Affinity Photo comes to Windows

http://www.personal-view.com/talks/discussion/16025/affinity-photo-for-windows-now-in-free-beta#Item_2

PaintShop Pro 2018

Corel introduces PaintShop® Pro 2018, the complete photo editing and graphic design suite that offers more speed, flexibility, and creativity than ever before. Enhance your editing experience with a redesigned and customizable user interface that's now friendlier with high-resolution displays and pen and touch devices. Start and finish your next project faster thanks to improved performance under the hood -- and express your creativity with more than 125 pieces of exciting new content including brushes, gradients, textures, and patterns.

"Whether you're looking for professional photo editing power or just getting started, you need software that lets you jump in and be productive right away. PaintShop Pro now lets you choose from two unique interfaces, plus it gives you the ability to customize them to build an editing and design environment that's uniquely your own," said Chris Pierce, Product Manager for Corel Photo. "With PaintShop Pro 2018, we're delivering a dramatically faster, easier, and highly creative experience that's even more accessible and of course, still subscription free."

The new PaintShop Pro 2018 and PaintShop Pro 2018 Ultimate boost productivity with user-requested enhancements and spark creativity with all-new content, including:

• NEW! Dual Workspace Environment: Introducing two new workspaces designed to match the way you work! New to photo editing or looking to focus on a core set of tools? Try the new Essentials workspace for an easy-to-use, streamlined look. Or, if you're a PaintShop Pro expert, switch to the Complete workspace for a more traditional experience that offers access to the software's complete editing and design capabilities.
• NEW! Simplified, Touch & Pen-Friendly Interface: Now get more control over features, functionality, and customization. Node size not right? Change it. Scroll bar too small? Make it bigger. New larger icons now make it easy to work on touchscreens, 2-in-1 devices, and high-DPI monitors.
• ENHANCED! Faster Launch Time & Performance: Time is precious and whether you're launching a program or performing a specific action, no one likes to wait around. PaintShop Pro 2018 launches more than 50% faster than the previous version (X9), while the software's most popular tools now respond with near-instant results. Text Wrapping is faster and Depth of Field adjustments can be achieved 4 times quicker than before.
• NEW! Customizable Toolbars: Be more productive with larger, easier-to-see icons and use the new Quick Customize feature to update your toolbars with the tools you want at your fingertips.
• NEW! Color Palettes, Brushes & More Creative Content: Choose from a selection of complementary hues with 10 new Color Palettes, apply artistic strokes with 30 new Brushes, and get creative with 30 new Gradients, 30 new Textures, and 15 new Patterns.

Choose PaintShop Pro 2018 Ultimate, the comprehensive editing kit for photographers, and also receive a collection of add-ons worth more than $250 including:

• NEW! Painter® Essentials™ 5: Get photo-painting tools that easily transform your pictures into impressive art right before your eyes. Or start sketching, drawing, and painting from scratch using Natural-Media® brushes.
• NEW! Perfectly Clear 3 SE: Restore details, color, and other elements lost by your camera with the proven, patented corrections. Create a custom look with robust, time-saving presets that let you control multiple adjustments with just one click -- all without leaving PaintShop Pro.
• AfterShot™ 3: With the addition of AfterShot, get a one-two punch to rival Adobe's Creative Cloud photography subscription, only without the monthly fee -- including, digital asset management, RAW conversion, and adjustment. Take advantage of non-destructive editing that preserves your original, whether you edit one version of your photo or 100.

Photo Video Bundle Delivers a Complete Editing Package

Also introduced today, the Photo Video Bundle brings together PaintShop Pro 2018 and VideoStudio® Pro X10 for a complete photo, design, and video editing package to help tell your story. For more information on the Corel Photo Video Bundle, visit us at www.paintshoppro.com/photo-video-bundle.

Pricing and Availability

PaintShop Pro 2018 and PaintShop Pro 2018 Ultimate are available now in English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese. Suggested retail pricing (SRP) for PaintShop Pro 2018 is $79.99 (USD/CAN) / EUR 69.99 / £69.99 / $99 AUD. SRP for PaintShop Pro 2018 Ultimate is $99.99 (USD/CAN) / EUR 89.99 / £89.99/ $129 AUD. SRP for PaintShop Pro 2018 and Video Studio X10 bundle is $159.99 (USD/CAN) / EUR 139.99 / £139.99/ $199 AUD. All European pricing includes VAT. Upgrade pricing is available to registered users of all previous versions of PaintShop Pro. For more information or to download a free 30-day trial, please visit www.paintshoppro.com.

Affinity Photo is the only serious contender. If someone came up with a node-based application with all of PS's features, that would be a big deal.

GIMP 2.9.6 Released

• GIMP now has support for experimental multi-threading in GEGL and will try to use as many cores as are available on your computer.
• Lot of GUI, Usability, and Configurability changes
• Better Hi-DPI Support
• On-canvas Interaction Changes
• Layers, Linear and Perceptual Workflows
• CIE LCH and CIE LAB widely supported
• New Tools
• Painting improvements
• Raw Images Processing
• Better PSD Support
• WebP support
• Metadata Viewing and Editing

https://www.gimp.org/news/2017/08/24/gimp-2-9-6-released/

Photoline receives functionality for scripting:

Forum: https://www.pl32.com/forum3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5653

Commands: https://www.pl32.com/forum3/download/file.php?id=6609

Pixelmator Pro

Sagelight Editor died two years ago, but you can use it

Download trial - http://web.archive.org/web/20160313140925/http://sagelighteditor.com/install_trial.exe

It is software made by quite unique mind, extremely small, quite fast and with original concepts.

Especially if you edit lot of JPEGS can use it.

1. Locate your Users folder "Users" on your computer (on Windows drive)
2. Locate your profile.
3. Make hidden files viewable.
4. Navigate to "AppData", next "Local", next "19th Parallel"
5. Delete the file "{556D9-003445-F3CD1B}" and can also delete "{87782-377222-1F8634}"
6. Trial counter will have reset to 30-days.

Make sure to also check author old posts - https://sagelighteditor.wordpress.com/

GIMP 2.10.0 new stuff

• Updated user interface
• GEGL port, high bit depth support, multi-threading, and more
• Linear color space workflow
• Color management revamped
• Layers and masks improved
• Unified Transform. Warp Transform and Handle Transform introduced
• Better selection tools
• Color tool improvements
• Text tool supports CJK and more writing systems
• Digital painting improvements
• Digital photography improvements (including new filters)
• General bug fixes and usability improvements
• More file formats supported

https://www.gimp.org/release-notes/gimp-2.10.html

PhotoDirector 10

CyberLink Corp. the world's leading consumer multimedia software company, today launched the latest version of its leading photo editing and design software, PhotoDirector 10. The new PhotoDirector presents users of all levels with a host of tools to turn regular photos into stunning works of art. Professional-grade features such as Tethered Shooting and Soft Proofing have been introduced, alongside a new AI Style Engine and additional Style Packs to revolutionize the creative process.

PhotoDirector 10 delivers a host of improvements to layer editing, allowing more experienced editors greater creative flexibility while making this advanced technique easy to harness for novice users. The introduction of clipping masks, layer grouping and the ability to add new empty layers to projects opens a world of creative possibilities for users to explore. A range of stylish new Express Layer Templates are also available to users looking for quick creative solutions.

PhotoDirector 10 also includes a collection of built-in Express Layer Templates. In addition to these templates included with the software, more packs will be added for purchase through the CyberLink Store. Four Packs will be available at the time of launch including Lines and Shapes, Galaxy, Teenage, and Comic.

CyberLink's leadership in AI editing now extends to photos with the inclusion of the revolutionary AI Style Plugin and Packs for PhotoDirector. Introduced to CyberLink's PowerDirector earlier this year, the new AI Style Packs are more than just photo filters. While regular filters simply overlay a generic style on top of an image, CyberLink's AI Style Plugin uses deep learning to produce work demonstrating a much greater understanding of the thought processes behind how human artists create their masterpieces – right down to brush strokes and color tones.

"PhotoDirector has always aimed to demystify photo editing so that anyone, regardless of their skill level, can create amazing art from any shot," said Dr. Jau Huang, CEO of CyberLink. "While we have included some more advanced editing and capture features in this latest version of PhotoDirector, we've held true to our mantra of making the seemingly complex rather straightforward."

PhotoDirector 10 also brings new workflow improvements for more advanced photographers. Tethered Shooting provides a means for those who need to instantly proof and edit their photos. Whether they are shooting in a studio or working on a timelapse in the field, by connecting their camera to their PC, photographers can shoot and immediately preview their shots all from within PhotoDirector. The addition of Soft Proofing enables those looking to print their work to preview the specific printer’s color and tone rendering and make any adjustment before creating the physical print.

Versions & Pricing - PhotoDirector 10 Ultra ($99.99)

Product Availability

The product is available online at the CyberLink online store and in selected retail outlets worldwide in the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese and Korean. Windows & Mac versions are available.

Topaz Studio 2'

Topaz Studio 2 has only one purpose: creative photo editing. This starts after you select your image and ends when you export your finished work. It’s designed specifically around the artisanal post-processing workflow of carefully crafting a single image to your vision.

Studio is the editor to use when you want jaw-dropping images and you’re not afraid to spend the time to get them. It’s for creating works that push the bounds of your artistic vision; the few that you know you’ll look back upon in years as one of your best creations.

That’s why you won’t find library management, design tools, batch editing, or other common “image editor” tools in Studio. There’s a lot of photo editors out there that help you manage your workflow and make minor contrast adjustments. Topaz Studio is not intended for that. If it doesn’t contribute to the vision of creating singularly beautiful images through post-processing, then we’re not including it.

Instead, Topaz Studio 2 focuses on doing three things well. We consider these the product’s guiding design principles and firmly believe that they will make your creative workflow both easier and faster.

https://topazlabs.com/studio/

Photoshop Elements 2020

Automatic coloring of b/w photos

Adding small DOF in post

Removing unwanted objects

Single click object selection and cutout

ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2021

New features:

• New Color Wheels and Tone Wheels - These wheels allow users to more precisely adjust colors, highlights, midtones and shadows.
• Text on paths and text in a frame - You can now customize your text, including its path.
• Refine Selection - In the new version, you can shift or soften edges, allowing for better use of included tools such as Smart Erase.
• New and improved batch rename and resize functionality - You can now create your own templates and presets to speed up batch processes.
• New optimized user interface and panes - New UI and panes are designed to streamline the editing process, allow the user to capture snapshots and view a full edit history for a file.
• Improved Quick Search - Finding images in large databases is much faster.
• Improved crop and watermarking - You can crop multiple images to custom sizes and add watermarks using anchor points.
• Easier migration from Lightroom and Picasa - You can import face data in three clicks.

https://www.acdsee.com/en/products/photo-studio-ultimate/