Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0

$49.99, Windows XP, Macintosh OSX

Teaches: creativity, digital photography, writing

CTR Review

Designed for managing your growing stockpile of digital photos, this utility makes it easy to import, sort, adjust, label, and then share (either by printer or by electronic means) your digital images. The first step is to import the pictures, which requires plugging in your camera. For Windows XP, this procedure was not as automatic as we would have liked (say compared to Apple's iPhoto, which instantly recognizes your camera). Instead, a Windows menu appeared, listing the Adobe Photoshop Album as an option. Soon, you're viewing dozens of thumbnails, which can be easily resized. From this point, you can double click on an image to adjust the color or light, or crop it to size. It is also easy to add a a caption, or create a set of filters that can be dragged over to each picture. In this way, the photos can be sorted easily -- a major issue for most people. So what can you do with your pictures? They can be either exported as JPEG, PNG, TIFF AND PSD format (missing is BMP), or easily printed inside dozens of photo album templates, exported as web pages, exported to a CD for TV viewing or sent as email. Not surprising, this program is especially adept at quickly generating PDF files out of your pictures -- as cards or short PDF movies, complete with music. We did not care for the promotional message at the end of each show, telling viewers to download the $50 program. The bottom line? There are dozens of photo organizing programs out there -- and this is one of the best available.