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Product Description
Manufacturer's Description
Corel® PaintShop™ Pro X4 Ultimate - The Ultimate Photo-Editing Software
Corel® PaintShop™ Pro X4 Ultimate gives you the freedom to create your best images - ever. Along with all the photo-editing power of PaintShop™ Pro X4, you get valuable extras, including award-winning Nik® Color Efex Pro™ 3.0 photographic filters, your choice of 21 high-quality images from Fotolia and a premium collection of Picture Tubes™. The Ultimate Bonus PackCorel® PaintShop™ Pro X4 Ultimate combines all the photo-editing power of PaintShop™ Pro X4 with valuable extras, including award-winning Nik® Color Efex Pro™ 3.0 photographic filters, your choice of 21 high-quality images from Fotolia and a premium collection of our favorite Picture Tubes™. Professional-quality tools in a streamlined, intuitive workflowWith PaintShop™ Pro X4, you get the photo-editing tools you need to create the professional look you want. From standard editing tools for fixing common flaws, to specialised features that let you tap into the latest trends in photography, it’s all here in a sleek, responsive interface designed to make photo-editing fast and enjoyable. |
Stunning effectsTake advantage of over 50 adjustment filters and 112 special effects to fine-tune your work. Merge photos taken with different exposures to create a stunning, perfectly exposed image with the new HDR module. Or experiment with the tonal range to get an intriguing, surreal look. The HDR tools in PaintShop™ Pro X4 are ideal for revealing hidden details in backlit scenes like sunsets. Try it with a series of photos taken using the auto-bracket feature on your DSLR. Get the look of tilt-shift photography without expensive lenses using the new Selective Focus feature. Turn a scene into a miniature world or use it to add depth of field, blurring distracting details and drawing attention to the key areas of your image. |
Combine photos easilySometimes it takes a little magic to create the perfect composition. The new Photo Blend tool lets you combine the best elements from similar shots to create your ideal photo. For example, remove unwanted cars or people from a street scene, take the best smiles from a series of group shots or create a unique effect using multiple images of the same person in the one photo. Impressive results - fastWith new performance updates, including GPU optimisations, PaintShop™ Pro X4 is the fastest version yet. More real-time effects - including Noise Reduction, Vibrancy, Tone Mapping and others - let you see the results as you work. Start up time is drastically reduced, plus the interface is faster and more responsive, making your photo-editing experience even more enjoyable. |
Streamlined workflowEnjoy an easy and intuitive editing experience with tabbed workspaces that mirror your natural workflow. Move freely between three modes:
You can also access the Organizer directly from any workspace, making it easy to review and rate your photos. Use trays to gather and access images from several folders and refer to the new Shot Info panel to instantly see details about the camera and image. New dual monitor support lets you manage your photos on one screen while editing on the other. Plus, try new Adjustment Layers to experiment without changing your source image. More detailed photosBrighten shadowy areas of your photo without changing the rest of the image with Fill Light. Try the Clarity filter to draw attention to subtle details, dramatically increasing the texture and depth of your photos. |
Custom bordersApply a custom fade to the outer edge of a photo to emphasise the focal point of your image. With the new Vignette effect, you can use intuitive sliders to control the appearance of the edges by choosing the shape, color and tone, and adjusting the amount of blur, glow, and feathering Robust RAW LabGet a better look at your images with a larger preview area in the redesigned RAW Lab, which now supports more camera models and opens your images faster. Enhancements to the histogram make it easier to assess your adjustments and the new Highlight Recovery tool helps you restore detail in overly exposed areas. Built-in social media sharingShare your photos faster with one-click sharing to Facebook® and Flickr® straight from the Organizer window. |
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Product Description
Corel PaintShop Pro v.X4 Ultimate - Complete Product - 1 User - Image Editing - Standard Mini Box Retail - CD-ROM - PC - English.
Enjoy the ultimate freedom to create your best images! Corel PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate gives you all the photo-editing power of PaintShop Pro X4, along with award-winning Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 photographic filters, your choice of 21 high-quality images from Fotolia, and free Picture Tubes. With easy-to-use editing tools, a streamlined workspace and exciting pro-level effects, this is photo-editing software that lets you get the look you want, every time.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
112 of 115 people found the following review helpful
By The Fat Monk
TOP 500 REVIEWER
Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
PaintShop Pro - must surely now be the best in class.
First thing I noticed about the latest version of PaintShop Pro is that it is called just that - the 'Photo' that was introduced at version X1 has been dropped! Common sense prevails!
When I upgraded to Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 (PC DVD) (from Paint Shop Pro 8) I was concerned that the package may have become merely a photo editing package rather than the full graphics package it was before. Via the Amazon reviews and comments system I learned that X3 retained all of the graphics creation and editing tools, including the fantastic vector and layers functionality that makes these type of packages so powerful. The addition of the word 'photo' to the name appears to have been to only to highlight that the package is also good for editing photos - an unnecessary cluttering of an established name in my opinion.
Well, to be honest, that PSP was good for photo editing was debateable at the time. While PaintShop Pro _can_ edit your digital photos, I wouldn't have said it was the best. I have also reviewed Serif PhotoPlus X4 (PC) which I would consider a better photo editing package than PaintShop Photo Pro X3 - BUT that all changes with Paint Shop Pro X4.
As I have said in previous reviews of this software, I have never been a fan of Adobe Photoshop and have always considered PaintShop Pro to be far superior. The interface has always been better, it's easier to use, and is just as powerful, not mention being far cheaper. It even supports the same plug-ins as Photoshop. I've always had a niggling feeling that PaintShop Pro is a bit sniggered at by PhotoShop users though. Probably because PSP started out as a free package by a company called JASC and grew from these hobbyist roots into what it is today. PhotoShop, on the other hand, had always been a professional package.
So why do I now consider PSP has come of age with the X4 version?
The interface:
PSP has had a major overhaul for this version. X3 was nice, and the interface has always been easy to use, however the new version is leaps forward. It now takes the approach that many video editing packages do by splitting the interface into three workflow screens - Manage, Adjust and Edit.
I should point out that I have never liked photo / media managers much. But the 'Manage' function within PSP X4 is actually very useful. In the past PSP included a 'Browse' function that, though limited, was quite useful. This function disappeared at some point, but the 'Manage' tab more than makes up for that as it is essentially a really nice, very powerful image browser.
The 'Adjust' tab is where you effectively do your photo tweaking - remove red-eye, ajdust brightness and colour temperature etc. The kind of things you would find in a photo editing package basically. Most functions are presented in a handy side-bar here.
The Edit tab is effectively the PaintShop Pro of old. Here you still have access to most, if not all, of the photo editing functions but via the more typical menu bar structure. But here you also have the very powerful graphics creation and editing tools. You can work with bitmap or vector images of just about every conceivable format. You can mix vector layers with bitmap layers, as you would expect. There are adjustments and blending layers to create some clever layering effects. To be honest I could go on and on and on - basically if a graphics tool is available in another graphics package, the chances are it's also present here. This package is just so powerful.
The whole interface is now a dark theme as well - which I would consider much better for photo editing and graphics work as it is less distracting than light themes. That's probably a personal preference though - I like all my screen themes to be dark!
What's new:
It's not so much new features (other than the interface) as improvements to old features - some of these improvements being almost complete overhauls.Everything just seems to work a bit better and a bit quicker. (I didn't actually have any stability issues with X3 under Windows 7, but I know others have.)
The HDR function has been massively expanded and is now equal, if not superior, to dedicated commercial HDR plug-ins for other software. And there is a photo-merge function which allows you to take the best bits of a series of photos - for example those family get together photos where there is always someone gurning on each photo you take; you can now combine the photos so everyone has the perfect smile.
There are other new features though, and it would be wrong not to mention a few of them.Selective focus and the new Vignette effect are nice for creating special effects and the package also supports dual monitors now - another nod to video editing which will allow you to organise your workspace more effectively.
Ultimate edition:
Is the ultimate edition worth the extra tenner? Not for the picture tubes and Fotolia images, but defintely for the NIk effects.
The inclusion of 200 Picture Tubes is a bit of a waste of time in my opinion. They can be fun but you're unlilkely to use them for anything other than a childrens party invitation! Royalty Free Fotolia images - this seems like more of an advert for Fotolia than really being any great addition to the PSP package.
That leaves the Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 package. Rubbish name, brilliant set up plug-in filters. The package is actually at version 4 from Nik Software, but version 3 is included with PSP. Beautiful black and white conversion, bi-colour filters, film grain, glamour glow, fog, high key... and many more. This package is brilliant. The v4 'select' package costs the best part of £100 (£72.41+vat), so if you want this functionality then a tenner is not a lot at all to pay for a slightly out of date version.
Zip it:
As another reviewer has mentioned. This package comes with a license code for a download of WinZip Pro. That's another £50 of software right there!
To upgrade or not to upgrade?
This is most defintely a worthy upgrade - even from X3 just for the interface and HDR improvements. If you using an earlier version then I would say it is definitely time to upgrade - this is by far the best PaintShop Pro version yet, and quite possibly the best photo and graphics package for the PC at the moment. There will be those who will stick with PhotoShop, but now they are simply throwing their money away.
What's more, you are getting over a hundred quids worth of extra software with this package (Winzip and Nik Efex) for much less than a hundred quid. If you look at it that way they are almost paying you to upgrade to the best PSP yet!
First thing I noticed about the latest version of PaintShop Pro is that it is called just that - the 'Photo' that was introduced at version X1 has been dropped! Common sense prevails!
When I upgraded to Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 (PC DVD) (from Paint Shop Pro 8) I was concerned that the package may have become merely a photo editing package rather than the full graphics package it was before. Via the Amazon reviews and comments system I learned that X3 retained all of the graphics creation and editing tools, including the fantastic vector and layers functionality that makes these type of packages so powerful. The addition of the word 'photo' to the name appears to have been to only to highlight that the package is also good for editing photos - an unnecessary cluttering of an established name in my opinion.
Well, to be honest, that PSP was good for photo editing was debateable at the time. While PaintShop Pro _can_ edit your digital photos, I wouldn't have said it was the best. I have also reviewed Serif PhotoPlus X4 (PC) which I would consider a better photo editing package than PaintShop Photo Pro X3 - BUT that all changes with Paint Shop Pro X4.
As I have said in previous reviews of this software, I have never been a fan of Adobe Photoshop and have always considered PaintShop Pro to be far superior. The interface has always been better, it's easier to use, and is just as powerful, not mention being far cheaper. It even supports the same plug-ins as Photoshop. I've always had a niggling feeling that PaintShop Pro is a bit sniggered at by PhotoShop users though. Probably because PSP started out as a free package by a company called JASC and grew from these hobbyist roots into what it is today. PhotoShop, on the other hand, had always been a professional package.
So why do I now consider PSP has come of age with the X4 version?
The interface:
PSP has had a major overhaul for this version. X3 was nice, and the interface has always been easy to use, however the new version is leaps forward. It now takes the approach that many video editing packages do by splitting the interface into three workflow screens - Manage, Adjust and Edit.
I should point out that I have never liked photo / media managers much. But the 'Manage' function within PSP X4 is actually very useful. In the past PSP included a 'Browse' function that, though limited, was quite useful. This function disappeared at some point, but the 'Manage' tab more than makes up for that as it is essentially a really nice, very powerful image browser.
The 'Adjust' tab is where you effectively do your photo tweaking - remove red-eye, ajdust brightness and colour temperature etc. The kind of things you would find in a photo editing package basically. Most functions are presented in a handy side-bar here.
The Edit tab is effectively the PaintShop Pro of old. Here you still have access to most, if not all, of the photo editing functions but via the more typical menu bar structure. But here you also have the very powerful graphics creation and editing tools. You can work with bitmap or vector images of just about every conceivable format. You can mix vector layers with bitmap layers, as you would expect. There are adjustments and blending layers to create some clever layering effects. To be honest I could go on and on and on - basically if a graphics tool is available in another graphics package, the chances are it's also present here. This package is just so powerful.
The whole interface is now a dark theme as well - which I would consider much better for photo editing and graphics work as it is less distracting than light themes. That's probably a personal preference though - I like all my screen themes to be dark!
What's new:
It's not so much new features (other than the interface) as improvements to old features - some of these improvements being almost complete overhauls.Everything just seems to work a bit better and a bit quicker. (I didn't actually have any stability issues with X3 under Windows 7, but I know others have.)
The HDR function has been massively expanded and is now equal, if not superior, to dedicated commercial HDR plug-ins for other software. And there is a photo-merge function which allows you to take the best bits of a series of photos - for example those family get together photos where there is always someone gurning on each photo you take; you can now combine the photos so everyone has the perfect smile.
There are other new features though, and it would be wrong not to mention a few of them.Selective focus and the new Vignette effect are nice for creating special effects and the package also supports dual monitors now - another nod to video editing which will allow you to organise your workspace more effectively.
Ultimate edition:
Is the ultimate edition worth the extra tenner? Not for the picture tubes and Fotolia images, but defintely for the NIk effects.
The inclusion of 200 Picture Tubes is a bit of a waste of time in my opinion. They can be fun but you're unlilkely to use them for anything other than a childrens party invitation! Royalty Free Fotolia images - this seems like more of an advert for Fotolia than really being any great addition to the PSP package.
That leaves the Nik Color Efex Pro 3.0 package. Rubbish name, brilliant set up plug-in filters. The package is actually at version 4 from Nik Software, but version 3 is included with PSP. Beautiful black and white conversion, bi-colour filters, film grain, glamour glow, fog, high key... and many more. This package is brilliant. The v4 'select' package costs the best part of £100 (£72.41+vat), so if you want this functionality then a tenner is not a lot at all to pay for a slightly out of date version.
Zip it:
As another reviewer has mentioned. This package comes with a license code for a download of WinZip Pro. That's another £50 of software right there!
To upgrade or not to upgrade?
This is most defintely a worthy upgrade - even from X3 just for the interface and HDR improvements. If you using an earlier version then I would say it is definitely time to upgrade - this is by far the best PaintShop Pro version yet, and quite possibly the best photo and graphics package for the PC at the moment. There will be those who will stick with PhotoShop, but now they are simply throwing their money away.
What's more, you are getting over a hundred quids worth of extra software with this package (Winzip and Nik Efex) for much less than a hundred quid. If you look at it that way they are almost paying you to upgrade to the best PSP yet!
45 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Up to now I have always used Adobe Photoshop but when I saw Corel PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate advertised I decided to give it a try.
What impressed me the most is the fact that the box came with a full colour User Guide - a real treat not having to look through a PDF upload when wanting to know something!
For me, personally, after installing the package, I found it useful to go through the manual and play around with the Manage, Adjust and Edit tabs. I particularly found the adjustments through photo-editing tools very useful and pre-knowledge with Adobe was quite useful here.
To get the best out of this package, I recommend spending time to sit down and play with the photos - ensuring to keep the original safely backed up - and remembering to save any alterations in a way to go back to them if you so desire.
One word of caution: before loading this package, make sure that your system - Windows 7, Vista or XP - has the latest service packs installed.
What impressed me the most is the fact that the box came with a full colour User Guide - a real treat not having to look through a PDF upload when wanting to know something!
For me, personally, after installing the package, I found it useful to go through the manual and play around with the Manage, Adjust and Edit tabs. I particularly found the adjustments through photo-editing tools very useful and pre-knowledge with Adobe was quite useful here.
To get the best out of this package, I recommend spending time to sit down and play with the photos - ensuring to keep the original safely backed up - and remembering to save any alterations in a way to go back to them if you so desire.
One word of caution: before loading this package, make sure that your system - Windows 7, Vista or XP - has the latest service packs installed.
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I have used various version of PSP since 3.2.
Things have moved on a lot since those days :)
The latest version has many more features and to me perhaps more important is an actual printed manual which is about A5 size and is 180+ pages long.
The program can now auto post your output to Facebook or Flickr as well as do HDR images.
Installation was as expected easy and operation is also fairly straight forward.
The program auto catalogs all your photos (I have just over 18,000) so they can then be found by the date taken or by various other search criteria.
What is missing that surprises me a little is anything on Geotagging or the ability to show on a map where a photo was taken.
I also found that when loading the program sometimes by double clicking on an image that it could take a very long time to load (minutes).
All the features seem to work and are fairly easy to use.
Happy editing...
Things have moved on a lot since those days :)
The latest version has many more features and to me perhaps more important is an actual printed manual which is about A5 size and is 180+ pages long.
The program can now auto post your output to Facebook or Flickr as well as do HDR images.
Installation was as expected easy and operation is also fairly straight forward.
The program auto catalogs all your photos (I have just over 18,000) so they can then be found by the date taken or by various other search criteria.
What is missing that surprises me a little is anything on Geotagging or the ability to show on a map where a photo was taken.
I also found that when loading the program sometimes by double clicking on an image that it could take a very long time to load (minutes).
All the features seem to work and are fairly easy to use.
Happy editing...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
US
I spent a lot of money on Paint Shop Prox4 when I had a laptop and it worked fine but then got a new computer with windows 8 it would not work even when I tried everything to get... Read more
Published 25 days ago by clivanas
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good
If you enjoy editing your own images, this program has to be a great buy. It does everything that one could want, and more. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Taffy
5.0 out of 5 stars
A1.
GREAT PRODUCT A1.EVERYTHING I EXPECTED IT TO BE AND MORE ,WOULD HIGHLY RECCOMEND IT A GREAT TOOL FOR THE PROFESSIONAL AND AMATUER ALIKE.
Published 1 month ago by CURLY CABS
3.0 out of 5 stars
paintshop
Can't really say whether this is easier to use than Photoshop, they both have their pros and cons. But it is a great product, fairly easy to use once you get the hang of it. Read more
Published 1 month ago by E. Dale
3.0 out of 5 stars
not bad
too difficult to understand in layman's terms too difficult to understand in layman's terms too difficult to understand in layman's terms
Published 2 months ago by Christine Beacock
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent!
For the price this is an excellent piece of software. I do my photography as a hobby and this product has more than enough features to allow me get engrossed in improving my... Read more
Published 3 months ago by T West
5.0 out of 5 stars
good
good photo shop .I am using it frequently.I often use it to change my photos into a better pic then the one I took before
Published 4 months ago by al
3.0 out of 5 stars
Paint Shop Pro X4
I'm quite disappointed with this version as it behaves poorly and unpredictably by comparison with earlier versions. Read more
Published 4 months ago by D. Wright
4.0 out of 5 stars
PaintShop 4 Ultimate
Another grand product from Corel. Easy to use with a useful tutorials and many interesting effects. It arrived on time and was as described.
Published 4 months ago by Lucybeth
5.0 out of 5 stars
Always found PSP easy to use since the early days of JASC freeware...
Always found PSP easy to use since the early days of JASC freeware products. This version is no exception. Loads of new features. Read more
Published 5 months ago by MR MICHAEL K O'CONNELL
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