Paint Shop Pro 10 released, looks promising for raw scans

No spam here. I downloaded and tried out the PSPX demo today, and
while it's underwhelming in some respects, it finally introduces some
16-bit editing and full color management. If first impressions hold
up, it might turn out to be the best option in the $50-150 price range
for working with unadjusted 16-bit scans. Key advantages over
Photoshop Elements 3 are 16-bit adjustment layers (including curves)
and more control over working color space, plus many more general
editing tools and options than Elements offers. Elements still
probably has an edge in behind-the-scenes quality enhancements, filter
speed, and smooth handling of large files. (PSP9 and X can open and
work with 250MB+ files; they just have to work harder at it.) As with
Elements, the majority of PSPX's tools and filters don't work in 16-bit
mode, so it's not a PSCS killer yet. However, PSPX does upgrade the
excellent Digital Camera Noise Reduction filter to 16 bits, making the
whole package even more attractive if you've been considering buying
Neat Image. (The "Art Media" painting tools are 16-bit as well, for
what little that's worth.)

PSPX has a few other new tricks and some steps in the wrong direction,
but it's not really a big change from PSP9 otherwise. There seem to be
some known bugs, but I haven't looked them up yet. Be warned that for
some unknown reason, they've hidden the Black&White Points and Manual
Color Correction filters without providing any obvious replacement.
(Naturally, these filters haven't received the 16-bit upgrade.) These
and other hidden tools from past versions can be found under
View|Customize under the Unused Commands category.

There's a "Try" link to the downloadable demo on the main Corel page
reached through www.corel.com. It may be necessary to choose United
States as your contry. Registration is required before download, and
the demo needs to call home (or you can call Corel support for an
activation code) before it will install. $60US upgrade, $130US new.

I'll give it a heavier workout with some scanned images and post again
if it falls short of my first impressions. I'd very much like to hear
what other interested scanner users think of it.

false_dmitrii