PhotoScape Review

Gadgetchair RATING 8.0

There are only a handful of free photo editingprograms that are simple, funto use and versatile. We’re not talking about features that require a lot of skill such as layers, masking and advanced selectiontechniques.These free programs present a bucket load of features, all easy to use,that will help you give your photos that creative punch, which will make them stand out ina way you never expected. Not only this; you also get other useful toolsto print photos, create collages, batch process among many others. PhotoScape is one such free photo editor that can keep you engaged for hours. Here’s what it offers.
Features and user interface
Photoscape is more than just a plain photo editor and viewer, and this becomes evident with the main pageof theUI inwhich thirteen functions are arranged in a circle around Photoscape’s logo. Additionally, there are nine tabs on thetop left corner that stay static, allowing you to access or switch over to themost important functions. These includeViewer, Editor, Batch Editor, Page, Combine, Animated GIF and Print—seven out of the thirteen functions. In additionto these, the first tab, which is PhotoScape,takes you to the main pageand the Help tab opens onlinehelp in thedefault web browser. The help is quitedetailed and explains all the functions of the program with screenshots, and videos for certain sections like Animated GIF and Editor. The other functions present inthe circular interface are Splitter, Screen Capture, Color Picker, Raw Converter, Rename and Paper Print. We shall talk about these later inthe review.
Let’s start with what this program is best at—photo editing. The Editor comprises a Windows Explorer-style filebrowser on the left and the control panel at the bottom wherein all the action lies. A major portion of the UI is taken up by the work area. The control panel features a minimaldesign with four tabs, each with limited but a usefulset of tools. The Home tab starts with a selectionof over a hundred frames that you can apply with one click. Some are simple and textured borders, while others are fancier patterns and masks. Alternatively, you can go the simpler way by just applying a rounded cornered or a simple colouredframe. Here, thethickness and colour of theframe can be set. The next stack has hotkeys for sepia,black and white,threshold and negative,which apply theeffect to the entire photo. Just below are buttonsfor rotation (90 degree CW and CCW) and flip (horizontal and vertical). Next come eight dropdown lists. Out of these, Auto Level, Auto Contrast, Sharpen, Bloom and Backlight have varying intensities that you can select from thelist—very handy when you want to auto correct thecolour tone, contrast and backlight without any hassle. Bloom appliesslight and haze to yield a dreamy, surreal effect.
The Filter and Brightness,Color dropdown lists are most interesting. The Filter section has a raft of filterswith which you can add a creative touch to your photos using effectslike AntiquePhoto, Vignetting, Distortion and Glass tile among a raft of others. Want toy camera effect? Apply Cross Process and then add a vignette. The Fake Tilt-shift effect with a contrast boost will yield miniature effect. While some filtersaren’t configurable, others feature sliders to adjust related parameters. The Brightness,Color list has tools to adjust colours, saturation and luminance using curves. Others includeWhite Balance, Contrast Enhancement, Decolour, Remove Color Cast etc.
The Object tab letsyou insert elements such as icons, speechballoons,text boxes, symbolsand shapes over photos. Each of these is highly customisable. For example, you can choose thetype of speechbubble,flip/rotate it, set the opacity and customise thefont. Icons brings up a dialoguebox with hundreds of iconswith transparent background categorised into groups such as Cartoon, Face, Sign, Christmas, Logo, Travel etc. You place these on your photo and then resize or rotate them as per your preference. A separate tab is dedicated to cropping photos. There’s just a long dropdown list of various usefulcropratios like 1:1, 1:2, 4:6, 5:7, 8:10, Letter, Legal, US businesscard, etc. You have to drag thecrop over the photo and click on Crop to apply the cropor save the cropped area to a separate image file. The Tools tab has toolsfor red eye correction, moleremoval, Clone Stamp and paint brush. The effect brush allows applying effects such as Greyscale, Sepia, Mosaic, Blur, Brighten and Deepen.

Features and user interface (contd)
The other modules aren’t as detailed as theEditor. Here’s what they offer.
Viewer: Very simple. You have the browser to theleft to navigate to thefolder with images and thethumbnailsof images are displayed on the right side. Double clickingon images opens them in full screen along with basicinfo such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, EV, focal length and filename. You use theleft and right arrow keys to go to theprevious/next photo and thescroll wheel to zoom in/out.
Batch Editor: This comesin handy when you want to process several photos in one go. You have to add the photos to thebatch using thebrowser or by dragging and droppingphotos onto theUI. Next you can choose to add frames, rotate, resize, add objects and apply filtersto all thephotos. Filters includebasicenhancements like contrast, sharpen, brighten, decolour, bloom, vignetting etc. You have to specify values forthe ones you wish to use. The Convert All button brings up the Save dialogue box wherein you can specify theoutput location, filename syntax and image format (JPG, PNG, GIF and BMP).
Page: You getover a hundred different page layouts to create collages and print multiplephotos in a page. Again, you can add frames and effects to individualphotos. You can also set the size of the pageand set theaspect ratio.
Combine: This feature letsyou stack photos vertically, placethem horizontally next to each other or place them incheckerboard style, in a single image. It is possible to set the margin and set thesize of all photos to thefirst, biggestor smallest photo in thegroup.
Animated GIF: This is a usefulfeature whenyou want to create a GIF animation using multiple photos as frames—looksnice when you have shot a burst of photos. You can set the interval between frames, effect and output size.
Print: This module makes printing4x6, 5x7, passport size photos or custom size photos easy. It’s also possible to print indexes with multiplephotos in a page, forwhich you can set the number of rows and columns.
Splitter: Splitsan image into a specified number of rows and columns and saves thesegments as individual photos. The main use of this feature is printinglarge photos and banners.
Screen capture: Captures thefull screen,Window or a selected region. The capture is copied to theclipboard or opens in theEditor, depending on the optionyou’ve selected.
Color picker: This tool allows you to pick any colourfrom thescreen and displays the colourcode.
Raw converter: A usefultool with which you can convert all popularRaw formats to JPG (Canon, Fuji, Panasonic, Pentax, Nikon, Olympus, Samsung and Sony). The batch converter allows converting multiple filesin one go.
Rename: This tool is again a batch utility for renaming photos using syntaxes like filenumber, date, and combinationsof filename, number, date and time. There are even fields foradding leading and trailing characters and separators such as -, – and space.
Paper print: This has nothingto do with photos. You can print various kinds of pages such as pages with lines and margin, squares, yearly, monthly and weekly calendar and music paper. Depending on the paper type you select, you can choose thecolour and thickness of lines and even dotted lines.
Verdict
PhotoScapewould have been awesome even if it offered only theeditor, batch editor and viewer. While some tools like Color picker, Paper print, Screen capture and Combine are icing on thecake, others like Page, Animated GIF, RAW converter and Rename are nice to have. The forte of this application is enhancing photos, which goes without saying. If used selectively, thefilters, frames and optimisationsyield great looking results.
There is no limit to creativity with this program. At times you have to use multiplefiltersand frames to get something that looksvery cool or bizarre, if that’s what you want—it’s funexperimenting with thevarious elements of theEditor. If you’re looking fora freeware to give your photos a facelift,then you ought to give this one a shot.