When you think of photo editing, the chances are you think of Adobe Photoshop. However, the majority of non-professional users don't need Photoshop's high-end power and can't justify its cost. That's where Paint Shop Pro (PSP) comes in. Its low price is definitely its initial attraction, but that has never stopped it aiming high. At times, as with version 6's introduction of vector layers, it has even left Photoshop trailing behind. However, version 7's minor fiddling was a serious letdown and as time passed, it began to look as if PSP had run out of steam. Version 8, though, shows this isn't the case.
You begin to realise how fundamental the overhaul has been as soon as you load the application. PSP began life as a shareware package and its interface changed little over the years. Frankly, it looked old-fashioned, ugly and amateurish. Now everything has changed. The menu structure has been completely reworked, but it's the changes to the palettes that are most eye-catching. They are no longer free-floating but conveniently docked down the right of the screen. Meanwhile, the former Tool Options palette has been turned into an ever-present, context-sensitive Options ribbon bar running under the menus.
The alterations are so radical that it takes a bit of getting used to, even the keyboard shortcuts have changed. Fortunately, assistance is always at hand. PSP's online help is good and there's a comprehensive 'product tour' that shows you just what the software can do. There's also the new integrated 'Learning Centre' docker window, which provides HTML-based quick guide tutorials to walk you through common tasks.
The interface certainly isn't perfect – it's still too technical and fussy – but you will soon come to appreciate the more streamlined way of getting things done. If you don't like the default setup, you can now customise your menus, toolbars and shortcuts then save and load your own preferred working environment.
Under the surface
The most obvious difference to the interface is the former Colour palette, now transformed into the Materials palette. This lets you seamlessly switch between handling solid, gradient and pattern-based paint and fills. The control over these has also improved: you can rotate gradients, rotate and scale textures, and load new textures from any supported file format (including formats containing transparency information). Plus, once you have your material just the way you want it, you can save it as a reloadable swatch.
The Layers palette looks comparatively untouched, but its use has changed just as dramatically. The big difference is the introduction of Layer Groups, which are sets of layers that are treated as a unit. This is handy for arranging your composition, but the PSP implementation goes much further and affects rendering. In particular, it's possible to change the opacity of all grouped layers simultaneously and any adjustment layers apply just to the current group rather than to all underlying layers.
The same is true of masks. These are no longer treated as an attribute of a given layer, but as layers in their own right. Again, it takes a little getting used to – the former Mask menu has been incorporated into the Layer menu – but the new system is more logical and powerful. And PSP 8 goes further still. In Selection Edit mode, the current selection also appears as a layer, which means you can use any tool to fine-tune it.
It's not only the main docker palettes that have been revamped. The toolbar now provides 17 main tool icons giving fly-out access to related alternatives. In some cases, there has been consolidation – such as the incorporation of the Line and Node Edit tools into the Pen tool – while the main Retouch tool variations like Dodge and Burn have all been promoted to tools in their own right. Plus, you can now switch between opposite options such as Dodge/Burn, Darken/Lighten simply by using the opposite mouse button.
Again, the changes are more than just cosmetic – each of the major tools has been rethought and updated. The Zoom tool in particular is far more flexible, offering percentage zoom levels rather than fixed ratios, and the main zooming options have also been added to the Overview docker. The Crop tool now lets you crop to standard photo sizes while automatically updating the resolution value to match the desired size. And the control over text is now handled via the Options ribbon bar (though text is still edited in a window).
The biggest change however is to the brush handling for PSP 8's various paint and retouch tools. The underlying engine for these has been completely overhauled, producing smoother results and offering two new options: Continuous Paint, where all inputs count as a single stroke (important for laying down textures); and Wet Look, which simulates the effect of water-based paint where edges are darker than the centre. The control over the brush shape has also been improved and you can save your customised brushes as presets alongside PSP's built-in range of creative options, such as crayon and charcoal. Plus, while you're painting, you gain far greater control over your brushes, especially if you're using a Tablet via the Brush Variance palette.
PSP 8 also offers a number of completely new tools. The Straighten tool lets you straighten scans or digital photos simply by marking a line that should be horizontal or vertical. The Perspective Correction tool is a useful variation on the same theme, letting you mark the four points of an object that should be rectangular. If you want to add distortions rather than remove them, PSP can oblige with its new Mesh Warp tool, while local effects such as twisting, bloating and pinching are handled with the new interactive Warp Brush – great for producing Goo-style caricatures. Finally, the Background Eraser lets you paint away the background around objects.
When it comes to filters that affect the image as a whole, PSP 8 now follows the majority of its rivals by splitting the commands into two camps: the main colour corrections available from the new Adjust menu, and special effects, which remain under the Effects menu. The handling of these effects has also been updated. The Effects Browser now generates pages of thumbnails at a time, not just for every effect but for each preset. You can also create presets from just about every filter dialog.
The support for third-party filters has been improved as well, not that most users will need them. PSP has always provided an extensive range of filters and this has been further expanded.
In terms of new functionality, the biggest single change in PSP 8 has to be the introduction of scripting. Using the new Script toolbar, you can now record any sequence of actions as a macro ready for playback (plenty of samples are also provided). The whole process is straightforward and you can even automatically record brush strokes – something Photoshop doesn't allow. If you need further control, it's possible to load your recorded script into PSP's built-in script editor, for example, to set up conditional processing. Plus, the ability to apply scripts via the Batch Conversion dialog allows you to automatically apply the same changes to multiple images.
The functionality is certainly impressive, but there's a catch. PSP's scripting is built on the open-source Python programming language, which majors on power rather than ease of use. That's no problem if you're recording your macros, but editing is far more demanding (for example, you have to be careful when indenting as this determines scooping). There's also a serious security issue – a malicious Python script could format your hard disk.