PhotoImpact 6.0

Usable by the beginner, but packed with plenty of higher-end features for the expert, Ulead's PhotoImpact 6.0 delivers an impressive image editing tool with excellent support for Internet graphics. Whether you want to edit photos and put them online or create original Web graphics and animations, this economically priced package offers an appealing mix of power, with an interface that's truly easy to use.

As a standard image editor, PhotoImpact offers an impressive range of capabilities. You'll get a good range of drawing tools and photo retouching abilities. The tool excels in letting you add digital effects to scanned content. In testing, we were able to handle basic photo retouching easily, as well as experiment with a wide range of graphics special effects and filters. We liked the support for creating text effects here, a must for Web page graphics. (The product bundles with hooks to Digimarc's digital watermarking so you can add watermarks in your image files before distributing over the Internet.)

Get control of prepackaged artwork using the convenient style gallery feature, which makes it easy to preview and make use of the bundled photos, clipart, and textures in your own creations. Generally, we found the interface here to be easy to use, with many basic features conveniently placed for beginners, and plenty of advanced functionality to explore for expert users willing to go a little further.

When it comes to the Internet, this new release of PhotoImpact really shines. First, the product lets you create custom Web graphics (like original graphics buttons) easily. You can optimize the size of Web graphics for faster downloads, and the support here for creating GIF animations is good. When you are satisfied with your artwork, the product makes it a cinch to export it to HTML. A wizard offers the ability to create virtual photo albums and slideshows with just a click of the mouse, a feature that will be appreciated by the more casual user. We also liked the product's ability to import existing Web pages. (The product can read over 30 types of graphics files, making it a flexible performer.)

In all, PhotoImpact 6.0 is a well-designed graphics software package that will let most anyone be productive with photos and original graphics on the Internet. --Rich Dragan

PhotoImpact 6 is an image editor that addresses both image editing and Web-page creation. Edit your images and lay out professional Web graphics in real time, then optimize and output them as complete Web pages. PhotoImpact 6 features a full array of imaging and painting tools, vector 2-D and 3-D graphics, over 60 exclusive special effects and filters, visual Web-page layout, and one-click HTML output.