Adobe Elements 5 and Paint Shop Pro XI announced

This week both Corel and Adobe announce new digital imaging solutions, Paint Shop Pro XI and Elements 5, which would both appear to be aimed at the consumer. I haven't had the chance to play with Elements 5, but I did get a tour of PSPXI. OK I'm going to be honest here, Corel have released their latest version of Paint Shop Pro, and Version XI is quite user friendly with lots of power, but it is more than just a consumer centric application. There are many pros, who could look at this solution, as a viable alternative to Photoshop. I've even installed it on my machine and taken it for a spin and I can tell you it's no lightweight. The application has been upgraded with some excellent new features and the integration with their new imaging platform, Snapfire, is something to explore.

The best new features are the powerful integrated organizer, the powerful and easy to use Color-Changer Tool, the Depth of Field and Skin Smoothing tools as well as the new film based Time Machine and the Film and Filters tools. Time machine was cool because it provides the user a simple and effective way to stylize their images using effects which are based on historical photographic techniques.

I plan to take a look at Elements in the next week or so, but look for a more in-depth review of PSPXI real soon...