BIOS: Technology Means Business

PhotoImpact 10 is the latest version of Ulead System's flagship image-editing software. Similar to previous versions, PhotoImpact 10 is aimed at entry-level users who don't need the high-end functionality of Adobe's Photoshop or even Jasc's Paint Shop Pro. The software is packed with features, but its bewildering interface will cause frustration. PhotoImpact 10 is not just an image-editing program though, and new users will benefit from separate utilities for on-the-fly visual image management, GIF animation, panorama creation and a decent cataloguing program. You also get a screen capture utility, 2600 Web components, 2000 photos, 1000 pieces of cliparts and 1700 EasyPalette presets/samples, making PhotoImpact 10 a complete and comprehensive image-editing suite that's excellent value for money for non-professionals.

Pros: New photo and design tools; lots of features; excellent value
Cons: Bewildering interface; no RAW file support; very slow

Version 10 of PhotoImpact now has a welcome screen which provides you with quick access to frequently used tasks such as scanning, acquiring photos from a digital camera, browsing images or making simple edits. Some new high-end features include an enhanced Lasso tool and Object Extraction Wizard for complicated cutouts, a touch-up tool, live histogram panel and an enhanced High Dynamic Range (HDR) Engine. Other new features include a Basic mode which simplifies the interface and displays large, easy-to-recognise icons, a revamped menu system, dockable and groupable panels, and a more 'robust' Browse Manager.

PhotoImpact also comes a set of tools for retouching paintings, drawing montages, and creating basic Web graphics. Ulead's Cool 360 is also bundled, allowing you to create 360-degree and wide-angle photo panoramas, and Photo Explorer 8.5 is used for managing your images and burning slideshows onto CD or DVD. If that's not enough, there's also a utility for creating animated GIFs for Web use, a selection of special effects plug-ins from Alien Skin's popular Eye Candy and Splat Suite, as well as an in-depth video tutorial split up into 10 easy-to-follow chapters.

The first you'll notice when using PhotoImpact is the new Welcome Screen. This handy start-up tool will provide inexperienced users with a quick and easy way to start common tasks, although more savvy users will likely close the screen straight away and crack on with their work. There's also a Basic mode that strips away most of the software's features, leaving novices with essential image-editing tools. Once you become more familiar with the software you can revert to Standard mode, where there are more options and a greater degree of control.

PhotoImpact 10's revamped menu system presents commands in easier to understand categories to make navigating the program more intuitive. However, the interface is still littered with icons. Tool panel management with dockable and groupable panels enables you to manage screen real estate more effectively for more efficient workflow and you can now access Ulead's Digital Camera Wizard directly from within the PhotoImpact image editor. A more robust Browse Manager makes browsing photos and processing groups of images faster and more convenient, although the software continually crashed on our test system when trying to access large image libraries, causing us to frequently restart the program.

Similar to any decent image-editing package, PhotoImpact lets you enhance lighting, colour, focus, and other attributes of images acquired from digital cameras and scanners. Its paint tools let you blur, smudge and sharpen areas, and the high dynamic range option is relatively successful at fixing the problem of dramatic differences between light and shadow. Of course, no image-editing program would be complete without retouching tools to remove red-eye, noise, scratches, and other imperfections.

Photo and image effects can be dragged and dropped onto an image to simulate camera lens, artist media, textures, and photographic effects, and you can add motion effects to your images and save them as animated GIFs. Text creation tools let you quickly create type (including EXIF data) for your graphics and give you options for fine-tuning attributes such as spacing, kerning, styles and formats. Type effects also let you twist, wrap, and skew words, as well as animate and transform them into basic 3D graphics.

PhotoImpact's EasyPalette offers a convenient collection of presets, which can be quickly applied to your images by dragging and dropping actions. If you don't like the applied effect, you can simply undo it to revert to your original image. You can also create and save your own presets, such as custom animated effects, fills, and shapes. For repetitive tasks and procedures, the Quick Command Panel records your common commands. Finally, the integrated screen capture utility lets you take screenshots of any part of your workspace.

Support for vector graphic editing means you can create 2D and 3D graphics using the different Path tools. You can convert your images to path objects and freely distort them without losing quality. There's even an integrated program - albeit basic - that lets you create 'entire' Web pages, including backgrounds, images, text content and dynamic components, without the need to write in HTML code. Other Web elements such as slideshows, scrolling text, image pop-ups, and other effects are supported thanks to PhotoImpact's JavaScript support.

For more advanced users, PhotoImpact 10 now offers new creative design tools such as an enhanced Lasso tool and an Object Extraction Wizard for precise selection of complex objects against low contrast backgrounds. At the same time, a powerful new Touch up tool lets you remove undesirable image details, while a new live Histogram Panel displays updated tone distribution information for photos as they are edited.

Links:
PhotoImpact 10 Web site
PhotoImpact 10 30-day trial (81MB)