Sarasota PC Monitor
JASC Paintshop Photo Album 5
A Software Review
by Sharon Rump
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.
Images seem to get lost all over my computer on a regular basis. I try and make sure that they are all filed in the appropriate place, but some seem to sneak around to mysterious locations.
While WindowsXP does a fantastic job of viewing image thumbnails so you can see what the file is without opening it, there are other options that are available in software that make a more attractive package. While there are several good programs available, Jasc continues to offer software that is hard to beat at an affordable price. They also include a printed user guide that makes working with the software so much easier. There are 172 pages packed full of instructions and tips on working with images and creating projects. PaintShop Photo Album 5 offers a package that is divided into four areas: View & Organize, Fix & Enhance, Create & Share and Protect & Archive.
When you open the program, there is a screen that is presented that helps you to “Get Started Fast”. It is an interactive guide that gives you lessons on how to use the software. It helps you to download images from your camera, learn how to fix photos, create a lot of different projects, customize images to share with others, archive images to CDs for safe storage and organize the images on your computer.
The first thing that I did after installing the software was to use the catalog feature which scanned my computer and catalogued each image as to when it was taken, where it is located on my system and stores the “Exif” information that is related to the image. You can see the information in a “Favorite Folders” view where you can look into folders of your choice such as My Pictures. You can set up any individual folders in this area for viewing. My favorite view is the Calendar view which allows you to see the images based on when they were taken. It is so much easier for me to remember that I took a cute picture of my grandson on his first birthday and look for that date than to try and remember which folder I stored the image in.
When you have all of your images catalogued, the next BIG step is to apply keywords. This is not something that is a necessity, but it sure makes it easier to find particular images. The Keyword section is set up with some general key words such as location, occasion, photographer and subject. Each category has other keywords in it and you can add your own custom words such as the names of individuals that you might want to track. If you have lots of family you might start with that area first. To add a keyword to an image you simply select the image in the organize pane and check the box next to the keyword that you want associated with that image. You can have as many keywords with one image that you choose. Since I have over 19,000 images on my system, it will take me a long time to add keywords to them all. After that big job is done, you can do searches on keywords and find all images that contain a specific keyword no matter where they are located. Really a neat feature.
There are four tabs across the top of the screen; Organize, Enhance, Create and Share. Under the Organize tab you will have to option to do such things as download images from your camera with a wizard. You can select many print options from a contact sheet to a specific number of images to a page; standard print sizes such as 4" x 6" or 8" x 10" or create a custom size of your own. There are selections for different paper types also. You can look at a slide show of images in a particular folder or create a CD of archived images. You can sort by a number of options or batch process multiple images at once. I find this particularly helpful to change the generic name that is given to images when taken with a digital camera. You can put a name that is more descriptive such as summer 2004vacation and then add a number to make them individual. You can also create a panorama image from this location.
Next is the tab to give options to enhance/correct an image. You can do a lot of adjustments within this program that you would normally use a photo editing program to accomplish. There is a quick fix button that analyzes the image and makes corrections that the program thinks are appropriate. The adjust button lets you choose which corrections you would like to make. There is a fast red eye tool which corrects the red eye with just a simple click on the culprit. You can add text, convert the image to black and white, sepia, add edges to the image or some neat frames. These are just quick enhancements that add a little pizzazz.
The Create tab will give you a selection of things that you can do with your image. You can have fun creating an album pages for scrapbooking which is so popular today. You are given a selection of themes with many templates to choose from. You simply drag and drop an image on the page, add text and print. What could be easier. You can create a quick greeting card, although I would probably use a greeting card program for this feature.
One option that I think is rather interesting but I have not had an opportunity to try is to create a book and upload the information to a site on the internet that will print and bind the pages into a book. There is a charge for this but would be a nice gift. You can create and send e-cards, make a calendar or create a CD label.
On the Share tab you have options to send an image in email with selection of settings for size/quality, print images in various sizes, create a video CD that can be viewed on a DVD player, create a web gallery that will generate humbnails and html pages which you can then upload to create a web site of your images, create a quick CD of images on your computer without additional software, upload files and order prints and create your own custom screen saver. You can also customize and create wallpaper to use on your desktop.
This program incorporates so many features for photos or images that it could be the only one that you might need on your system. The software CD also includes a program that will recover photos that you might have accidentally deleted from your digital media.
System requirements:
Pentium® II 300 MHz processor or equivalent
Microsoft® Windows® (98 SE, 2000, ME, XP)
128 MB of computer RAM memory minimum; 256 MB recommended
135 MB of disk space for full install (45 MB for minimal install) plus 340 MB temp space during install
High Color (16-bit) display colors setting (True Color or 24/32-bit recommended)
800x600 display screen area (1024x768 or higher recommended)
Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.1 or higher (to access Help, Web Galleries, and Photo Sharing sites) ·
Macromedia® Flash Player 7 or higher (included in installer)
Additional requirements for selected features
Microsoft® Outlook® Express or other MAPI-compliant e-mail software (to e-mail from the product)
Apple® QuickTime 6 or greater (to handle movie files)
CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R drive (to create Video CDs, PhotoSafe archive CDs, and QuickCDs)
Up to 1 GB free temporary hard drive space (to create Video CDs)
You can download the program from the internet at the Jasc web site: www.jasc.com for a cost of $45 or you can order a boxed version with user guide included for $49. Jasc includes free unlimited technical support for their products.
This program is easy to use for the beginner and yet has many features which will be attractive to the more advanced user. A real winner in my book!
Copyright 2004. This article is from the October 2004 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/
The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
See http://www.spcug.org for all reviews from the Sarasota PC Monitor, go to the Newsletter Section.