Paint Shop Pro 
version 4.12 freeware circa 1991 - 1996

(Image editing examples further down)


This ancient image-editing software (which is not 
software that I authored -- I wouldn't know how) 
from the early 1990s is far more intelligently 
designed than any other such software that has 
since been produced.

I've processed somewhere between 30,000 and 
60,000 images (counting re-processing in a 
separate session) with this software over the 
decades.

I've been using it since 1995 for all of the
following image-processing techniques:

clone tool (touch up / portion replacement)
free-hand portion selection
rectilinear portion selection
skewing
sharpening
softening
hue change
color saturation adjustment
brightness adjustment
contrast adjustment
gamma correction
collage creation
border fogging
drawing (such as routes on mountain images)
text insertion
resizing
cropping
rotation

and much more.

I have no need for any other such software.
And it is freeware -- widely available for
download on the Internet.

It is simple to use -- completely intuitive.


Here are just nine extremely simple examples
of what you can do with this software.
It really doesn't scratch the surface of
the deep restore/rebuild tasks I've done
with this software:

1.  A type of task that comes up frequently:
My sister Kay was not present for our
sibling portrait, so she sent me a recent
photo of herself which I free-handed into
our portrait.  She is on the far right.
(We had purposely left that spot open for her.)
Notice that I even included her feet!
I also free-handed myself a cap to hide my 
bald head:





1b.  Conversely, you can subtract someone from
a photo, as Kay and I decided should be done
on the following photograph.  (Big brother
Donald was a distraction in this portrait
of Mom holding Kay.)  I also adjusted the hue:

 



2.  The following two images are an example
of touching up a damaged photograph.  It is
a photo of Kay which she sent me for our family
website.  The "before" image followed by the
"after" image:







Note that in the following four examples
the corrected photos are not "crops".
Rather, the entire photograph has been
preserved.


3.  Kay, before and after:






4.  Kay, before and after:






5.  Kay, before and after:






6.  Kay, before and after:






7.  My sister Pam was sitting on a boulder,
and I inserted her favorite and very beloved
teacher (from the second grade) into that 
boulder for a metaphorical effect.  Truly a
beginner's exercise:




8.  A collage of my mom:





I also routinely clone in foilage or other
types of earth surfaces to obliterate junk
items that distract from an otherwise 
great photo.

I created or edited all the images and diagrams 
for my book (Relativity Trail) using the
same software.


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