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Taking photographs is the easy part. Looking after them often proves to be more difficult especially when both digital and traditional paper-based photos are involved. The solution could be to transfer the images, either via a download or scanning, to a computer and use a product such as Paint Shop Photo Album to manage and edit the photographs.

Now up to version 5, Paint Shop Photo Album has gained a Deluxe Edition appendage, probably to help differentiate it from the standard version which forms part of Paint Shop Pro Studio and maybe encourage users to purchase this standalone product. Photo Album has a well set-out tabbed interface. This allows you to switch quickly between the four main areas that form the product’s functionality.

See also: Graphic software

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By default you start with Organise. Thumbnails of the images within the currently selected folder will be displayed. Options are available to search all or just designated favourite folders. You can search for items using keywords or by date. A small selection of keyboards is provided and it is an easy matter to add any others that you may need. Keywords can be assigned to individual or groups of photographs by clicking in the appropriate check boxes that sit alongside each word.

Photographs can be sorted using various criteria such as size, type or name. A batch option allows selected images to be resized, cropped to the standard 4 x 6 size and converted to either sepia or monochrome. The Organise section is also the place where you can stitch together images to create a panoramic view.

Switching to the Enhance tab brings up some additional tools. Using the specialist crop tool you can manipulate a window over the actual image in order to select a specific area that you wish to keep. The Red Eye syndrome can be dealt with while adjustments can be made to brightness, contrast, colour balance, saturation and sharpness using slider bars that give instant feedback as to the results. The aptly named Thinify tool allows you to widen or reduce the width of an image. Text and a frame can be added to any photograph you wish.

The third tab, namely Create, provides access to projects dealing with such topics as producing pages, books, greeting cards, calendars and CD labels. A wizard led approach is used to lead the user through each process to create the chosen document using themed layouts that can be selected from a drop-down pick list.

The final tab provides the means of sharing your photographs with others. There are options to burn images onto DVDs or CDs plus upload photographs to the Web. You can also create a slideshow of images which can then be handed out to other people.

Additional, as you might expect with a Deluxe Edition, Paint Shop Photo Album comes with some extra items. Included on the CD are numerous frames and templates, professional digital pictures from Corbis and PhotoRecover, a utility for recovering photos that might have been deleted accidentally from your camera. A Digital Starter Pack from Avery was supposed to be in the box but I was unable to find any traces of it with the product I was sent.

Paint Shop Photo Album Deluxe Edition has been priced at £29.95 which seems very reasonable. The product allows you to manage, distribute, be creative and carry out some basic editing of your photographs without over-complicating matters. My one worry about this product is how well it will fit in with the other titles of its new owner, Corel.

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