The Arts and Crafts Computer: Using Your Computer as an Artist's Tool Review

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(More customer reviews)The potential of the computer in craft has been seriously damaged by the excitement computers have generated. A parallel can be found when the Russian novelist Tolstoy was given a dictaphone to help speed up his writing. After a few weeks he threw it out the window. His neighbor asked if it didn't work. Tolstoy's reply was "It worked fine, but I got so excited using it I couldn't write." For almost two decades a generation of designers have succumbed to the excitement and hype of the computer without significantly adding any real content or substance to their work under the digitized banner. It is time for that to change, and Janet Ashford is a winning harbinger of that change.
It doesn't help matters that most design software seems to be written by the left-brain dominant spouses of craft practitioners...well intentioned souls with no sense of the real kinesthetics of working color, form, texture.
Janet Ashford has navigated through the difficult middle course between technology and entrancement. She draws! She creates custom palettes in her application software! She doesn't hit you over the head or talk down to the reader. Perhaps her experience of designing for and with her daughter has given her the wonderful tone of teaching someone she likes, who is lacking in knowledge but not in ability. That is a prized gift in any teacher, and Ashford has it mastered.
She has maintained her enthusiasm, her innocent pleasure in sharing the joys of color and pattern, line, light and form. She is conscientious in gathering really useful resources together into a book that can pay off in serious fun the first weekend you get to use it, without resorting to false expectations. Buy the book. Use the example. You, and your craft, will be enriched without hype or over-simplification. Serious artists and craftspeople do not expect the tool to do the real work of creation for them. This book is written for the serious artists and craftspeople at any stage of their careers...from about 9 years old on up.

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The Arts and Crafts Computer shows you how to use your personal computer, scanner, digital camera and color printer as artist tools to create beautiful graphics and artful objects for your home, school and work. You'll learn how to: Understand the basics of digital image-editing, typesetting and graphic design. Gather the right tools, both digital and traditional. Use the new inkjet printing media including cloth, decals, stickers, magnets, transparencies and more.Work with art materials safely, avoid computer-related stress and find environmentally-friendly materials.Create unique greeting cards and envelopes, artist books, games, toys, home decorations and gifts.If you're a crafter looking for computer ideas or a designer or teacher looking for hands-on projects The Arts and Crafts Computer is for you!

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Aperture 3 Upgrade Review

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(More customer reviews)Before I start the review I need to add a few caveats. The first is I have not really used Adobe Lightroom so I will not be comparing Aperture 3 to Lightroom. (Lightroom is the biggest competitor to Aperture and from what I have read owns the majority of the market). I have tried Lightroom 3 and I could not get past the restrictive module system and the small editing space. I thought I was going to have to slog through learning how to used Lightroom 3 when Apple surprised and delighted me by releasing Aperture 3. Also, I haven't really used iPhoto that much since I got Aperture 2. So I will only be making passing remarks about those programs. The other caveat is that this is a massive program with massive upgrades and there is no way I can cover everything so I will be covering how this program handles my workflow.
Bottom Line Up Front: Aperture 3 is an amazing Photographic Workflow System that fits all of my professional and personal needs. Apple has implemented so many amazing features into this program that it is an absolute must upgrade from Aperture 2. For anyone interested in taking their photography up from the casual (iPhoto) to enthusiast level, Aperture 3 is a great tool to help you accomplish that. For anyone using Lightroom who hates being restricted by what module you are in, Aperture 3 offers amazing new professional features especially concerning showcasing your work. (Still+Video slideshoes, GraphiSutdio, Queensberry, Leather Craftsmen, and Couture Books are just some of the outstanding new features.)
One thing you need to know up front is that Aperture 3 has some stability issues. I have been using Aperture 3 for about 16 hours and have had about 8 crashes. One thing to note is that because of how Aperture works you do not lose any work. You just need to restart the program. I am sure we will be seeing a patch released relatively quickly. Aperture 2 was always the crashiest program I own (most Apple programs never crash but Aperture 2 crashed about 1 time every 8 hours). Unfortunately it looks right now that Aperture 3 will continue that tradition. I will say that Aperture 3 plays a lot better with Snow Leopard than Aperture 2 did. For me these crashes are irritating and I hope they get worked out. However, this is still a truly amazing upgrade over Aperture 2.
My basic digital workflow is to Organize, Edit and Showcase so this is how I will structure the review.
Organize
For Aperture 3, apple has added 2 new ways to organize you photos; Faces and Places. I have read some people disregarding these features as amateurish (You can switch them off if you don't want to use them. Also, faces slows Aperture down right after import as it scans for faces). I, for one, use Aperture 3 for professional and personal purposes. So even if these features were not professionally useful, I still like them (I do find them useful professionally also). These features are nice for allowing photos to stay together in the group in which they were shot. I used to have to pull photos out, especially of people, to relocate to another folder or project. Or I would have to add the person's name as a key word. Either way it was tedious and often required a compromise. Now I can leave all of the photos from a shoot in one location and find a person. Or I don't have to remember when I was shooting at a particular location. I can go to the map and find the photos that way. I think this is awesome from an organizational standpoint. A note on the faces feature. It does a fantastic job finding even the blurriest or off angle faces in a photo. However, it is not as good at recognizing people as I think it should be as it asked me to name some in-focus straight-on shots of people I had already named. This is still a great feature just don't expect miracles.
Aperture 2 used to really bog down once your library got over 10,000 photos. For this reason, I started creating a new library every quarter of the year. I don't know if Aperture 3 has fixed this 10,000 photo slowdown but what they have done is make Library management much better. First off you can change libraries on the fly without having to restart the program. You can also merge and export libraries from inside the program. This library management was one of the biggest things on my Aperture 3 wish list. Aperture 3 is a native 64 bit program so on the newer machines with Snow Leopard I am sure the limit will be higher than 10,000. However, because of Aperture's free-form design and differences between hard drive memory and the relatively small physical memory your computer has there will still be a point where large Aperture libraries will bog your computer down.
The final thing I will talk about concerning Organize are color labels, flags and a new sort option; sort by Orientation. I was just about to go through and hand sort by orientation so this feature will save me a ton of time. You can flag a photo by clicking the top right of the photo. You assign color labels by hitting the option key and 0-7 or by right clicking and selecting the color. The flag and color labels give you more options to quickly organize your photos. As an example, I used to sort my photos according to people, scenic nature, and abstract. Now I can leave the photos in their imported projects and just assign purple to people, green to nature, and yellow to abstract. Then I can make a smart album that sorts for green or yellow, etc. Sweet. Many times I have transition photos as I am processing the photos. Those photos can get in the way. Now I can flag them. Also, externally edited photos return to Aperture as TIFFs. These files get huge (try 60 MB per photo--ouch). Unfortunately, Aperture does not have a file type converter so after I get finished with the TIFFs I export them out as JPEGs and then import them back in as JPEGs. Then I delete the TIFFs. A laborious process but the flags can be used to help me keep track of the TIFF photos so when I get to the export process I can easily find them.
Edit
There have been many many upgrades to the photo editing abilities of Aperture 3. The two major categories are Presets and Adjustments. The Presets are quick fixes, color, white balance, Black and White, and adjustments. You even have the option to create your own presets. These Presets allow you to make quick adjustments without having to fiddle with the sliders. For example if the white balance is not quite right on your photo and you know you shot in tungsten light then just pick that preset and it adjusts the white balance for you. From what I have seen so far this even works well on JPEGs. You can do similar things with exposure and other parameters.
The Adjustments section has far too much to cover here in this already lengthy review. However, the quick brushes are a powerful new feature that I will try to cover. One example of these brushes is Dodge. This used to be a plug-in in Aperture 2 now it is in the program (If you are used to this from Aperture, all of the brushes work in the same way). The reason this is significant is that all of the in Aperture edits are non-destructive. That means you can always go back to where you started. All plug-in changes, one, create a new copy and permanently change that copy and, two, are TIFFs which take up a tremendous amount of space. All of the quick brushes allow you to resize the brush, change the amount of fall off around the edges, and strength of the brush. Additionally, all of the brushes have an overlay to show you where you have applied the change. Some of the other brushes included are dodge, burn, saturate, reduce noise, sharpen, etc. This is an incredibly powerful editing tool that allows you to non-destructively enhance your photos in some dramatic ways.
I had quite a few plug-ins with Aperture 2. The good news is that they work with Aperture 3. The bad news is they are 32 bit while Aperture 3 is 64 bit. The way Aperture 3 handles this is to close and then reboot into a 32 bit mode. Slightly annoying but I am glad my plug-ins still work.
My favorite plug-ins for Aperture are the Nik Effects programs. Even the new Aperture 3 editing tools do not render those plug-ins obsolete. However, I like to layer 3 to 4 filters over a photo. Since Aperture exports the photo out to the plug-in I can only layer 1 at a time and that means more transition photographs. Aperture needs to allow plug-ins to work inside of Aperture for non-destructive edits.
Finally, Aperture needs and in-program file type converter. The export/import routine is crazy and it is made worse by the fact that you lose rating, key words, etc.
Showcase
This is another area where Aperture 3 has really made amazing improvements. When I first got Aperture 2, I had a book printed and to me it wasn't even acceptable for home use, let alone professional use. Well that has changed with Aperture 3. You can download plug-ins from GraphiSutdio, Queensberry, Leather Craftsmen, and Couture Books.(Note you need to be a partner photographer or verified business to get the Queensberry or Leather Craftsmen plug-ins). Take a look at these books and you will be astounded by the quality. (For home users, the price will probably astound you but now you can see why wedding albums cost so much.)
Aperture 3 has also added a slide show function. What is cool about this feature is the ability to use both still and video in the slide show. Many believe this hybrid style is the future of publishing. With cheap electronic paper only a short way off, the day of stills only is coming to a close. Overall, the slide show creator is very good but falls short in a few areas. The first is the limited number of...Read more›

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Aperture 3 combines powerful performance with iPhoto simplicity to help you refine images, showcase your photography, and manage massive libraries on your Mac. With more than 200 new features and enhancements, it can help you take your photography to the next level. Now you can perfect your images with brushes. Apply adjustment presets to instantly create a custom look. And when you import your pictures from iPhoto, all name and location data is preserved.

Upgrade Version
Requires Aperture 1.0 or later or academic version of Aperture 2.0 or later.


Taking photos. Further.
Organize photos by faces and places.
Aperture 3 advances the Faces and Places technology in iPhoto. It features new ways to organize your photos by the people in them and more robust GPS tools for mapping images.
Now you can group your photos by the people in them. Even within individual projects.

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The Print Shop Pro Publisher 22 Deluxe Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Don't be fooled by the box saying how many they've sold anyone who knows anything about software knows you cannot return an opened software box so sold means nothing.
This software in unimpressive, I bought it because I needed to do my wedding invitation and I liked the description thinking I could use it for may other things as well.
Well I ended up using WORD for my invitations, yes WORD, why because word actually did everything I wanted that this program said it would do but didn't! I spent HOURS trying to use it's "simple" templates to no avail they would not print correctly or in the size they claimed to be. In the end I am out the money I spent and pretty mad about it.

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The Print Shop 22 Pro Publisher Deluxe delivers more creative tools than any other Print Shop product, along with the professional features you need to take control of your business communications.400,000+ premium images & graphics PLUS, 22,000 professionally designed project templates!Packed with the text and layout tools you need, you'll easily create high quality projects including multi-page brochures, stationery, CD/DVD labels, newsletters and more.Enhanced photo editing tools provide the professional touch you need to make your photos look your best.Whether you create slideshows, burn to CD, resize for a mobile phone or design and publish your own web pages, showcasing your photos is easier than ever.

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PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Limited Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I have used Paint Shop Pro for years and I love it, but it is getting kind of old. So when I saw this new version, I was delighted. I installed it and tried it out, and it worked great. It does all the things Paint Shop Pro does, and lots more besides. It is clean and intuitive, and I can see how I would use it to get a lot done. It works great for cleaning up digital photos, and I especially like the "thinify" tool, which makes me look more attractive than I actually am. So why am I giving it 1 star?
Unfortunately, I had to delete this fine software from my system. I simply can not agree to the license agreement. Here is the part I can't agree with:
1.19.3 You hereby acknowledge and consent to Corel: monitoring your Use of the Product, authenticating and periodically verifying your licensing rights in the Product, collecting, transmitting, using and sharing with Corel's third party marketing partners, data relating to you and your Use of the Product for advertising, marketing, operational and other purposes, accessing, utilizing and altering the existing functionality, including any default settings, of the computer system on which you Use the Product, and receiving in-Product messages from Corel and its third party marketing partners, all in accordance with Corel's Privacy Policy located at [...].
My privacy is important to me. This license agreement goes too far.

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Get everything you need to create fantastic photos--plus $250 in extra value in Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Limited Edition. An Amazon.com exclusive, Corel PaintShop Photo Pro X3 Limited Edition combines the outstanding photo-editing capabilities of PaintShop Photo Pro X3 with bonus software for creating unique photo effects, digital paintings and photo back up and encryption, plus a free USB stick! Ideal for owners of DSLR cameras.
Work with even more RAW camera formats

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Photo Explosion 4.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been using Adobe Elements 4 to improve my pictures but I was forced to make a change when I recently purchased a new PC running Windows 7. Upgrading my Adobe Elements would have cost $100 so I looked for alternatives. I was a bit suspicious of Photo Explosion. After all, its price was $30 with a $10 mail-in rebate. However, it turns out to be a great package. Easy to use and far more capability that I will probably ever use. And, the software comes with a very useful manual. I haven't had a decent manual in years from anyone else. I recommend, without any reservations that you buy Photo Explosion.

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Photo Explosion 4.0 Easily transform a series of photos into 360-degree or wide-angle panoramas.View larger.

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Photo Explosion Deluxe 4.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)I used 3.0 all the time to open up a photo, add some quick text for a logo on top of my photo. I would then add a frame around the photo (there were several different options of cool effects), to block out some of the background stuff in the photo.
The new version, does not have a simple Insert Text feature like 3.0 did. 3.0 allowed you to insert text, and grab the selection bar windows to easily move it around, rotate it, make the text bigger, etc.
With 4.0, you first have to select the text tool, then increase your font (and change it if you wish). If you want to move the text, you have to then select the move tool (another step). If you want to rotate it, you then have to go to the menu, and go through a couple of steps before you manually have to put in what degree angle you want to rotate it. It was much simpler and easier in the old version because you could do it all from one place.
I used the magic effects and frame features all the time in 3.0, there was alot of cool black and white effects that you can make a pic look really elegant (I'm a cake decorator so I used it to block out the background so the cake would be focused better). In 4.0, you can't do it in the Image Editor.
The step in 4.O:
1. Create a new project in Project Studio
2. Add your photo.
3. Add your border (which are horrible,theres no magic effects anymore, and no elegant black and white effects to place around your pic).
4. If you find one you like, you then have to save your project.
5. Then you have to export it to a jpg.
I'm really surprised they took out some functionality of 3.0 and made everything more difficult. I'm now searching for a software that will allow me to quickly add text and some elegant photo effects around the edges.

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Corel Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Check online reviews also. No improvement over X2's slow performance. Lot's of crashes, eats up system resources. Corel very slow in responding with fixes. This is another "not ready for prime time " release.

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Get the total photo- and video-editing solution with Corel's Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle. With incredible power and ease of use, it includes everything you need to create professional-quality photos and videos, including PaintShop Photo Pro X3 and VideoStudio Pro X3, plus valuable extras like Painter Photo Essentials 4, DVD Movie Factory Pro 2010 and Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4--all for a great value.

Overview The new Photo & Video Pro X3 Bundle brings photo, video, DVD and Blu-ray authoring software together so you can create your best-ever photos and videos--all in one place. Easily organize and manage your photo and video collections. Make your photos look extraordinary, then show them off in photo books, HD slideshows, cards and more. Create polished movies with studio-quality effects, titles, transitions and sound, then share them everywhere, from YouTube to Blu-ray Disc and everything in between. The bundle also includes a variety of powerful and creative plug-ins, templates and extras, giving you the complete photo and video package.
Organize your entire photo and video collection
Fix photos and videos fast or go deep with advanced editing
Create HD slideshows, photo books, cards and more
Produce polished movies with studio-quality effects
Share everywhere--print, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, mobile device and more

What's Included
PaintShop Photo Pro X3:Advanced Photo-Editing
Enhanced--Photo Organizer
New--Camera RAW Lab
New--Easy batch processing
Enhanced--Express and Advanced editing modes
New--Integrated photo projects
Enhanced--Online sharing and easy backup
VideoStudio Pro X3

VideoStudio Pro X3:Powerful Video-Editing Software
New--Faster HD editing and rendering
New--Professional HD-quality templates
New--Studio-quality effects and filters
New--Express and Advanced editing modes
New--Blu-ray authoring and burning
Enhanced--Online and mobile sharing

Valuable Extras
Corel Painter Photo Essentials 4
DVD Movie Factory 2010
Over $500 worth of RevoStock templates
NewBlueFX filters
KPT plug-in filters
Royalty-free music from SmartSound

PaintShop Photo Pro X3
Simplify your digital workflow
Enhanced--Photo Organizer Load, find, view and edit photos faster with the integrated Organizer. New photo management capabilities let you customize your workflow with tools for rating, tagging, locating and quickly touching up image files. Select photos fast using both thumbnails and previews.
New--Easy Batch Processing Capture changes made to one image and easily apply those edits to multiple photos, removing the tedium of making the same changes over and over again.
Enhanced--Express Lab Quickly access the most-used photo-editing tools all in one place and make quick fixes to common flaws. The Express Lab now includes Color Balance, Local Tone Mapping, Contrast/Brightness, Sharpen and One Step Noise Removal.
Camera RAW Support Make RAW adjustments during the loading process and work with the latest RAW camera formats.
Do more with advanced photo-editing tools
New--Smart Carver Achieve impressive results quickly by seamlessly and realistically removing objects and scaling without distorting the image.
New--Vibrancy Boost color in the least saturated areas of a photo without affecting the rest of the image.
New--Object Extractor The integrated Object Extractor isolates an object--even challenging cases such as flyaway hair and fuzzy pet fur--so it can be copied to a new background or a new background can be pasted behind it.
Depth of Field Effect Create effects that you can't do with a camera lense alone. Draw attention to a specific area of an image by focusing on one region and applying an out-of-focus blur to the rest of the image.
New--On-Image Text Editing Adjust font, color, placement, position, size and wrapping of the text on an image. Reselect the text on the image and continue typing, or apply text on a path.
HDR Photo Merge Quickly merge photos of the same scene taken at different exposures, or with different brightness and contrast settings, to create a final image that features the full range of detail in the highlights and the shadows.
Layers and Adjustment Layers Adjust the color or tone of your images without actually modifying the pixels on each layer.
Adjust Levels & Curves Precisely adjust tone, color balance and exposure with exceptional control.
Fix it fast in Express Lab
Learning Center The award-winning Learning Center empowers anyone to harness the power of advanced photo editing, helping you complete tasks within seconds of launching PaintShop Pro Photo.
Makeover Tools Make sure the people in your photos look their best with tools that are fun and easy to use. Help your subjects look thinner in seconds, whiten bloodshot eyes, smooth wrinkles and more.
Enhanced--Remove Digital Camera Noise Remove noise artifacts that interfere with the clarity of your digital image--faster than ever!
Get creative with projects and photo sharing
Enhanced--Built-in Creative Projects The new Project Creator is a fast and simple way to make a great-looking photo book, collages, cards and more--all in addition to PaintShop's easy online sharing options.
New--Easy Photo Sharing Share photos and videos where and how you want, using email, Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. Print at home, order prints online*, email or quickly burn a DVD to enjoy on your TV.
Layer Styles Easily apply artistic effects to individual layers, such as drop shadows, embossing and reflections.

VideoStudio Pro X3
More speed across the board
New--Launcher From one convenient location, start express editing, more advanced video editing, DV-to-DVD conversion, or launch DVD Movie Factory 2010.
New--GPU and CPU Acceleration Dramatically speed up your entire movie making process with NVIDIA CUDA and Intel Core i7 optimization.
New--VideoStudio Express Make quick edits, and combine video clips, photos, music and voiceover to create a professional-looking movie in just minutes.
Enhanced--User Interface The redesigned interface keeps all your tools within easy reach so you never have to interrupt your creative flow.
New--High-Speed Filters Accelerate the video-editing process by previewing your effects in real time. Less time waiting means more time creating!
Smart Proxy Editing Edit HD content faster, even on basic PCs. Smart Proxy lets you work quickly in a lower resolution until you're ready to render your project in HD.
Studio-quality templates and effects
New--Movie Templates VideoStudio Pro X3 includes over $500 US worth of high-quality templates from RevoStock. Turn video clips into polished movies in an instant, with Hollywood-style titles, transitions, pans and zooms, credits and more.
New--RotoSketch Transform videos, video frames and photos into animated clips and hand-sketched drawings in a few clicks.
Enhanced--Title Effects Create stunning titles in seconds by adding multiple title tracks and effects, then customize your work to get the perfect look.
New--Multi-track Overlay Effects Apply filters on overlay tracks, including titles and images.
New--NewBlueFX Filters The NewBlueFX Pack includes a variety of animated effects, including the Detail Enhancer for strengthening edges and bringing out detail in a dull or foggy scene, and the Active Camera for simulating every variety of camera jitter.
New--Mood Music from SmartSound Load a multi-layered audio track as background to a video, then fine-tune individual instruments to ensure that the music complements your movie, not distracts from it. Add even more music and sound effects with two new audio tracks.
End-to-end HD video production
Enhanced--HD Capture and Import Import HD video from anywhere, including HDV, AVCHD, Blu-ray Disc and JVC HD camcorders. Import standard video from DV, analog camcorders, the Web, USB and still image cameras.
Enhanced--Blu-ray Authoring and Burning Create your own Blu-ray titles, and author menus for DVDs and Blu-ray Discs, including BD-J menus.
New--H.264 Compression Get HD quality in smaller files by creating HD MPEG-4 files with the H.264 codec.
Unlimited video sharing
Enhanced--Online sharing Upload your videos and slideshows directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and Flickr.
Enhanced--Format Flexibility Save movies to AVI, FLV, MP3 encode, AC3 5.1, AVCHD, HD MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and more.
Enhanced--Copy, Convert and Burn Copy movies to your device of choice, including iPod, iPhone, MP3 players (USB) and PlayStation Portable (PSP). Burn CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray and AVCHD discs.

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Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate & VideoStudio Pro X2 Bundle Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have used adobe products in the past, full versions and essentials. The main difference Ive seen between this and them (the industries so called leaders) is useability. Anyone can sit down to Corel and use it. Very straight forward, and delievers alot of proffesinal quality features.
The biggest seller for me came from VideoStudio. Making full dvds with menus couldnt be easier. Ive made dics with mulitple layers of menus, just like real movie dvds and Ive only opened the manual a few times.
Paint Shop Pro Photo has a very nice layout and ease of use. Some more advanced users in photo editing will find a few missing features, or more likely a little less freedom to do some things. But for anyone who takes photos for fun, or as an ametuer hobby, this is more than powerfull enough.
Painter Essential Photo - takes pictures and turns them into paintings. A good easy to use program, but it will take time to master. Each photo will behave differently, so you have to "repaint" the photo many times to get the outcome you want. Still a nice throw in.
Recover- I dont know if this is even listed, but it comes with a memory card recovery program. So if you accidently delete, or in the case of my parents, format, your camera's memory card, you can still get your pictures. My dad accidently formatted his 4gb SD card with about 1gb of photos on it. I was able to not only pull off the 1gb of photos, but the program found another 2gb of photos they had deleted months earlier.

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The Corel Photo & Video Bundle gives you everything you need to edit photos and videos like a pro. Remove flaws, organize and enhance your photos, and turn your favorite shots into creative projects for sharing with Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate. Turn video clips you capture from handheld devices, digital cameras and HDV, AVCHD, Blu-ray Disc and JVC HD camcorders into stunning movies, complete with animated menus, music and special effects, with VideoStudio Pro X2. You can even edit photos with Paint Shop Pro and then import them into VideoStudio to create stunning slide shows and custom menus!Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate: Ease of use with full professional power Download pictures from your camera automatically Instantly fix common problems such as red eye, color and sharpness Add special effects to photos, text and projects with a few simple clicks Use advanced editing tools like HDR Photo Merge and Levels and Curves to fine-tune images Print, email and share photosVideoStudio Pro X2: Professional-quality video solution Capture, edit, author, burn and view the latest high-definition video Create montages and picture-in-picture effects with multiple video, audio and title tracks Turn stereo audio into immersive Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with one click Improve video with Auto Color & Tone correction Create a polished video in 3 easy steps with the Movie Wizard

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The Print Shop Zoom Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was very disappointed in this software. It's not really good for anything and I still haven't figure out why this was even released. I own Printmaster 15, American Greetings Creata Card 8, and an few other photo and scrapbook programs. This software has templates to make banners, cards, invitations, and all that stuff. The templates are few compared to other programs and then to customize them, well you really can't. If you try to start out with a blank template and add your own photos you are limited to what you can do. No borders, edging, font manipulating. It's just insert the photo, do some basic photo touch ups and that is pretty much it. I wanted to add shadows, edges, frames to my pictures and couldn't. The fonts could only be made in single color. You could not add outlines or drop shadows, NOTHING. Add the font, pick your size, pick your style, and that was it. You can only save to their 1 file format which of course only works with zoom. No e-mailing or file converting. What good is this program I have yet to find out. I spend time to make a birthday invitation from my own pictures. Well guess what, I couldn't e-mail it to my guests. Print is all it does. Complete waste of money. This is the first software I ever purchased that I will be returning. Spend a few extra bucks and get something like Print Master, Print Shop, or something comparible.
UPDATE: I returned this software and received a full refund.

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The Print Shop Zoom offers the best in total photography and desktop publishing creativity. Easily edit, enhance and transform your photos into inspirational print projects. Insert your most cherished photographs into ready-made greeting cards, calendars and more to share with friends and family. Microsoft Windows Vista Certified. All new software - faster and easier-to-use than ever before. Powerful photo editing tools enable one-click fixes for common photo flaws, red-eye removal and image cropping. 1000+ project templates, 40,000+ graphics and images, PLUS 400+ premium fonts. Apply sensational photo effects to any project – the possibilities are endless. All content is in-box.

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ACDsee 8.0 Review

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(More customer reviews)ACDSee 8 is a great file-level manager, and easily surpasses most, if not all, of its competitors at the file-level manipulation and organizational functions that are the basis for creating an efficiently structured and effectively manageable digital photograph library of thousands of photographs in size, and larger. ACDSee 8 also sports a basic image editor, a slideshow and screensaver module, and a backup module. Compared to Corel Photo Album 6, ACDSee is missing a creative projects module, which ACDSystems sells in a separate product, as PhotoSlate 4. ACDsee is a great choice for those who need to manipulate a massive number of files regularly. However, ACDSee 8's cumbersome implementation of metadata management features -- the meat of a digital photograph manager -- makes the program difficult to recommend the program to mainstream users.
What makes metadata support so important? A photograph may be worth a thousand words, but not always. Without aid, the casual viewer may not understand or remember a picture's content or context. (E.g., When and where was this picture taken? What is this a picture of? Who are these people? Why did I take this picture?) Even the photographer himself may not remember these things one or five years later. In an analog photograph, one could write a description on back of the print itself. With digital photos, this sort of information is kept as metadata. Without metadata, that interesting digital photograph (Holiday Party 2005: Roy and Ciara with Mayor Mike. Unbeknownst to Mayor Mike, Roy and Ciara rose to power by wasting hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars.) is just another anonymous picture. It is metadata that imbues digital photographs with their context and meaning, and that enables digital photograph collections to be quickly organized or synthesized in a wide variety of ways - by timeline, event, location, person, etc.
ACDSee 8 uses three separately maintained subsystems to support image metadata - a proprietary internal database that stores thumbnail images, ratings and category information; and two other subsystems to support the EXIF and IPTC metadata standards. IPTC is the preferred standard for storing picture descriptions; EXIF is the standard for camera information (picture timestamp, exposure settings, etc.). Support for EXIF and IPTC metadata is important, because these two standards enable photograph descriptions (complete memory = photograph + metadata) to be accessible seamlessly:
- outside of ACDSee, relegating product lock-in to the past;
-across online photo sharing sites (such as Fokti and Flickr);
-by family, friends, or other users who don't use ACDSee;
-by posterity, if ACDSee were ever to be discontinued.
While ACDSee 8 has the most complete metadata support of any consumer-grade digital image manager, it is quite cumbersome to use. Searching for a picture or music file? It isn't easy to do in ACDSee. ACDSee has Google-like simplicity only when searching for information in its internal database. To look for data stored in EXIF, IPTC, or ID3 (for music files) metadata, you'll need to specify the field(s) to search, a Boolean condition for the search (is, starts with, contains, etc.), and the data you're looking for. It's as painful as it sounds.
ACDSee's IPTC metadata subsystem is new to Version 8, and is not as developed as the ACDSee internal database and EXIF subsystems. While the program supports batch operations (working on multiple files simultaneously, e.g., assigning the description Grandpa's Birthday to a collection of photographs) for ACDSee's internal database and EXIF subsystems, batch operations are not supported for IPTC metadata. IPTC metadata entries must be painstakingly made on a per picture basis in ACDSee. Experienced users may look to PixVue, a free Windows Explorer extension, for a full IPTC/XMP metadata editor that supports batch operations, so at worst ACDSee users will find it burdensome to transfer information from ACDSee's internal database or EXIF metadata subsystem to IPTC. ACDSee does not support Unicode, so foreign language support (for recording foreign toponyms and friends in your photographs without the need for Romanize them) is limited.

ACDSee 8 continues to be a great file-level digital image library manager, best for those with thousands of pictures and those who don't care about metadata. With improvements to its search and IPTC metadata features, ACDSee could be a standout product for everyone. Interestingly, since ACDSee 8 supports searching through ID3 metadata (albeit painfully), future versions of ACDSee may potentially be good music managers, too.

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ACDSee 9 Photo Manager Review

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(More customer reviews)ACDSee photo management absolutely beats most (if not all?) of the photo management utilities typically shipped with digital cameras, hands down. However, free applications such as irfanview are really beginning to come together where this program is falling apart--namely ease of use and functionality.
ACDSee has become a feature monster. The program does a tremendous amount of background processing and is constantly cataloguing and indexing your images. This is a problem if you work with a large number of new images on a regular basis. There is no obvious way to stop the database from cataloguing everything it encounters, and as time goes on this too easily corrupted database brings the program to its knees. The number of system errors and program crashes I've encountered with version 9 is absolutely pathetic for such an established name in this business. Multimedia is not handled well, best advice if you have an assortment of media types is to turn video previews OFF and just leave multimedia functionality alone.
PDF "photo albums", highly configurable contact sheets, exportable file indexes and lists, descript.ion generation, HTML photo albums, simple slide shows, these are all great features I love to use with ACDSee. They don't seem to hinder normal operations of the browser so no harm done. The ease of using the conversion tools and lossless JPEG operations, as well as the excellent EXIF tools and batch renaming by EXIF data also just can't be beat. The interface is very flexible and anything can go just about anywhere, or go away, also a huge plus. The program has definite qualities.
ACDSee needs to scale down the browsing app a LOT and get back to basics. I don't need a complex database when I'm rotating and deleting a thousand images I won't likely need again and using the browser to examinine EXIF data. I resent the fact that the search feature has become so highly dependent on building this consumer-oriented proprietary database (how many stars did you give your image and was it a pretty picture of puppies or babies or gramma's birthday?) it is barely functional for raw file searches. I have learned not to trust centralized absolute-file-location-dependent databases, particularly when tied to specific applications. I prefer organizing by files and folders and maintaining flexibility, and this program no longer caters to my methods. Unfortunately basic file management (cut/copy/paste) through ACDSee is extremely slow with a large database, but use any other app to move or rename a file and your database info relative to those images is orphaned and lost.
(Nitpicking: The font viewer needs work, it would be very useful if it could be configured to display characters other than "FONT". Unfortunately de-selecting the font extensions did not restore the original associations to Windows Font Viewer so I had to do that manually. I'd also really like it if ACDSee didn't keep reminding me of other "great ACDSee products", I've clicked most of the "do not show this again" boxes but still see things from time to time.)
For basic image browsing and pre-photoshop operations such as organization, elimination, and lossless exif rotation I have almost fully converted to irfanview. Because of the instability as your database grows, the constant indexing and cataloguing (think infinitely spinning hourglasses and delayed blank file listings when you'd rather just be viewing images) add all the junk features pros don't need and can't remove--and this has become a potentially annoying application.


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ACDSee Photo Manager 2009 Review

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(More customer reviews)My wife and I saw a demo of this at a education industry trade show and very impressed on the overall photo management capabilities, they have a more sophisticated term called digital asset mgmt. I had photos in so many different folders and drives, especially our wedding photos. This program automatically identified them, helped us organize quickly into categories and help rate them in importance to us. The program looks identical to the windows operating system so our user experience was a breeze. The photo editing feature is good, but not great. We bought this for the management part and its worth every penny just for that. I highly recommend to anyone with alot of photos and who feel they are unorganized on their computer.

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Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Review

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(More customer reviews)Lets face it, Adobe Photoshop sets the standard for photo editing, but it's not in most people's price range. The latest version of Photoshop is between six and ten times more expensive Than Corel Paint Shop Pro PHOTO X2. (Wow, what a horrendously long and annoying name.) Photo X2 (as I'll call it from now on) approaches Photoshop in complete feature richness and with a decent interface, yet at a fraction of the price.
Notice I said "feature richness" in describing Photo X2. If you are a relative beginner or you don't retouch your photos in certain ways, I'd actually recommend Photoshop Elements over Photo X2. Elements has a better interface, more "automagic" features and works faster than Photo X2 and is about the same price.
I've used Photoshop, Elements, Corel Photo Paint and also JASC Paint Shop Pro (and some other things, too). So why didn't I buy the latest version of Elements or Photoshop instead?
1. Photoshop is too expensive for me to justify for my personal and hobby use. I use it at my work for image editing since my workplace pays for the software license there. But when I'm paying I'm looking more closely at price vs. performance. Though Photoshop has the performance, it doesn't rate so well on the price scale.
2. Elements is really nice for me to use about 85% of the time, but then there is the horrible 15% of the time that I want to use a feature that Adobe has gutted out of their software for the "Elements" version. Then I have to play around with copying the image into another program (some of them free) to adjust the curves (or whatever) and then copy it back in afterwards. The gutted feature set of Elements is a large, though occasional, annoyance. Plus I really don't use most of the fluffy side of its feature set (like "quick fixes," or "photo creations").
I think for people like me, Photo X2 is a better choice because it gives most of the advanced features that Adobe guts out of Elements at the same price point. These would be features like a curves dialog, batch processing, creating/saving masks (and many more).
Photo X2 has a lot of good sides. It can do a lot. It produces high quality results. It is much more feature rich than Elements. It has very good help files. It even has some nifty unexpected features built-in like HDR image mapping and RAW file support for many digital SLR cameras (including mine).
The down side is that in some places the interface isn't quite as good as Adobe's. It's still pretty usable, but there are minor annoyances. In Photoshop you can zoom/shrink the view and pan an image around while a dialog box is open so you can see the results easily and in a large preview. In Photo X2, you can't zoom in/out and move things around except in the before/after view in the dialogs themselves (not a deal-breaker, but a little bothersome). The startup time and image processing time seem to be slightly slower than in Photoshop, also. Many issues are minor, but they make the product feel a little less polished than Photoshop or Elements.
At least one reviewer has complained about long install and startup times. I noticed the long install time. And my initial startup after installing was 30 seconds or more. After the first time (and a computer reboot), my startup time for Photo X2 was about 8 seconds, which isn't bad. After, loading and closing it and then reopening it in the same Windows session, the loading time was on the order of 2-3 seconds. I don't find these times to be a problem at all, but if you're worried about the performance on your system you might want to download the 30-day fully functional trial from Corel's web site (though it is a 300 MB download or something). It might also be useful to download it to take a look at the features and get a feel for the program if you've never used it before.
In the end, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is good software that is feature rich and a good choice for medium to advanced-level users who have outgrown Photoshop Elements and can't justify spending 6 to 10 times the price to buy Adobe Photoshop.

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Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 is the ideal choice for any aspiring photographer's digital darkroom. Fix brightness, color, and photo flaws in a few clicks and use precision editing tools to create the picture you want. Give photos a unique, exciting look using hundreds of special effects, and much more! Plus, the new one-of-a-kind Express Lab helps you quickly view and fix dozens of photos in the time it used to take to edit a few. Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 even includes a built-in Learning Center to help you get started, it's the easiest way to get professional-looking photos - fast!

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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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Apple Aperture 2.1.1 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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Aperture 2, Apple's groundbreaking photo editing and management software, delivers more than 100 new features that make it dramatically faster and easier to use and even more powerful. Featuring a streamlined user interface, Aperture 2 provides accelerated performance with its optimized database and new Quick Preview mode for rapid-fire browsing. Thanks to advanced image processing with powerful new tools—such as Recovery, Vibrancy, Vignette, and a soft-edged Retouch brush—you'll get the most out of every image. And thanks to integrated MobileMe Gallery support, you can showcase your work on the web in minutes. From importing images to publishing them online or in print, Aperture 2 helps you realize your creative vision.(1)(1) 2Some features require Internet and web server access; MobileMe recommended. MobileMe is available to persons age 13 and older. Annual subscription fee and Internet access required. Terms and conditions apply.

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ACD Systems ACDCD70860WI Pro Photo Manager 3.0 Camera Software Review

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(More customer reviews)I have tested mostly all the RAW workflow softwares(Lightroom, Bibble, Capture One and Silkypix) and this suits best for me.
Why did I choose this SW?
1. I use Olympus camera and ORF files are opened perfectly in ACDsee. Other/All other SW opens with white balance shift and not giving the same quality of Olympus Master.
2. Wonderful light adjustment, the best in market. You have high level adjustment and separate intensity level adjustment.
3. Color adjustment is also like light adjustment, which gives better controls.
4. Good image management(not the best one).
The non destructible processing does not apply to other tools like vignette and borders. I would be very happy if they have provided for the tools too.
Finally, if you are working on RAW files and need a good, easy to work and cost effective software then this one is for you.
Update on 24 July 2010
After using little less than year. I have been very much pleased with this software. It is very much stable and reduced my time working with raw files.

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Photo To Movie Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been using Photo to Movie for over a year. It is fast, reliable, and easy to use.
Photo to Movie provides precise control over movement within an image (the Ken Burns effect), transitions from one image to another, and alignment between both movement and transition with your sound tracks. This allows you, for example to zoom in on someone's eyes in one image, cross fade to their eyes in a second, different image, and zoom back out for a very pleasing change. You can add titles and select transition effects. The program even supports multiple soundtracks so you can easily cross-fade between narration and music.
The interface is intuitive and easy to use. There's lots of help available including video tutorials and (in my experience) very responsive customer support.
Also, the version offered here is for both Mac and PC. (There is also an error in this listing which may be corrected by the time you read this). Finally, the manufacturer offers trial versions of either "flavor" and you can try it before deciding to purchase. For example, another reviewer had problems with exporting the finished product to a video file. I've never run into that problem and you can use the demo to verify it will work for you as well.

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