Digital cameras are outselling their analogue counterparts, but most imaging software seems to be designed for the business market. Microsoft's Picture It! Photo & Print bucks that trend, with a seriously easy to use home alternative. It is also very comprehensive in the features it offers--and it's a lot of fun. Whether sending a funky party invitation, designing a personal birthday card, sharing an album of your holiday snaps on the Web or just brightening up the task of labelling a parcel, Picture It! handles it all with ease. The whole process has been divided into three simple stages. Firstly, choose or create a design, add pictures and, finally, personalise the design by manipulating the pictures and adding text, images, sound and animation. There is ample help available at each step, even a guide with mini-movies offering inspiration, help and tips on how to make the most of the features.
There are a huge number of design templates offered on the CDs or on-line. Thankfully, these 13,000 designs are logically categorised by Type (cards, newsletter etc.) or by Activity/Occasion (birthday, wedding etc.) so searching for the right one is not too arduous. Once the design has been chosen the next step is to add images. If the images need to be uploaded via a digital camera or scanner Picture It! will fire up the relevant software and upload the files. There are also thousands of clip art images available; three of the four CDs included in the software contain around 75,000 images. And for those with Web access who need even more choice there is a link to another 100,000 images online.
However, the real fun starts with manipulating the images. All the usual features are available here--adding borders, frames, text and shapes; rotating your picture; adjusting brightness and contrast et al--but there are also some seriously addictive transformations to indulge in. These range from helpful to just plain silly but fun. So while the image connoisseur in us is fine tuning a masterpiece by removing dust and scratches (or even red-eye and wrinkles!) the mischievous in us can skew the image, add a 3-D effect and then create the illusion that the viewer is looking through frosted glass. This latter feature is dangerously addictive. There are more illusions than a magician has up his sleeve and it's almost impossible not try to them all out. Picture It! also features one great time-saving feature. A "mini-lab" allows basic manipulation of a number of images simultaneously.
Once the design project is complete sharing your pictures can range from easy to imaginative. Simply print them or have them printed professionally, e-mail them to friends or relatives, upload the design to the Web or go one step further and order custom t-shirts, mugs or mouse pads.
So, hire some Victorian costumes, take a family photo by the mantelpiece, add a sepia tint and the odd handlebar moustache and away you go... Adrian Spence
