Software Review of:
Photo Factory 
Three-in-One 

System requirements for Windows include a Pentium processor running Windows 95, 98, or NT4 (service pack 3 or later), 32 MB of RAM if using Windows 95 or 98 but 64 MB of RAM if using Windows NT. Also necessary are 100 MB of hard disk space, a 16 or 24 bit color display with a screen resolution of at least 800 x 600 pixels, and a CD-ROM drive. For those “ambidextrous” computer users out there, this program has a dual nature because included on the same CD is a version of the program for the Power Macintosh. One minor to medium complaint I had with this program was that it was a bit glitchy when I tried to install it. Installation kept hanging on me and I would have to take the CD out and reinsert it and my system would then continue. I had similar results on installing all three, and I honestly do not know if the problem lies with my computer or with the programs. Their “automatic” registration process was not smooth, it took several tries to contact their site and get registered, plus you have to do it three times. Eventually, they were all installed and registered and they have since run smoothly. 

Kai’s PhotoSoap 2
All right now, lets see what this baby can do. If it works really well, I think I will take a picture of my car and see if I can clean my car up. Beats taking my car to the carwash. If you have seen my car, you might be thinking it would have to be very, very potent to clean his car! Anyway, back to reality. Well, first of all, this program is a photo editor. As such, the first step is to gather up the photos. PhotoSoap 2 seeks out and finds photos at your command and can retrieve and store them in a centralized location called an album. This is the primary task, as I see it, of the “Organize” feature of the program. From there, you can do many routine editing tasks, using either the program’s built in “automatic” approach or your own judgement on things like brightness-contrast combinations, coloring, tone and many other aspects. 

Starting from the album you have created, you can drag your choices to a “transporter” bar and then simply drag and drop the image into Soap to begin working with the image. There are many nice “tools” available in the “Clean” section of Soap. Some of these include Zoom and Pan, Mask, Crop and Rotate, and Special Effects. Text Editor provides the user choices of text size, color and so forth to utilize in the project. One of my favorites was the ‘clone” tool where you can mark a section of an image and recreate it, essentially “cloning” what had been there. I created two of my daughter in the same picture. As a parent, I can think of uses for this, some fun but others, for example, could help children learn about making choices. 

Soap Talk is an optional part of the installation. It is an Internet-based community of PhotoSoap 2 users who can connect with each other, chat, ask and answer questions and get or share new ideas. PhotoSoap 2 “Print” does just what it says, allowing you control over how your images are printed and “Compose” lets you put your creativity to work, taking an image and adding text, shadows, clipart and editing at layer-level. Last, but not least, Album provides 24 styles of albums with frames to choose from and you can send these to others, make your own slide shows or post them to the Internet.

Kai’s SuperGoo
Okay, get ready to have some real fun when you use this program. If you don’t find yourself laughing at your creations or at least smiling broadly, then you might consider renewing that prescription for Prozac. On a more serious note, for a moment, this really is a fun, light-hearted kind of program. If you think computers are only for serious business types of endeavors, then you owe it to yourself to check this program out. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the “looks” I created. 

SuperGoo has two main “rooms”, Goo and Fusion. In the Goo Room are multiple types of distortion tools, including a number of brushes and global effects, which can be used to create “funhouse mirror” distortions of your images. Exploring the Fusion Room reveals both cloning tools, whereby you can combine or “fuse” faces with other images either from your own resources or from a facial component library provided in the Goo Room. Each room has “In” and “Out” choices for importing or exporting saved images, or even importing new images from your computer files, a scanner or a digital camera. 

I often ignore the manuals (until later, when I usually need them) and try to figure things out myself. Well in this program, I would urge the new user to try things out, click on buttons and explore the results. This is the probably the easiest way to learn to use SuperGoo. These programs do have nice  Quick Reference Guides included in the package. They are not extensive, but do give you the basics, from input to output and basically everything else. If you need or want more, information, there is a more complete User’s Guide that can be accessed on the CD-ROM.

Don’t like your boss? Then “Goo” him or her by taking a digital image of him or her and playing with it to see what you think he or she should really look like. If nothing else, it might relieve some tension you feel and at best, it can be a deviously fun, but safe, way to express your frustration and enjoy doing it. You probably won’t look at the boss quite the same way as you did before. One word of caution though, unless you know your boss is a very good sport, don’t use your “Goo-ed” image of him as your office screensaver. That might come back to haunt you! 

Kai’s PowerShow:
This is the third and final program included in this set. This is a program that can be used by even the creativity-challenged out there. Perhaps I should qualify the former statement by saying that even as creativity-challenged as I can be, I was able to quickly access a few home pictures taken on our PC camera and make a computer slide show out of them. I have plans to use this program to complete the PowerPoint program I have been working on dealing with clinical depression. This program can make sending my digital photos to others over the Internet or posting them on the web a snap. With the ability of my new digital camera to take short video clips, I can turn them into PowerShow presentations quite easily. Kai’s PowerShow can also add sound, animation and special effects to my digital photos. There is an easy “Quickshow” option in the “In” room that uses “Simple Sentence Control” to setup new shows for you. 

The “Sort” room is where you select and sort the particular images in your show. This gives you control over the size, sequence and appearance of the presentation. From there, go to the edit room and give your show a text label, make choices as to how your show “transitions” from one slide to the next, add sound clips or change background templates. Now, head on in to the “Out” room. This is the place to finalize and preview what you will be sending out. First, save your show, then you can preview it and/or go through the Page Setup Dialog box to check and adjust properties you have chosen. Show Settings and Web Settings are the other two main Dialog boxes on this page. They appear when you save a show or export a show to the Internet, respectively. 

In my book, this program is lacking in labels for what things are supposed to do, but more than makes up for it with pop-ups when you place your mouse over a symbol. I am sure that with use, I will get used to the symbols and learn them. This is a good set of programs, value-packed in one box. I see them falling somewhere between the low and medium range of the software learning curve. Photo Factory will cost you $29.99 in CompUSA, a local retail store or it is available online at the Scansoft Software website where you may buy it for $29.95. So, you can have all three programs in the same box for approximately $10.00 apiece. Not bad, no, not bad at all.