Photo Impact Pro ® (PI Pro) provides a complete set of image editing tools for digital photographers, Web Site creators and graphic artists who want outstanding results without the steep learning curve often associated with other digital editing tools (figure 1). It is a medium cost ($99.99) image-editing package that will allow you to produce very professional results for a wide range of uses.

Founded in 1984, Nova Development Corporation is a worldwide publisher (and developer) of consumer graphics and content software products for Windows and Macintosh platforms. Nova expresses an unwavering commitment to value-priced and imaginative software. They seem to have a winner in Photo Impact Pro. As best I can tell, Nova has acquired the marketing rights for an enhanced version of Ulead’s PhotoImpact ® image editing software and combined it with some additional image handling capabilities to create this Photo Impact Pro package. Nova also markets Photo Explosion ®, Video Explosion ®, and Scrapbook Factory ®. Last year, I reviewed Ulead’s PhotoImpact Version 7 and was very favorably impressed. This new version is substantially improved.

The PI Pro image editor has a dynamic range engine (High Dynamic Range) to re-create the realistic tonal ranges perceived by the human eye. The High Dynamic Range feature compensates for a camera system’s limitations, and resolves many of the exposure problems that photographers frequently encounter when shooting scenes that contain dramatic differences between light and shades. You can learn how to use High Dynamic Range to extend the "perceivable tonal range" of an image online at the Ulead web site. This version of Photo Impact offers a very extensive gamut of professional digital photography filters that mimic the effects of true film filters and also supports techniques like diffuse glow and spot filter. For your more common image correction needs, there is “ExpressFix”. ExpressFix is a timesaving tool that provides quick fixes to the more common digital photo problems such as color cast, unbalanced exposure, out-of-focus conditions, red-eye and more. It provides one-click presets that can instantly correct most photographic flaws. It also includes excellent JPEG and GIF optimization capabilities, the capability to import vector graphics created in Adobe Illustrator, and a host of other features digital camera users will love. There are many online tutorials at Ulead on the various features found in PhotoImpact ® (and PI Pro) including how to use Express Fix, Filters and Effects, High Dynamic range, and Seamless GIF Animation.

In this Nova boxed version (see cover image), you’ll find a 3 disc CD set, a 500 page, 1 inch thick User’s Manual, and 110 page “A Guide to Great Photographs”. The guide is a really excellent ‘How To’ on taking pictures with a digital camera. The user’s guide is a totally comprehensive, step by step guide that even a complete novice can use to produce great effects. Installation, on my machine was both smooth and quick. There were six major tools installed with the PI Pro package, Photo Impact Pro (the image editor), Photo Explorer (an image viewer/handler), Photo Impact Album (an image manager), GIF Animator, Cool 360 (a panorama creator), and Cool 360 Viewer (a panorama viewer). The tools are reasonably well integrated so that you can shift directly from one to the other by simply clicking an icon or using the ‘SWITCH’ function on the right edge of the menu bar. Most Photoshop compatible plug-ins also work with PI Pro. One exception was my Extensis pxl SmartScale plug-in would not install in PI Pro. The limitation, however, appears to be an Extensis imposed restriction, and not a PI Pro problem.

Photo Explorer provides easy viewing of thumbnail versions of image files and some video files. A lot can be done to your images from the Explorer window. You can rename; renumber; adjust color/hue; lighten/darken; convert to every popular photo format; rotate images without lose of quality; fix ‘red-eye’; etc. by individual image or in groups you select. You can also create simple slideshows (figure 2) with audio and transitions. The sound and audio control capabilities are far more limited than those described in my Proshow Gold article, but will still provide adequate capabilities for most home usage. The slideshow I created used an mp3 sound source with out a problem. You can then choose to ‘burn’ a PC slideshow CD or a TV slideshow (VCD). However, Photo Explorer does not create DVDs.

Photo Impact Album (figure 3) has a slightly different orientation, and will also ‘burn’ slideshows and/or albums to CD. PI Album will also support DVD creation, which Explorer does not. However, its slideshow creator will not recognize mp3 audio files, and I had to use a wav sound source. It appears Nova/Ulead has a little work left to clean up these kind of small, but important differences, if them want the user experience to be friendly and consistent across all parts of their package.

Cool 360 and Cool 360 Viewer (figure4) make it extremely easy to create panoramic pictures from a set of overlapping images. You can save your stitched image into a jpg file and/or an exe, which can then be e-mailed to a friend or placed on a webpage. Ulead markets this tool separately for $49.95

GIF Animator (figure 5) is also a very useful tool for enhancing your web pages or PowerPoint slides. With GIF Animator, you can create small moving GIF banners, generate true color avis, QuickTime files, mpegs or produce AutoDesk Animations. Outputs can also be saved as raster-based True Color Flash animation. You can generate HTML files to display your GIF animation in Web browsers or to send self-playing animated greetings with personalized messages and music in you e-mail. You may also create animation frames as sequentially numbered JPEG or PNG files. Ulead also markets this tool separately for $49.95.

I liked this package very much, as I admittedly do most Ulead software. The Nova price is only ten dollars more than the price Ulead charges for their current PhotoImpact image editing software, and you get all the additional capabilities. I am looking forward to using some of those capabilities when I update my genealogy web site.

Minimum Requirements: PhotoImpact Pro requires Windows 98, 2000, Me or XP, Pentium® II Compatible Processor or Faster, 64 MB RAM (256 recommended), 800 x 600 Display, CD-ROM Drive, Recordable or Rewritable CD Drive Required to Burn CD Slideshows.

Reviewer System Specifications: Desktop Server: AMD Athlon 2400 (2.0 GHz) running Windows XP Pro, 1.25 GB Ram, 120 GB hard drive, 120 GB SATA Raid-0 Array, 64 MB ATI Radeon 7000, Lite-On DVD reader, Lite-On DVD Burner, Sound Blaster Live card, HP PhotoSmart S20 film Scanner, , SOHO 100/10 Ethernet, Firewire (IEEE 1394), USB 1.1 and USB 2.0, DirectX 9.0b, LogiTech Trackball, keyboard, etc.

Vendor Information:
Nova Development Corporation
23801 Calabasas Road, Suite 2005
Calabasas, CA 91302-1547
1 (818) 591-9600

Ulead Systems, Inc.
1 (877) 226-6766, Monday-Friday, 9:00am - 5:00pm PST