Home > Consumer Reviews > Jasc Paint Shop Pro 8 [OLD VERSION]

Not much difference between version 8 and version 7. Version 7 was a leap forward from 6, but don't expect any such change between 7 and 8. If you don't own Paint Shop Pro 7, then go ahead and buy 8. If you already have 7, stick with it...there is almost no difference between what you already own and version 8. (I suspect some of the reviews on this and other products are by people associated with the companies that make them). PSP is a very good photo/paint program and a lot faster to use than the more well known (and incomprehensibly expensive) Adobe Photoshop. PSP has lots of ways to edit just about every aspect of an image (lots of ways you probably never knew about) and the features can be combined many, many ways so that even after using it for years you can still find new effects through experimentation. Best buy for the money, but again, if you already own 7, you pretty much already own most of 8. If you own any version earlier than 7, or if you don't own PSP at all, then by all means I would suggest PSP 8 over the competition.

I upgraded to PSP 8 and love it. PSP 8 has been rewritten from the ground up and it shows. The background eraser, scripting, eyedroppers for black and white points, excellent photo tools and customizable interface make this version the best ever. I really love the way you can change and control almost everything from menus to buttons in PSP 8, making the user interface truly something you can use. In my opinion, PSP 8 is the only software the average person would need for photo enhancements and/or web graphics. Most of my use is for enhancing my photos from my 2 digital cameras. This new version makes many of my tasks much easier than before.

Thought PSP 7 was great? Try this! I moved on to PSP 7 from PhotoShop 5.5 when PS was getting too expensive. I expected to lose a lot of the functionality of PS but was very pleasantly surprised.
Now with PSP 8, jasc have outdone themselves with a product that shines. We are all used to new versions and I suppose we start to get a bit jaded to get asked for more money for a new product that, in a lot of cases, is hardly better than the previous one.
That doesnt apply with PSP 8. It really is a great improvement on an already great product. For example: Scan an old faded photo in, press the "One step photo fix" and just look at the results unfold before your eyes! Astounding! This is one of the many new fully customisable "script" features.
And that`s just one of the many time savers this program has.
BUY IT!!!

I've been a user of Paint Shop Pro since version 3 and over the past year I've used version 7. I recently upgraded to version 8, thanks to the very affordable price. Without a doubt, Jasc typically makes great software at a very reasonable price.

Compared to PSP7, PSP8 offers several advantages. One of the biggest is that on complicated images with multiple layers, it no longer takes several seconds to do simple operations like flood filling. The general performance of the painting component is much faster than before. PSP8 also brings with it a new interface more akin to Photoshop. It is much cleaner and more compact. There is a ton of information right at your fingertips now in centralized locations instead of scattered across various floating menus. Indeed, the whole package is a lot more organized than before.

There are other minor new features that are nice additions. One great addition is the emergence of a freehand pen tool that allows you to more easily draw with the mouse by smoothing any curve you draw (similar to Macromedia Flash). The sensitivity is adjustable. There are also a few new special effects. Another new function is scripting. For all of those tedious graphic manipulation tasks where you find yourself doing the exact same thing repeatedly, you can automate routine actions using scripting. Again, another great idea. Previous in PSP7, Jasc offered automatic color, contrast, and saturation enhancements for any photograph. Here, they've integrated them into the "one step photo fix" feature that, as advertised, tries to fix an entire picture in the push of a button. To my surprise, it works remarkably well.

However, there is a negative side to PSP8. It has a host of strange quirks and bugs. Perhaps thanks to the rewrite, some parts of PSP8 are unstable. While the program doesn't crash per se, it doesn't function like it should in some cases. In several cases, I've observed the Undo function breaking completely or even undo'ing the wrong portions of the image. In another case, a saved file did not save correctly when using the PNG exporter. And yet the worst part is that these bugs are rather nondeterministic. They occur sometimes and not others. Without a doubt, PSP8 would have benefit from more testing as even with the most recent patch installed, it hasn't earned my trust yet unlike PSP7.

If you can tolerate the quirks, however, you gain a significant increase in speed when dealing with complex multi-layered images. It's a toss, really. If you're like me and you deal with such images, you might deal with the bugs and enjoy the speed increase. For the casual user, though, I would be cautious recommending this one over PSP7.

I have used PSP 8 now for about 1 month. Upgraded from PSP 7. I'm still getting used to it,but I can say I like it, and am glad I upgraded. The first thing to do if you buy the boxed version after you load it go to JASC.Com and download all the little fixes for it. The file is almost 25Mb in size so if you are using a dial-up connection it will take a while. But it takes care of all the little problems users have told them about. With PSP 7 I had to do the same thing. But it's nice to see a company stay on top of these type things with the software they sell. I also purchased 2 books on Amazon to help me get a feel for the changes. " Paint Shop Pro 8 fast & easy" and "Paint Shop Pro 8 zero to hero" I feel this product is worth the price and is fun and easy to use. Would give it 5 stars if their manuals were writen better. The program itself 6 stars.