Corel releases PaintShop Photo Pro X3; photo editing for the enthusiast

Corel's PaintShop Photo is aimed at the serious photo enthusiast.

While we've been freezing and getting our latest round of snow here in Columbus, the fine people at Corel have been in warmer areas working on this latest product, the new PaintShop Photo Pro X3, a piece of photo editing software aimed right at the advanced amateur (rather than Mr. and Mrs. America, like with the Digital Studio 2010). This newest package combines photo editing and organization in an easy-to-use package.

Because most advanced amateurs using D-SLRs or high end compact cameras that are packed with all the latest goodies, Corel has optimized this package to run with the latest computer processors to speed along your photo editing. The interface is intuitive, offering ease while both going through photos and jumping into your editing, which happens in the same window and the same program (which is nicer than having to bog down the computer with two programs in two windows just to accomplish the same thing).

Also launching today is VideoStudio Pro X3, aimed at the enthusiast videographer. This version, like the new PaintShop, has been optimized to run with the newest computers, and to deal with the new wave of HD video. While this seemingly should be left to another Examiner altogether, remember that most new compact, bridge, and D-SLR cameras have an HD Movie mode; this software is easy to use and will offer everyone with a HD-capable camera a great way to actually get the video off the camera and computer, and into the DVD player.

Corel has given me a copy of each piece of software to review. I am working hard at PaintShop, and will have a guest reviewer for the VideoStudio. Early reports are positive, and there is a lot of promise in this package!

The software, priced at $99.99 for the full version and $79.99 for an upgrade from a previous version, is available today at Corel.com for download, and will be available in stores by next month. You can read the full press release below.

Corel® PaintShop Photo™ Pro X3 Delivers New Organization, Editing and Creative Projects for Today’s Digital Photography Workflow

Latest Version of Powerful Photo Editor Meets the Evolving Needs of Photo Enthusiasts

Ottawa, ON – January 26, 2009 – Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL) (TSX:CRE) today announced Corel® PaintShop Photo™ Pro X3, the latest version of its renowned photo editing program, that brings advanced photo management, editing and creative tools together to deliver everything the photo enthusiast needs in one package. Combining professional quality tools for organization and photo editing along with burning, sharing, and for the first time, high definition (HD) video capabilities, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 has been developed to meet the evolving workflow needs of today’s digital photographer.

Complements DSLR Cameras, Provides New Creative Possibilities for Photographers

As high-performance DSLR and megazoom cameras have become mainstream, hobbyists have a wealth of creative options to explore their passion for photography. But the power of these cameras also presents challenges: amateur photographers are shooting more images than ever and image file sizes continue to grow, making organization and management a critical part of the digital photographer’s process. With these large collections of images, users need new ways to speed and simplify the selection and enhancement process. They also want to work with the HD video that’s now popular in their media mix. Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 stands apart from other applications by combining editing, photo management and creative projects in a unique way that meets the needs of today’s enthusiast digital photographer.

“Photo enthusiasts are taking advantage of the amazing quality and power of today’s DSLR cameras and as a result, they need workflow and editing tools that were previously only available in professional photo applications,” said Craig Copley, Senior Product Manager for Corel PaintShop Photo Pro. “Now with Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3, organization, editing and creative projects have come together in a single, affordable package. Whether you’re quickly sorting and rating your favorites out of hundreds of photos or sharing using Facebook or Flickr, it’s never been faster to create professional-looking results.”

Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Highlights

All-new Organizer: The new integrated Organizer includes tools for rating, tagging, locating and quickly touching up image files. The Organizer also makes it easy to select images and view them in multiple ways. In just a few clicks, RAW images can be converted to another format for posting, photo sharing or printing.

Multi?photo Adjustments: Editing and enhancing is faster than ever now that changes made to an image can be captured and easily applied to multiple photos, removing the tedium of making the same changes over and over again.

Smart Carver: Quickly achieve impressive results by seamlessly and realistically removing objects and scaling without distorting the image.

Express Lab: Bringing the most used tools together in one place, the Express lab now adds Color Balance, Local Tone Mapping, Contrast/Brightness, Sharpen and One Step Noise Removal.

Camera RAW Lab: Supporting more than 350 RAW formats, the new RAW Lab makes it easy to adjust a variety of settings, such as white balance, exposure, brightness and saturation before processing. Adjustments made to any RAW image can be copied and applied to other RAW images in the Organizer.

Object Extractor: It’s quick and easy to precisely mask fine image details that are otherwise difficult to preserve – even challenging cases such as fly?away hair, wisps of smoke and tree branches.

Project Creator: This one?stop tool makes it easy to create, edit and share projects. Produce photo books, collages, cards, calendars and photo slideshows including HD video in a few clicks. Share to YouTube™, Facebook® or Flickr®. Photo projects can also be printed through Corel’s online print service.

Familiar Favorites Plus New Photo-Painting Features

In addition to a number of new and enhanced features, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 continues to offer the advanced photo editing power of favorite features including HDR Photo Merge, Local Tone Mapping, Curves and Levels adjustments, Perspective Correction, plus tools including the Learning Center that help new photo enthusiasts get familiar with the application and create great results fast. Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 also includes Corel® Painter™ Photo Essentials 4 to get started with digital art. Offering the unique Auto-Painting palette, Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4 enables users to create a stunningly realistic work of art from a photo in just three easy steps.

Pricing and Availability
Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 is now available at a suggested retail price (SRP) of $99.99 (USD and CDN) for the full version or $79.99 for the upgrade. The product can be purchased as an electronic software download (ESD) today from www.corel.com and boxed software will be shipping to North American retailers in February. Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 will also be available globally in Chinese Traditional, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Spanish.

New Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X3 Offers Exceptional Tools for Video and Media Enthusiasts
Today, Corel also introduced Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X3. The latest version of Corel’s powerful consumer video editing software enables video enthusiasts to easily create professional-looking productions in a simplified and streamlined environment that’s driven by maximum speed and performance. Available at a new SRP of $99.99 (USD and CDN) for the full version or $79.99 for the upgrade, Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 can be purchased as an ESD from www.corel.com and will be shipping to North American retailers in February. Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 will also available globally in Chinese Traditional, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Spanish.

Powerful Enthusiast Photo and Video Software – Together

In addition to the standalone products, Corel is introducing the new Corel Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle featuring both Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 and Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 for $149.99 (SRP). Available in North America, the Corel Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle can be purchased as an ESD from www.corel.com and will be shipping to retailers in February.

About Corel
Corel is one of the world’s top software companies with more than 100 million active users in over 75 countries. We develop software that helps people express their ideas and share their stories in more exciting, creative and persuasive ways. Through the years, we’ve built a reputation for delivering innovative, trusted products that are easy to learn and use, helping people achieve new levels of productivity. The industry has responded with hundreds of awards for software innovation, design and value.

Our award?winning product portfolio includes some of the world's most widely recognized and popular software brands, including CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, Corel® PainterÔ, Corel DESIGNER® Technical Suite, Corel® PaintShop Photo™, Corel® VideoStudio®, Corel® WinDVD®, Corel® WordPerfect® Office, WinZip® and the recently released Corel® Digital Studio™.

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© 2010 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Corel, Corel DESIGNER, CorelDRAW, Digital Studio, PaintShop Photo, Painter, WordPerfect, WinDVD, WinZip and the Corel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other product names and any registered and unregistered trademarks mentioned are used for identification purposes only and remain the exclusive property of their respective owners.

Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X3 Brings Speed and Creativity to PC Video Production

Enhanced Performance, Streamlined Production Workflow & New Creative Effects Dramatically Accelerate Movie Making on the PC

Ottawa, ON – January 26, 2009 – Corel Corporation (NASDAQ:CREL) (TSX:CRE) today announced a dramatically enhanced version of its powerful consumer video editing software, Corel® VideoStudio® Pro X3. Offering great value at a new price of $99.99, Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 combines video editing, media authoring, real-time effects and DVD and Blu-ray burning, enabling video enthusiasts to create professional-looking productions in a simplified and streamlined environment that offers maximum performance.

Faster Rendering Speeds the Creative Process

With industry-leading speed and lowest-in-category rendering times, Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 now performs many common tasks more than twice as fast as the previous version with optimization for new, high-powered chipsets including the Intel® Core™ i7. The software also offers multi-core and GPU parallel processing with support for new technology including NVIDIA® CUDA™ to offer impressive performance and an improved end-to-end production workflow.

“Typically, speed and workflow performance are big challenges for today’s consumer video editors, so that’s where Corel focused our efforts for X3. Anyone who edits video knows what it feels like when the creative process stalls because you’re faced with complicated tools, slow response times or stuttering playback. We thought it was time to deliver a new experience for video editing, so we’ve built Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 with a streamlined user interface, enhanced creative tools that deliver real-time effects, and a simplified workflow,” said Jan Piros who leads Product Management for Corel VideoStudio Pro.

Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 Highlights

Enhanced Support for Multi-core processors: Users can now experience a significant suite-wide performance boost as Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 takes advantage of new multi-core processors including the Intel Core i7.

General Purpose GPU Acceleration: New GPU acceleration adds speed improvements across the application, delivering new Corel FX effects, 3D transitions, Trim and Multi-trim in real time. Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 dramatically accelerates render times for video editing, transcoding and effects.

Enhanced Smart Proxy editing: Now leveraging both GPU and CPU acceleration, HD content can be edited as easily and smoothly as standard definition — even on midrange PCs.

Attribute and media copying: Now, modifications made to one video clip, photo, title, transition or effect can be copied to another, reducing the time it takes to create a custom, uniform look and feel in movie project elements. Users can also copy media in the Project Timeline and intuitively paste it to a new spot.

Online sharing: In a couple of clicks, video productions can be uploaded to Facebook®, Flickr®, Vimeo® and YouTube™.

Stunning new visual effects: Unique visual effects make it possible to turn a video segment or image into a simulated drawing, giving a realistic animated appearance to photo or videos. Users can also choose new multi-track overlay effects and enhanced title effects using new multi-layered graphics compositing tools.

Great Audio and Custom Soundtracks: The new Mood Mapping music generator from SmartSound® gives video editors the ability to experiment and control individual instruments in the available music tracks, creating a unique sound for their production. Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 also now includes two additional audio tracks.

Exceptional Content and Third-party Tools: In addition to the enhancements made throughout the application, Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 offers valuable content and features from third-parties such as NewBlue® FX Filters including Detail Enhancer, Active Camera and Picture-in-Picture Animator, high-quality project templates from RevoStock®, and Quicktracks™ from SmartSound.

Pricing and Availability
Corel VideoStudio Pro X3, which includes Corel DVD Factory™ Pro, is now available at a suggested retail price (SRP) of just $99.99 (USD and CDN) for the full version or $79.99 for the upgrade. The product can be purchased as an electronic software download (ESD) today from www.corel.com and boxed software will be shipping to North American retailers in February. Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 will also be available globally in Chinese Traditional, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Spanish.

New Corel® PaintShop Photo™ Pro X3 Meets the Evolving Needs of Photo Enthusiasts
Today, Corel also introduced Corel® PaintShop Photo™ Pro X3, the latest version of its award-winning photo editing software delivering all-new organization, editing and creative projects for today’s digital photography workflow. Available at the SRP of $99.99 (USD and CDN) for the full version or $79.99 for the upgrade, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 can be purchased as an ESD from www.corel.com and will be shipping to North American retailers in February. Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 will also available globally in Chinese Traditional, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Spanish.

Powerful Enthusiast Photo and Video Software – Together
In addition to the standalone products, Corel is also introducing the new Corel Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle featuring both Corel VideoStudio Pro X3 and Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 for $149.99 (SRP). Available in North America, the Corel Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle can be purchased as an ESD from www.corel.com and will be shipping to retailers in February.