GuideReviews Index

Microsoft Expression 3 (formerly from Creature House)
Creature House Expression (formerly Fractal Design Expression) is a vector-based drawing tool featuring "skeletal strokes," a 2D drawing primitive which offers complete editability and scalability. Expression was the first graphics program to allow users to create brush strokes from arbitrary pictures, and remains the most artistically-oriented vector-based drawing package available.

Logitech NuLOOQ Navigator Design Controller for Macintosh and Windows
The Logitech NuLOOQ navigator is a unique productivity-enhancing control device for anyone who works with creative software on a regular basis. It works alongside your keyboard and mouse, trackpad, or graphics tablet while you control it with your other hand. Logitech NuLOOQ Navigator increases user efficiency by taking some of the load off of your mouse hand and reducing the time spent looking for keyboard shortcuts. Sadly, Logitech has chosen to discontinue this product.

Xara Xtreme Illustration Software
Xara Xtreme for Windows is a fast yet powerful vector-based drawing and illustration program, suitable for Web graphics, illustration, technical drawing, animation, cartooning, and compositing.

Picasa Digital Photo Software from Google
Picasa is a flashy and functional digital photo organizer and editor which has improved considerably since its first release. Although I expected better organization and searching capabilities from a Google property, Picasa is excellent for beginners and casual digital shooters who want to find all their pictures, sort them into albums, do quick edits, and share with friends and family.

Corel Ulead PhotoImpact X3
PhotoImpact offers a suite of tools for Web graphics creation, image editing, photo correction and enhancement, plus plenty of extras for special effects and creative exploration. In fact, I consider it one of the best value photo editors for Windows.

Corel Ulead Photo Explorer (Discontinued)
An overview and summary of features for Ulead Photo Explorer, an inexpensive thumbnail image browser and organizer with exceptional Web sharing and HTML output options.

Adobe Photoshop CS4
For the ultimate in graphics power and flexibility, Photoshop can't be beat. Photoshop offers more non-destructive ways of working than any other photo editor, and Adobe is always adding enhancements to help get the job done faster and with less frustration.

Photoshop Elements 7 for Windows
Photoshop Elements is Adobe's photo-editing software for photo hobbyists. Photoshop Elements includes a fully featured photo editor, a powerful, integrated photo organizer, project layout templates, artwork and themes, and a number of sharing options.

ArtRage 2.5 Painting Software for Windows and Mac
ArtRage is an inexpensive, fun, and easy-to-learn program for experimenting with digital art in Windows or Mac OS. The user interface is absolutely gorgeous and designed for ultimate ease of use. Children and adults alike will have a ton of fun painting and drawing with art tools that act and interact just like real-world paint, pens, pencils, crayons, and even glitter!

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
Through a series of modules, Lightroom helps photographers manage, develop, and present their photos. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom was developed to meet the needs of professional photographers, and Adobe has done very well in this regard.

FlipAlbum 5 Suite for Windows from E-Book Systems
I'm not convinced that the book analogy is the best way to present digital photos, but if you like the idea of presenting pictures in a page-flipping album, FlipAlbum is a good way to do it.

Alien Skin Blow Up 2 Image Enlargement Plugin
Alien Skin Blow Up 2 can enlarge your images in Photoshop and Photoshop Elements with better results and with more functionality than competing products. The interface is straightforward and easy to use, but you might have a hard time justifying the cost against the printed results unless you do a large volume of extreme enlargements.

Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 for Windows
Paint Shop Pro offers a great deal of flexibility and features that rival much pricier photo editors. It's affordable and offers ease of use without being overly simplistic or limiting.

TechSmith SnagIt 9 Screen Capture Utility for Windows
SnagIt is one of the most comprehensive and powerful screen capture utilities available for Windows, offering advanced features and extra tools for organizing, simplifying, and editing screen captures.

ProShow Gold 3 from Photodex
Photodex ProShow Gold allows you to create simple to elaborate digital photo slide shows for computer or TV playback. It's highly customizable, with hundreds of transition effects, many audio options, and a variety of output formats.

XnView - free multimedia viewer, browser and converter
XnView is a fast and free image viewer and converter with support for a staggering number of file formats, operating systems, and languages.

IrfanView Free Image Viewer
A summary of IrfanView, a small and speedy free image viewer and thumbnail browser for Windows.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4
The CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 is a value leader, providing capable, professional tools for just about any graphics task. The Suite includes CorelDRAW for vector-based drawing and page layout, and PHOTO-PAINT for image editing and photo retouching. Several supporting utilities also come in the box.

Alien Skin Snap Art Artistic Effects Plug-In (Win/Mac)
Alien Skin Snap Art is a collection of ten filters that can give your photos the artistic styling of colored pencil, Impasto, Pointillism, pen and ink, pencil sketch, pastels, comics, watercolor, oil painting, and pop art.

Canvas 9 Professional Edition
Canvas offers a unified creative environment for intermediate to advanced graphics software users on the Macintosh or Windows platform. This all-in-one graphics suite is an exceptional value.

PhotoArtMaster Gold 1.5 from Fo2Pix (Windows)
PhotoArtMaster Gold is one-of-a-kind software to help you transform your ordinary photographs into something you can be proud to frame and put on display.

Fo2Pix ArtMasterPro
ArtMasterPro lets you turn your digital photos into works of art with 15 interactive ArtWizards or full manual control. ArtMasterPro breaks your photo down into a number of simplified sources, which can be blended into an artistic rendering using ArtWizards or manual painting mode.

Fo2Pix ArtMaster
ArtMaster helps you turn your digital photos into works of art with 7 interactive ArtWizards. ArtMaster breaks your photo down into a number of simplified sources, then the ArtWizards blend these sources into a pleasing picture every time.

Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen Tablet
The new Bamboo Fun tablet from Wacom is the successor to the Graphire4 series of consumer level pen tablets. Improving on the Graphire4 model, Bamboo Fun has an updated look, a wide-format active area, a new textured feel to the tablet surface, and a finger-sensitive touch ring for zooming and scrolling. Unlike the Bamboo standard tablet, Bamboo Fun comes with a mouse and a bundle of creative software.

Wacom Bamboo Pen Tablet
Wacom is the leading graphics tablet maker, and Bamboo is the latest consumer-level tablet in the Wacom product line-up. Bamboo is intended to be used with the built-in pen features of Windows Vista, Microsoft Office, and Mac OS X for marking up documents, jotting notes, and writing your signature.