Jasc Paint Shop Pro 6 / Animation Shop & CD Amazon.co.uk Review Paint Shop Pro is an excellent alternative to higher-priced image-editing applications, with many of the same features as the big boys on the block--and even file and plug-in compatibility with Adobe's popular tool, Photoshop. Version 6 includes such new tools as text placement on a path (wrapping text around a circle or a curve), character-level formatting tools for kerning and leading, as well as vector-based drawing tools for creating resolution-independent shapes. A gradient editor is included, as are GIF and JPG exporters for saving files optimised for Web use. Adjustment layers are also an option, allowing users to add image-control effects without altering the layer itself. Another feature of version 6 is a free copy of Animation Shop 2, an animated GIF building-and-editing application. Animation Shop 2 includes new effects and transitions, line-and-shape drawing tools, a built-in registration-mark tool for aligning layers, and AVI import and export. Although Paint Shop Pro has a large customer base and is highly regarded among those who use it, there is still a stigma attached to using anything but one of the more expensive packages within the professional community. However, for anyone working on their own, for any user that wants all the features (and more) that other programs provide, or for anyone where only the results count and not the program used, Paint Shop Pro 6 is a good value. --Mike Caputo, Amazon
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