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Corel Photo Album 6
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Corel has made a habit of adding extra value to its various products by bundling additional resources. The latest product to benefit from this generosity is Corel Photo Album 6. This is the first new version of the product since Corels take over of Jasc Software and comes with various templates, Photo Recovery software and Pixmantec RawShooter essentials for those with cameras that support RAW capture mode.
Corel Photo Album 6 has been designed to help users manage and organise their digital photographs. There are a series of interactive lessons, covering the various aspects of the program, to help the user get started. These lessons include fixing and organising photos plus downloading images from a digital camera. This latter task makes use of the products new Photo Downloader feature and its zero click ability. Actually some mouse clicks are required in order to set up this feature but once completed any downloads from a digital camera or memory card can be started automatically with vertical images rotated for easier viewing. Those who do not want this particular feature can simple neglect to activate it.
Corel Photo Album can catalogue your digital photos with its new Photo Finder feature. This allows users to sort and view images using various criteria such as Folders, Collections, Keywords and specific dates. Another method of searching is to use the Recent Download list which keeps track of the last ten downloads. Search results are displayed as thumbnails with the user having control over the size of these previews.
When photos are required for a project, they can be gathered together in yet another new feature that of the Photo Tray. In this way photos can be tagged for any future task that might include printing with more than 40 different layout styles (a Quick Print feature will remember the users favourite print setting), sending by email or uploading to a Web site. Photos that are a particular favourite can be easily identified by a gold star.
With your photos under control, thoughts might turn to editing and using the images in various ways. Editing, or Enhance as it is referred to by this program, allows the user to crop; fix red eye; adjust aspects such as flash/backlighting, colour balance and sharpness; or apply a quick fix. There is also the Thinify option which allows you to shrink or stretch the width of a photo an easy way to go on a virtual diet.
In a creative mode, Corel Photo Album has a range of projects that are accessed from an animated menu. You can use your photos to create a magazine, certificates, greeting card, personalised calendar or even a CD label. Other options available include an e-card for emailing or a scrapbook that can be shared with friends and family. In each case a wizard-style approach is used to lead you through the various steps required to complete the chosen project. You can select from numerous templates, choose the appropriate photos and add any text as required. With thousands of templates to choose from, there should be plenty for to suite everybodys taste.
Earlier I mentioned the PhotoRecovery software that is bundled as part of this product. The PhotoRecovery software can make an excellent attempt at recovering photos that have been accidentally deleted from a memory card that has not been subsequently formatted. The Pixmantec RawShooter software allows you to convert RAW (digital negatives) into JPEG or TIF images.
This deluxe edition of Corel Photo Album 6 will cost around £29. The software requires a Pentium II 400MHz processor or better with 256MB of RAM, 150MB of Hard Disk space, 16-bit colour display and running Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
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