Customer Reviews

PhotoImpact 8

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I recently received the assignment from my boss to evaluate the various digital photography/image editing programs in the ~$$$ price range. Included were:

- Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0
- Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9.0
- Ulead PhotoImpact 8.0
- Jasc Paintshop Pro 9.0

My review centered around three criteria: image mainpulation, advanced design and photo effects, and suitability for making web graphics. I spent a total of 16 hours on the various programs performing a pretty intensive evaluation in order to determine which product to select for our business. (We needed to purchase a large site license and so there was a lot of $$$ at stake.)

I will tell you that, much to my surprise, PhotoImpact came out on top - not just overall but in each of the three areas individually, as well. I say "to my surprise" because it's definitely the underdog. It doesn't have the kind of sensationalism that the other seem to have, and you don't see it advertised all that much. But it's definitely the champ.

I found PhotoImpact and Paintshop Pro the easiest to use when it came to digital photography features. (Photoshop Elements was far too difficult for business use, and Digital Image Pro far too simplistic, in my opinion.) But PhotoImpact takes the cake in this area because its drag-and-drop orientation is very straightforward.

When it comes to the higher-end design features, PhotoImpact was the clear winner. It supports Adobe's plug-in architecture, so all of the cool filters you can get for Photoshop (and elements, for that matter) are compatible with PhotoImpact. But PhotoImpact gives you a much greater degree of control over customizability than Photoshop Elements, the no. 2 contended in this second area, in my opinion. Once again, it's very easy to create some spectacular effects: There's built-in sophisticated vector drawing (which none of the other evaluated products have), as well as 3D text with some outstanding effects.

And, lastly, in the area of web graphics, PhotoImpact came in tops with Paintshop Pro following second. PhotoImpact has a great system for compressing GIFs, plus it includes a GIF animation application that's really sweet.

Anyway, I hope this helps all you image editing shoppers. Wish I had seen this sort of review upfront; it would have made the decision much easier for me,

Ulead's PhotoImpact 8 continues the Ulead tradition of cramming tons of useful features into a relatively inexpensive program. The previous version of the product received top ratings from a number of leading sites such as CNET. Version 8, in my opinion, adds very few new features that would justify the upgrade for most people. And unfortunately, the very strength of this program is also its Achilles' heel. Since it packs in so many features (photo editing, vector graphics, 3D features, HTML page creation, etc.), it has become a huge install (over 500 MB if you install everything). Further, it is extremely slow to load at startup. I have a 2.0 Ghz pentium with 512 MB RAM, and it can still take between 20 and 40 seconds to fully load the program. Many users have indicated problems with stability and program crashes, though I have not experienced this yet. And many of the extra features such as the HTML page creation and the javascript rollovers are of questionable value for the following reasons:

1) They tend to create VERY basic output, as with the HTML page creation, and you can probably do better on your own or with any inexpensive web page tools.

2) These extra functions sound good on paper, but in reality they only contribute to the huge installation size, the slow loading of the program, and the cluttering of the already overcrowded menus.

PhotoImpact 8 can be a great graphics program and an alternative to expensive options such as Adobe Photoshop. In the low end of the price spectrum , your two best options are PhotoImpact and Paint Shop Pro. But Paint Shop Pro, long the market leader in this price range, has regained the lead. They have just come out with their version 8 Beta, and it is truly an elegant program. It is fast, a much smaller install, and limits itself to just being a great graphics editor (rather than trying to do everything like PhotoImpact). Ultimately it's hard to go wrong with either one, but I believe Ulead has lost the lead, and Paint Shop Pro has regained it.

I've used both Photoimpact 6 and 7 and 8 just gets better. I've had none of the installation problems listed above. My CPU is an AMD 1.2gig unit and I have 650+ megs of memmory. I have the program installed on its own 40 gig hard drive. I use the program for digital photography only so I can't say how it does on Web pages, but for what I use it for, I don't think that I have even started to make a dent into what can be done with it. I find removing unwanted details from a poto easy with the right tools and enhancing a photo is easier still.

One thing, especially if you are dealing with 3.0 megapix or higher resolution or if you deal with uncompressed photos, get as much memory, hard drive space, and the fastest CPU you can afford. At near minimal requirements, working with these large files will define the word slow.

I love the product.....I really do. But, forget any assemblance of customer service, and I mean ANY!!!
I sent in for their "rebate" 11-8-02 and I waited the 8-10 weeks. Ah,... the fun begins. I emailed their site twice, called the rebate center they had listed on their site, who told me they were the wrong rebate center & I had to call Uleads NON-TOLL FREE number in California, not Phoenix. The FIRST call I timed at being on hold for 24 minutes.....never speaking with anyone. Played the old "Press Number" game. Then the SECOND time I called, I only had to wait for 16 minutes, only to be told " hold please, I'll transfer you to that department"... then I get a recording to leave my name, number etc.... One week has gone by, and no call. I've emailed 2 more times ( have yet to get a response by the way, so today, I call again, for the THIRD TIME, put on hold for 17 minutes, to be "transfered" to the same extension as before, asking to leave my name, phone number, etc..........same a before. I did. AGAIN.
I've given up on this "[$$] rebate, and as far as I'm concerned, they should call it "CUSTOMER "NON-SERVICE". I can understand them not spending the money calling me back, but to IGNORE emails is something else, ESPECIALLY when they state....."your email message will be responded to within 48 hours" yea, RIGHT. They have a good product,( I'm running it on Windows 98) but that's about it. If you have a technical problem, best of luck to you.......you'll need it, along with a cheap,long distance phone rate.

I have recently installed Ulead Systems killer imaging app, PhotoImpact 8. I'm always pleased when PI releases, but this one is a digital photographer's delight. You may go to Uleads website to read all about the new features, but suffice it to say, whether editing photos, creating new art from scratch, or making a complete webpage, PI handles it all.
They've changed the text tool so that you actually edit right in the graphic, which I really like. All I have to do is choose the tool, set my font, size, color, then click my text entry point and type away. Need to change the text already placed? Easy. Just click on the text, and shift-E to enter editing mode. There is a new text rotation tool as well, which allows you to rotate individual letters for special needs..
Already with one of the best set of native filters in the business, the programmers haven't sat on their pixels in producing the latest version. They have a Texture filter which you may use to upload your own textures, a Duotuone Filter which gives you almost limitless control over your graphics, a star filter, spot filter, edge preserving blur, diffuse glow for enhancing those delicate photos of your family, and a host of others. These filters are designes to work well right out of the carton for the novice, but the controls may be tweaked to appease the most demanding of artists.
Additionally, the slice tools have been improved, paint brushes enlarged for ease of working with larger images, and the undos have been increased to 200, something we can all appreciate.
PhotoImpact also includes the following applications in the boxed edition: 1. Uleads Gif Animator, the best gif animator on the market today, IMO.
2. Album, an image cataloguing program.
3. PhotoExplorer which allows your to view your images, make slide shows, and thumbnails at the click of a button. You may save the slide shows to CD or DVD as well, if you wish.
And did I mention that the toolbars and panels are completely editable, that you may record, play, export and import your own macros right in PI's quick command panel? Additionally, you may store selections on a graphic, so you can have the exact selection you need for that perfect graphic. Nothing could be more versatile.
In short, whether you're just learning about photo tweaking or you're a seasoned pro looking for something to increase your productivity, check out PhotoImpact 8. It can do nearly anything that "other" app can do, and if you choose PI, you'll still have about 500 bucks left over. I know I'm glad I use it.

PhotoImpact 8 has been patched, but my issues (see my earlier review "Wait for the patch release") have not been corrected. I found no change in the performance or behavior (inability to echo keystrokes) in Unsharp Mask. And I was looking for one of two responses to the pressing Enter to activate a crop issue (the word Enter is missing in my earlier review because I naively surrounded it with angle brackets): 1) make it work, or 2) Update the manual and on-line help to stop saying it does.

I agree with the other reviewers that this is an amazing product for the money. Unfortunately, Ulead has clearly demonstrated to me that they have poor communication between Engineering, email support, phone support, documentation, and their customers. My installation, support, and functionality problems destroyed my confidence in the company and the product. The failure to include an Unsharp Mask fix (or rollback to PhotoImpact 7 functionality which was excellent) further undermined my confidence. I now consider PhotoImpact an amusing toy.

I mentioned in my earlier review that I owned other photo editors and was looking at Photoshop. My conclusions: I bought and love Photoshop (and the third-party books that support it); I'm giving away my copy of Paint Shop Pro (the file browser trashes Windows XP's ability to show you EXIF data in JPEGs); I'm hanging on to my copy of Photoshop Elements 2.0 (it was practically free and works much like it's big brother); and am keeping PhotoImpact because of all the stuff it contains -- and they just might fix Unsharp Mask. I sold the five books I had on PhotoImpact/Paint Shop Pro/Photoshop Elements. My digital editing library is now exclusively focused on Photoshop and my 3 Megabyte JPEGs and I no longer wait for PhotoImpact 8's Unsharp Mask.

When I was deciding between Jasc and Photo Impact when selecting image editing software, I read the reviews about how Photo Impact caused system trouble for several users. I bought Photo Impact 8 anyway becuase I wanted their web page publishing features and I thought the other users might have simply had inadequate resources for a demanding application type. But I should have heeded the warnings of others. I had a brand new, bullet-proof 3 GHz Windows XP system, but after I installed Photo Impact, the system crashed once and ground to a crawl often-- even when the application wasn't open! Not a problem of resources, just a badly programmed application "back-end." Luckily, when I uninstalled it, the system recovered.

As far as features go, well, they might have been the best for the money, but it's a moot point. Definately not worth the probliems the application caused to my system and the $89 lost.

After trying Photoshop Elements 2.0, Paint Shop Pro 7.04, and PhotoImpact 8, I decided to go with PhotoImpact. It offers the best range of features for the money. The program is easy to use, but my biggest issue is the fact that the program constantly crashes due to a C++ runtime error.

Telephone technical support is a toll-call. Email technical support comes from overseas. I've emailed them a number of times regarding the program crashes; however, it seems to take them a long time to respond.

Overall, a very nice product if it didn't crash so much.

After installing Photo Impact 8 on my home computer on January 6, 2003 the product would not work with my EPSON scanner. I repeatedly emailed, telephoned and faxed their technical support group asking for assistance. I received several emails from their Taiwan (corporate location) technical support people and at their request I reinstalled both the device driver for the scanner and the software but neither solution worked. I telephoned their customer service number on January 13, 2003 per Taiwan's request and talked to one of their US customer service representatives who promised to relay my message to the technical support people in their Torrance, CA office; he also suggested I fax my issues/problems to them which I did. I never received any assistance via telephone, fax or email from their office in the USA. I will never buy anything Ulead sells ever again!

After researching several photo editing programs, this seemed to be rated the highest in my price range and by the number of options included. The program works reasonably well. I don't usually read instruction manuals and figured out most of the functions on my own. It locks up occasionally (on WinXP), but works fine after closing it out and re-opening. The number of added special effects are great (including lightning, meteor showers, etc.)