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SOFTWARE REVIEWED: Paint Shop Pro 5
RELEASED BY: Digital Workshop
PRICE: £69.95
REVIEWED BY: G-String
REVIEW: -
Paint Shop Pro v5.0. The latest version of the now ever popular Paint Shop Pro. Here you can create, edit and re-format any picture file. Also included is the Animation Shop. Here you can create your own .gif file. Hours of fun can be had trying to make a square peg go into a round hole, smoothly and not too jumpy. If you ever want to create a moving logo for a site, here's the best place to do it.
I've had Paint Shop Pro on my computer since 1995 when it was one of the first versions. I've upgraded several times and so I know my way around it really well. I particularly like this other add on (which is NOT included) called Kai's Power Tools. These are great for creating wierd pictures that are flashbacks to a time when I took something illegal. Ahem. Anyway, hmmm . . . .
There has always been the function of editing the files in all of the PSP series. Hence the pictures of Monica Lewinski "Naked" on the Web. And also the spice girls getting done everywhere. I use it to alter my appearance in photos. I became a blonde haired, green eyed guy instead of a black haired brown eyes. Think of the possibilities with passports, no NO! I'm just joking. If you've ever watched those FBI or Government movies where they're looking through pics form security cameras and they see something in the bakcground (it always happens) and the head guy shouts "Enhance that!" and some whizzkid does in about 2 milliseconds and they all rush about to get the guy whose about to assassinate some other guy for political reasons, then now's your chance to be one the guy whose a whizzkid at computers. Phew! You can sharpen pictures so that you can see things more clearly, funnily enough. You can also blur them. You can turn them into negatives. Magnify, smallerify. You get my drift.
If you liked Microsoft's Paintbrush and found it easy to use, then you will find it hard to get to grips with this (at first). The effects you can use are astounding. If you look at the screen shots, you'll see a picture of a fish, enhanced, effected, and all kinds of wierd shit. The main difference between v5.0 and the others are that the workspace is bigger. They've obviously put a lot of attention into optimising screen space. The toolbars are positioned in the best places and the ones you don't use that often, only pop up when you need them.
The Animation shop is something spectacular. If you've been on the web, well, you obviously have, then you'll see all the wee logos and stuff that move and change and stuff. This is where you can make your own logos. It's quite simple. You create a picture into frame one, and then you can do stuff to it in the other frames. The program has built-in effects for you to use. Lick a backlight for text. Changing text so it waves around like a flag (see screen shots). The possibilities are endless. You can also do this to images and pictures. Creating swimming fish is stupid, pointless and timewasting, but a helluva lot of fun.
With PSP, you can capture screen images for websites, just like we do. And the other possibilities are endless. I really like the program, mainly because of all the editing you can do to a friend's face on it. One of my cousins has a small, firm, erected piece of meat on his forehead. So now when he says he's not a "ahem-head", I've got proof that he is. Brilliant. Wait for the New Year get together.
Overall, I would say that Paint Shop Pro v5.0 is the best so far, as you would expect. I really like the Animation Shop that comes with it. The program doesn't use that much memory so it is quite easy to run and it is quick. This si why I give it 93%.
SCORE:
87%
MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIRED:
CPU: 486 DX2
RAM: 16MB
20MB HD Space
V\G Card (optional)
Windows 98\95\NT
LINKS: [email protected]