PhotoSuite Reviewer's Comments

New to photo editing? PhotoSuite by Roxio is a good tool for beginners. It's easy to use and includes a quick fix option to fix most errors automatically. Photos can then be used to make a pleasing variety of print and digital projects to share with friends and family. 

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Ease of Use:  

The screens and instructions are simple, easy to use and uncluttered. Each major task is broken into several steps and the program does most of the work. 

Importing:  

With PhotoSuite you can manually browse and open any image or folder-including those from a CD or removable media—but there are no automatic import tools. 

Editing:  

PhotoSuite comes with most features to fix common photo problems. Straighten, rotate, resize, crop, adjust the brightness, contrast and exposure, adjust tint and saturation, and remove red-eye and blemishes. Use PhotoDoctor to automatically adjust lighting or color according to preset standards. Or, you adjust these manually using sliding controls. Because you see the effects as you move the controls, your photo edits are precise. To remove red-eye, select a brush size and click the red part of the eye.

Photo layers in PhotoSuite are built-in objects, text or multiple photos. You can click, move and edit these independent of other objects. You can change the opacity of each object but you cannot put a gradient transparency to merge two together.

Isolate objects with the masks tool: apply different preset-shapes (or draw your own shape) to mask an image. Alternately, use Smart Edge to select an image in a photo, cut and paste into another photo. 

The text tool is easy to use but basic. You can type directly on the picture. There are simple formatting choices (for example, bold, italic, underline, size, color) but that's all you can do with text.

Use batches to enhance, rotate, or convert to different file formats. In this case, a batch is simply a preset action (for example rotate 90 degrees clockwise) that you can apply to multiple photos at the same time. You cannot record your own sequence of actions with PhotoSuite.

Bonus Feature

Make a Movie: Capture video bursts and stills from your video, combine with photos, and apply effects including transitions, music, narration and captions to create dynamic slide shows.

Sharing:  

PhotoSuite offers several ways to share photos. Sending photos through email is easy. The program will automatically compress and resize the images and you can send a group of photos as a slideshow with or without audio.

Create greeting cards, announcements, gift tags, and scrapbook pages from professionally designed templates. The templates are better designed than those we've seen in other programs, and they’re simple to use.

Share photos online through Snapfish.com (an online photo sharing and printing service) with the free PhotoSuite subscription. 

Output Capabilities:  

PhotoSuite supports four file formats: JPG, BMP, PNG, and TIFF. This may be enough for the beginner. However, don't expect to use this program for web development or serious graphic work. 

Organizing:  

Organizing photos with PhotoSuite is simple and basic. Assign keywords when you import. You must manually browse the folders where your photos are found to open them. The preview works well and the thumbnails are clear. Increase or decrease the thumbnail size easily. By right-clicking on a photo you can see the EXIF (digital camera info) and image properties. 

Help/Support:  

PhotoSuite comes with an excellent online tutorial. Look to the built-in Help Center and online for FAQs, customer support and a user forum to communicate with other PhotoSuite users. 

Summary:  

This program is a good choice for beginners who want an economical product, don’t need graphics and web applications, and simply want to make standard edits to photos and share them in creative ways. However, if you anticipate your needs will grow over time, look to the TopTenREVIEWS' side-by-side comparison chart for more sophisticated options.