Corel Corporation Acquires Jasc

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.dpreview.com/news/0410/04101501corel_jasc.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.dpreview.com/news/0410/04101501corel_jasc.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"<i>Corel Corporation today acquired Jasc Software, Inc., the award-winning developer of the Paint Shop™ family of digital-photography and image- editing software. A critical milestone in Corel's ongoing growth strategy, this acquisition follows four consecutive quarters of profitability and a successfully completed turnaround since Corel was taken private in August 2003. The acquisition further extends Corel's position as a powerful force in the packaged software industry providing exceptional office and personal productivity and graphics products. Corel will now serve a combined base of more than 60 million customers worldwide with an extended software portfolio that combines innovative photo editing and graphics creation, vector- illustration and technical- graphics applications along with Corel's popular WordPerfect line of products. The acquisition is expected to officially close by the end of October 2004.</i>"<br /><br />Interesting move by Corel, they now plug a huge hole in their product lineup. It looks like the people who bought Corel over a year ago feel like the company is ready for growth. Lets hope they don't repeat the crash that happened when Corel bought WordPerfect.

[phillypocket]

What was the huge hole in their product line-up?

[James Fee]

What Corel product actually stands up to Photoshop? Be honest.

[phillypocket]

Ok, so there wasn't actually a huge hole. You just feel paint shop pro compares more favorably than photo-paint to photoshop.
Huge hole, however implied they had no bitmap paint product, from your post I thought that there was some other product that JASC had that Corel didn't.

[Bob12]

I use Corel PhotoPaint and have for several generations. I haven't seen anything by anybody else that would induce me to change.

[James Fee]

Oh no!

I'm surrounded by PhotoPaint supporters.....

Gotta hit the eject button and run.

Hmm, maybe I'll go post about how horrible Sony's MD format it. :twisted:


Back on topic...

It is a huge hole. JASC and Adobe dominate the market. PhotoPaint used to be viable, but as with most Corel products, they let it sit and it falls out of favor. With Paint Shop, now Corel has a top end product that they can market to users. PhotoPaint has become just a "throw in" to CorelDRAW.

[Bob12]

Whatever. It still does far more than most users would ever need.

[James Fee]

Whatever. It still does far more than most users would ever need.OK, but that wasn't my point. :roll:

Corel has ignored the program for years and will now kill it. Does that mean its not good. No, I've never said that. You seem to think I'm bashing the program and I've looked over my posts and I just don't see that.

The old Corel had PhotoPaint and has ignored it over the past few years to the point where they felt the need to buy JASC. Corel could have saved themselves tons of money if they had just kept PhotoPant up to Photoshop and PaintShop's standards. The latest issue of PC Magazine has reviews of Photoshop Elements, PhotoPaint and Microsoft's image program (the name escapes me). Now Corel can have its name back in with the big fish or photo manipulation.

[Bob12]

No, I don't think you're bashing the program - we just have a difference of opinion about the various editing programs. Perhaps if i did a lot of post-processing, I might feel differently. But most of my photos are finished as they come from the cameras. About all I edit is an occasional "misstep" on contrast, occasional removal of unwanted elements from an otherwise good picture, and some resampling to reduce file sizes. I use the lowest compression settings available on my cameras and save everything in jpeg format. I have not used the Microsoft program but I have used Adobe Elements and the full Photo Shop program. For the things I do, Corel Photo Paint does everything I want easier than the others so I don't see it as the huge hole that you do. As I say, no bashing, just a difference of opinion.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

I dunno about you guys, but even as a film shooter who scans his film in afterwards I edit every single photo of mine. The bare minimum is a tweak in levels.

Good shots undergo a bit more tweaking, in the form of curves adjustment, or colour adjustment (or some other).

Then prior to printing, I convert the photo's colour profile to match that of the printer I'm going to, resize, adjust colour if needed (most prints need a saturation boost), sharpen it somemore, and then burn to CD.

The point is Bob12, you're criminally underusing your 1D! =P

I've never used Photopaint (didn't even know it existed), but Corel buying Jasc leaves me a little uneasy.. time to make multiple backups of PSP 7.

[Bob12]

I dunno - If my 1D is turning out pictures that seldom need tweaked, maybe I'm not the one criminally underusing the camera :)