Performance

Arguably, the bit we're all interested in is whether it actually works faster. Past reviews of older versions of PaintShop Pro have proven that applying changes to images can take an age to do. The good news is that processing changes does happen a lot faster than on previous models.

Some actions still have the annoying auto update feature. For example, we changed an image to black & white. While testing the Clarify slider, if we left it for a second or more, it would auto proof. It only takes around ten seconds, but over the course of several images, it soon builds up. The sad part to this is the fact that other programs have the ability to make these changes in real time. Or they have the forethought of creating a smaller thumbnail image to make the changes to, allowing you to give approval. Incredibly, even though you have to wait for each changer to be made, when you press ok, you still have to wait for it to process. So what are we waiting for? The only conclusion we can come to is that proofing is only a brief check that everything is ok, so it's likely that it doesn't check every single pixel.

Artistic Effects

High contrast images are still a popular style of editing and there are a couple of ways to do it on Corel PaintShop Pro X7.  First of all, the most straightforward way is to use one of the many effects in the Effects tab. Alternatively you can use the manual options in the Adjust tab such as Levels or Curves with some added Clarity to increase the contrast. However, there's a lot of halo on our test image of the holiday cabin. We do like the overall effect of how the system has handled the clouds and we had the added benefit of pushing the background into more obscurity.

In the Adjust page, there are a number of pre-set Instant Effects that you can click on and they automatically apply to the photograph you've chosen. You can then select a new photograph from the ticker below to apply new filters or adjustments. Some of the effects are ones that we can't see why you'd use them on a full image. Maybe some of it, but not all. There are some interesting vintage effects but we think that there are better programs out that deal with this on a dedicated basis. If you want to use these effects a lot then look at getting one of those, such as Alien Skin Exposure 5. However, if you want to just have a play around with it from time to time, then the Corel versions are perfectly good.

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