Developing a web site requires little more than a sound understanding of HTML, CSS and notepad. The first two require only your time and a willingness to learn while notepad or even an html editor like notepad++ cost nothing. Designing a visually pleasing web site however requires an artistic eye and graphic editing software.
There is a multitude of graphic editing software applications available costing nothing (the Gimp) to costing thousands (Photoshop). Somewhere in the middle is Corel Paint Shop Pro X2.
This article will discuss the feasibility of using Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 in the web site design environment.
Cost
Graphic editing software come in many forms.
The flagship of bitmap editing software is Adobe PhotoShop. Unfortunately Adobe PhopShop is incredibly expensive putting it out of reach of the amateur web site developer.
The GIMP is an open source alternative, costing nothing. The GIMP is a powerful graphics editor that offers many of the features found in PhotoShop.
Like PhotoShop, the GIMP has a steep learning curve and if you wish to use either of these programmes, you’ll need to spend lots of time practising and developing the skills required to use either programme effectively.
There are many cheaper and simpler graphic editors available but most of these, while being much simpler to use, are limited in terms of their ability to manipulate complex graphics.
Enter Corel Paint Shop Pro (PSP). On the cost side, PSP is affordable costing a fraction of the cost of PhotoShop, but is PSP easy to use and does it offer enough features in terms of graphic manipulation?
The Paint Shop Pro learning Curve
Installing the 600mb heavy programme is easy enough, simply follow in on-screen prompts. Open the program and you are greeted with the following screen:
The dark graphite skin takes a few minutes to get used to but then it is full steam ahead.
Importing photos and graphics can be done in several ways; using the PSP organiser, using the open command or simply using the Windows drag and drop feature.
In terms of actual editing, the “Learning Center” pallet will help you make several common edits.
There is no doubt that Paint Shop Pro is aimed at the amateur photographer and as a consequence Corel has produced a product that is easy to use. The programme is intuitive and with a few clicks you are able to achieve satisfactory results. As with all software applications, the more time you spend experimenting with the programme the better will be your results.
Features, features and more features!
So while it does not require a three year intensive course to master the basic operation of Paint Shop Pro, does the programme offer enough features to make it a viable option in terms of designing a web site?
The simple answer is “yes”, the more accurate answer is “well it depends on what you want to do”.
So let us look at what Paint Shop Pro can do.
Layers
Like many professional graphic editing packages, PSP offers users the ability to develop their design using layers.
For people who have not used layers, they allow you to place each element of the design on its own layer which overlays one on top of the next to form a composite of the complete design.
Layers can then be turned on and off and edited or deleted, independent of the other layers.
The layer at the top of the palette is the upper most layer and is positioned above the layers below. The order of appearance of the layers can be changed by the dragging the layers up and down the palette.
In addition, layers can be grouped together and objects can be placed independent of each other, on a single layer.
Layers can also be merged to form a single layer.
Selections
Paint Shop Pro also has a highly intuitive battery of selection tools which makes it easy to lift objects out of photographs. These selection tools work in a similar manner to masks in other graphic editing programmes. Below, left, is a photograph I used for a recent project. 
For this project I wanted to lift the cow in the forefront to
use in a banner for a web site I designed. Using a combination of the magic wand and freehand selection tool it was a simple job to isolate the cow from the background.
Materials
PSP offers a huge array of materials for the web designer to use when creating backgrounds and other elements of a web site.
Colours can be chosen using the the pick tool, clicking on the palette, typing in the RGB value or by entering an html hex value directly.
Making gradients is a snap in the gradient panel. The gradients can be fine tuned manually or preset gradients can be used. In addition thousands of gradients are available for download on the internet.
Another great feature is the ability to use jpegs or any other bitmap as a pattern to fill in a background or object.
Lastly PSP allows the user to apply a texture on any of the above mentioned materials so that you can easily add an additional dimension to your work.
Vector Layers
Perhaps one of the most useful applications of Paint Shop Pro is the ability to create vector layers where vector objects can be placed and manipulated with ease. This makes the design process easier and faster as you have the ability to experiment with size, colours, border widths, gradients and so on without having to make multiple copies or loosing definition with each change.
Exporting
When you are happy with your design and want to cut up the picture to use in your CSS and HTML, both the crop tool or the selection tool make this easy. Once you have defined your selection it is simply a matter of cutting the selection and pasting it to a new image. Now you can export the image to a number of formats. PSP also offers three optimised for web exports in the form of gif, jpg or png.
Other features
Needless to say Paint Shop Pro also offers all the other features you would expect from a photograph editing application. Special effects, rotation, resizing, color adjustments and so on.
Where PSP falls short
Paint Shop Pro is not the perfect solution for the Web Design environment as there are areas where it is lacking in features.
Transparency
While it is possible to apply transparency to layers, PSP does not offer the ability to fine tune this transparency or apply the effect as a gradient.
Compatibility
A second area which may cause frustration is the inability to import projects from other well known applications like Corel Draw and Adobe PhotoShop.
In Conclusion
Can it do everything that PhotoShop can do? “No!”
Can it do enough of what an amateur web designer would need? “Yes!”
Overall Paint Shop Pro X2 is a fantastic programme fulfilling about 95% of the amateur web designers needs. Considering it’s cost, Paint Shop Pro X2 is a definite consideration when choosing a graphic editing application.
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