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Paint Shop Pro (PSP) is a bitmap graphics editor and vector graphics editor for computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system that was originally published by Minneapolis-based Jasc Software. In October 2004, Corel Corporation purchased Jasc Software, and with it, the distribution rights to Paint Shop Pro.

Originally called simply Paint Shop, the first version, 1.0, was released in early 1992. Paint Shop was originally distributed as shareware, but is now sold for US$100 or, after rebate, US$50—which is considerably lower than the price of its main competition, Adobe Photoshop.

Its functionality is easy to learn and its user base is large due to the fact that many mid-range scanners come with PSP as their acquisition tool and image editor and many OEMs, including Dell, have been, or are bundling it with their systems.

Much of PSP's popularity can be attributed to the fact that it is much cheaper in price than most professional image editors, like Adobe Photoshop. Instead it competes in the same price class as Adobe Photoshop Elements. It also uses the same plugin architecture as Photoshop, allowing for a high degree of expandability.

Although Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop are functionally similar for the majority of casual users, the more expensive Photoshop offers features important to some professionals that are unavailable in Paint Shop Pro. For example, Photoshop is available in an Apple Macintosh version, a feature which remains critical to some in the print publication industry. However, PSP supports natively both raster and vector graphics, whereas Photoshop only supports importation of vector graphics from Adobe Illustrator without direct built-in edition tools. (Adobe Systems markets Adobe Illustrator for vector graphics.) This has made PSP a somewhat popular editor for vector graphics.

From version 5.01 through version 8, Jasc bundled Animation Shop, an animated graphics editor, with Paint Shop Pro. The program is now available separately for US$40.

With version 8.0 of PSP Jasc made some major changes to PSP. The most obvious change was the new look of the program through the use of all new GUI elements. Version 8.0 also introduced the ability to control most elements of PSP via scripts or macros. Some changes, however, were not welcomed by all users. Some users complained that the time to start version 8.0 was tens of seconds, whereas the previous version started up in a few seconds. Some users also complained that the changes made to the brush and other tools rendered them much less precise than in the previous version. This has caused some users to stick with version 7.0 of the program. Version 9 later solved some of those issues.

Since its tenth version, Paint Shop Pro X, released in September 2005 the program bears the name "Corel Paint Shop Pro". Major changes in version 10 include a revamped Learning Center that helps new users to get started, Makeover Tools (Blemish Remover, Toothbrush/whitener, and Suntan Brush), IR film simulator, and a Black and White film converter that includes color filter effects. One of the most anticipated additions to version X was 48Bit (16bits per channel) color support, which unfortunately was not completely supported. In version X, 48bit color images were limited to a handful of digital image correcting features, but not full blown photo editing, where the real benefit could be realized. On the surface 48bit color is merely as good as 24bit color. However when the image is manipulated, 48bit color allows more precise color data to be maintained providing less image artifiacts after significant manipulation.

Version History

Italicized entries indicate the closest date available. In these cases, the date is that of the earliest file date available on JASC or Corel's FTP site. It can be assumed that the official release fell on or before that date. For non-italicized entries, the dates are taken from official press releases or notifications posted on JASC's web site.

• 1996 July 1 — 4.00

This was the first 32-bit release (for Windows 95 and NT 4.0). Version 3.12 was still available for download for quite some time afterwards.

• 1996 September 3 — 4.10
• 1997 January 10 — 4.12
• 1997 October 13 — 4.14
• 1998 April 6 — 5.00

This release introduced major user interface changes, including support for layers.

• 1998 June 15 — 5.01
• 1999 May 10 — 5.30
• 1999 September 13 — 6.00
• 1999 December 15 — 6.01
• 2000 February 7 — 6.02
• 2000 September 21 — 7.00
• 2001 February 11 — 7.01
• 2001 March 5 — 7.02
• 2001 August 22 — 7.04

This coincided with the release of the "Anniversary Edition" of Paint Shop Pro 7. Presumably, this means the first release of Paint Shop Pro was on August 22, 1991.

• 2002 June 2 — 7.05

It's not clear whether or not this was an official release. Several downloads with this version number were available, but all web site content refers to 7.04 as the last update.

• 2003 April 28 — 8.00
• 2003 June 17 — 8.01
• 2003 October 7 — 8.10

The last version to support Windows 95

• 2004 August 18 — 9.00
• 2004 September 21 — 9.01

The last version to support Windows 98/ME

• 2005 September 8 — 10.00

Fully rebranded as "Corel Paint Shop Pro X"

• 2006 September 11 — 11.00

Fully rebranded as "Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI"

See also

• List of raster graphics editors
• Comparison of raster graphics editors

External links

• Official page
• Paint Shop Pro Tutorials by Pinoy7
• Paint Shop Pro Tutorials and Resource Directory
• Coreljunkies.com
• PSP 7 Tutorials
• Dmoz Paint Shop Pro Listing
• PSP Tutorials, brushes, and other resources @ Now-n-Then.
• Tutorials, Resources, Community at Loadboy.com.
• Pracken's Paint Shop Pro Tutorials

• Bitmap graphics editors
• Vector graphics editors
• Technical communication tools