Corel Knock Out 2

Rating:
Summary: Nightmare - but it works
Review: I have been struggling with this thing for 4 days.

1. Book is poorly written. It talks about things you can do, without clearly explaining how. (No details, or examples given!)
2. Help is just the book - again.
3. Tutorial is cumbersome, worst one I have ever come across.
4. However, 30 days phone support is included. The problem is that the techs are not up to speed on this program either. After a phone call, I was able to use the program, in its most basic form. As far a using multiple re-dos, Corel techs didn't know anymore then I did. 5. When a knocked out image is sent back to photoshop - you don't see it as knocked out - you have to drag it into another screen. This is one of those "little" things that the instructions don't cover, that drove me crazy.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty lame software, not what I had in mind
Review: I maintain an online retail catalog. I often take my own photos of the products. I needed image editing software that could isolate objects from their background, so that I could replace the background with something snazzy and showcase the product more professionally. This software sounded like the answer to my dreams. To listen to their propaganda, this is the simplest, most advanced solution to that "Holy Grail" of image editing tasks--cleanly removing main objects from their original settings.

The trouble is, this is a pretty cumbersome, ineffective, and even "unintelligent" program. You go through the correct motions, after slogging through the woefully inadequate online tutorial and manual, and the darn thing fairly butchers the mask/isolate process; it chops up the foreground object as if it had no clue about how to distingush white pixels from light gray. And I am using a high-end graphics tablet with a pen and skirting the edges of the image objects using Knock Out's magnify tool, with surgical precision. The bottom line: the results are poor, and I have better luck simply using the "magnetic lasso" tool that comes with Adobe Photoshop Elements, and even conventional "paint bucket" and "paint brush" tools, combined with a steady hand and the graphics tablet, yield more accurate and predictable results. Maybe one day I'll get the hang of this software, but from where I stand, this thing fell way short of its advertised function. I feel like I was somewhat duped by this rather sloppy-to-use and rather expensive software add-on program.