Ulead PhotoExpress 3 Gold

A photo-editing software to modify pictures, and create photo albums, slide-shows, greeting cards...

Thursday, September 07, 2000

This software is great for adding special effects to pictures. It has a user-friendly interface that’s fun to work with. The software can do wonders to your personal snapshots. You can even see yourself hand-in-hand with your favorite celebrity, be it Hrithik Roshan or Julia Roberts. We’ve given a fully functional 30-day trial version of this software on the accompanying PCQ CD.

The software has three parts—album, photo, and project. The first is self-explanatory—you can create an electronic photo album with your photographs, the second is your main work area, while the third lets you create your own projects—you can create visiting cards, greeting cards, etc. The package supports popular image formats like BMP, JPG, TIF, etc. However, unfortunately, it doesn’t support GIF. You can get files from various locations including your PC, video camera, scanner, digital camera, etc.

In the main Photo work area, there are six categories—Adjust, Selection, Text, Paint, Effects, and Decorate. Each has further sub-categories to choose from. So, you can choose Adjust>Auto Enhance to straighten or crop an image, or change its brightness, contrast, hue, and saturation.

You can play around with text using the Text category. For example, you can add or edit text, reshape, or apply special effects such as 3D, Shadow, and Transform. The Special F/X sub-category has 14 innovative text patterns like glass, metal, emboss, etc. The Effects category contains some interesting options like crumpling an image as if it were fabric or even converting it to look like a pencil drawing. Selection lets you trim the photograph, while you can use the various brushes in Paint to paint inside your snapshot. You can frame your photograph through the Decorate category.

A lot of effects can be further fine-tuned using advanced settings at the right bottom of the interface. You can even do morphing between two photographs. You can print in various forms such as posters, T-shirts, or even thumbnails. You can make a calendar, or create a slide show. Other features include creating personal greeting cards and screensavers.

Ankur Saxena

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