JASC Paint Shop Pro 9

With its intuitive drawing and Art Media tools, selective undo and advanced but friendly scripting, the major new features in Paint Shop Pro 9 combine well, and should go a long way towards changing the program's overly technical reputation. And in the process they manage to show Adobe's market-dominating Photoshop a trick or two. It's important to keep things in perspective, however. There are still plenty of areas in which Photoshop leaves PSP trailing - 16-bit quality, layer styling, layer comps, colour management, and channel handling for a start. Most importantly, PSP's core pixel-processing engine just isn't fast enough to tempt professional Photoshop users to jump ship. And that's just as true of those computer artists who currently use Corel Painter.

Ultimately, Paint Shop Pro 9 doesn't challenge either Photoshop or Painter for their high-end crowns but, by providing much of both programs' features at an excellent price, it's a capable and increasingly attractive all-rounder.

Author: Tom Arah