Corel has today announced Paint Shop Pro X2, photo editing software aimed at both new and ?experienced? users, the features of which include a tool to make the subject look thinner.

Paint Shop Pro X2 costs £79 and is available by visiting www.corel.com, where a free trial version can be downloaded.

?Beginners benefit from a wide range of automatic, one-click adjustments while advanced users can take full advantage of the program?s manual adjustments to provide more direct control of each photo,? claimed a Corel spokesman.

Billed improvements over current Corel software include the new ?Thinify tool?, designed to ?make anyone look thinner with just one click?. It also includes an enhanced version of the ?Suntan Brush and ?Blemish Fixer? makeover features.

Also making its debut is Layer Styles ? a feature allowing photographers to add creative effects such as drop shadows to their images.

Also on board is a new ?neutral background? interface and a photo merge mode designed to bring out details in a high-contrast scene by merging two or more images captured at different exposures.

To aid viewing and editing is Express Lab. ?Users can rapidly crop, rotate, apply colour adjustments and perform other common tasks on large numbers of images without having to open each image individually,? explained a Corel spokesman.