Thursday, September 06, 2007

Corel Announces Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

Official Company Press Release:
Corel Corporation, a leading developer of graphics, productivity and digital media software, has announced the launch of Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, a major new product release from its award-winning digital media portfolio. Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is the ideal digital photography software for aspiring photographers and business communicators who want to transform their digital pictures into professional-looking photos fast. Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 provides users with the widest selection of photo editing features ranging from automatic tools for quick fixes to precision controls for fine-tuning. Unlike lite, essentials or elements version photo editors, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 provides continued depth of functionality that enables users to grow as their skills and knowledge progress.

With Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, viewing, sorting and processing downloaded photos is faster than ever thanks to the all new Express Lab. Beginners benefit from a wide range of automatic, one-click adjustments while advanced users can take full advantage of the program's manual adjustments providing more direct control over each photo. With speed improvements and the built-in Learning Center, new users can produce results quickly, learning as they go.

"Our focus for this release of Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo was to make it even easier and faster for both new and experienced users to create stunning digital photos," said Denise MacDonell, Director, Product Management, Digital Media at Corel. "We worked closely with users to understand how they interact with our software in order to deliver an end product that truly reflects and enriches the way they use Paint Shop Pro Photo at home and at work."

Powerful Photo Editing Made Easy

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 offers a number of new features and significant enhancements to bring the power and creative possibilities of digital photography to more users. New features in Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 include:

Express Lab

The all-new Express Lab mode enables users to view and edit dozens of photos in the time it used to take to edit just a few. When using Express Lab, users can rapidly crop, rotate, apply color adjustments and perform other common tasks on large numbers of images without having to open each image individually. Now even new users can edit photos with the speed and efficiency of a professional photographer. Express Lab includes full support for all file formats including camera raw.

Graphite Look and Feel

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 features a new graphite workspace that puts the focus on the photo. The new interface also provides a neutral background for unbiased color adjustments.

HDR Photo Merge

With the NEW HDR Photo Merge, users can easily create photos that capture the full details found in the shadows and the highlights of a high-contrast scene. Users can combine two or more photos taken at different exposures and use the Clarify feature to automatically "dodge and burn" bringing out the contrast.

Makeover Tools

With the NEW Thinify tool, users can make anyone look thinner with just one click. The NEW Eye Drop tool takes the red out of bloodshot eyes. The popular Suntan brush and Blemish Fixer have also been enhanced so users of any skill level can quickly and easily touch up images like the pros.

Layer Styles

With the NEW Layer Styles, photographers and business users can add drop shadows, embossing, outer and inner glows, bevels and reflections to text, photos and creative projects.

Visible Watermarks

Users can easily create and add a personal watermark to their photos, whether they are a professional photographer sharing proofs with a client or an individual user who wants to share images online.

Auto-Preserve Originals

The NEW Auto-Preserve Originals option enables users to freely experiment with changes to their photos, confident that their original image is preserved.

Save for Office

With the NEW Save for Office option, photos are automatically resized and saved in the appropriate format for a given project. File sizes are also automatically compressed to make it easier for the business user to share images via email. Users who prefer to Copy and Paste can use the NEW Copy Special options for the same benefits.

Dynamic Language Switching

With Dynamic Language Switching, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 makes it easy for users to work in their preferred language, a feature especially useful to Corel's growing number of multinational corporate site license customers.

Crop as New Image

For people who scan multiple images at once, the Crop as New Image option automatically opens scanned photos into separate documents, dramatically increasing the speed and efficiency with which users can crop and save their photos.

For a complete list of new and enhanced features in Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, please visit www.corel.com/paintshopprophoto.

"With Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, Corel is demonstrating a clear understanding of its target customers - aspiring photographers and business professionals who want to use images to enhance their communication at work, in their communities or in their personal relationships with family and friends," said Alexis Gerard, President, Future Image Inc. and author of Going Visual. "This release of Paint Shop Pro Photo delivers improved usability with the addition of Express Lab, adds many more options to the photographer's toolbox and continues to push the envelope for ease-of-use and price/performance ratio."

Pricing and Availability

With a suggested retail price of $99.99 (US and Canada), Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is available starting today through www.corel.com and in the coming weeks through Corel's global channel partners. Included in the purchase price are video tutorials from www.lynda.com, Nik(TM) plug-in filter effects and a special version of Corel(R) MediaOne(TM) Plus - the fast, fun and easy photo and video software. Corel MediaOne Plus will be available via download beginning mid September. To learn more about Corel's digital media portfolio or to download a free, fully-functional trial version of Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2, please visit www.corel.com/paintshopprophoto.

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