Cut-price Photoshop rival unveils latest software

Looking for a cheap alternative to Photoshop? Then check out PhotoPlus

Serif's photo editing tool PhotoPlus isn't really a tool for pro designers or photographers, but it's still surprisingly capable. And for those who only want to do a small amount of photo editing, it's worth a look.

Today Serif releases the latest version, PhotoPlus X7. Retailing at £79.99, it's available directly from Serif. The new features include:

A new Lab Colour Mode, which ensures changes to skin tones, backgrounds and objects look more natural, while allowing you to separately edit contrast and colours quickly and easily.
A new Lens Correction Filter, which enables you to correct lens distortion, lens vignette and chromatic aberration. It can also straighten images and correct vertical and horizontal lens perspective problems with the on-screen alignment grid.
A dedicated Warp Studio, which enables you to correct photo portraits and add interesting effects. Users can use grids to visualise warps precisely and also protect certain aspects of an image while editing the rest of the photo.
New Vivid Light, Hard Mix and Pin Light blend modes to increase colour contrasts, add vintage styles and increase and decrease light and dark areas.
A new Halftone Screen Filter, whch enables you to add line screen and circular styles to create pattern effects.
A new Startup Assistant to help you jump straight into a new or ongoing project in just a couple of clicks.
Improvements to the Clarity Filter, Clone Tool, Raw Compatibility, Photo Display
Faster and smoother brushes
Five new photographic presets to create retro effects
Better display of images
Support for JPG XR

Tom May is an award-winning journalist specialising in art, design, photography and technology. His latest book, The 50 Greatest Designers (Arcturus Publishing), was published this June. He's also author of Great TED Talks: Creativity (Pavilion Books). Tom was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine.