This release draws attention to long-standing capabilities by adding new picture tubes, frames, patterns and preset shapes. With features such as its extensive filter set and support for vector drawing and artistic media, Paint Shop Pro has always prided itself on its creative capabilities. The Express Lab provides almost everything the average user needs to quickly enhance multiple photos, but for in-depth work on a single image you need to return to PSPP X2’s default workspace. With one click on this you can instantly apply months’ worth of dieting. Two new options have been added in this latest release with the Eye Drop brush to whiten bloodshot eyes, and the Thinify brush. The Express Lab’s hands-on retouching tools are more impressive: the Makeover tool can quickly give photographic portraits a lift by removing blemishes, whitening teeth and giving pallid skins a subtle tan. In terms of power, the Express Lab’s deliberately simple colour-correcting capabilities are unremarkable, although the histogram view and colour-cast removal capabilities go some way to make up for the lack of selection tools and control over image sharpness. Crucially, Express Lab enables you to quickly navigate through a folder of images, rotating, straightening, cropping and correcting as you go. This is a dedicated full-screen workspace, offering the most common correction commands and tools. When you edit an image, you can automatically save the original in a hidden subfolder regret your changes and the new Restore Original command lets you start again.īut the biggest practical advance comes in the form of PSPP X2’s Express Lab view. Even more welcome is PSPP X2’s introduction of a poor man’s version of non-destructive editing. Realistically, though, the program’s non-professional target audience is far more likely to be working with JPEGs, and so will derive more benefit from the new ability to combine bracketed exposures to create raw-style images with greater dynamic range. Imitating the high-end Adobe Lightroom (web ID: 110680), PSPP X2 expands its support for raw format files produced by top-of-the-range cameras. But it isn’t just a cosmetic improvement: the neutral grey background makes a real difference when it comes to accurate colour correction. This focus on digital photography is evident throughout this X2 release, beginning with PSPP X2’s striking new graphite interface.

Paint shop pro review