PhotoPlus X8 (PC)

The effects in this App do not work - A total waste of money.DO NOT BUY THIS PIECE OF JUNK - DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

love this first of all let me say this the people of Serif are great to work with. Right this must be one of the best programs I have ever used but then I could be called bias there is not much you cannot do with this work of art and its so easy once you get the hang of it to use.. the booklet that comes with it is a great read and so easy to under stand get it soon as you can.

What I wanted. Needs plenty of pracrt

Only just started using this package but am already sick of the pestering to give them all my details and receive a ton of junk mail. I am impressed by how easy it is to use but the nag, nag, nag means I will probably abandon it. AND .. it arrived today, I tried to go through the web site to get an account and switch off the nagging emails and it says X8 is now a legacy product and will no longer be supported so would I like to buy Affinity (their newest product). Seriously upset now. I know it wasn't expensive but you expect it to be supported for more than half a day.

This IS NOT A REVIEW, not having been bought yet. BUT, due to reading the reviews section, I as a previous user of Picasa, need two things, GOOD & EASY. There were enough 5 star ones, with great comments to convince me that this will fit the bill for me.When I have had a chance to use it, I will write my review. In the meantime I thank those who take the time to writea review. It is actually in everyone's interest to write one, and for folk on the look out for something new to read those reviews. I cannot rate this product yet, not having bought it, as stated above.

I use this for family history, and had to get a new programme because having upgraded to Windows 10 it would not accept my old programme. This disc was very reasonably priced, and is working great.Good price

(See edit below)I wanted to give a detailed review for PhotoShop X8 as I think it deserves a little extra due to it's cheap price and features.To start with Serif currently (2015) tends to do deals on their software on various times of the year and these prices can be similar or cheaper here on Amazon at the time – so worth checking out every so often.If you wish to get a feel for DrawPlus, there is a starter version available for free with some features removed – check out Serif's site. This is old version but is still very very similar to X8.Next there's generally two different kinds of users of this sort of software, those that just dabble and are not experienced if at all in Photo software, and the latter who may be a seasoned user who probably knows Photoshop well.For me I'm the latter, I've used Adobe software for 20 years, but I find their current pricing method too expensive on subscription for me. So I'm always on the look out for an alternative that's cheaper. I'm an Indie developer and artist.If you don't already know, Adobe also have a cut-down version called Photoshop Elements which tries to bridge the price gap and features between it and the full Photoshop. This is generally a similar price to PhotoPlus.I'm not that keen on Elements even though, it has some familiarity in it's history with PhotoShop and tools, but it's still too noobish for me with too much emphasis on automating things. Plus with all the bells and whistles you're left with very little working screen space for your photos. Additionally there is no Adjustment Colour Curves, meanies!PhotoPlus on the other hand even though it has the “helpers” for new users, it has a cleaner interface much more similar to full PhotoShop – of course it may not matter to you, but if you use a small resolution screen or a laptop you'll appreciate the space to work on images.Sadly one thing at the moment it doesn't have is a dark interface (similar to Elements) – these days you'd kind of expect it. It's easier to work with images when you have less distractions, especially glare. It does have themes, but they're all throwbacks to years gone by, very similar to Windows XP.Serif is a small UK company, so you may find more bugs than you'd prefer too – sometimes things are also missing, obvious things you'd expect.For me after installing, I'd discovered two bugs that were really easily spotted, which I had to inform Serif's support on. To cut a long story short, one of them I had to upload videos as well, and was still told it was a “feature”. This was until I posted the same report into the Serif forum where they then listened. That was a bit of a pain, time consuming and perhaps a little embarrassing on their part I think.Talking of the forum, you'll not likely find many professionals in there, there's not many tutorials other than the basics and forget YouTube. Although you do get quite a comprehensive manual/guide included within the software. You can of course ask in the forums, although it seems to be run by the same unpaid moderators most of the time who can be quite opinionated at times.I'm still in two minds with PhotoPlus X8, it's got some things I love, and some I loathe. The theme is a pain at night-time for my eyes. Some of the bugs are really quite surprising. But on the other hand it's very Photoshop like, similar to CS2 I guess with 16Bit support, Adjustment Layers and it's updated on a regular basis. I'm yet to see if any of my forwarded bugs or feature requests will be listened to, fingers crossed (very tightly I'll add).In the end you've got to tell yourself, it's budget software, what do you expect? It's not bad, but I really think Serif should decide whether they are making low cost amateurish software for beginners or really want to focus on competing with the big guns such as Adobe and do a more professional job – currently they're in no man's land.Edit: I ended up getting a refund, just too many bugs and they just don't seem to care. It appears to be a business model of sell cheap, badger customers with amazing offers till they give in, but expect them to to the bug checking for you. Then when they aren't happy, if you purchased through Serif direct you have to telephone them up for the refund and wait in a queue for 10 minutes.Luckily with Amazon you won't have the same hassle as with purchasing from Serif direct. I bought Serif DrawPlus X8 at the same time, but direct. There's a 30 day money back guarantee, but you can't get a refund online. when I rung up, they wouldn't talk to me as they wanted to speak to my wife as I'd used her dc. Very patronising experience. They even wanted to knock off £15 so that I'd keep the software, desperate attitude - probably why you have to ring up so they can make deals with you.

Been using this program for years, I upgraded my laptop to Windows 10, so purchased a new Photo plus x 8 too. Excellent!