Corel PaintShop Pro X9 (Old Version)

Received lightening fast. I finally upgraded my old edition of PSP. I learned how to manipulate photos and graphics on PSP years and years ago. So the interface is very familiar to me, which made it easier for me to learn this newer edition. If you have never used this type of software this would probably be easier for you to learn than other more expensive Photo Shop type software. Just know though, it will have a learning curve. I can highly recommend Paint Shop Pro as it does everything I need it to do.

I have been successfully using the X4 version up until I had to upgrade to a Windows 11 computer. I bought the X9 version on Amazon for the new computer, only to find that the serial number for the install would not be accepted. I contacted Corel's support, who said that the X9 version was discontinued and would not be supported by them. This is despite the fact that the Amazon sales page claims that the product has NOT been discontinued, which it obviously has. As I am beyond the return window I am out of the money wasted on this useless product. Amazon should reimburse me since they had a deceptive claim on the page for a product that doesn't work.

Paint Shop Pro is a photo/drawing editing program comparable to Photoshop, etc., but for a fraction of the price. I've been using various versions of it for many years at work, at home, and for charities I work with.It has the features you'd expect to find in any drawing program: you can select a paintbrush and draw lines, fill in large areas with a selected color, type text, and manipulate the color of individual pixels in an image if you like. They have a "clone brush" that lets you copy from one part of an image over another part, which is really handy for removing objects from a picture and replacing them with a background that is copied from other parts of the background. There are a number of ways to define a "selection" that you can then copy and paste. You can select by drawing a box or circle around an area, you can draw an outline of any irregular shape, or you can have it automatically select areas with similar color. And you can combine these things: I often use "similar color" to get a first-try outline, and then use other tools to fix up the edges where it didn't get it quite right. Once you've defined a selection, you can copy or move it to elsewhere in the image or in a different image. (My mother met her present husband when they were both in their 80s, but she got me to paste a picture of her in her 20s into a picture with him in his 20s. I think she wants to use it to confuse their friends.) Oh, and there are a bunch of tools to clean up flawed photos, like removing scratches and the flash red-eye effect. There are tools to gloss over human imperfections, like even out skin tones, cover pimples, etc. I've never gotten these to work effectively, but then I haven't spent a lot of time with them. Maybe there's just a trick to it.At work I regularly import files produced with Photoshop by our clients and while I occasionally get messages about "feature not supported", I've never figured out just what feature the Photoshop file had that is not supported, and I've been able to use and manipulate Photoshop files with no problem.They come out with a new version every year or so, but there's really little change from year to year. They keep adding new features that seem to be basically less efficient ways to do what the old features did. I think this is basically that they want you to give them money for a new version, but the product is pretty complete by now, it's not clear what useful features one might add, so they add useless junk. Don't get me wrong, it's an excellent product. But they keep adding useless junk just so they can say that they've added new features. Oh, every now and then there's something handy amidst the useless junk.The main reason to buy a new version is because the old versions don't necessarily work with newer versions of Windows. Like I bought X9 because for reasons I couldn't figure out, my X7 quit working with Windows 10. When I first bought my current computer it came with Windows 10. I installed X7 and I had to download an upgrade from Corel for it to work, but then it worked fine for a year. Then suddenly it just stopped working. Baffled me. Corel's web site says X7 doesn't support Windows 10. So I bought X9 and it works fine. Weird, but whatever. I'm not going to agonize over a hundred bucks.

It is my third version of COREL.I am using it for editing pictures - for myself, family or selling stuff online.It works fine and easy to operate.Quality is good.I like it.

I downloaded a free trial, it worked great. I then purchased it in a box. I uninstalled the free trial and installed this Corel PaintShop Pro X9. But couldn't open the program. Different messages popped up. I went to Corel web support, selected "Chat" explained my problem, the chat person informed me that my problem required tech support, he generated a work ticket and stated that the tech support only communicates by email. After many frustrating hours and eventually an email from tech support arrived. no help there, I had questions but by receiving support by email is a very slow process in solving the problem. I eventually uninstalled the program and consider it a loss. I never had problems installing software/programs before. I'm running Windows 7. I think in the future I will be careful of what I buy with the name Corel on it.So, I can't really say if I like it or not, But because of the free trial being ok, I gave this a 2 star.UPDATE: after several hours of trying to open this program and several emails from the tech support, I finally asked them to call me on the phone, I eventually received a call from the tech person, I allowed him to take control of my computer to fix the problem, I watched and understood every move he made. His attempts of fixing the problem were almost the same as mine. After a good hour, he informed me that this was a job for level 2 tech support. I've had enough! No more trying to run this program, I un-installed everything Corel from my computer. This program is corrupt.UPDATE: After several hours and several emails, I finally asked for the Tech support dept. to call me. I received a call, I allowed him to take control of my computer, I watched and understood every move he made. His attempts were almost identical to mine. After a good hour, he informed me that this was a job for "Level 2" tech support. because he couldn't get it to run. (This disk is corrupt). I uninstalled everything with the name Corel from my computer. It's really too bad, I was looking forward to using this program.