Ulead PhotoImpact 5

This is a powerful image-editing software that can be used to

add snazzy effects to images. Working with PhotoImpact is easy. We’ve given a

fully functional 30-day trial version of the software on the CD with this issue.

PhotoImpact

supports all popular image formats such as GIF, JPG, TIF, etc. Most of the

effects can be added from a palette window–called EasyPalette–that appears

when you run PhotoImpact. This contains effect galleries, object libraries, and

a layer manager.

There

are 13 effect galleries. For example, there’s a lighting gallery that lets you

add different kinds of lighting effects to an image, such as lightning,

fireworks, flashlight, halo, etc. These settings can be fine-tuned further for

softness, bright—ness, distance, amplitude, etc.

The objects library contains images, masks, banners,

outlines, etc. You can superimpose an image on another image and play around

with its size, position, transparency, or even compress it to desired size. The

layer manager in Easy—Palette helps you keep track of what objects you’ve

added to your image.

The

software has two other components–PhotoImpact Album and GIF Animator. The GIF

Animator tool has a wizard to guide you through the process of adding animation

effects to GIF images. Apart from sequencing frames, you can add effects like

Shadowing, Color balance, Slanting, Fadeout, Lighting, etc. You can get images

directly from a scanner or digital camera. You can also control the number of

frames and delay between them. There’s an optimization wizard to help you

reduce the size of images.

Finally, PhotoImpact Album lets you create various types of

albums to store your pictures. These can be annotated with text as well as

audio. You can also run a slide show with them, synchronized with music, words,

etc.