Purchased myself PSP X5 as a belated birthday present for myself. (There's a Black Friday sale, good buy.) I really disliked the earlier Corel versions and I'm not retiring my old PSP 8 yet. Reviews I've read of this version seem solid and I checked out a trial before I purchased it.
I'll be posting more about my impressions in the upcoming weeks, but for now:
The good:
Most of the menu options haven't moved around too much
PSP 8 content and files will still open, including the Virtual Painter filters that you can't get anymore because they were Jasc products. (I'll post a filter guide for anyone who needs it.) Edit: As an FYI, some of them will show up grayed out in their submenus until you're in the Edit pane with an image (not a color fil) open on a raster layer.
A few neat new features and it seems like text functions work a lot better.
The Bad
Slow load times.
Somewhat bloated
I can't find an interactive script toggle.
Too much internet-based help content. (This seems to be standard nowadays, but I think help files and documentation should be available easily without an internet connection when you're talking about a commercial product. It's not always possible for freeware and open source software, but when I pay for something this complex it ought to come with accessible instructions.)
The Stupid
Integration with Facebook. I know, I know. Everything is about Facebook these days. I would still rather have a smaller program that runs faster. If I want to upload content to the web, I don't need PSP to help me. There's a whole feature set designed around content sharing and social media. While some users may appreciate the convenience, I find it to be useless clutter.
The "Manage" pane. Waste of time. I can find what I need much faster by opening the folder in Windows Explorer. So far I haven't seen any reason to use that feature, but I may discover something as time goes on.
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