Digital Home Thoughts: Corel's Paint Shop Pro Photo XI: A Minor League Slugger

Now, Image Input
Corel Paint Shop Pro offers a number of ways to input an image: Create a New image with the New command; Open an image with the Open dialog or from the Organizer; Download photos from your WIA-compliant camera (or memory card? Never heard of a WIA-compliant memory card…); Scan a photo with your scanner; or Capture an image on your screen using a module within PSP that looks suspiciously like ye olde Corel Capture.

The New image dialog box looks much the same as any in an image editor with the exception of Image Characteristics. Paint Shop Pro can create a vector or raster image by choosing Raster or Vector Background Image Characteristics in the New dialog box. What this really does is assign the Background Layer to be raster or vector, but you’re still limited to X pixels wide by Y pixels high. Since raster and vector objects are automatically placed on their own raster and vector layers, it frankly doesn’t make much difference which you choose. It does come with some nice image size presets like 8x10 and 4x6, which should make things easier on beginners.

Paint Shop Pro can open no less than 72 different file types, which makes sense considering it’s a vector and bitmap editing program. What doesn’t make sense is that it will open CorelDRAW .CDR files and Photoshop .PSD files, but not Photo-Paint’s .CPT or Illustrator’s .AI files. What gives, Corel? I would, at the very least, have expected it to support a file format used by a sister program. In any case, it’s PSP’s 72 supported file formats that allow the Organizer’s drag-and-drop approach to opening files work.

Acquiring images from a WIA-compliant (that’s Windows Image Acquisition), digital camera or scanner is supported from within Paint Shop Pro, but if you’re like me and have neither you have to use a different method. For regular digital cameras, using the Windows Camera and Scanner wizard then navigating to that folder with the Organizer works just as well. For those of us with decrepit TWAIN-based scanners, there’s a TWAIN Acquire command in the File>Import menu.

Last but not least is the Capture function that allows you to take screen shots of the active window, the entire screen or just a selected portion with a mouse click or key stroke. I’m very glad to see it included right in the Learning Center and not hidden somewhere deep in the menus or even worse, in the Start menu as a separate program (*cough* Corel Capture *cough*). The capture process, however, automatically minimizes Paint Shop Pro, so unfortunately I couldn’t use it for this review.