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Soft Gear
Ulead PhotoImpact 6
Advanced photo editing combined with versatile Web-Creation tools make this software an amazing bargain
By Ibarionex R. Perello
 I have to admit that the idea of building and developing a Website has been a bit intimidating. Despite my experience with computers, I was put off by both what I conceived to be the steep learning curve and the prohibitive costs of the software designed to create a Website. Though my Internet service provider includes free space for my own Web page, it has gone unused.
I made attempts in the past to create a Web page, but either found that the templates offered by my ISP were too limiting or that the more advanced software required too much time and effort to learn.
Despite those reservations, I found Ulead's PhotoImpact 6 a marvelous software package for not only creating a Website, but a powerful tool for editing my photographs. While it offered auto-processing tools for color, brightness and contrast, it also provided me with the advanced tools for more controlled changes to my images. Because each tool provides thumbnails so that you see the effect of any change, it makes it very simple to make an adjustment. Combine that with the capability to customize those very same controls and it results in a software package that compares favorably to many of its more expensive brethren.
For the novice, PhotoImpact 6 offers a Post-Processing Wizard that takes you step-by-step through enhancements to your images, which includes a preview of the final effect. Advanced users are sure to appreciate the Quick-Command panel, which allows you to save a series of changes to an image for future use on other photographs. The greatest time-saver was the Batch Convert tool, which allows you to apply the same changes to all the images in a given folder. This is perfect for quickly converting numerous high-resolution photographs to a lower resolution for use on the Web.
After installing PhotoImpact 6 on my computer, I was able to create a Website with multiple pages in a matter of hours. Rather than feeling the frustration that I normally feel trying to grasp a new software, I soon found myself thoroughly enjoying the process of creating a Website. So much so, that my wife nearly had to drag me out of the house so we could enjoy a sunny Saturday afternoon.
One of the great features of this software is that it's actually several applications in one. You not only have the ability to create a Website, but also have a versatile image-editing package, image-cataloging software (Album 6.0) and an exciting tool for introducing animated texts or images to your Web page (GIF Animator 4.0). As they're all accessible using the same sets of controls, you don't have to juggle having two or three different applications running simultaneously. It was very convenient not to have to edit an image in one application, save it in an appropriate format and then open it up again in another program. I was able to do it all in one application with the ease of dragging and dropping the image.
PhotoImpact's Easy Palette makes the introduction of photographs, illustrations and special effects easy and convenient. This window can contain thumbnails of the photographs that you wish to use for your Website, as well as artwork and even filters that can be applied to image and text. I was also able to save image files or illustrations that I had created myself, so that I could use them quickly for several different Web pages. Since the images and effects appear as thumbnails rather than merely text, it was very simple to identify what image or effect I wanted to introduce to my page.
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PhotoImpact 6 has a bunch of new tools to help you construct your own Website, yet it doesn't sacrifice any of its image-processing power. ABOVE: The EasyPalette is great for adding
special effects like these to your project.
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As I intended to use numerous photographs on my Website, I was excited to find that I could still edit my images for brightness, color and contrast, even after introducing them as elements on the Web page. I didn't have to go back to a completely different application in order to make such a change.
I knew that I didn't want my Website just to be a static page of text and
images, so I immediately attempted to add some dynamic elements to it.
Using the EasyPalette, it was easy to highlight the image or text that I wanted to animate and right-click on the effect. A window would appear that would allow me to preview the effect and fine-tune it to my own preference. And most of the effects within the EasyPalette are customizable, providing you with a great degree of control. You can then save your customized effect for later use.
As I was creating a Website with photographs, the size of these image files was a concern. Most of my images would need to be resized to accommodate the standard 72 dpi resolution used for images on the Web. Wonderfully, all I had to do was access the Image Optimizer tool in order to make the necessary changes. I didn't have to go through the tedious process of having to open up each individual file in another application and reduce them to the lower resolution. Instead, I made the changes as I opened up the image for use on the Website.
HIGHLIGHTS
New Imaging
Animation Studio; transparent backgrounds; animated type; digital watermarking; stamp/crop/object eraser tools; advanced text bend and wrap options
New Web Tools
Generate entire Web pages; input HTML text; edit common Web components; GIF Animator 4.0, improved Image Optimizer and Slicer
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The Component Designer feature also allowed me to customize existing banners and buttons as well as create my own. After choosing a banner design from a template, I not only changed the text, but also the size and the color of different elements of the illustration.
You can also preview a Web page on an Internet browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape. If you've made an error in creating your Website, a box appears and details not only the problem but the resolution. For example, when creating my page, I had two animated components that overlapped. Since this wouldn't allow either animation to work, a message was displayed explaining the problem. I was able to quickly correct it and see the animation work flawlessly in the Internet browser.
I'm normally very dubious of software that's inexpensive, but I was amazed and pleased with the assortment of features and controls in PhotoImpact 6. I created my Website, which included photographs and animated graphics, in a short amount of time. Since learning a new software can sometimes be a tedious process, it was great to enjoy an application as quickly as I did with this one. List Price: $99.
Contact: Ulead, (800) 85-ULEAD, www.ulead.com.
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