Software Review of:
Panorama Maker 
2000 

Panorama Maker is a simple, bullet proof program that is exceptionally well designed to do just one thing - to allow you to create unique and wide angle pictures without the hassles or headaches inherent in most graphics programs. When you break the shrink wrap and open the box, and open the inner box, all you find is a CD jewel case and a small yellow piece of paper advertising Photoisland.com. Oh boy! Open the jewel case, insert the CD in the drive and take out the 14 page Quick Start Guide. With autorun on, an I accept, select the drive to load the software, and in a few minutes the program is loaded. The setup wizard inquires if you want to load Apple QuickTime ver. 4? Of course, and setup is complete, slick as a whistle. Click on Start, move to Programs — ArcSoft Panorama Maker 2000, click on Panorama Maker 2000 icon and the simple and elegant Main Screen appears 

Click start and the Option Screen appears. Select type of panorama you wish to make (horizontal, vertical, 360, or tile). Also a Camera Lens setting, Output Image Size and Auto Exposure Correction can be adjusted on this screen. The default settings will work for most pictures. 

Click next and the Arrange Photo Screen appears. Each screen is different based on your choice on the Option Screen (Horiz, Vert, etc). Move to the top-left window and click the down arrow. A drop down menu will appear with the preloaded album titles (a group of pictures). Click on an album name based on your selection in the Option Screen (Horiz, etc.). The pictures will display in the album windows. I chose the River Album which has 4 pictures that make a horizontal panorama. Click on Select All and all 4 pictures are moved to the Storyboard in the sequence they were in on the Album line. You can also drag and drop them individually to the storyboard if there is some doubt they are in the right sequence. Their order on the Storyboard will be the sequence the program will try to stitch them together into a panoramic picture. When you include your own pictures to create an album, move to the end of the album names and click New. Enter your album name and click on the Add icon (if your pictures are already on disk) or on the Acquire icon if you are loading from a TWAIN device (digital camera or scanner).

Click Next and the Preview Screen appears. The program has performed its magic and stitched all four pictures together. Zoom in or out allows you to examine the stitching the program performed. A Fine Tune tool is provided to manually adjust the connection between pictures. A Fine Tune Screen allows for very accurate adjustments 

Click Finish and the Main Screen appears with the panorama displayed. The Option buttons to Edit, Save, Export or Print to publish your panorama picture as you desire.

This is one elegant and intuitive program. It does one thing exceptionally well. No tricks, no blind alleys, no techno babble- just good clean fun and a very unique picture as a reward. It took longer for the ink jet to print my picture than it did to load the software and create my first panorama. I heartily recommend this program to all computer users, regardless of skill level, who want to have fun and see how Adobe or MGI should have done it. And, if you are "a try before you buy phreak", log on to <WWW.arcsoft.com> for some free trials and a look at other Arcsoft programs. A real goldmine! You can buy Panorama Maker 2000 for $29.99 from Arcsoft online or CompUSA.has it in stock. Best Buy does not carry it.

System minimum requirements: Windows 95/98/2000 or NT; VGA monitor with 16-bit color (or better) display; CD-ROM drive (for software installation); 40 MB hard disk space; Pentium-based PC; 16 MB RAM (32 MB recommended); mouse; a TWAIN device (to load pictures).