Adobe Photoshop Extended CS4 Student Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I've given PS CS4 Extended an overall four star rating. The breakdown is five stars for its capabilities averaged with two stars for the user interface.
Most of the low ratings for this student edition have to do with problems getting the software registered, rather than with the product itself. Please read the student license carefully on Adobe's site. As I recall, you have to be an active full-time four year (or graduate) student at an approved institution that grants four year college degrees. Adobe is very protective of this $199 price. Getting a retailer to ship you this software is just the beginning of the process. You then have to contact Adobe directly for permission to use it. Adobe takes its role as gatekeeper very seriously and will follow up on your student credentials. The burden is on you to prove that you fully qualify as to each and every requirement. I suspect that some of the low ratings come from people who didn't quite meet the requirements for a student license, but thought they would squeak by. Surprise.
Be aware that Adobe also markets an academic edition of PS CS4 Extended for $299. I own the academic edition. Other than the price, what are the differences between the student and academic editions? Well, the first difference is that the license for the academic edition is far less restrictive. The second is that the install code comes printed on the inside packaging. You do not need to go through Adobe for any further permission to use the software.
My understanding is that the academic edition is available to students at any grade level from 10th grade high school on up, as well as to academic faculty and staff. However, I note that one reputable retailer of academic software states: "If you are a K-12 Student, a parent of such a student or a school employee then this version of Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended is the lowest Academic pricing available." So, it's possible that some retailers are more liberal than others. Remember, the retailer is the only gatekeeper you'll have to deal with because the only code you need comes with the disk.
The full price for PS CS4 Extended is over $900. $299 for the academic edition is still a good deal, even if it is $100 more than the cost of the student edition. Many people will qualify who wouldn't have qualified for the student edition. Don't cheat yourself by trying to cheat Adobe out of a student license, or by purchasing from a vendor with a price that's too good to be true.
Update 12/8/2009:
I would lower my rating to two stars if I could. The problem is that the program has ceased to work since I upgraded to Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. $299 is a lot of money to throw out the window, and Adobe is not being helpful. If interested, please see the review that I posted today under the retail edition of Photoshop CS4 Extended.
Update 3/9/2010:
The problem noted in my update of 12/8/2009 took me about three weeks to solve. The issue turned out to be very sophisticated. Fortunately, the issue is also very rare and unlikely to affect you. See my review under the retail edition of PS CS4 if interested. To summarize, I received no assistance from Adobe, whose technical support of this product is greatly lacking in relation to the cost. My rating remains at four stars due to the simple fact that there really isn't an alternative to Photoshop.
Update 4/12/2010:
Today is the so-called "launch date" for Photoshop CS5 Extended. Little new information has been provided except that the actual release to sales will be in mid-May. It appears that Adobe will continue to offer a free trial period beginning on the release to sales date. Anyone who is seriously considering purchase of CS4 should defer to mid-May. The best information I can find states that the current "Student Edition" will become the "Student and Teacher Edition," while the current "Academic Edition" will become the "Institutional Edition." Prices will apparently remain at $199 and $299 respectively, with eligibility requirements similar to the current products.
When Adobe released sneak previews of CS5's new content aware fill feature, it was immediately obvious to me that this might (finally!!) be the solution for the ghosting problem that ruins so many HDR images. Adobe's new preview of automatic ghost removal during HDR merge suggests that its content aware technology is being used for exactly that purpose. Therefore, I suggest holding off on the purchase of Photomatix or FDR Tools until you've had a chance to experiment with the PS CS5 trial. Similarly, I would hold off on the purchase of Mask Pro 4.0 from On One Software. If (and it's a very big if) CS5 has really leapfrogged over both Photomatix and Mask Pro 4.0 -- both of which I was planning to buy -- then this is going to be a fairly easy upgrade to justify. On the other hand, CS5 could turn out to be no big deal. Be sure to try before you buy.

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Higher Ed Student Edition

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3D-Album PicturePro Platinum Review

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(More customer reviews)I downloaded a demo version and made a few slideshows. First, it is very difficult to make simple changes. Not a typical interface software for performing simple functions that a normal program would have. There is no bottom for saving, nore a bottom to start new. You have to open a new sub-directory to retrieve pictures to start a new slideshow. And if you delete a set of pictures on the working directory, it actually deletes them from the actual subdirectory. You may have to get back to retrieve them from your recyle ben.
It took me a whole day to figure out how to change simple funtions since it really has a bad menu system. The slideshow runs so slow, can't find a place to speed up the show. THey need a 24 online support system since there is no place to find an answer.
There is no "find buttom" for the help menu for where or how to change the speed.
I can tell you more, but will end up writing a whole book about it. Before you think about purchesing this product, please download the program and see all that for yourself.


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Want to push your creative motivation to a higher level? PicturePro Platinum offers a number of professional authoring tools through which you can do even more amazing works. Hot spot editor lets you define particular areas in an image to be engaged to take actions. Timeline editor provides experienced users the added control of accurate music synchronization. You have more choices to compose your photo album applications with advanced mixers.

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Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (Mac) Review

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(More customer reviews)Adobe labels Photoshop Elements as a program for casual photographers. It's a lot more than that and always has been. iPhoto is fine for casual photography. Elements gives great photo editing capabilities that can carry the load for some heavy duty editing. It doesn't have all the features of the full CS3 Photoshop but Photoshop has always offered multiple ways of getting results. Elements offers enough capabilitiy there's little that I haven't found a way to achieve.
Of course, if you have multiple SLR bodies and a bag full of lenses you may not like the idea of having the non-pro program. I use Photoshop in my everyday web design work but have Elements on my home computer and am happy with the photo editing I can do with it.
I've been working with Photoshop Elements 6 for the last 5 days. There's a lot to like. Adobe has added some excellent features from the full version of Photoshop like Quick Selection and Refine Edge. The new Color Curves feature is welcome too. Element's PhotoMerge options are incredible making it drop dead simple to take the best parts of several group shots and seamlessly combine them to build one great photo. The addition of Smart Sharpen along with more control of Unsharp Mask gives excellent control of sharpening now.
The three editing modes are well thought out. Guided mode is new and I initially thought I wouldn't bother with it. I have years of Photoshop experience after all. Wrong. It can be useful for common editing situations. And it's a great introduction to editing for the newcomer to Elements. Quick mode is still helpful and of course, there's the regular editing mode that come close to the regular Photoshop way of doing things.
Elements is also faster, finally Intel processor native. It opens a lot faster and runs faster. And Adobe has included Bridge with Elements 6, the same version that comes with the full Photoshop package. If you're moving up from iPhoto to Photoshop Elements it's great to be able to not have to deal with iPhoto's strange filing system and maintain control over where pictures are stored. Bridge itself is probably worth the $89 that Elements costs. It's a great program in itself.
There are some warts though. The Photoshop Elements interface does not look like most Mac programs and takes over the screen. The installer seemed to take forever to do its job and added a whole lot of clip art junk that I don't want or need, over 2 gigabytes for the installation. It's not even immediately obvious when opening the installation disk how to install the program. (open the language folder).
I do suppose that if you want to use Elements to create your own greeting cards or make cute scrapbook pages you might like the clip art. If, like me, you just want a photo editor, it would be nice to be able to choose what to install and not have to fill the the hard drive with images that will never get used.
That said, though, Elements is a solid upgrade and will handle editing for most photographers and a great price.

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AdobePhotoshop Elements 6.0 MAC

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Adobe Photoshop CS3 Upgrade Review

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(More customer reviews)Reviewing a new release of Photoshop is a bit like tackling Mt. Everest as the program is so huge that it is simply impossible to cover in depth without writing a book. Still, given that the program is far from cheap, some basic information might help a few people decide whether it's worth the price of admission.
Since this review is for the upgrade, I assume you have used Photoshop before and have basic familiarity with how it works. Primarily, you should ask yourself whether the increased functionality of CS3 over CS2 (and possibly older editions if you haven't kept up with past upgrades) is enough to justify the purchase. I'll cheat a bit and tell you up front that it is easily worth it and then spend the rest of the review trying to explain why.
The first big change that I noticed came when I opened my first file into the Camera Raw utility. Two new sliders have been added. One helps recover blown highlights and the other retrieves blocked shadows. These functions certainly have limits but both proved themselves useful almost immediately. Within reasonable limits, you can definitely push exposures further while maintaining the integrity of your photos at the highs and lows than you could have dreamed of in the past.
Also, you can now use the Camera Raw utility on JPEG and TIFF files as well. It is important to remember, however, that it will not be as effective. Raw files are literally raw and unprocessed so that you can set the assumptions in your computer instead of the camera locking it in when processing the image. Since some of the original data is discarded in the process of making a JPEG file, you won't get the same benefits but this is still a worthwhile tool.
The next benefit I found in CS3 was the addition of filters that can now be used similarly to adjustment layers. Never again will you have to apply a filter and leave a permanent effect that can neither be reviewed nor edited in the future. CS3 allows us to convert layers into Smart Objects and any filter applied to that layer will then be stored and available for editing, deleting, etc. I am most grateful to the folks at Adobe for what is surely one of the most requested upgrades in the history of Photoshop.
Beyond the few items I've mentioned already, there are many other changes. Everything from the Print screen to the basic user interface has gone through an overhaul and in virtually all cases I would suggest that the change is an improvement. Bridge thumbnails have been sped up dramatically, a new Quick Selection tool is a huge help, a major breakthrough in converting color images to Black & White has been implemented... and on and on. I wasn't kidding when I said it would take a book to cover it all. In the final analysis, let me say that in just a week of using this program, I'm already 100% sold on it. I know that I have not yet uncovered many of its benefits and it will probably not be until some of the CS3 reference books hit the street that we can start mining the program's full potential. But I would buy this if I all I got was the new Camera Raw program and the non-destructive filters. Everything else (and there is a LOT) is almost gravy after that. Anyone serious about editing photos should buy the upgrade to CS3.

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Adobe PhotoShop CS3 Upgrade Windows

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Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)For those who aren't professional photo editors, let's be honest with each other: how many of us have bought the professional programs that professionals recommend, and then find that the learning curve is so difficult that we don't use them? I have several other photo editing programs: Photoshop Elements 2.0, Paint Shop Pro. I kept buying the next one because the "pros" recommended them. I found that to learn EACH task it took from 1/2 to 1 hour. There is NO simplicity to anything with those programs. They can do awesome things, I just don't have the time to figure out how to do EACH and EVERY ONE. Using MS Digital Image Pro, it is set up so simple, you can just make a few clicks and almost every task can be accomplished. I've imported many photos into the program, modified them easily and quickly, and then placed them into a video which I burned to DVD's for projects at work. I received quite a number of complements from other "non-professionals" on the quality of the changes. I was also able to easily make modifications for pictures of my family which came out very nice.
If you're looking for a professional, extremely extensive program, perhaps you might want to look at the other ones. But if you're like me and want a fun program that also will deal with 90% of common tasks, this will save you a lot of frustration.

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Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9 is packed with all the tools you need to edit, organize, share and archive your personal photo projects!

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Corel Painter IX.5 Review

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(More customer reviews)If you are an artist who works with "wet media"--oils, watercolor, magic markers, pen and ink or if you are a digital artist who creates only with pixels of light on a computer, you should seriously look at Painter IX. This is without a doubt, digital art software at its very best.
I've used a form of Painter since its very first version, which was called Sketcher. This was back before 1990, I am pretty sure, and Sketcher, which was a Fractal Designs product, came in a snazzy cigar box (because many sketch artists keep their charcoals in this handy container.) The software did grey-scale renderings of drawings into charcoal, pencil or ink and it could be used to sketch on graphics tablets.
After Sketcher came Painter, which was sold amusingly in a paint can and did color rendering of oil, watercolor, pencil and inks. Eventually, Painter was sold to Corel, who had the expertise in graphics design software to take Painter to a whole new level. While previous versions of Painter had some idiosyncrasies, Painter IX has been revised to match current graphics capabilities of computers, and has been debugged to the point that it is a pure pleasure to use. As a result, professional designers of everything from brochures to fast cars use Painter instead of real media or in conjunction with art media to create some stunning digital creations. In addition, wet media artists now routinely use digital art software to visualize, compose and test designs before doing them by hand. I do this myself; I take photos or sketches and try out palettes to see how a certain color scheme works. Or I cut and paste elements of a composition to visualize the painting before I sketch it on paper. My own medium is watercolor, and I find it a lot more comforting to have a plan of attack before I hit that scary white (and pricey) piece of watercolor paper. Visualizing my composition on the PC screen is a very useful tool.
If you had tried Painter before and were less than thrilled, you should take a look again. If you have never used a digital arts package and want to be serious about digital art, I can't think of another product I'd recommend.
So, let's get a detailed look into Painter IX and see what it does:
Art Media:
1. Literally 100's of brushes that can be modified in size and quality (hairness, spray direction, stroke depth, and "taught" your personal stroke on the graphics tablet.) You can create brushes, and even make "image hoses"--a way to spray a graphic and paint with say, berries, leaves, architectural elements. You can make your own image nozzle out of any graphic element and even have it shaded with a drop shadow. The image hose is a lot of fun--scrapbookers can find a lot of uses for it as it's rather like a digital rubber stamp.
2. 30 plus media, like oil, impasto, charcoal, crayon, ink, gouache, watercolor, airbrush, oil and chalk pastel, pencil, photo filters, and even woodcut and sumi-e. They are realistic to the point where you can smear the oil around--the only thing is you don't smell the turpentine. The texture of canvas or paper comes through under the media according to the amount you choose, and you can light the finished work to highlight texture and shine.
3. Textured papers like canvas and watercolor. You can input your own textures to make a customized paper. There are pattern fills like cloth and pebbles, and you can make patterns to use as background fill. Any image can be captured to make a texture or pattern.
4. Wet media --like ink, wet oils, watercolor. A wet layer allows you to push the paint around as if the surface were wet. It can be "dried."
5. A mixing palette to mix paints as one would on a real palette.
6. Cloning--copying a picture and then rendering it as if you had a tracing paper over top a real picture. You can grab portions of the picture with your tablet stylus and brush them into oils, watercolors, chalk. You can auto-clone and create a sketch from a photo.
7. Photo filters: a good set of filters used to modify digital photos and scans are included.
8. Typical adjustment features to modify color, remove color, change contrast and light/dark.
9. Animation tools and web design tools. Many graphics software packages have these (Adobe Photoshop, Macromedia Fireworks) but these allow you to create web graphics with a handpainted or handdrawn look. For anime artists, this could be a huge plus.
10. A scripting engine that lets you record your own operations and play them back with one click to automate your work or create movies. Scripts are automatically saved --meaning you can recover work if your PC crashes.
The major improvements in Painter IX are noteworthy:
1. A 175 page printed spiral-bound manual to get you started and an online help that looks like a spiral-bound manual with everything from online videos, art examples to inspire you and recipes. The tutorial movies from Lynda.com are included in the license. The learning tools are amazing; the spiral bound manual stays open and is easy to navigate. The online tools are lavish and very helpful, because Painter is powerful and there IS a learning curve to get into the most advanced features.
2. Kai's Power Tools (filters for photography) are included. This popular standalone package of photo adjustment tools has Gel, Goo, LensFlare, Lightning, Pyramid Paint, Reaction, and ShapeShifter.
3. There are many new shortcuts, most welcome of which is Quick Clone, reducing the number of steps needed to clone a picture down to a single click.
4. Mixing oils on a palette is more like real media.
5. The watercolor has been sped up to lightning-fast; it was rather slow in previous versions.
6. I found far fewer bugs or crashes--my graphics card is not particularly new and could be bumped up a bit (I have onboard graphics and I could do with adding a better video card) but I still found Painter IX faster and far easier to use than Painter 8.0. The watercolor function was about 10 times faster, at least.
Summary: If you think you'd like to do digital art, this is the one package I'd recommend.
Minimum computer requirements:
· Macintosh: Mac OS X 10.2.8 or higher, 500 MHz, 128 MB RAM (256 recommended), 1024x768 monitor resolution, 395 MB disk space.
· Windows: Windows 2000 or XP, 500 MHz Pentium II (or higher), 128 MB RAM (256 recommended), 1024x768 monitor resolution, 380 MB disk space.
Recommended:
A graphics tablet is a must--you can use a mouse, but you won't get the benefits of real media feel without a tablet. The package can use various tablets, but is optimized for the Intuos (WACOM) line of tablets.
Update your graphics card and graphics memory if you have an older PC.



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For more than 13 years, Painter has been the world's pre-eminent Natural-Media painting and illustration software. Corel Painter IX offers the same breathtaking brushes and features that Painter artists have grown to love--but with significantly enhanced speed and performance. All brushes now operate at an average of twice their former speed, and some brushes are 10 times faster. Corel Painter IX also unveils the brand-new Artists' Oils Painting System, a revolutionary Natural-Media painting technology that enables you to sample multiple colors from the Mixer palette and apply them as wet oily paint to your canvas.

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Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 4 Review

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(More customer reviews)
Edit: I was pleased with it while I used it. But since posting the review below, I've stopped using it in favor of the (now free) program Picasa, available through Google.
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I tried a bunch of other programs and free trials, and this one packed the most stable and useful features into the cleanest, most intuitive, and most convenient package.
I especially like the design of the cropping tool, the ease of assigning and customizing the categories while organizing, and the clean simplicity of the interface. I'm perfectly capable of using complicated programs, and figuring out how to use programs that aren't very user-friendly. But when you're trying to organize a ton of digital photos, why make it more work than you have to?
Paint Shop Photo Album 4 does what it does very well, and does all of the things I would ask a photo album program to do.
It makes it easy to print, share, and organize my photos. For quick photo touchups, resizing, rotating, adding captions, and the other kinds of edits that an average home user would want to make to their photos, the editor included in this program is quite suitable, and does a very nice job.
It also has a nicer format for creating web pages to share photos online than most of the other similar programs I tried.
I've been using the 30 day free trial, (which is a full version rather than a chopped down sample) and my time is almost up, so I am definitely going to by this program.


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Get your photos out of your camera and into your life with Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album. Now you can quickly and easily make the most of your digital photos. In just two clicks you can get your photos from camera to computer. Then enhance, organize, and share those digital memories in a flash with Photo Album's fast and easy-to-use tools.
Create CD albums to watch with family and friends on a TV with a DVD player. Add an MP3 soundtrack and a variety of background templates for a complete audio-visual experience. Or you can archive full resolution copies of your favorite shots automatically when you create a Video CD. Also, easily send photos to friends and family with enhanced e-mail capabilities that automatically optimize photos for quicker download. Now Photo Album is compatible with the AOL e-mail client.
Take control over photo enhancements with the new Adjust Wizard that guides you through key correction processes to get the best color and exposure correction possible. Correct imperfections with flash and backlight controls that brighten only the dark areas of photos or reduce backlighting in over exposed areas. Add an elegant finishing touch by framing photos, applying creative edges, or adding artistic borders. Plus, you can personalize your workspace with adjustable thumbnail sizes and background colors.

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Photosuite III Family Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great software for my digital camera. If I take a not so great pic I can go to the photo enhancer and enhance it to a better pic. I have never used any other photo software so I have nothing to compare it to but I think it is great.

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PhotoSuite 3: Family Edition is designed for both the novice and expert user, combining power with ease of use. The suite of photo applications enables you to do just about anything you can imagine with your photos. It features handy storage and quick retrieval, powerful repair and restoration capabilities, and tools for composition, manipulation, and presentation. Its functions are seamlessly integrated with the Internet.

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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Upgrade Review

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(More customer reviews)When Adobe first released the public beta of the original Lightroom, it seemed like a desperate attempt to compete with Apple's Aperture which Apple seemed to be using to target Adobe's flagship creative tool, Photoshop.
Upon using the beta, however, it became apparent that this was a tool that Adobe had been putting a lot of thought into and while the decision to offer the free public beta may have been an attempt to stave off possible Aperture defectees, the development of the software itself clearly was more than that.
Adobe's new tool would come to herald in a nondestructive editing and organizational workflow that simply would never be possible in the full version of Photoshop without seriously jeopardizing functionality and workflows for existing users.
Today, Lightroom 2 takes that original concept to the next level. Boasting even more powerful non-destructive editing, tighter integration with the full version of Photoshop and a revised and even more streamlined interface (Adobe listened), it is well worth the upgrade price.
If you don't have Lightroom yet and are wondering why you would buy it when you already have Photoshop, ask yourself this: Do you have a digital camera and do you take a lot of pictures with it? If so, does taking them all into Photoshop for adjustments seem time consuming? Does the added storage for saving originals and adjusted copies seem excessive? Do you wish that Bridge acted more like a database than a browser and maybe had the ability to keep track of files even when they weren't available (external or networked hard drive that aren't always available for instance)?
If so, Lightroom may be the tool for you. Will it replace Photoshop? No, but an easy way to think of it is as a tool for dealing with many images that need global adjustments with a few touch-ups where as Photoshop is the tool you'll turn to for composite images and major touch-up/cleanup.
Can you do what you need to in Photoshop without Lightroom? Of course - Photoshop is the top of the line Swiss Army Knife of image editing. Will you be able to work as quickly and efficiently in it as you would Lightroom? Seriously doubtful.


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This upgrade requires Adobe Photoshop Lightroom v1. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software is essential for today s digital photography workflow. Now you can quickly import, process, manage, and showcase your imagesfrom one shot to an entire shoot. With Lightroom 2, you spend less time in front of the computer and more time behind the lens.

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Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 4.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)Let me begin by saying that I've only been using Photo Deluxe for a couple weeks, but I'm probably being generous with the 4-star rating. The fourth star was mainly for the free web-posting capability and Adobe's reputation. As general use goes, I guess I'd have to give it a three. First off, as with prior versions, the step-by-step progression through everything makes me crazy! I had hoped that Adobe would have abandoned this for the new version. I'm not wild about having to go through all the proceeding steps to get to the one I want. Also, I don't care for the way this program sets up printing, and don't make more than one mistake without saving because there's only one level of undo, so if you really screw up, you have to start over from the beginning or your last save point. And then when you want to "save as" you get to choose the Adobe PDD format...period, unless you save for e-mail or the web then you get to choose JPEG and a couple others. But try to open an Adobe PDD format in another editing program and you'll more than likely find that you can't do it. In it's favor, there's a lot of neat tools here and it's fairly easy to use. There's lots of "cute" stuff like the clip art and the seasonal add-ons that the program automatically notifies you of so you can put the CD in and load it if you're into that sort of stuff. I've spent an enormous amount of time experimenting with different editing programs over the last few months looking for a decent one under $100 just for general purpose use. I do photography professionally and I use Photoshop 5.5, but that's another league. This is all opinion, but for ease of use, Microsoft Picture It gets my vote especially when it's used along with Microsoft Home Publisher 2000. But for about twenty bucks more than Photo Deluxe 4.0 there's Ulead Photo Impact 5.0. This is a great program! There's up to 99 levels of undo and great tools and palletts. I use this one extensively. And the really good web tools are on Photo Suite III. As for Photo Deluxe 4.0, it's an ok program, but if you're just beginning to get into digital imaging, I believe Picture It is the better bet, and if you want more for not much more, go with Photo Impact 5.0. All in all, I'm really dissappointed in Photo Deluxe 4.0.

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With Adobe PhotoDeluxe 4.0, it's easy to bring photos into your computer, organize them in albums, and make repairs and improvements. Then you can have endless fun creating personalized photo projects to share with family and friends in print, via e-mail, or on the Web. PhotoDeluxe comes to you from the makers of Adobe Photoshop, an image-editing tool for professional designers.

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PhotoImpact 6.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)I can't say enough about this program. If you read any of the other reviews I've submitted, you'll see I've tried a bunch pf editing software over the past several months. You'll also notice that I do photography professionally and that I use Adobe Photoshop 5.5 (now 6.0) for much of my work. At this point, I'm wondering why. Don't get me wrong, Adobe Photoshop is the Granddaddy of them all and a beautiful program, but there's a big learning curve and the need for some deep pockets. PhotoImpact doesn't require either of those. I got into the Ulead products with the 4.2 version that came with my H/P PhotoSmart scanner. Then I went to PhotoImpact 5.0 and loved it. Now 6.0 is what I use the most even over Photoshop. The program is much easier to use, it's loaded with palletes and effects, and the album feature is a Godsend. And it will take Photoshop plug-ins if I want to use them. As far as learning Photoshop or PhotoImpact, think about it....go to your local bookstore and see how many volumes are on the shelves to teach you how to use Photoshop. It's mind boggling! Then look for a book on PhotoImpact. You probably won't find one. I wish I knew why. Is it ignorance towards the program, or do the people that write these tutorial encyclopedias agree that Ulead's manual that comes with the program does an adequate job of giving you the basics and explaining all the fuctions? The manual is good, but there is a book out there that was written for PhotoImpact 4.2, but will work for 5.0 and 6.0. The only real difference between them all is the relocation of some of the functions. Basically, the programs all work the same. There are some additions to 6.0 that you'll have to learn on your own because they aren't in this 4.2 book. By the way, the book is called "Fun with PhotoImpact 4.2" and was written by Stephanie Baker-Thomas. I got a copy from Amazon.com. There is an excellent book for PhotoImpact 6.0 called "PhotoImpact Solutions" and can be ordered directly from Muskel & Lipman publishing.
Although I do photography professionally, I still like to forget that now and then and have fun with my pictures as well, and for that, PhotoImpact 6.0 comes with Uleads "Drop Spot" which puts an icon on your desktop which will then connect you to imira.com which is Uleads site for you to put you pictures on the web for all to see. Nice extra! That too is a breeze to use. You can email directly from the program, do a slide show in the album mode, scan directly into the album or the editing program, and do just about anything you want once you're in there.
I'm not going to go on and on with this. I think I've made my point. This is a great program at a great price that's easy to use and seems to always work. I've had no problems with errors, illegal operations, crashes or anything else like I've experienced with some editing programs. In short, if you want to have some fun with your pictures as well as do some serious editing and playing around with web design, buy this program. You won't be sorry.

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PhotoImpact 6 is an image editor that addresses both image editing and Web-page creation. Edit your images and lay out professional Web graphics in real time, then optimize and output them as complete Web pages. PhotoImpact 6 features a full array of imaging and painting tools, vector 2-D and 3-D graphics, over 60 exclusive special effects and filters, visual Web-page layout, and one-click HTML output.

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Apple Aperture 2.0 Upgrade Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been using Aperture since version 1.1, and love it. The few issues/disappointments I had were resolved with version 1.5.x. Version 2.0 takes the performance and capabilities of Aperture to the next level. While I have only been using Aperture 2 for a week or so, I have been thoroughly impressed. (I will update this review as my experience grows.)
In terms of cameras, I use both a Nikon D2X and a Nikon D300. As such, the RAW files that Aperture has to deal with are large 12-megapixel images. And Aperture handles said images with ease. (Bear in mind that I am running Aperture on a first-generation MacBook Pro 17" laptop, running at 2.16 GHz.)
Among other improvements, Aperture 2 provides superior high-ISO noise reduction. For example, images taken with my Nikon D2X at ISO 1600 and ISO 3200 show massive improvements in quality. Not only that, but Aperture's noise reduction finally matches -- or even exceeds -- that of Nikon's own Capture NX software. Comparing high-ISO images side-by-side, it is clear that Capture NX utilizes a high dose of "chroma blur." Aperture 2.0 does not, and the difference is quite visible.
As for other changes, Aperture 2 provides some nice UI refinements, increasing the amount of screen real estate for viewing your photos. More generally, Aperture 2's UI is even more "transparent" than that of version 1.x, i.e., it does not impede your workflow.
Besides the UI improvements, Aperture 2 also adds additional image enhancement options. Among others, Apple added "de-vignette" and "vignette" image adjustments. These allow you to correct for, or add/increase, vignetting from lens optics.
And finally, a few words about performance. I found Aperture 1.5.x to be quite responsive, though it would occasionally become sluggish during certain operations. I have not been able to find any such sluggishness in Aperture 2, a welcome improvement. Plus, the software is even faster and more responsive that Aperture 1.5.x.
The bottom line? Aperture 2 provides welcome improvements over 1.5.x, including superior image quality. If you like Aperture 1.5.x, you will love Aperture 2. And if you shied away from 1.5.x, I highly recommend giving Aperture 2 a try. Download the free trial from the Apple website, and see the improvements for yourself. Try it, you just might like it!

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You can access your entire iPhoto library, directly within Aperture 2, to import selected events, albums, or individual photos using the iPhoto Browser. Aperture 2 includes an all-in-one inspector that consolidates the Project, Metadata, and Adjustments panes and lets you switch between them simply by typing W. Quickly locate images in the innovative All Projects view with project skimming.The new Quick Preview mode provides rapid-fire photo browsing, letting you quickly compare, rate, and make image selections. Aperture also offers enhanced performance when making processor-intensive adjustments, such as Noise Reduction and Highlight and Shadows. Leveraging the next-generation RAW image processing in Mac OS X Leopard, Aperture 2 delivers images of astounding quality, offering superb color fidelity, increased shadow detail, reduced noise, and advanced highlight recovery. Aperture provides RAW support for the leading digital cameras and camera backs. It also supports DNGs made from the RAW files of most digital cameras. With a .Mac account, you can take advantage of new support for .Mac Web Gallery to create beautiful online portfolios even allowing clients, colleagues, or friends to download JPEG or RAW originals complete with embedded metadata. Aperture also lets you sync your Aperture library to an iPhone or iPod. Or enjoy your photos on a widescreen TV in glorious high definition using Apple TV.

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ColorVision Spyder2PRO Win/Mac Review

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(More customer reviews)It does the basic job well. The calibration runs smoothly and accurately. Hardware looks and feels solid. My two completely different brand, size and age CRT monitors ended up with exactly the same colors sitting side by side.

User interface is merely adequate. Pop up help instructions are better than many I have seen. You will need to know already how the calibration buttons on your monitors work (the hardwired buttons on the monitor, not software). In order to make any edits you must run the entire time consuming calibration over. Sometimes you can use "back" within the calibration, sometimes you must start over. Also the separate "profile chooser" utility software, has not add or delete profile feature - even if it is a profile created and saved by the calibration software earlier. You can see it with windows display properties, but it may not appear in the profile chooser list.
Dual monitors is the one obvious reason to choose pro over plus version. Yes, it does dual monitors, but with an asterisk. It will create separate profiles, but will only apply the correct profiles automatically at startup to both monitors if you have two separate video cards. If you have a single video card with dual outputs, it will load the same profile (the last one you created) to both monitors at startup. This quirk is documented in a readme file on the installation disk (and blames windows for the problem), but this limitation appears nowhere in advertising material, catalogs, or on the box. Fortunately there is a work around (not documented) at least with my particular video card and running XP. After windows opens, you can run profile chooser then choose the correct profile for each monitor. You may have to use windows display properties settings to specify default profile and rerun the calibration to get the profiles you want to appear in profile chooser and to select the correct profile as default.
Once it's all set up, running profile chooser is a four of five click procedure, but you must rememeber to check it before using any application that uses color profiles. And check it after you open the application. I've had them change after opening photoshop - though not every time.


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The Professionals Choice:Includes Spyder2 calibration, software based print profiling, new PreciseLight ambient light sensor, and calibration for projectors.

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PhotoSuite 7 Platinum Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Yet another buggy and less-than-average program by Roxio.
This version fixes a few of the many flaws in the last version but nowhere near enough to justify using this product over MS Digital Image, Adobe Photoshop Elements, JASC PaintShop, etc.
I wish that I had never purchased this product. DO NOT use the one-touch photo doctor! It oversharpens your photos and they come out looking very poor!

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PhotoSuite 7 Platinum offers a complete set of great tools for photo results that are picture perfect every time. It has the advanced editing & organizing tools that meet every digital photographer's needs! Save your precious memories by burning them to a CD or DVD - and share them in the comfort of your living room

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Corel Paint Shop Pro X Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have used Paint Shop Pro in each incarnation from 7.04 Anniversary Edition onwards as well as Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0.
I must say that while the latest version is very user friendly especially to a new user, if you've got Version 8 or 9 on your computer I don't think the upgrade is worth the money. The new browser is particularly horrible if you're used to the older versions of Paint Shop Pro. You have to resort to manual tinkering to get it to look like the earlier versions if you want to which is a fairly involved procedure. Even then it doesn't behave like the earlier version but acts like a permanently docked window. In the default it displays Windows folders as little pictures of folders in a row and I find it quite difficult to use as a navigation mechanism.
The Learning Center is a useful addition especially to begin with when you're figuring out where everything is because even if you've had PSP8 and/or 9 on your computer Corel have changed round the positions of some of the tools in the toolbar and there are quite a few tweaks in the menus and photo tools. I do like the noise removal tool which functions better than it did in PSP9 and I also like the Smart Photo Fix. Overall however I felt that the new edition wasn't really worth shelling out over £40 for when I already had older versions on my computer.
In addition, the Paint Shop Photo Album (which is included for free) has refused to function correctly on my computer and I am still waiting for Corel's programmers to come back to me after working with a technician for over three weeks and not resolving the issue. A free Album Creator program is included which is for ordering photo albums online; I found that this gave me error messages until I went online and then launched it. I don't have a RAW image function on my digital camera so have not used that software which is also included on the disk.
You will need a large amount of RAM - at least 1 GB and preferably more, as well as a big hard drive and a fast computer to run this software. I would also recommend a large monitor because of the over-crowded interface - when you have the browser up and running it refuses to allow the image to overlap it as the older versions did, and behaves like the edge of the workspace.
Corel have essentially concentrated on photo editing in this version of Paint Shop Pro although the graphics tools are still there. If you have PSP 8 or 9 and do graphics rather than photo work I would stay with that software for now but if you're a new user I think you'll find this version of Paint Shop Pro is well worth the money.

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Corel Paint Shop Pro is the all-in-one solution for photo editing, organizing, sharing, and creativity. You will get tools for making your photos look just the way you want, organizing them so they are always at your fingertips, and making photo postcards, calendars, and more--advanced enough for a pro and easiest enough for a beginner. Version X is the best Paint Shop yet, with run times 50% faster than previous versions, more teaching resources (more than two hours of tutorials) for you to easily get the most out of the program, and 500 special effects.
See the Corel Paint Shop Pro X product tour
Fix brightness, color, and photo flawsNow you can have sharp photos filled with brilliant colors. You don't have to be a photo-editing whiz to get fabulous photos. Paint Shop Pro is filled with easy one-step fixes and advanced ultra-precise controls so no matter what, everyone can have the photos they always dreamed of.
Cover All the BasicsEverything you need to complete the most common photo tasks. Quickly rotate, resize, and crop photos to get the exact composition and size you need.
Fix Any PhotoSmart Photo Fix is the best way to correct color, exposure, and lighting problems. With a single click, Paint Shop Pro analyzes your photo and makes suggested corrections. With this powerful, flexible tool, you can change the corrections to suit your tastes.
Improve Photos in One Step Most digital cameras produce some sort of noise and, in photos of high-contrast, a purple fringe can appear. We know these are common problems that plague everyone, no matter how great a photographer they are. With the One Step Noise Removal and One Step Purple Fringe Removal, Paint Shop Pro quickly gets rid of these pesky problems.
Instant MakeoverLooking great has never been so easy. None of us are perfect, but with Paint Shop Pro X's Makeover Tools everyone can look like they are. With this handy set of tools you can remove blemishes, whiten teeth, brush on a suntan, and remove wrinkles. It's so fun and easy that you'll just have to try it for yourself.
Get the Red OutRed eye is probably the most common problem facing photos. With Paint Shop Pro X you get a One-click Red-Eye Remover that even works on pets, or you can use Advanced Red-Eye Removal for the most accurate corrections.
Remove DistractionsWith the Clone Tool and the Object Remover you can get rid of distractions in your photos by just clicking and dragging.
Adjust in an Instant When the photo you have doesn't look like the photo you thought you took, you can easily Adjust Perspective and Straighten crooked photos to get the look you were after.
Restore Old PhotosTears, holes, and fading are no match for Paint Shop Pro's photo restoration tools. With Scratch Remover, Fade Correction, Hand-tinting brushes, and High-pass Sharpen you can repair and restore any old or damaged photo.
Add a Creative TouchPaint Shop Pro X includes all new Picture Frames and photo Edges for when you want to give your photos a little something extra. Plus, there are NEW Picture Tubes, this popular feature is the easiest way for you to add ready-made art elements to your photo and graphics projects.
Photo albums and moreOnce you've used Paint Shop Pro to make your photos look their best, you can jump to Corel Photo Album 6 - Standard Edition included FREE, to create fun Greeting Cards and E-Cards. With the drag & drop simplicity of Photo Album you can create and send cards for every occasion.
Turn photos into elegant projectsOnce you have fabulous photos, don't let them sit there on your hard drive doing nothing. With Paint Shop Pro you have all the tools you need to create everything from fun greeting cards to breath-taking collages.
Turn Ordinary Photos into Something SpecialCreating beautiful Scrapbook Album Pages and sophisticated multi-picture Collages is a cinch. Now you can just drag your photos into professionally designed templates and have stunning photo keepsakes in moments.
Fun Projects You Can Complete in MinutesEnjoy your photos all year long by using them to create your own Calendars. Or show the people in your life how much they mean to you by featuring them on Magazine Covers or Award Certificates. Plus you can print multiple images on a single sheet of paper using Print Layouts and create your own CD Labels.
Remove BackgroundsYou can cut people out of photos and drop them onto new backgrounds easily with the Background Eraser. This handy tool makes combining multiple photos a breeze.
The Selection is Yours With so many selections to choose from you're sure to find just the tool you need in Paint Shop Pro X. Use Freehand/Smart Edge Selection to find your edge or select it yourself, the Shape Selection to square, rectangle, circle, or elliptical shaped selections, or the Magic Wand Selection to make selections based on color, hue, or more.
See What You're Working OnLayers are the building blocks of any collage and now you can see exactly what you're using in your collage. With just a glance at the All-New Layer Palette you can see all the layers in your image and what each layer contains.
You Get to PickMove and resize elements of your image on the fly. The Pick Tool is the easiest way to make adjustments to layers without having to re-select them.
Give photos a unique, exciting look Your photos can be so much more than just ordinary pictures. Using Paint Shop Pro's graphics and effects tools you can transform photos into paintings, add words, create crazy caricatures, and so much more. With so many effects to use, you can have hours of fun just experimenting.
Say What You Mean Add Vertical or horizontal text to photos or even have text follow a path. With the Text Tool, you can choose how you want your message to appear.
Turn Your Photos into PaintingsWith real-life Art Media Tools you can turn your ordinary photos into masterpieces. With an easy Trace option you can trace your photos using Oil, Chalk, Pastel, and more. Plus, you can choose from different brushes and canvas types.
Draw with PrecisionAdding arrows, talk bubbles, stars, and other interesting shapes to your photos couldn't be easier. With the Symmetric Shape Tool, Pen Tool, and Preset Shapes you can add all kinds of fun to your photos without any work at all.
Create a Classic in an InstantNo darkroom is required to transform your digital photos into black and white masterpieces. With the B&W Infrared Filter and B&W Conversion Filter you get more options than ever before.
Transform Photos in a Few ClicksAdd special lighting effects, color pencil, or emboss your photos. With over 500 Special Effects Filters there is no end to the fun you can have with your photos.
Warp & Twist PhotosGive the people and pets in your photos big bulging eyes and huge goofy smiles with the Warp Brush. Just click and drag your mouse around your photo to create these fun and easy caricatures.
It's All a BlurAdd professional-looking blur effects to your photos. You can choose between Gaussian, Motion, Radial Blur, and more.
Find photos fast & share memories Paint Shop Pro X now includes Corel Photo Album 6 - Standard Edition. With this smart and simple software you can organize and share your photos easier than ever before. And with two applications at your disposal you'll be more productive than ever.
Your Photos Were Meant to be Shared Show off your photos using over 40 Print templates, create Slide Shows you can e-mail, send photos automatically resized for E-mail and Cell Phones, or Burn a CD of your best shots in just two clicks. No additional burning software required.
Photo Album Does the Work for YouAs soon as you plug in your camera, Photo Album's Photo Downloader gets to work downloading and rotating your photos, then asking you what you'd like to do next. If you like, you can jump right to Paint Shop Pro with a couple of keystrokes. The Photo Finder automatically finds and organizes your photo collection by the date you took the picture, and Photo Trays are a virtual photo to-do list - helping you remember to e-mail or print photos.
Find What You NeedYou can organize your photos by Collection, Folder, Favorite Photo, and Keyword to ensure that you can always find your photos fast. Plus, when you use Keywords, you can Search your entire using those keywords.
What's in the box: Photo software on CD-ROM, instruction booklet.

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Photo Explosion Deluxe 3.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I used to have Microsoft's Image Composer (now discontinued) that came with FrontPage '98. What a great, intuitive little program that was for cutting out parts of photos and combining them into collages or new photos! It came with no manual, yet I was able to teach myself to use it just by playing around and trying things out. It was that easy, and it was a lot of fun!
This program claims to have many of the same functions IC did: cutting out pieces of pics by tracing an outline, resizing or recoloring or otherwise manipulating these pieces, and then combining them into a new 'photo.' Unfortunately, this program is so counter-intuitive and inflexible that you can't just play with it to figure things out.
Which would be tolerable if the manual was helpful but, of course, it's useless. It spends 70 pages describing the 'workspace' and how to 'organize your photos' (as if any moron can't do that by creating directories on their PC). After all that, there are only 10 pages on how to use the selection/trace function, how to resize, etc. And it doesn't seem to explain anywhere what to do to 'select' something once you've cut it out of a photo.
The worst part of the program is that you have to create a separate file for the place you want to combine all your images. This is stupid. Why can't you just work on one base photo, add to and alter it, and then do a 'save as...'? That would be simple. This program makes you create a 'project,' which requires sifting through dozens of their templates to find one that you can twist into something like what you want. Why not just let me work without a template? Not fun and certainly not functional.
The templates are very restrictive. For example, you can't size the space of the project once you create it. So if what you create needs to be a little larger or smaller than the template size, you have to shrink everything to fit into the template.
Further, the program's logic doesn't make much sense. If I cut out a piece of a photo and then go to resize it, the program resizes the original picture only (even though the cut-out is highlighted as selected). There's no obvious way to tell the program what I want to manipulate: the original or a cut-out. This is just one example, but there are many others I could offer.
I think the program MIGHT be good if all you want is real basic photo editing (i.e. cut a square shaped piece out of a photo and plop it into some inane greeting card template provided), but otherwise this is very limited and difficult to work with.
I can't see shelling out the bucks for Adobe. And I don't understand why someone doesn't offer an inexpensive version of Adobe (like Image Composer was)? I think I'm going to hunt for an old copy of FrontPage '98 at used software stores and reload IC.

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Photo Explosion® Deluxe made history as the first software of its kind to deliver powerful editing features spectacular special effects and professional-quality photo projects all together in one program.Now Photo Explosion Deluxe 3.0 makes digital photography even easier. And it s packed with exciting new features all designed to let you get the most out of your digital camera.System Requirements:Windows 98 2000 Me XP or Vista; 32 MB RAM; Pentium 166Mhz or faster; CD-ROM DriveFormat: WIN 98ME2000XPVISTA Genre:PRODUCTIVITY UPC:727298403831 Manufacturer No:PRW

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Arcsoft PhotoImpression 6 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)PhotoImpression 6 is easy to use and has most of the features I'm looking for in photo editing. I have been able to restore old black and white photo's that were damaged and this program works great in enhancing my older color pictures as well. I am very satisfied.

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PhotoImpression 6 will manage your media for you -- it also gives you tons of fun and exciting new ways to enjoy it. It includes everything one needs to manage, enhance, print, and get creative with Digital photos. Scan & crop several photos in seconds, remove red-eye automatically, create animated 3D text and more. Photo and video management just got more simplified. Make slideshows with photos, music, and cool effects

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