Photo XI is a reminder of a golden age of desktop software. It was a time when you bought a box with a CD inside, installed a program, and owned it forever—a refreshing contrast to today's world of monthly subscription fees and cloud-connected bloat. It was the "people's champion" of 2006, and for many, it was the gateway drug into the world of graphic design.
Professionals took note of this spec. While many consumer editors capped out at 24-bit (16.7 million colors), Photo XI supported (trillions of colors). This meant that edits made to high-end camera scans or 16-bit-per-channel RAW files resulted in less banding and posterization. corel paint shop pro photo xi