Jasc Paint Shop Pro 9

Paint Shop Pro is a less expensive, yet similarly powerful, alternative to Adobe Photoshop.

This ninth edition has a number of new features aimed mostly at advanced users but there are practical tools too, such as a new 'noise' removal filter that scans through images and does a good job of removing the speckling on most photos taken with a digital camera.

Another new inclusion is the Chromatic Abberation Removal Filter. It sounds fairly complicated, but it actually deals with a common problem with digital cameras: the coloured glow found on the border of objects in digital photographs.

This tool can also correct overexposed areas of bright light in an otherwise dark photograph.

Unfortunately, while these features are very useful, novices may find them a little difficult to get to grips with. They also require a lot of processing power, so you'll need a fairly fast PC, or a lot of patience.

Thankfully, Paint Shop Pro 9 allows you to save any filter settings you've made, so removing common flaws takes less time.

As well as additions to its photo-editing capabilities, the program has improved art plug-ins. The most impressive of these is the ability to paint using natural brush effects. These include chalk, pastel, crayon, coloured pencil, marker, oil and acrylic brushes.

Impressively, these virtual brushes interact differently, depending on what canvas texture you have chosen and whether any colours are underlying. Thanks to this feature, it's possible to create some impressive images.

One of the biggest improvements is the new History Palette. This displays each step taken when editing a document. You can use it to undo any mistakes you've made but usefully, you can also undo past actions without disturbing subsequent ones.

This is a big improvement over the Command History window in the previous edition of the software, which required you to undo actions in sequential order.

On the whole, Paint Shop Pro 9 is a welcome update. Novices may find it easier to use simple programs such as Adobe Photoshop Elements, but for more experienced digital photographers this is an excellent (and far less expensive) alternative to the market-leading Adobe Photoshop.