Camera Shop

In the hunt for an all-encompassing graphics suite many have turned to Jasc Software's Paint Shop Pro. Unless Photoshop compatibility is essential, you'll find PSP has enough tools to satisfy all but the most demanding users.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Its latest version comes in Paint Shop Power Suite Photo Edition ($199.99 street), which includes PSP8 and Animation Shop as well as Photo Album 4 (for organizing digital photos) and Xtras (a collection of frames, masks and textures to torque images).

Photo Album comes with a number of image altering tools, but buyers of this suite will likely use the ones in Paint Shop. It also includes tools for burning video CDs for playing on DVD machines and exporting albums to CD.

However, this review deals mainly with PSP8. While not known for competing with stripped down image editors aimed at impatient and occasional users, this version includes a number of improved automated tools that will help newcomers.

These include the ability to remove backgrounds, straighten crooked images, automatically shift perspective and straighten the sides of buildings. A lens distortion filter corrects barrel, pincushion and fisheye distortions created by wide-angle camera lenses.

Advanced users will appreciate the new ability to generate scripts, which lets you record and save a personalized series of commands that can be applied to an image.

They'll also be happy with the ability to set black and white points, which is crucial to adjusting colour.

PSP8, which can be used on Windows 98 SP2 and up, installed quickly on my PIII 700 MHz clone with 265 MB of memory. The interface has been redesigned, although the myriad of tools, options and controls still makes it a challenge to learn.

The first thing launched is the new learning centre, which includes a series of steps for performing an action and (somewhat fast for me) videos that demonstrate how they are done. However, the Help files are much more detailed than PSP7's, which you'll quickly learn to welcome. If you can't find it there, the free unlimited support will be handy.

Note that while memory consumption has been improved when using artistic effects and filters, Jasc warns that using the new Warp brush and Mesh Warp tool frequently on large images will mean increasing the size of your Undo limit, freeing up additional hard drive space and possibly adding more RAM.

This suite offers business users and serious consumers a powerful set of software for image editing. Just take your time learning it.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Transcontinental Media IT Business Group
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group