I’ve been lusting after photo effects software but Larry, the evil software coordinator, always grabs it to review himself.

All I want to do is make interesting edges on my photos. Is that too much to ask?

One day Larry went on vacation. All of his usual lackeys were busy and couldn’t stand in for him at the monthly software checkout, so in total desperation he e-mailed me. I felt sorry for him, even though he has cheated, and I do mean CHEATED me out of all the good software, so I said yes. Well, I made him grovel first, but I did relent.

As I sat on the floor of the Learning Center storeroom familiarizing myself with the month’s booty this program accidentally fell into my backpack. Like an abandoned puppy, it wanted to come home with me.

It’s just what I wanted.

Instant Photo Effects does just what it promises: it instantly adds effects to your photos.

Figure 1 is shows the program’s screen. The photo is of my father (yes, that is a Coast Guard uniform, circa 1942) and it is the original scan.

The program is intuitive: along the bottom you can see the main categories of effects: frames, darkroom, accents, photography, artistic, and edges, which is what is currently active.

You can also see that under the edges category I have “brush strokes” highlighted, and the options are depicted along the bottom of the screen. All you have to do is click on one of the effects and it is applied. The change is just temporary: if you click on a different one, the old effect is abandoned and the new one applied. It’s not final until you say it is.

Figures 2-6 show five different effects applied to this photo. Each effect was applied with just one click! I LOVE the old photo album effect: I see a lot of use for that one.

The program does more than add frames and fancy edges. It can do some basic editing: rotate, crop (including cropping into shapes, like stars and hearts) and redeye reduction. It can add textures to photos (brick, puzzle pieces, burlap, stucco) and turn them into old-looking sepia-toned pictures. It allows you to resize them for the Internet, and gives you an estimate of how long it will take to upload. You can add text. It can improve your photo: brightness, contrast, color correction and lighting effects, for example.

You can scan directly from the program, save to numerous formats and drag and drop images directly into other programs, such as Word, PowerPoint, PrintShop or Corel Draw. It is compatible with all Windows versions from Win 95 and up. There is not a Mac version.

It comes with a well-written 40 page manual but the program was so self-explanatory I didn’t need to use it. More information is available on their Web site.

The company is Streetwise Software; if you can’t find the product locally you can call them at 1-800-743-6765. You can also buy the product from their Web site.

The best part is the price: only $39.99. By comparison, Photo/Graphic Edges, although admittedly a more robust program, goes for $179.

This isn’t a fully-featured graphics suite or your best choice for your primary photo editing program. But what it does it does extremely well. It’s a great addition to your graphics toolbox.

When are you going on vacation again, Larry? I understand Professor Franklin has some other programs . . .