Tired of Adobe’s cloudy and greedy ways of dealing with photographers? The time is right to try out imaging software from other companies! The official Corel online store has a sale on their brand new time-traveling Corel Paintshop PRO 2018 software for $55 full version or $40 as an eligible/qualifying upgrade. This is the digital download.
When you add to cart, they automatically add “Download insurance” for +$8. You can remove that. It’s a stupid thing they are doing for just $8 more, it can alienate consumers and drive them back into the greedy arms of Adobe 🙂
For other Corel software, check their latest sales at their Online Store. Here you will also find the “Ultimate” version of Paintshop PRO 2018 which goes for $15 more ($70 full version; $55 eligible upgrade).
“Tired of Adobe’s cloudy and greedy ways of dealing with photographers?”
Yes indeed. I got Lightroom 4 and upgraded it to 4.5 (I think it is). After some hunting and pecking with the interface I came to like its extensive and powerful editing options. Ironically, even with a David Bush book full of exhaustive and sometimes exhausting explanations, I never got all that comfortable with the database system. I’m still not entirely clear about how the DB is set up or works, although it has some nifty features such as stacks. One thing I’m perfectly clear about: I DO NOT want my images all going automatically to any outfit’s server in the cloud.
Here’s the thing with Adobe. It wants to be market dominant, leading edge, king of the hill, top of the heap. It wants its programs to be ones the in crowd wouldn’t be caught dead without. All that and a bag of chips. Adobe wants all the pro’s who have great assignments with major ad agencies, the magazine photographers, the newspaper and wire service photo operations, the commercial, portrait and wedding pro’s. It wants the doctors/lawyers/engineers, the trust-fund dilettantes who start out with something in the four-figures range from Leica. The pro’s can amortize the cost of their software and hardware on their taxes. Expense is little or no object. Same with the trust funders and other well-heeled camera buffs. Joe Blow with his Canon T6 or Olympus EM-10 can get in line behind the in crowd, pay his $10/month, like it or lump it. Well, as far as PS and LR, the cloud and subscribing are concerned, adios Adobe.
Interestingly, Zoner Photo Studio went to a subscription model last summer and was clearly taken aback when its user base, or apparently a goodly portion of it, reacted badly. The head of the ZPS outfit, in Germany, sent out an e-mail two or three months later with a very thoughtful, diplomatic explanation of ZPS’ rationale. The program is in constant development. Any bugs have to be fixed for each version; they’re defects. It takes time and money to prepare, roll out and publicize a new version, and publish and mail discs for those who prefer them. Customers skip version releases and still want ongoing support for their aging version, and at some point a good discount on a later version. Sales go up and down, with some versions selling more than others. The people at ZPS have ongoing expenses, like having to eat regularly, so up-and-down revenue can be problematic. All understandable. Henceforth, updates and fixes go out whenever ready. They install automatically in the background. Users always have the latest and greatest, and the people at ZPS get their reward for work done, incentive to do more and eat regularly. So, everyone should be happy. I get it.
I tried ZPS a couple versions back and kind of liked it. The interface had a lot in common with LR4. Many of the editing tools were similar and worked very well. There were some quirks in the interface, however, and a few rough edges. I was seriously considering buying it when it went to a subscription model. I’ll have to watch and think about it some more.
I’ve given Affinity for Windows a try. The price is right but its Mac orientation and quite a few interface “features” just didn’t work for me. I tried the more-expensive On1, which has some very powerful tools and other features. It’s impressive and being rapidly developed (likely too rapidly for my nonpro budget). If they get it more integrated and don’t raise the price too much I might go with it.
As for Corel, I’ve tried to get comfy with its photo software I don’t know how many times, going way, way back. For one reason or another, I just didn’t like it. For one thing, it seemed to always be a big, ponderous, slow-loading resource hog. Maybe that’s no longer true.
My all-time favorite is a fast, lightweight, extremely versatile and powerful program with an almost childish-looking interface. It’s iPhotoPlus 4, and it’s simply amazing. It came with a scanner, I think, as a freebie. It can do virtually all the things Corel and PS Elements make complicated with layer handling, automates that handling, doing the complicated stuff in the background at lightning speed, stows X-number of non-destructive iterations of the image being edited, your call as to how many. It includes text, even with special effects, if you want, plus graphic tools for lines, boxes, etc. It has healing brushes and you can define any part of an image and have any and all editing tools work only on that part. All that and more in a program so small and fast. I wonder if it was written in assembler, it’s so small and fast.
Alas, for reasons I don’t understand, I can install and run IPhotoPlus 4 in compatibility mode on one of two very similar Acer PC’s but not the other. I guess that’s because of some difference in the motherboards. I fear for the day when I can no longer get it to to install and run on a newer PC or Windows version. I just keep going back to iP4Plus. (I apologize for this being so long, but your post triggered some thoughts that have been percolating for some time.)
No apologies needed for being too long! The internet has infinite space, you can write as much as you want!
Yeah, right now there is an opportunity for someone to make inroads with another wave of photographers unhappy with Adobe’s Greedy Cloud. Mayhaps DXO with their purchase of Snapseed is going to attempt that? Who knows…
I *think* I saw somewhere that DXO has acquired Google’s NIK collection with the intention of continuing development and updates. Google abandoned the collection and made it open source and free awhile back, but with the understanding there would be no further development or updates. That can go hard on the RAW-only crowd. So, that’s something to keep an eye on. I just wish someone with the necessary skills would get hold of the rights to iPhotoPlus and bring it up to date. The core of it is excellent, the interface could use some remodeling, RAW handling could be added, etc. The result could be stiff competition for PS Elements, Corel and some others.
yes! that one! I got the names mangled up 🙂