The Paint Shop family of graphics programs has been a stalwart of the PC market for several years, known for offering a set of features equivalent to those found in professional products for a lot less money. Paint Shop Photo Album 5 is no different.

The program is divided into four sections: Organise, Enhance, Create and Share. The first section is where your library of images is maintained. If the images are not already organised, Paint Shop Photo Album can search a list of folders on your computer. It will keep watch on those folders, if you wish, so that when new images are added, they are automatically put into the library.

It will pull pictures directly from a camera or memory card, and let you perform batch conversions, i.e. resize several pictures at once. There's also a Panorama maker, which will combine a set of pictures taken side-by-side into one panoramic view.

The Enhance section houses the filters, effects and wizards that will help you touch up pictures. A toolbar includes buttons for red-eye reduction, adding text and adding a sepia tone. There's even a 'Thinify' function that will flatter human subjects by making them thinner.

The Quick Fix button attempts to make optimal changes to improve the image, and there is an Adjust wizard for more detailed changes. Along the way, each modification is explained and you are guided through making the improvements.

In the next section, Create, you can make pages for photo albums, greetings cards, books, calendars and CD labels. If you choose to make a book, the file can be uploaded to MyPublisher, a company that will deliver to you a bound, hardback book of your images. It's expensive, at $43 (£23) including postage, but a nice service for special occasions.

As with the other sections, you are guided through the steps and given a choice of templates, to which you can add your own styles, text and pictures.

The final part of the program, Share, lets you email, print and distribute pictures. It includes the ability to make a web gallery or burn images to a CD or DVD and a VCD maker, to make discs with menus and a soundtrack that will play on DVD players.

Paint Shop Photo Album contains a formidable set of tools and, while it lacks advanced effects and editing abilities, it's more than enough for most home users.

Contact: Digital Workshop 01295 258335
uk.jasc.com

Also consider: Adobe Photoshop Album 2 (£41)
More expensive but a good way to organise and edit your digital images.