Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 continues to focus on photo editing, making it the ideal choice for any aspiring photographer's digital darkroom. The exciting new features in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 include the following:

* Express Lab - A new streamlined mode of Paint Shop Pro Photo helps users quickly view and fix dozens of photos in the time it used to take to edit just a few. Now users can crop, rotate, and fix their photos without having to open them individually.
* Graphite Interface Theme - A new, darker theme for Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 makes photos look their absolute best while users edit them.
* HDR Photo Merge - Users can take advantage of their camera's autobracketing feature and combine multiple exposures of high-contrast scenes, which are otherwise impossible to capture adequately.
* Integrated Clarify Control - Users can achieve incredible results with HDR Photo Merge by applying automatic dodging and burning. The enhanced Black and White Film dialog box also provides a Clarify control, so users can create dynamic, high-contrast images that mimic the use of black-and-white film with a color filter on the lens.
* Makeover Tool Modes - The suite of easy-to-use retouching tools grows in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 to include the new Thinify and Eye Drop modes, which give super results, fast.
* Layer Styles - Users can easily apply effects such as embossing, drop shadows, glows, and even reflections, which automatically update whenever the underlying layer is edited.
* Visible Watermarks - Users can take credit for their work by adding watermarks to photos. All it takes is a few clicks before printing or uploading proof copies.
* Workflow Improvements - Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 makes it easier to use photos in documents, presentations, and Web pages through the new Save for Office and Copy Special options, plus redesigned Resize and Save As dialog boxes.
* Auto-Preserve Originals - Original photos are now automatically preserved when users save an edited version. This new feature provides a safety net in case users want to return to the original version.

The Express Lab helps users quickly process large batches of photos

Supporting these features is the award-winning Learning Center, which help new users get up to speed quickly. The Learning Center is laid out in workflow order, so users can easily identify what they'd like to do with their photos. The Learning Center is truly integrated into the application, so selecting a topic automatically launches the corresponding tool. Unlike products with limited feature sets, Paint Shop Pro Photo provides a full range of functionality, from quick, single-click adjustments to full manual controls. Many common photo-editing tasks are much easier to perform in Paint Shop Pro Photo than in comparable applications, such as Adobe Photoshop Elements. Examples include the following:

* Replacing color selectively - Change the color of any object in a photo with just one click of the Color Changer tool while preserving the shading and texture of the original object. Even changing a dark color to a light color requires just a single click, as opposed to the difficult, multistep manual process required in Adobe Photoshop Elements.
* Correcting perspective - Turn any lens into a tilt-swing perspective correction lens with the Perspective Correction feature. Simply line up four corners on a photo element that should be square, and double-click. Photoshop Elements requires a complex process involving multiple controls.
* Blurring the background selectively - Draw attention to an object of interest in a photo with the Depth of Field effect. This feature simulates the use of a low lens aperture setting.
* Sprucing up photo subjects - Apply tooth-whitening, slimming, suntanning, and other enhancements with a suite of Makeover tool modes.
* Giving images an older look - Take photos back in time by using the seven different historical effects in the Time Machine feature.
* Removing unwanted objects in photos - Outline an object to remove, and a background area to use to replace it, and the object is gone. This technique is particularly useful for objects that are larger than the area you use for the replacement texture. In Photoshop Elements, this task requires cloning, which often leads to noticeable repeat patterns.
* Removing purple fringe - Detect and remove the colored fringe that appears along high-contrast edges in many digital camera photos by using the Purple Fringe Remover.
* Simulating infrared film - Simulate the ethereal effect of infrared photography. The Infrared Film effect even includes options to simulate the flare and film grain qualities of this unique film type.
* Importing and exporting CMYK format files - Benefit from fully supported color management, with ICC-standard color profiles, including importing and exporting CMYK format files.
* Merging auto-bracketed images - Take advantage of a digital camera's auto-bracket feature to create images that retain all the detail of shadow and highlight areas in a photo.

Process Your Photos Like the Pros

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 has a variety of tools and features that allow users to quickly process vast quantities of images without sacrificing quality. Whether users work in offices, in photography studios, or at home, their ability to quickly create top-notch images is critical. Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 helps users get the end results they demand with a variety of high-quality, intuitive, and time-saving tools and features.

New! Express Lab:

Nothing has fueled the digital camera revolution like the ability to take large numbers of pictures without having to worry about the cost. As a result of this newfound freedom, however, users are faced with the daunting tasks of viewing, deleting, and fixing all of those downloaded photos.

The Express Lab is ideal for processing an entire folder of photos all at once--without having to sacrifice power for speed. It helps users sort through a vast quantity of images, allowing them to view and process the photos without having to open each one.

Advanced users can fine-tune photos by using a histogram and separate controls for shadows, brightness, highlights, and saturation. Less experienced users can easily refine their photos by using the Suggest Settings feature of the Smart Photo Fix tool. The Express Lab also offers a toolset that lets users easily perform many common editing tasks, such as cropping and straightening photos and removing red-eye and blemishes. Users can also assign ratings to their photos, so they can quickly find their favorites.

Take credit for your work by adding watermarks to photos

The new Save for Office and Copy Special commands help you optimize images for their intended destination.

New! Visible Watermark:

Professional photographers and hobbyists alike want to put their stamp on the photos they take and share. The Visible Watermark feature lets users add a discreet watermark to their photos to remind viewers who took the shot and to help safeguard against misuse of their images. This new feature simplifies the task of adding a logo or other graphic as a watermark, and users can choose from options such as embossing to give their photos a subtle, professional look.

New & Enhanced! Auto-Preserve Originals and Save As:

Users don't have to worry about overwriting their original photos, thanks to the new Auto-Preserve Originals option. The first time a user saves an image, a backup copy of the original is automatically created one level deeper in the folder hierarchy. The original can easily be restored by using the Restore Original command in the File menu.

Paint Shop Pro Photo is renowned for the number of file formats users can save to. The improved Save As command helps users quickly choose the formats they use most often by listing common and recently used ones at the top of the file format list.

New! Save for Office and Copy Special:

Preparing an image for use in documents, in presentations, or on the Web can be tricky. The Save for Office command removes the guesswork by automatically optimizing an image for its intended use, thereby avoiding problems with file size, performance, or printing.

When users copy and paste images into other applications, the new Copy Special command prepares the image based on its intended purpose. The resizing function is built in, ensuring that no unnecessary image data is added to the document.

E-mailing:

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 lets users e-mail photos as embedded files or attachments. A preview feature lets users double-check their images before sending them and check a running count on the size of selected files.

Color Management:

The Color Management engine lets users read and save ICC-standard color profile data in their files, which ensures that on-screen colors match printed colors. In addition, Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 supports CMYK input and output for commercial printing.

Makeover tool modes let you quickly and easily touch up the appearance of photo subjects.

Discover Editing Tools You Can't Find Anywhere Else

Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 has a powerful toolset that can fix nearly any digital photo imperfection. If the problem stems from the quality of the image produced by the camera, a user can apply quick, easy corrections with a series of time-saving tools. If photo subjects don't look their best, their appearance can be spruced up faster and easier than ever before.

New & Enhanced! Makeover Tool:

Everyone wants to look their best in a photo. To that end, Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 includes a suite of Makeover tool modes that let users quickly and easily touch up the appearance of photo subjects. The professional-strength Makeover tool contains the following modes:

* New! Thinify Mode - makes photo subjects look thinner.
* New! Eye Drop Mode - Takes the red out of irritated, bloodshot eyes.
* Enhanced! Blemish Fixer Mode - Removes blemishes from photo subjects.
* Enhanced! Suntan Mode - Adds color to pale, washed-out skin.
* Toothbrush Mode - Quickly whitens discolored teeth.