Corel PaintShop Pro: A Worthy Photoshop Alternative

Photoshop is a magnificent tool, but many of its users could do everything they need to in Corel’s photo-editing software, PaintShop Pro, without having to pay a monthly tribute to Adobe. PaintShop Pro supports layers and lets you edit both raster and vector image formats—something you’d need two of Adobe’s Creative Cloud apps to do.

- MICHAEL MUCHMORE

You miss out on some of the Adobe flagship photo editor’s most advanced tools, however, including 3D modeling, detailed typography, and face liquefy. PaintShop Pro’s Performance is faster than in earlier versions, but in some photo-editing operations, it lags Photoshop. Likewise, while PaintShop Pro’s interface has improved greatly over the years, it’s still not quite as polished and unified as Photoshop’s. If you’re a Windows user who’s not committed to the Adobe ecosystem, PaintShop Pro is a worthy alternative, especially given its low cost.

PRICING

PaintShop Pro 2022 is available directly from Corel or via retail for $79.99 (or $59.99 as an upgrade from any previous version); it’s frequently discounted. The Ultimate edition ($99.99, $79.99 upgrade) throws in more software—AfterShot (Corel’s photo workflow app for importing and organizing digital photos), Corel Painter Essentials, PhotoMirage Express (converts still shots to animations) and more brushes and backgrounds. You’ll need Ultra to get the AI HDR Studio and Sea-to-Sky Workspace (see below), PhotoMirage animation, and more brushes.

PaintShop Pro is available from the Microsoft Store app on a subscription basis at $7.99 per month. This gets you all updates but no cloud storage, such as you get with Adobe’s subscriptions.