Microsoft Picture It! Photo Studio 2002 offers a bundle of easy to use image editing and creative tools.
If you've just recently gotten into digital images -- be they downloaded, from a digital camera or burnt to a CD for you by your favourite photo processor, there comes a time when just looking at the images may not be enough. After all, you've got all this processing power just sitting there displaying static pixels. You could invest the thousands of dollars it takes to get Photoshop -- or similar products -- up and running, then sit there and scratch your head while trying to work out how to do a simple border. This is where true consumer-level image products such as Picture It! Photo Studio 2002 come in.
Picture It! Photo Studio 2002 offers some basic photo editing functionality alongside the ability to create projects based upon your edited images.
On the image side, Picture It! Photo Studio 2002's focus is on simple digital photo improvement, with options for redeye reduction, contrast adjustment and the application of filters that the package refers to as "illusions". Layout is strongly geared towards novices; it's notably easier to step through the onscreen prompts than it is to simply use the icon-based tools.
On the project side, Picture It! Photo Studio 2002 is stacked to the gills with options, from calendars to personalised stationery sets. It's worth keeping the install CDs to hand if you only opt for the standard install, as that leaves many of the projects on the CD to keep installed space low. The only catch with that approach is that it does make it somewhat slow to load certain projects.
Picture It! Photo Studio 2002 uses a predominantly wizard-based approach to both image editing and project creation. It is possible to manually adjust settings, and after some projects you'll need to. Like loading projects, the interface is a touch slow to respond at times.
Picture It! Photo Studio 2002 can accept images from a variety of sources. It'll automatically fire up scanners and digital cameras if they're attached, and can import photos from MSN's online photo service. The inclusion of this much bundling does make it somewhat like a Windows XP upgrade for non-XP systems, as it greatly simplifies the import process for digital images.
Microsoft ties Picture It! Photo Studio 2002 closely into its online photo services through MSN. It's hardly subtle about this, but we still found areas where this annoyed us. One of the primary buttons on the main screen is labelled "Enhance your photos", which suggests a link to the main image manipulation tools. It's actually a sign-in opportunity for MSN Passport, where images can be manipulated in much the same way as you can through the offline product. We're fine with the concept of bundling online services, but hiding them behind buttons like this seems more than a touch dodgy.
Microsoft Picture It! Photo Studio 2002
Company: Microsoft Australia
Price: AU$119.00
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 13 20 49
3%
2%
