Corel Paintshop Pro

Rounding out my discussion of Photoshop alternatives is Corel Paintshop Pro.  Unlike Gimp and Affinity, Paintshop Pro is an offering from a large tech company that can afford to devote considerable resources to its development.  And the effort clearly shows in the result.  In my opinion, Paintshop Pro is one of the most underrated graphics apps out there.  It's not only a photo editor but also has a graphic design app rolled into it which makes things a bit confusing at times but is definitely worth having.  Perhaps sensing this possible confusion, Corel offers users multiple workspaces, but I've found it most convenient to use the Complete mode to avoid having to search for missing tools.

While Paintshop Pro has pretty much all the essential tools offered in Photoshop and even offers RAW processing, what makes the app most exciting are the effects.  Corel has gone all in on AI on almost all its offerings.  In Paintshop Pro, as in Painter and Painter Essentials, this includes AI auto painting in a variety of different styles.  To boost its sales Corel has been careful to ensure that those styles offered in one app are not duplicated in another, and this ends up giving users a much greater range of possibilities.  The app also relies on AI for de-noising and artifact removal.

The newest 2022 version of Paintshop Pro now offers Content Aware tools that, as noted on its website, can be used for Smart Clone, Magic Fill and Magic Move as well as to clear blemishes and red eye when doing makeovers.  I only rarely use any of these in my own work, but it's nice to know they're there.

One set of effects that have been standard in Paintshop Pro for some time are the scripts.  These are actually native filters, or presets.  Some come included with the app while a host of others can be purchased separately.  I've found them to be of varying usefulness.  Some, like the Selfie script, are of limited practical value while others can save a great deal of time in adjusting tonal values.

Since I still rely on Photoshop CS6 for the bulk of my photo editing, I now make use of Paintshop Pro almost entirely for the effects listed above.  If I were to move on from Adobe at some time in the future, however, I would almost certainly choose this app over GIMP and Affinity Photo as my default editor.  It simply has so much to offer that one really would never need to go outside it.