Software Review of:
Picture Fun! 
From the August, 1999 issue of PC Alamode Magazine 

Picture Fun! by Canon Software Publishing is a short course in cropping, re-touching and finishing your pictures, as well as doing some fun warping of body parts to create funny looking friends and relatives. You can also create greeting cards, invitations and picture frames using your own photos. This is a new photo enhancement program that is an integrated suite of four programs: Photo, Warp, Paper and Frame. All the tools necessary to capture your photos, clean them up, print your pictures and even warp them for fun, crazy photo creations are included. 

I am an avid scrapbooker, so this was a new way to "play" with my pictures. I don't like complicated manuals and 10-step directions, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the instructions. They consisted of a 14-page instruction pamphlet that fit inside the front cover of the jewel case. In five quick steps your pictures are transformed! The first program is Photo. Click on step one, "Start". A menu screen appears and gives you options to choose from that include: Browse My Computer; Browse CD; Use my Digital Camera; Use my Scanner, Use Last Picture; Paste from Clipboard; or Use Another TWAIN device. 

After choosing your photo, you click on the second icon to "Adjust" your picture. This is the place where you crop your picture, flip it from side to side, rotate it on it=s side or turn it upside down. The next step is "Fix Color". In this section you can manually or automatically adjust the colors in your picture. 

AutoStyle gives you a group of sample pictures with different hues and colorings to choose from. You click on the picture that you like, and your picture automatically picks up the colors of the sample picture. AutoFinish analyzes your photo and automatically fixes the colors appropriately. 

Step four is Retouch. This screen allows you to remove dust, erase scratches, focus your photo and remove red eye. Step five is Finish. Here you decide what to do with your finished product. You can print your picture, e-mail or send your photo to pix.com via the Internet (they make mugs, t-shirts, calendars, etcY for a price), or continue with one of the other PictureFun! programs. 

The second program is Warp. This is a fun program for adults as well as kids. My last name is Grosskopf which means ABig Head@ in German, so I gave my daughter and myself a big head with big hair (Larry got a kick out of it!). You can choose the amount of plasticity your warping effect will have by using a slider with less on the left and more on the right. You warp by catching and dragging the part of the picture with the mouse until you get the desired effect. Another effect in warp is Curved Magic which uses mirror, magnify or spatter effects. Art Gallery lets you add artistic effects like watercolor to your pictures. 

The next program is Paper. This is a four-step wizard that lets you create greeting cards, invitations, or order photo merchandise and photo reprints with your link to pix.com. First you open your picture, then select the type of paper you want to use: magazine cover, greeting card or other cool cards. Customizing is easy and has many font types and styles, backgrounds and color with drop-down lists. When you are finished you can save, print or e-mail your paper creation. 

The fourth program allows you to create eye-catching frames and shadows for your pictures. Choose the type of frame: wood, metal, stone or paint. Choose the shape of the frame and the style: Pine, Birch, Steel, Marble, Granite, Aluminum and many others. You may also choose the thickness of the frame. Matting your photo is another option in this category, as well as shadowing inside the picture. After you are finished framing your photo you can print it, save it, continue with one of the other PictureFun! programs, e-mail or send it to pix.com for merchandise ordering. Don't be afraid to change your mind and decide not to use the picture you have warped out of shape, or mirrored beyond recognition. There is an AUndo All@ icon as well as AUndo last Change@ icon that will bring things back into focus. 

Minimum requirements to run this program are: an IBM compatible PC with a 486 processor or better (Pentium recommended); Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT 4.0; 16 MB of RAM; 20 MB of free hard disk space; an SVGA/256 color display (800 x 600, 16 bit color or higher recommended); and a CD-ROM drive. 

I enjoyed this program as a first time user of photo enhancement software because it was not overwhelming, and took no time to become proficient in. This is also good for school-age children as it has easy to follow instructions. PictureFun! is a great introduction to photo enhancement software and a nice precursor to more complicated photo enhancement programs. 

Canon Software Publishing is a division of Canon Computer Systems, Inc. The address is 2995 Redhill Ave., P.O. Box 5048, Costa Mesa, CA 92628-5048. Technical Support ranged from automated telephone support to fax retrieval support for troubleshooting issues 24-hours, 7-day-a-week at 1-757-413-2855. Live technical support is free of charge for the first 30 days. After 30 days, it is $10.00/call or $25.00/ year, billed to your credit card. There is also an e-mail support Web site at http://www.software.canon.com. The program can be purchased at various places locally where software products are sold. The suggested street price was $29.95 in November of 1998 when the product was initially released. It has been available for less than that recently in local retail stores.