Supplier Digital Workshop

Price:      £79.99p + Vat

Upgrade: £34.99p + Vat

Internet www.digitalworkshop.co.uk

Availability Now

Also included is Animation Shop 3 (Great Program)

Test PC, Windows Me, Celeron 533Mhz/128Mb Ram/16Mb Video Card

= Editors Choice & Winner of our software application of the month award for December 2000

Hi, 

It seems like only a short time ago that version 6 was released. Version 7 adds a whole new host of features both large and small, all of which are very much appreciated. Just what we have been asking for. 

Perhaps the best features of Paint Shop Pro V7 are the small ones, it seems the whole package has been re-worked with new user friendly features. The tools menu now has a auto drop down feature, and the sliding controls for things like paint brush settings, so simple yet  highly effective. The ability to watermark images for web use, and to check if images are watermarked  will be of  real benefit to all webmasters. Same goes for the internet image wizards, showing the effects of image compression versus download times. Another couple of points worth making, are this versions ability to work with very large image files. Version 6 tended to crash our PC here when working with large files, no such worry's now. Finally a seat of the pants observation, this version seems to be very much faster that V6 in opening, working with and manipulating images. 

Highs

Most of us do our weekly shop in our favourite supermarket, why! Well we know where all the different items are on the shelves, you need a tin of beans, you know the exact place to find it, no searching up and down isles and then having to ask an assistant. Our weekly shop takes around 30 minutes, the other week we tried a different store, we needed over an hour to find what we wanted, and we still had to go back to our usual store for familiar items. That the other one did not stock or we were unable to find. Now why am I telling you this ? What has it to do with this review ? Paint Shop Pro V7 is like the store we do our weekly shop in, anything I need to do with the software I know how to do it, because its so familiar and user friendly, I only have to learn what's new to this version. The other bigger and more costly store is well, very difficult to navigate. I am sure it stocks all that I need and perhaps more, but at a higher overall cost and I would to keep asking the sales assistants.  Make no mistake this is the best ever version and earns our application of the month award for December 2000. Of special note, the after sales service / technical support is second to none. This is one software company that makes full use of its customer feedback in a positive way, a lesson some other companies have yet to learn. 

Lows

None. Version 6 was very good and a vast improvement on version 5. Unfortunately version 6 has one weaknesses, namely the inability to work with large file sizes. Here I am referring to 20 Mb or larger, version 6 would all to often crash when working with such files. Updates were produced and tested, but I never could get version 6 to work reliably with large image files. This was Paint Shop Pro V6 only shortcoming, I am happy to report that this newer version No 7 has no such problems with large files. I have had it working happily with several 50 Mb plus files at once.

Conclusion

Vector tools and layers for using Paint Shop Pro as a drawing program: A Multicolour Gradient tool for creating and saving custom gradients: Interface enhancements, including roll-up palettes and a recent colours picker: Enhanced integration between Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop: Editable text that you can place on paths: Digital watermarking for embedding copyright information: Adjustment layers for applying colour corrections to multiple layers: A Print Multiple Images function for printing several images on one page: Improved Layer and Tool Options palettes: An OLE Screen Capture for using Paint Shop Pro’s popular screen capture function from within programs that support OLE: Several new special effects, including Bevel and Pattern: A more powerful Browser for viewing and managing images: Direct support for over 120 digital cameras. What more could you ask for. You could pay a lot more for image editing software, but why, when you can have Paint Shop Pro V7 for under £100.

Space and time have not permitted a separate review of  Animation Shop 3 which is supplied with Paint Shop Pro V7, we use this for all our web banner needs and recommend it.

We use Paint Shop Pro V7 daily for all the image editing needs of this web site. If you only buy and learn one image program make this the one, you will not be disappointed.