Image Editing Software

Coming this month is version 2.0 of Microsoft image viewer Lots of new features, including a visual interface that clearly communicates the functions of tools and projects. Previews, photo restoration, fancy text, special effects, a clone tool and many other additions add to the excitement of this easy-to-use software. Additionally, users can download pictures from online photo-finishers, send an image to Kodak and get a print in return, e-mail a slideshow (or a postcard with sound), catalog images, print multiple images on one sheet, create their own Hallmark cards with Microsoft Greetings Workshop ... the list goes on and on.

I have to admit, though, that my personal favorite is one of the contrast adjustment options - just take an eyedropper click on an area of the image that's supposed to be white and voila! It's effortless and it works. Can't get much better than that!

Panasonic Interactive Media has some software plans for the near future, most notably a software solution that will optimize performance between printers, scanners and digital cameras from different manufacturers. Calibrate will help users get the best possible photographs, regardless of the input/output hardware configuration.

Heads up! There's a new kid on the block. Pictra, Inc. recently released PictraAlbum and PictraNet Publish & Share, an integrated software solution that allows users to easily create photo album Web pages. We've seen the software in action, and Pictra's boast that 'no web publishing skills are needed' is right on the money.

Polaroid's first shrink-wrapped software, Before & After, is literally asnap to use. Click 'before,' select an image, click 'after' and the picture's got better contrast and is sharper, brighter and clearer. The software is based on Polaroid's image enhancement / improvement platforms - Image Quality Assured (IQA). Before & After definitely lived up to its promises.

Some additional photo software we didn't get the chance to preview includes G&A Imaging's PhotoRecall, a photo management software that allows user's to organizetheir pictures into albums, image adjustments such as cropping and zooming, and image searching over the Internet. The company also recently announced that PhotoRecall now supports PictureVision's on-line service PhotoNet. The main goal behind the integration of PhotoNet with PhotoRecall, according to G&A, is to offer users the ability to save their digital images on the Internet. User's can now access PhotoNet's services through PhotoRecall, and save valuable disk space by saving their images to remote location.

New Soft's Presto! PhotoAlbum is photo albuming software that imports existing 24-bit color images in standard file formats such as BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PCX, FlashPix and Photo CD. The software supports digital cameras, scanners and other image capture devices. The under$ 30 price tag makes this a real family-oriented photo software product for managing, viewing, sharing and organizing photos electronically.