MGI's PhotoSuite 4 Platinum Edition"It Just Keeps on Getting Better & Better" |
||
Click on a thumbnail to enlarge it. Use your browser's "BACK" button to return to this review when done. |
||
PhotoSuite 4 Platinum Edition from MGI Software is the latest release of their software package that turns your PC into a digital-photography command center for fixing, enhancing, sharing, and being creative with your favorite snap shots, or experiencing the benefits and opportunities of Web-based photography. It is perfect for editing and manipulating photos from a variety of sources: scanner, digital camera, CD, or images downloaded from the Internet. Images can be made into a mosaic with the PhotoTapestry feature; stitched together to form a panorama; organized into an electronic album; edited with special effects such as warp, ripple, splatter, painterly, mirage, sepia, and moonlight; and made into a slide show with transitions, sound effects, voice-overs and music. You can paint, cut, clone, crop, resize and move any part of your photo. Finished projects such as calendars or cards can be printed, e-mailed, or made into a Web page. The program includes 1,500 templates for home and business to create cards, calendars, flyers, stationery, presentations, and other projects (the image to the right was created using a template and a photo that had been enhanced with the painting effect). PhotoSuite also comes with royalty-free photos, fun props and fonts to use to customize your products. There are Print Multiples templates that are designed to work with dozens of different specialty papers from Kodak, Avery-Dennison, and Zweckform. Price of PhotoSuite 4 Platinum Edition $49.95. Also, the program is always being upgraded. New templates, photos, and other MGI PhotoSuite 4 Download Packs are available on a regular basis. Check http://www.mgisoft.com and http://www.photosuite.com for upgrades, advice, hints, and tips and other information. |
||
The easy-to-use interface, templates, and step-by-step guides make this an excellent program for beginning and intermediate PC users and photo-hobbyists. For users who don't need the guides, the program offers a higher level of manual control over effects. | ||
|
||
PhotoSuite 4 is easy to install. The program guides you step by step through a Wizard-based installation. You have the option to install additional content directly on your system such as PhotoTapestry Tile collection and Jerry Down photos or using them from the CD. There are also 19 fun fonts that are installed. Interface--The interface is fairly intuitive and is logically separated into seven activities accessed through the Navigation Bar.
Workflow--The program has been designed for both the novice and advanced user. For individuals new to PC photography, PhotoSuite provides a logical workflow complete with step-by-step instructions for completing any photo task. Novice users can use the four-step workflow: (1) Select one of the seven general activities from the Navigation Bar; (2) Select the area of functionality from the Activity Panel; (3) If necessary, select a specific task from the list in the Activity Panel; and (4) Follow the step-by-step instructions in the Activity Panel to complete the task. Toolbar--PhotoSuite also has a Toolbar to allow more experience users direct access to the program's functionality. This Tool bar is accessed in the Prepare activity.
Getting Photos--You can get photos from many sources. Digital peripherals, such as scanners and cameras are accessed through the industry standard TWAIN, or WIA, but PhotoSuite 4 also supports a number of Digital Cameras directly through their Application Programming Interface (API). Various models of Agfa, Epson, Kodak, Olympus and Sanyo cameras are supported directly. Direct API support provides more capabilities than standard TWAIN, such as the ability to download and delete all the images from the camera at one time, and the ability to save video files (AVI) and sound clips. PhotoSuite 4 supports eighteen image formats: BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX, TGA, TIF, EPS, PCD, PNG, STN, WMF, PIC, FPX, SFW, IMG, KQP, RAS, and PSD. Preparing Photos--The Prepare activity lets you make all sorts of enhancements to your photos. You can perform such functions as: rotating and cropping, touchups, making cutouts, painting, applying special effects, stitching photos together to create panoramas, and creating a Photo Tapestry. Within the Prepare module, there are four main enhancements:
Compose--The Compose activity lets you place your photos into over 1,500 templates. In addition, you can create and save your own templates or modify most elements of existing templates. Business projects include items such as signs, labels, stationary, business cards, certificates, and promotional materials, while home projects include posters, calendars, magazines, greeting cards, sports cards, and photo collages. You can also add text and props, and combine photos and cutouts into collages. You have a variety of editing elements to use, such as rotate, change order, add drop shadows and borders, or use any other editing tools found in the Prepare Activity. I used a calendar template and added the baby photo to produce the image to the left. Organize Photos--You can organize photo collections into albums, complete with titles and individual descriptions. There is also a Master Album that keeps track of all of your albums (an unlimited number). Albums are versatile enough to handle content like video (AVI) files, and sound (WAV & MP3) files, and their properties can be changed such as size of thumbnail and descriptions. There are also search and sort capabilities. Once your photos are organized into albums, you can use these albums as the basis for slideshows, printing and Web display. Share Photos--The Share activity lets you save your work, send your photos through e-mail, post your photos to an online photo community, present your photos in multimedia slide shows, create an album screen saver, or create and publish your own media-rich Web site.
Print Photos--Realizing that it is costly to print photos on photo quality printers with photo quality paper, PhotoSuite 4 provides an extensive layout and print preview to give you complete control over output. You can make changes to the layout within this print preview to avoid having to go back to make a correction. Adjustments that can be made in print preview include realignment for use with specialty papers, incremental nudging to correct for printer misfeed, and even centering. A number of print templates are included that allow you to print multiple copies of a photo or project on a single page. When printing multiples, you can choose whether to resize items so that they fit within the placeholders or to fill the placeholders. You can also choose to auto-rotate items to best fit with the placeholders. As well as generic layouts, PhotoSuite now provides layouts designed for Kodak and Avery stock, and you can even print your images on CD labels or mini stamps. Browse--PhotoSuite 4 is built on a browser. This means that you can surf the Internet from within PhotoSuite 4 by simply typing in the URL or accessing your Favorites from the menu. The Command Bar in PhotoSuite changes to include traditional Browser functions: back, forward, stop, refresh, print, and home. One of the many benefits of having a browser built into PhotoSuite 4 is the ability to drag any picture off the Web directly into the Library (following copyright laws). Using the Home Icon which is linked to the PhotoSuite Web site, you can get extra content, new project templates, additional filters, online tutorials and more.. |
||
PhotoSuite just keeps on getting better and better. The Web options, cutouts, and transparency features make this an excellent upgrade. Since its inception, the program has provided templates and props to make it a fun and easy to learn package for individuals who don't know that much about image-editing. But with each new version, additional and enhanced image-editing tools have increased the functionality of the program for those users who want to get in there and really play with their photos. There are other image-editing programs out there that are more high-powered, but they are expensive and overkill for the average home user or hobbyist. For the user who wants a program that is inexpensive, easy-to-use, fun, with both templates, and editing tools, it's the best software package out there. | ||
Processor: Pentium 166 Mhz (266 MMX recommended) Operating System: Windows 95/98, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000, or NT 4.0 Memory: 32MB Hard Disk Space: 200MB SVGA Video Card 800 x 600 Screen Area 16-bit Color |
||
Graphics:
Adobe Photoshop 5.5 |
||