortcuts to speed up your workflow. The extensive preferences let you fine-tune every aspect of the interface and tools to your liking.
Overall, PaintShop Pro strikes a great balance between ease of use for casual users and power/flexibility for advanced users. The interface feels snappy and responsive, even when working with large files.
Photo Editing Tools & Performance
At its core, PaintShop Pro is a raster image editor. This means it‘s primarily designed for working with photographic images, as opposed to a vector graphics editor like Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW (though it does have some vector drawing capabilities as well).
So how does it perform as a photo editor? In short: exceptionally well. PaintShop Pro includes a full complement of non-destructive editing tools to help you get the most out of your photos.
Some of the highlights:
- State-of-the-art RAW photo processing for maximum image quality
- AI-powered tools to replace skies, upscale photos, select subjects, etc.
- Comprehensive color correction options including levels, curves, hue/saturation
- Wide range of selection tools including an AI-based smart selection brush
- All the retouching tools you would expect: dodge/burn, clone stamp, healing brush, etc.
- Support for advanced editing techniques like exposure bracketing, focus stacking, and HDR
- Lens correction tools to fix distortion, chromatic aberration, vignetting
- Non-destructive layer-based editing with blend modes and smart filters
- Hundreds of creative filters, effects, LUTs, and AI-powered art styles
I found the photo editing workflow in PaintShop Pro to be fast and intuitive overall. All the tools operated exactly as I expected coming from Photoshop. In some cases, PaintShop actually has a slight edge. For example, the Sky Replacement tool produced impressive results with less fuss than Photoshop‘s similar tool.
Performance was generally excellent on my Core i7 Windows 11 machine with 32GB RAM. Applying adjustments and effects to large 45MP RAW files felt just as responsive as in Photoshop. The only time I encountered any slowdowns was with some of the AI-based tools like Upscale and Style Transfer. But that‘s to be expected given how computationally intensive those processes are.
I also appreciate that PaintShop Pro produces industry standard PSD files that are fully compatible with Photoshop. This makes it easy to collaborate with other creative professionals and move projects between the two programs with no issues.
The one area where PaintShop Pro falls a bit short of Photoshop is color management. It has the basics covered – ICC profile support, soft proofing, etc. But it lacks some of the advanced options that prepress and printing professionals rely on. For most photographers and designers, however, PaintShop Pro‘s color management is more than adequate.
Drawing & Illustration Features
While it‘s primarily a photo editor, PaintShop Pro also includes a wide array of tools for digital drawing, painting, and vector illustration. If you‘re into graphic design or digital art, you‘ll feel right at home.
The painting engine is built on the same brush technology as Corel‘s popular Painter software. You get a huge selection of highly customizable brushes that simulate real natural and digital media. Everything from pencils and markers to realistic watercolors and oils. You can download thousands more brushes for free or purchase additional brush packs from Corel.
I‘m particularly impressed with the particle and thick paint brushes. These create stunning realistic effects that look like real paint on a canvas. The ability to fine-tune every aspect of the brush shape, texture, flow, etc. is great for getting exactly the look you want.
PaintShop Pro also has full support for pressure sensitive graphics tablets. I tested it with my Wacom Cintiq and the brush controls were very responsive.
The latest version adds a new AI-based art style transfer capability. With one click, you can apply the look of famous artists or painting styles to your photo to turn it into a digital work of art. The results are a lot of fun to play with and can be a big time-saver if you‘re creating digital art assets.
On the vector illustration side, PaintShop Pro includes a full set of shape, line, curve, and text tools. These work in a similar fashion to Adobe Illustrator. While not as deep as a dedicated vector app, the tools are plenty capable for most graphic design needs like logos, icons, and intricate illustrations. You can also combine raster and vector layers for cool photo compositing effects.
Plugins & Extensions
PaintShop Pro supports a variety of third-party plugins to extend its capabilities. These include file format plugins for importing/exporting additional file types as well as filter plugins for adding new creative effects. Popular plugin standards like Adobe 8bf and Photoshop-compatible plugins are supported.
Additionally, the Ultimate version of PaintShop Pro comes with a few premium AI-powered plugins from Topaz Labs (Gigapixel AI, Cupscale AI, etc.). These allow you to do things like enlarge photos with no quality loss and apply mind-blowing art effects with ease.
Corel also offers its own brand of extensions called "Additions." These are free and paid brushes, gradients, picture tubes, color palettes, and more. There are literally thousands available to expand the creativity of PaintShop Pro.
While the selection of plugins and extensions for PaintShop Pro is not as vast as Photoshop, there is more than enough to cover most users‘ needs. And the list is constantly growing.
Sharing & Output
When it comes to getting your edited photos and designs out into the world, PaintShop Pro has you covered. The Export options cover all the standard file formats you would expect: PSD, TIFF, JPG, PNG, GIF, and more. You have full control over compression, metadata, color profiles, and other settings on export to ensure your images look their best.
If you‘re preparing graphics for the web or social media, PaintShop Pro offers a variety of optimization tools to get your images web-ready with minimal file sizes. There‘s also a handy built-in Export for Web feature that lets you compare different settings and see the results in real-time.
For print output, PaintShop Pro supports the latest printers and offers a full set of options for size, positioning, color handling, and more. Soft proofing lets you see how your image will look on a particular paper type before committing ink to paper.
Finally, PaintShop makes it easy to share your creations directly to social media. Built-in export options let you upload directly to Facebook, Flickr, and Google Photos. You can also email images directly from the app.
The output options aren‘t quite as extensive as Photoshop (which includes a lot of publishing features for UI/UX design and 3D) – but for most photo/design workflows, PaintShop Pro delivers everything you‘re likely to need.
Value for Money
Perhaps the biggest selling point for PaintShop Pro is the price. Unlike Photoshop which requires a monthly subscription fee, PaintShop Pro can be yours for a very reasonable one-time price.
The standard Pro version (which includes the vast majority of features) is currently available for $79.99 USD. Considering all the functionality you get, this is an absolute bargain compared to other professional-level image editors.
If you want even more creative options, the Ultimate version ($99.99 USD) adds several premium AI plugins, a huge creative content collection (brushes, textures, backgrounds, etc.), and some additional tools like AfterShot HDR and Corel Painter Essentials.
Both versions are available as a free 30-day trial so you can fully evaluate all the features before buying. And your purchase is backed by a 30-day money back guarantee in case you change your mind.
Corel tends to release a new major version of PaintShop Pro every year with additional features and improvements. Upgrades are optional and tend to cost around $59.99 USD. This is a far cry from being locked into a perpetual monthly fee like with Adobe‘s subscription model.
For students and teachers, Corel offers special education pricing with up to 96% off, making it an even sweeter deal.
No matter how you slice it, PaintShop Pro delivers outstanding value for the money. It really is hard to beat if you don‘t need all the bells and whistles of Photoshop and want to avoid subscription pricing.
Support & Learning Resources
Corel offers a variety of support options for PaintShop Pro in case you get stuck or have questions. In addition to the built-in help, there are extensive online resources including a knowledge base, tutorials, and a community forum where you can connect with other users.
I‘ve found the official Corel tutorials to be very helpful, especially for learning some of the more advanced features. They cover a wide range of topics from basic photo editing to cool special effects. Some are text-based while others are video walkthroughs.
For one-on-one assistance, Corel offers email and live chat tech support. The support reps I interacted with were knowledgeable and quick to resolve my issues.
In terms of third-party learning resources, you‘ll find a good selection of PaintShop Pro books on Amazon and tutorial videos on YouTube and Udemy. The selection is not as extensive as Photoshop, but there are plenty of quality resources to continue your learning journey.
The PaintShop Pro community is also very active and helpful. The official Corel forums are a great place to troubleshoot issues, ask questions, and get inspiration from other artists and designers. There are also some good Facebook groups dedicated to PaintShop Pro.
Should You Buy PaintShop Pro?
So, is PaintShop Pro 2024 worth buying? For many photographers and designers, I think the answer is a resounding yes. It delivers nearly all the photo editing and digital art capabilities of Photoshop, but at a fraction of the cost and without the recurring subscription fees.
The interface is intuitive and easy to learn, especially if you‘re already familiar with other image editors. Yet it offers plenty of depth to grow into as your skills advance. The addition of AI-powered features helps PaintShop Pro keep up with the latest innovations and streamlines many previously tedious editing tasks.
While professionals who require advanced prepress/color management features may still prefer Photoshop, PaintShop Pro is more than capable of handling the needs of most photographers and designers. Hobbyists and enthusiasts in particular will appreciate its blend of power and affordability.
And unlike Photoshop, which is increasingly focusing on 3D/AR/VR design, PaintShop Pro remains firmly committed to the essentials of photo editing and digital art. This focus makes it feel more streamlined and purpose-built.
Of course, it‘s not perfect. Some of the AI features like Upscaling and Style Transfer can be a bit slow on older hardware. And the plugin ecosystem, while solid and growing, is not as vast as Photoshop‘s. But these are minor nitpicks in the grand scheme of things.
At the end of the day, PaintShop Pro is a rock-solid image editor that punches well above its weight in terms of both features and value. If you‘re looking for a full-featured yet budget-friendly Photoshop alternative, it should be at the top of your list. The free 30-day trial makes it easy to see if it‘s the right fit for your needs.