Corel PaintShop Pro remains a standout choice for photographers and graphic designers seeking a comprehensive, subscription-free photo editor in late 2025. This versatile software combines professional-grade photo editing tools with creative graphic design capabilities, offering a budget-friendly alternative to industry giants like Adobe Photoshop. With its latest suite of AI-powered features and an intuitive workspace, it empowers users to transform ordinary images into stunning visual projects efficiently.
Key Features
- Focus Stacking: Combines multiple images of the same scene taken at different focus distances to create a final composite with a sharp depth of field, ideal for macro photography and detailed product shots.
- AfterShot Lab: integrated directly into the interface, this tool provides a dedicated workspace for non-destructive RAW editing, allowing photographers to adjust exposure, color, and dynamic range before moving to deeper pixel-level edits.
- AI Background Replacement: Automatically detects and masks subjects in a photo, enabling users to swap out backgrounds seamlessly for creative composites or clean product photography without tedious manual selection.
- Frame Tool: Accelerates layout creation by allowing users to place images into shapes, creating masks automatically; this is perfect for designing social media graphics, digital scrapbooks, and marketing materials.
- AI Denoise & Upsampling: Utilizes machine learning to remove low-light noise or enlarge images without sacrificing quality, ensuring crisp results even when working with older files or cropped sections.
- Real-Time Blend Mode Preview: Enhances the creative workflow by letting users hover over layer blend options to instantly see how they affect the image, eliminating the guesswork from compositing tasks.
Use Cases
This software is particularly suited for enthusiast photographers who need advanced RAW processing and retouching tools without a monthly fee, as well as digital artists creating social media content, web graphics, and composite imagery. It also serves small business owners well, providing all the necessary tools for product photography and marketing asset creation in a single, accessible package.
For Windows users seeking a capable and permanent photo editing solution, Corel PaintShop Pro delivers professional results and extensive creative control that rivals much more expensive subscription-based competitors.
Version 2023 Update 2 (Build 25.2.0.58) — August 2023
- Enhanced Gradient Fill Tool: implemented improvements to the functionality and usability of the Gradient Fill tool.
- New Lens Profile Support: expanded the database of supported lens profiles to ensure better correction for a wider range of camera lenses.
- Performance & Stability: delivered general optimizations to improve application response times and overall system stability.
- General Bug Fixes: addressed various reported issues and applied fixes to different areas of the application for a smoother editing experience.
