The speed improvements are tremendous. Using only a minimally equipped laptop, but with eight decent gigs of RAM, my previews run far better than they would have in version 18. I love the variety of effects that come in the Ultimate Edition’s bonus software, with choices that are suitable for nearly any category of subject. Transitions and effects are easy to implement on the topmost layers overlapping element edges below. I heve yet to experiment with the new audio tools, but they seem capable.

I’ve always been able to work with ease within Paint Shop Pro, and X5 is no exception. Version X5 offers Paint Shop Pro’s tools in a three-tab interface consisting of the main drawing window, an effects window and an organizer window in which to manage content resources. I originally installed this on Windows 7, but I recently did a fresh upgrade to Windows 8 and it has worked fine having been hosted on both operating systems.

The improvements in CorelDRAW X6 encompass much more than four new editing tools and a rebuilt text engine, which I consider exciting features by themselves. The streamlining of the workflow in X6 has vastly improved. Now that the object properties docker lists all available options for a particular object in one place, editing is more streamlined than ever before, and when combined with the readily accessible object origin modifier, object manipulation and mirroring has become highly efficient.

This new version of Pinnacle Studio offers exceptional rendering performance on my fairly dated quad-core AMD system. The interface seems the same, though it has been a while since my laptop that had version 17 on it had died, so I could be overlooking something. Pinnacle Studio still stands as one of the simpler to use video editing solutions, and with twenty-four tracks available, the Plus version is easy enough to work in without the need to work around.

I have relied upon Paint Shop Pro for all of my graphics editing needs for many years. The software has eveloved for the better, and it can still meet the demands of both hobbyists, and professionals alike. I have become accustomed to the three-tab interface that has been a part of the software for a few versions now. It helps to have one place for hand-crafted graphics editing tasks separated from the photo touch up features, which I rarely use, but have found to be exceptionally effective when needed.

I’m actually impressed with this inexpensive mapping solution. The software is very easy to use. I opened it with a request for printed up directions to a doctor’s office, and without reading any instructions I was able to print up a detailed turn-by-turn list which included time estimates along the way, and also an easy to read map with it. What I don’t like is the inability to print an ink-saving grayscale map which keeps shading to a minimum.

Works perfect for catching potential problems that my antivirus seems to miss.

The software installed without problems on my 2011 iMac and works well. It seems to offer slight better speed over Parallels 7. I have set up Win 7, Fedora 15, and Win 8 Virtual Machines. Installation of OSs is very straight forward and user friendly.

Painter 12 on Win 7 64 bit is horribly slow. I thought something was wrong with my machine so I installed it on a couple more machines(one with a clean Win install) with the same results. First off the program has got to be one of the slowest to startup software in history. If you have a lot of fonts on your machine you are going to have to delete a lot of them to get your total fonts below 800.

This product is MUCH improved over previous versions. It just works without getting in the way. Check my review history because with prior versions I was no fan. Now I am.