Software Review of:
MGI Photosuite 
II 

Features
Photo Editing. Editing photographs seems to be one of Photosuite II's strong points. I took several photos of individuals shot with a Nikon and developed by Seattle Filmworks, and used Photosuite II to edit them. It was easy to remove the "red eyes" from the flash. I took a photo that was a little fuzzy and was able to sharpen the detail a little. I took a photo of my daughter and softened the details a little, just like in an engagements announcement photo. It was fairly easy to do. 

 Special Effects. Photosuite II allows you to stretch a photo and distort the details, as in a caricature. You can cut a face from one photo and paste it on another person. This requires considerable patience. It requires practice and a steady hand on the mouse. This is where 32-64 MB RAM comes in handy. Otherwise you will have to wait an uncomfortably long time. It is easy to undo the last step if it doesn't work out right. 

 Calendars/Greeting Cards. Photosuite II makes it easy to create calendars with the photo of your choice. You can use your own photos or photos that you downloaded from the internet. The greeting card feature makes anything you want. There are not many templates for these available. Fortunately, the cards are easy to create. 

 Albums/Slide Shows. You can create these with your own scanned photos or photos from the Internet. Your album can consist of thumbnail photos that the user clicks on to view in a larger size. The software shows you how to create the "show." Some previous PC skills are necessary for this. Photosuite II makes it easy to send your finished project to someone else over the internet, as long as you have Internet access and an Internet service provider such as America Online, Netcom, Express-News.net or others. 

 Minimum system requirements: Pentium 133, 16MB RAM, SVGA 800x600 16 bit color, 80MB HD space. Win 95, 98 or NT 4.0, mouse CD ROM, color printer. Recommended: 32+MB RAM, 195MB HD space full install, MMX capable. 

Test systems 1. Pentium 133, 16 MB RAM, 2 MB video card (not MMX), 4xCD ROM, HP Deskjet 682C 
2. Pentium II 350MMX, 64 MB RAM, big HD, 8 MB video, Canon inkjet 7000. 

Installation
Minimum installation takes 85 MB. The full installation takes 195 MB. The installation process is easy and painless on the Pentium II. It was very slow but easy on the Pentium 133. I recommend the full installation. The Photosuite II runs significantly slower if you use the minimum installation. It ran painfully slow on the Pentium 133 with the minimum installation. Everything went a little faster on the 133 with a full installation. Photosuite II requires you to have Microsoft Internet Explorer on your hard drive in order to work at all. It will not make Internet Explorer you default browser. It will install IE v.4 if it is not already present. Photosuite II requires more memory than 16MB RAM and/or 133 MHZ speed to work well. If you plan on editing photos, you will need 64+ MB RAM and 200 MHZ in my opinion. 

Summary
Photosuite II is easy to use, practical, and with a street price of $49, inexpensive compared to Micrografx's product. I have no complaints at all. It is a distinct improvement over Photosuite version 1. The only drawback is that the program crawls slowly with the minimum requirements. I recommend a system with 32-64+ MB RAM and 200+MHZ with MMX. If you do not have these recommended features, then plan on waiting and waiting when you use the program. I give MGI Photosuite II four of four possible jalapenos. Enjoy! 
 

MGI Software Corp.
50 West Pearce Street 
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada L4B1E3 
Phone: 1-888-MGI-SOFT 
fax: 1-905-707-3694