I really don't understand why Corel doesn't at least promote Photo-Paint - a program I consider to be hands-down the best photo editing software around. Of course, I'm biased, having been a tier-one tester of CorelDraw for several years. I gave up testing around the turn of the century, but I've continued to upgrade as Corel has released each new build of the program.
I'm Not Objective When It Comes to Photo-Paint
At one time, I'm pretty sure Corel sold Photo-Paint as a stand alone program as well as part of the CorelDraw suite. I'm not sure why the decision was made to stop the solo sales, but it likely had to do with Corel buying JASC Software, the original developer of PaintShop Pro in 2004. PaintShop Pro was the first image editing software I owned (aside from Microsoft Paint) and it worked alright until I bought CorelDraw 3.0 in 1992. It was when I bought CorelDraw that I first began using Photo-Paint, Corel's raster image editing software.
I began beta-testing around 1995 with version 6.0 and then became a paid tester starting with version 7 in 1996. This was back in the days of 2400 baud modems (then 9600 and 14,400), so needless to say we weren't downloading builds via the internet. Instead, Corel would FedEx DVDs to the tier one testers about once every week to ten days. In the interim the testers (there were about seventeen of us) would spend time trying to break the software, filling out reports and going on line to a sort of closed chat room where we would exchange information on the software, but also about ourselves.
There was one person who wrote books on Corel and other Software; there was a guy who used the software to illustrate the articles he wrote for publications like Field & Stream and Outdoor Life. Another person used the software in connection with his monument business while yet another used the software in connection with web design. It was my first experience of meeting and getting to know people purely in the "virtual" world and it's the main thing I miss about the whole experience.
Photo-Paint is the Nice-Guy Software That Always Finishes Last
But back to the issue at hand - Corel's strange decision to make PhotoPaint all but invisible.
Mention photo editing software around most people and the first name that comes to mind is Photoshop. The software has become so synonymous with photo editing that the company has to constantly guard against losing the identity in its tradename. Granted, it's a good program, although many will complain that it has become bloated with features over the years. I used to use Photoshop, but abandoned it because of the cost and because I just liked working with Photo-Paint better.
Over the years I would be frustrated by review after review placing Photoshop at the top of the heap of editing software. Most of these reviewers used the product in their own work every day. It would be the same as if I decided to do a review (which I'm sort of doing right now) and took other products for a test run or even used them from time to time, but compared them with my day in and day out workhorse. It just didn't seem fair.
Then I read PC Magazine's article on the Best Photo Editing Software of 2017. As usual, Adobe's products led the list: Photoshop, Lightroom and Elements. The other programs listed weren't bad - PaintShop Pro made the list, along with DxO Optics Pro, Phase One Capture One, ACDSee Ultimate and others. I actually use all of these, particularly DxO Optics Pro and ACDSee. But Photo-Paint wasn't even listed! A couple of other programs that I currently use and really like weren't listed either - Affinity Photo, Iridient Developer and Corel AfterShot Pro didn't make the cut. But while I like those other programs and I'll probably do an in-depth post about them sometime in the future, I don't believe they measure up to Photo-Paint. Well, maybe Affinity Photo, which in my opinion challenges Photo-Paint - but, like Photo-Paint - it uses layers instead of objects (more on that in a future post).
Corel Doesn't List PhotoPaint as Photo Editing Software . . .
I was moved to actually comment on the PC Magazine article - something I almost never do. (Don't bother trying to find the comment - it has been removed - how invisible can things get?). The author, Michael Muchmore, responded and pointed out that Corel doesn't list Photo-Paint on its website as one of its photo editing programs. I also received a Facebook comment to the same effect from Foster Coburn, the author of books on CorelDraw through version X6.
I still disagree with Muchmore. If he's been involved in this industry for any time at all he's bound to have been aware of Photo-Paint. If he wasn't aware of it, then I brought it to his attention. As someone who is going to advise people on which photo editing software they out to use, he owes it to to his readers to do a thorough job instead of sitting on his behind and writing in the grand tradition the herd mentality of modern journalism.
. . . But CoreDraw.com Does List Photo-Paint as an Image Editor
I will give Muchmore a break to the extent that it really is hard to write about the software online. You won't easily find a product link to Photo-Paint from Corel's main pages - not even the main page for CorelDraw graphics suite: the suite that contains Photo-Paint. The weird thing is that if you go to CorelDraw.com, you will find a tab linking you to a product page for Photo-Paint and - guess what? - it's listed as an "advanced image editor".
Corel's "marketing" just doesn't make sense to me, and it makes me wonder if the people running the company actually use the software they're selling. One of the subheadings above said that PhotoPaint "finished last". That's really not accurate. PhotoPaint doesn't even manage to get into the race because of the way Corel has buried one of its best products. I can argue that Michael Muchmore shouldn't allow Corel to dictate whether he writes about a product or not, but he has a point - it's tough trying to write about something that's invisible.