When first looking at PhotoScape the reaction you might get is something like, oh well another photo editor who can do all this and that and some basic things that almost all editors out there are able to accomplish. But you’d be totally wrong because PhotoScape is not just any editor; it has lots of nice features, it is very easy to use and we think, it’s must have for any self-respecting digital photographer.
Installation & Requirements
The installation process is a fairly basic and intuitive and it will take under 1 or 2 minutes depending on the system on which is installed. Because PhotoScape is Windows only, it will run on Xp, Vista and 7; if you are a Windows 98 or Me user, you must go back to PhotoScape version 3.4. It will run on almost any system so there’s no “I need supercomputer to run this one”, just a basic Pentium® III 700 Mhz and 128 MB of Ram.
PhotoScape EditorThe first thing you’ll notice is this cool viewer with a standard thumbnail view and a folder’s list along the side, a preview window and a few other functions for rotating images or viewing EXIF data.
Cruising further we encounter the Editor where functions such as adjustments and effects are ready to enhance your work. Everything is there – one click auto-levels and contrast to advanced color curves or the ability to play with many of the presets available. Colour and tone adjustments, filter effects and a large variety of fun and funky frames are also present.
You can easily add text play, with shapes, create speech balloons on top of the photo you are working with, insert a wide variety of clip art objects onto your working file, and you can also add any other photo or an image from the clipboard. The user can add text or symbols, for example the text tool can add formatted text and the symbol tool allows you to browse symbol fonts from the computer and drop them directly onto the image.
All object found in the document can be resized, moved or rotated.All the basic tools are there : the crop tool which is very flexible and it features a cool circular crop option, resizing, brightness and color adjustment, white balance, backlight correction, etc.
Pros
– Freeware
– Lite trail on your systems resources
– Fairly easy to use and user friendly
– A vast choice of editing elements
Cons
– More frames and templates could have been added
Alternatives
There are lots of alternatives in terms of photo editing and image processing such as The Gimp, a freely distributed program for photo retouching, image composition and image authoring, Picasa a software download from Google, that helps you organize, edit, and share your photos and of course Photoshop from Adobe known as the current and primary market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation.
Conclusion
There are lots of folks out there that are willing to pay good money for expensive graphics managing programs but if you want a fast, versatile software with all kinds of frames, vignettes, cool effects and plenty of bells and whistles, search no more: PhotoScape is the weapon of choice.
