Sharing:  

PhotoPlus X3 allows you to save your photos to your hard drive or disc, but there isn’t a way to automatically publish your photos to a site like Flickr, Picasa, etc.

Output Capabilities:  

PhotoPlus 3 supports the most common image formats including PDF. Use Export Optimizer to balance size and quality for both Web and print output. You can view your images side-by-side as you make adjustments. 

Organizing:  

PhotoPlus X3 comes with a second program, AlbumPlus SE Pro, to provide organizing features and some editing features. It’ll scan any folder or drive for pictures and organize them into one convenient location if you like. Some people will find it a convenient way to keep everything in its place, while others might choose to simply organize their photos in, say, Windows Explorer. Either way, it’s nice to have the automatic organization capabilities in AlbumPlus, and with its Search function, you can search all your photos by date, file type, rating (you can rate your photos!), file size, and dimensions.

Help/Support:  

PhotoPlus X3 comes with 25 PDF tutorials to take you through a variety of edits and projects.  While you work, there is a convenient How-to tab on the left side of your screen, should you need a quick glance at many of the most commonly used feature tutorials. PhotoPlus X3 also comes with a large and very helpful User Guide, complete with a table of contents, index, over 190 pages of content, and even a few blank pages at the back to write your own notes on. You can also contact customer support, technical support, and access both a glossary and a forum monitored by Serif technical support staff.

PhotoPlus X3 is a major improvement to its preceding versions. We really like its capabilities for beginning and advanced users alike, and the help and tutorials are, well, helpful. There are instances where the program’s behavior doesn’t match user expectation, and some tutorials have minor technical mismatches between instructions and reality, both of which contributed to its number three ranking. Even so, these discrepancies are minimal and don’t take too much away from the ease and flexibility of the program. You may decide that PhotoPlus X3 is not for you. If so, have a look at our reviews of Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Paint Shop Pro.