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Zoner Photo Studio 13 Home Giveaway
$44.99
EXPIRED

Giveaway of the day — Zoner Photo Studio 13 Home

Take control of your digital photos with Zoner Photo Studio 13.
$44.99 EXPIRED
User rating: 631 87 comments

Zoner Photo Studio 13 Home was available as a giveaway on January 7, 2011!

Today Giveaway of the Day
$36.00
free today
Download music from 1000+ sites anytime and anywhere!

Take control of your digital photos with Zoner Photo Studio. Acquiring photos from your camera, your scanner, and even your screen has never been easier. Have fun organizing, sorting and browsing through your digital memories. With Zoner Photo Studio, you'll be improving and personalizing your photos with special effects. Wow your family and friends with 3D photos and impressive panoramas!

Top Features:

  • Catalog, advanced picture management and archival NEW!
  • direct upload to Facebook, Flickr and Picassa Web Albums NEW!
  • acquire photos from your camera, scanner, card, or screen;
  • fix pictures fast with Quick Fix;
  • save time with convenient batch operations;
  • create panoramas and 3D photos easily;
  • use a wide array of edits and effects;
  • add GPS photo locations and see them on a map;
  • publish to the web easily and directly;
  • templates for calendars, greeting cards, and more.

Note that 3 best improvement ideas will be rewarded with the full version of Zoner Photo Studio 13 PRO – license up to 3 computers. Use Idea Informer widget to submit your feedback and do not forget to fill in your name and e-mail – otherwise the Developer will not be able to contact you in case you are the one to win!

ps: during the giveaway day you can buy 3 copies of Zoner Photo Studio Professional for 3 computers only for $69.99! Don't miss this offer!

System Requirements:

Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7; 512 MB RAM; IE 6.0 and DirectX 9 (or higher)

Publisher:

ZONER Inc.

Homepage:

http://www.zoner.com/ww-en/photo-studio-home

File Size:

84.7 MB

Price:

$44.99

Comments on Zoner Photo Studio 13 Home

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Please add a comment explaining the reason behind your vote.
#87

I have used this a few times. It works okay.

Major pet peeve: It makes itself the DEFAULT! I can't stand when things do that, especially without my expressed consent. That is a PIA!!!

I just spent the better part of an hour switching everything back to where I wanted it.

Reply   |   Comment by Susan  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#86

Regarding ability to tag and edit the metadata, here's from the Help file:
"In the picture information window, you can view, add, and edit information (metadata) for your pictures.

To call up this window, use Information | Image Information in the Browser window, or [Shift+Enter] in the Browser, Editor, or Viewer.

The top of this window shows a preview and the pictures filename, file size, bit depth, and date of creation and of last changes.

Under the preview is a menu for choosing what type of information to show. To the right of the menu, there are icons that you can also use to show various information types, and one to show your position on an online map. You can link to a different map service than Google Maps using the program settings.

Use the Description field to edit the picture's title, author, copyright, and description, and the author for the description. Besides descriptions, you can also edit the picture rating and its label. Labels are often used for archiving and you can also put them to use during publishing.

The General Information section contains all available information on the camera settings when the picture was taken (EXIF information and MakerNote). Some items have a pencil symbol by them. This means that they can be edited.

In the Keywords section, you can add and remove picture keywordds, using the <> buttons. Clicking the Delete and Add buttons will edit the keywords tree, not the keywords in the picture.

Use the Origin section to edit detailed non-GPS information about where the picture was taken (the place, the city, etc.). If the picture also includes GPS data, you can harness it automatically using the Get Information Online button. For this button to work, the picture must have GPS data, and you must have an Internet connection. Transfer information and the right way to use it are defined by an IPTC standard, which is designed for electronic communication between an editor and a professional photographer or a journalist.

This information is always stored in the standard EXIF, IPTC, and XMP fields. Other programs can read it back in from there.

Use the Audio Note section to work with a picture's audio note.

Use the Custom Information section to edit extra XMP fields that you can define yourself. "

Reply   |   Comment by dr sarkar  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#85

#62 Sheryl – (this is from memory) in Windows Explorer, right-click on an image file like a JPG file, select “Open With”, then click on “Choose Program” (don’t click on any that are already listed), then check the box “Always use the selected program to open this file” and choose the program you want. You will have to do this a few times for each type of file like JPG TIF etc. But then it’s done.
Comment by J — January 7th, 2011 at 10:59 pm

It is far better to use the "Opens with" option in the "file type" menu of "Folder options" in "control panel" Or at least it is with Windows XP.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Mike  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#84

Great software. Simply great.

Love the panorama function. Had a bunch of pictures I previously took and tried to make a 360* panorama with another software. Couldn't do it. This one just made the panorama in a breeze!

Would like them to add RAW function (as Vlad said), but else than that, fairly impressed. Very good UI design.

Thumbs up!

Reply   |   Comment by PK-JIN  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#83

Thank you GAOTD. Seems useful, yet a bit complicated for me, therefore i will uninstall it definetly after few days of "playing".

Reply   |   Comment by hum  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-5)
#82

It hijacked my windows. I dont want every image opens with this program. It also crashed and freezed my laptop with I3 processor, 4GB RAM and 500GB hard with W7.

Uninstalling at the moment. Disappointed!

Reply   |   Comment by uninstalling  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-10)
#81

Thank you GOTD and Zonner for such a lovely giveaway,

For those who don't own Photo shop n Paint Shop Pro should grab this cos is a very neat and good free software. To compare the price for the Pro versions, Paint Shop Pro have better 'editing' and neat upgrades for their latest Pro X3. But this is easy to use and nice interface software that I ever see to compare with it.

Reply   |   Comment by Juli  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#80

SEARCH AND CATALOGUE:
I noticed this giveaway a bit late, and the 84mb download is still happening over my slow broadband.

So I am adding this feedback hoping that the feature I ask for is already implemented. The Give Feedback window is not showing my feedback (locked down?), so I am adding it as a comment here.

I want to be able to Search for images and catalogue (tag/categorise) them. By default, programs like Picasa index all the images in the file system and I don't want that. Instead, I should be able to point Zoner to a folder and it should then allow me to search within that set of folders for specific file types/names/dates, and allow me to add some descriptive labels/tags to multiple files in one go. The files itself can copied to some new location or allowed to remain in the original folders, but I should later be able to retrieve them from a central interface based on the tags I had added.

This means that Zoner should not cache/index all images in my whole file system, but it should index all my custom tags for fast retrieval. The metadata may be retained in the image file location, or in the Zoner programdata directory, depending on Zoner's tech team's decision for better implementation. This kind of batch tagging makes for a very efficient image filing system and people will love it, as they don't need to move around images that have downloaded from the web or their camera/scanner into the default system locations.

Reply   |   Comment by veekay  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#79

Just downloaded and installed this nice offering by Zoner,.. no problems at all, thank you !

I've been using Paint Shop Pro for around eight years now and haven't bothered to try anything new. After using this magnificent program for just an hour or so, I'm amazed at how much I've been missing out on. Technology moves fairly quickly these days and I must admit that I had been left behind in this area.
Zoner Photo Studio 13 is just what I needed,.. kinda like buying a brand new car except that I didn't have to pay for it.
Also nice to know that this software actually has people like Erik behind it who listen to what users are saying.

Reply   |   Comment by terrawarra  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#78

Answering someone who mentioned this but I can't find it back - if you don't want all the images on your pc to open in Zoner or become Zoner icons, when you install the program you should untick the box in the File Associations section of the install: "set as default viewer for all supported file types".

Reply   |   Comment by me  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#77

Thanks for the comparison comment %1. However, the very first comparison was enough for me. (I use Win7 32x 64x.) The FREE
version does not support the x64 system. However, it will be a good alternative for anyone who missed the freebie today.

Thank you GOTD and Zoner!

Reply   |   Comment by Foxylady559  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#76

#62 Sheryl - (this is from memory) in Windows Explorer, right-click on an image file like a JPG file, select "Open With", then click on "Choose Program" (don't click on any that are already listed), then check the box "Always use the selected program to open this file" and choose the program you want. You will have to do this a few times for each type of file like JPG TIF etc. But then it's done.

Reply   |   Comment by J  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#75

Great program easy to use. No problem installing on Win 7 64 bit

Reply   |   Comment by Doug  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#74

I'm new to GOTD... Is there are licence number for registration?
Thanks

Reply   |   Comment by Nancy F.  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#73

The software is brilliant for general picture editing....Im using this software for simple touch and also just to convert the format eg: from BMP to JPEG. I just hope the Zoner team can add conversion function by right clicking on picture in manager mode. The other features can be added are:,
- batch photo converter or resize
- picture frame styles
- photo collage
- more photo effect
- capability to create photo movie or slideshow and burn on dvd
- create watermark
- pictures split and joiner..
- capability to create GIF image

Reply   |   Comment by azmi  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#72

Only my second comment (in the last week) since visiting this site for a year. The CodedColor Photo Studio was the other goodie a week ago.
This one was an easy install on my XP sp3, and Vista sp2.
Too many options again to try out in half-a-day, this big file size had me go to the library to d/l after an hour+ of failed attempts with dial-up.... tee hee hee ;(
GREAT to add to my collection - near the top usage of my list to master someday! Very nice to look at!!!

Reply   |   Comment by Boots  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#71

It took over as the default program for opening all it's readable file types, in spite of my specifically telling it *NOT* to do so.
Very annoying!!!

Otherwise, it's an ok app.

Reply   |   Comment by B.Baggins  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#70

oops, I mean 64 bit.

Reply   |   Comment by Wishbone  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#69

What a nice app. Though this may be difficult to believe, for my needs, this may very well replace Photoshop. I'll give it a few weeks and if all works out well it's bye, bye PS.

I am using Win7 Pro 54 bit. Install was flawless and so far everthing I've ran the app through has turned out beautiful.

In my opinion this is one of the best offers GAOTD ever had. Thank you sooo much.

Reply   |   Comment by Wishbone  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#68

I uninstalled 12 first using revo. The uninstaller itself did leave a lot of crap behind even after asking to delete reg keys and other stuff. To my way of thinking, it's the ONLY route to take. Anything else is just asking for trouble, not to mention the wasted space.
I've downloaded the zip. Now, let's see.

Reply   |   Comment by WayneW  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#67

I upgraded to the Pro version when v12 was on GOTD last year- fantastic software. Loads quickly enough that I ditched Irfanview as my default image browser, and pretty much all the features I was looking for. v13 doesn't add a lot in the way of new features over v12 IMHO (unless you're wanting 64 bit), though I upgraed just to support the great software- and would certainly recommend purchasing if this is your first look at it.

Reply   |   Comment by Julian  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#66

Great program, like Photoshop but cheaper... it does have:
- 64-bit support
- displays the date, time, shutter speed, if flash was used
- Tools:
zoom panning crop [allign horizon] collinearity perspective morphing mesh
red eye reduction, clone stamp, "iron," effect brush
paintbrush, fill
multiple select tools... and text input tools.
Screenshot of effects: HERE

Reply   |   Comment by John Smith  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#65

I have looked at many photo programs over the years--mostly free and free trial versions--plus a few I have purchased. This is a really nice program and has a great batch rename to picture taken date utility. Love it. Thanks GOTD!

Reply   |   Comment by Cyd  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)
#64

For more information about 64bit version, please see the "Installing the Program" topic in the Help.

#48: Please don't delete anything from the program folder.

Reply   |   Comment by Aleš Hasala - Zoner Software  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#63

Even though the VIEWER won't open PDF files you can see them as thumbnail icons in the MANAGER mode. A necessary improvement for this software would be to support portable document files.

Reply   |   Comment by steel  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#62

I have a load of pictures where the date was wrongly set on the camera. The ability to correct this would be great, can I do it with Zoner. If not it would be a usefull adittion.

Mike

Reply   |   Comment by Mike  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#61

I am impressed witn this programme but all my image files created in other software are now opening by default in Zoner Photo Studio which I don't like. I've tried unchecking the boxes of the file formats I don't want associated with this programme and tried unchecking the integration files but without succcess. I can't see how I can prevent this from being my default viewer.
Any suggestion would be welcome.

Reply   |   Comment by Sheryl  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)
#60

For those with the previous giveaway Zoner Photo Studo 12 Home, here is the link to it's .PDF comparison chart. You can compare that version with this version using this and the version 13 Home Studio chart above and it should help you in deciding if you want to uninstall or keep your old version 12.
http://www.zoner.com/__download/zps-12-edition-comparison.pdf

I have not found a reason(s) to keep version 12 around. If anyone has a reason(s) why they would hold on to their old version please post it/them.

Reply   |   Comment by BeenTaken  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)
#59

I downloaded Zoner 12 during the last giveaway, and liked it so much I bought the Pro version. But, I didn't know version 13 was out till this giveaway, never received an email notification. So when I saw this, I loaded 12 and clicked on Check for Updates, and got the message about 13 Pro being available. Normally I buy upgrades, but I bought Pro just over 3 months ago and now it will be a $40 upgrade? I've barely had time to learn the program and to upgrade now would be over half the original cost of the program?

I like the software, but not the upgrade policy. I appreciate Zoner offering free copies on GAOFD, but think they should also take more recent purchases into consideration when setting upgrade pricing...

Reply   |   Comment by Terry  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+10)
#58

One last thought on Zoner updates. It seems a lot of confusion though Erik from Zoner already answered this. From my experience Updates are safe and will not void this free version of Zoner Home (I have done this multiple times). And Erik also mentioned you only pay for upgrades to the next major version. However if you follow the site here chances are you will find it again next year when the new version is released.

Reply   |   Comment by Leland  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#57

I have been using Zoner Home 12 since it was given away last year and it is an excellent piece of software. I love it for viewing and quick edits or fixes. However it is no Photoshop killer. I look at it as something to use in place of Picassa which I dislike because of it wanting to index all your photos. I always prefer to work of a directory structure and Zoner works well with this.

If you want to improve your software look at tools like Photoshop Elements and bring some of it's strengths like layers to Zoner for future versions. Also I would love to see a way to customize the software to work with any online site for uploading photos; only have a place in the settings to allow setting up multiple web services where the user provides the URL and login information. In this way you would empower the user. Thanks Zoner for the excellent software.

Reply   |   Comment by Leland  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)
#56

Very smooth activation incorporating the activation with the program install - I wish all GOTD programs activated as easily using the same sequence!

Reply   |   Comment by Howie  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)
#55

My apologies if I've missed this question along the way but so far I've seen nothing posted pertaining to the inability to add filters to the Plug-ins folder (found under "Settings/Preferences"). All buttons, Add/Remove/Remove All, are greyed out. Am I missing something or is this a huge disappointment factor?

If not for the inability to add filters, I would be giving this handsome little program two thumbs up. Giving Zoner two worthy thumbs up for creativity and stability, and not discounting all the "stability" issues with PhotoShop and PSP, I would still choose one of the latter over Zoner for their handy use of filters.

If there is a way to "Add" filters to the Plug-ins folder, I would dearly love to hear about it.

Babs

Reply   |   Comment by Babs  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#54

where’s the Healing brush tool?


In the Professional version.

along with the 16 bit--per-channel engine "negative" effect and screen capture. the last's gotta be an oops in the blurb.

Regarding Zoner pop-ups, specifically updates, does anyone know how to DISABLE Zoner’s automatic updates? I have looked and looked, but cannot find the option or preference.


I bet you don't have to.

looks like the same install type as ZPS 12 - 'build updates' to ZPS 13 should not mess it up- 12 started at build 6 and got an immediate patch to build7- and ended at build 10.


The one thing I wish it had was the ability to take a negative scan and convert it to a proper picture.



converting film negatives you can go with any editor that can a) invert the image colors, and b) can be set to custom white balance- you have to set 'white' to the scanned orange fully-exposed portion of the leader. then you can invert the colors right. google it.



































































































5









87

Reply   |   Comment by goodgotd  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)
#53

Does Zone Photo have the ability to remove images in the foreground? If so this is perfect for me!!!

Reply   |   Comment by Itsmemikey  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-4)
#52

I am using win7X64. Program installed very nicely and did some brief looking at it. It installed a 32 bit version also with a desktop icon. Can I delete the 32 bit version without screwing up the 64 bit? I would suggest you give us the option, as there are many, many 64 bit users now. Thanks.

Reply   |   Comment by Howard  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+11)
#51

I installed the software on Vista x64 and noticed it created two icons. One is standard and the other is "Zoner Photo Studio 13 x64," and there are two sub-folders: Program32 and Program64. The software did install in the 64 bit program files directory. Is there any specific reason for having both? Do they operate any differently?

Reply   |   Comment by Justine  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)
#50

This is a fantastic offering. I used to use Photoshop’s CS1 (okay it's now 5 years old, but still a very powerful program), but since getting Zoner way back in 2007 I've hardly used Photoshop. I have used versions 9 through to 12 and have always loved the updates. I'd purchase the pro version if I could afford to, but will have to make do with the home edition for now.

Despite some of the suggestions in the 'Share your Idea's' box above implying that there is no auto correction, that is not true. there is auto correction available as well as the ability to save your own selections as pre-sets, which in my opinion is even better than a set auto correction. You can tweak the settings to your own liking and save them for future use. That is a very useful feature that'll save you lots of time having to faff with all the sliders.

Thank you Erik Piper and Zoner for this fantastic program and for continuing to give us newer versions. I'm really pleased to see version 13. :)

Reply   |   Comment by Whiterabbit-uk  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+16)
#49

All I can say is WOW! Even for a large program at 168MB after install this software is fast and lite.so many options,so many features.
the fact that I have control over the skin is great.It looks a bit complex at first but it is not. very user friendly.
very good giveaway.
Thanks GOTD and Zoner software

Reply   |   Comment by Rob.C  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-3)
#48

Jim's comment of Jan7 at 10.01
"Does anyone know if this application includes an easy way to tag images- with tags that are saved as part of the metadata, not in some external database?"
In answer, yes ZPS can batch edit or solely edit EXIF IPTC and XML fields to tag file photos. Does not use external database and fill hard drive like other software. I use this tagging feature exclusively along with the ability to embed GPS information from a GPS track saved in GPX format.
The only external data to be cached are thumbnails, and this cache size is set in Preferences. Mass renaming is also easy from metatags.

All in all my only photo catalogue program. Still use Irfanview to batch resize and view pix. Both can search metatags for a photo, as can any program once photos have metadata. Hence no external database.

I have waited until GOTD were to give ZPS free again to install on my other computer.

Reply   |   Comment by FFNick  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)
#47

I've been using the ver. 12 of this program since it was given here a while ago... I do a lot of cropping and adjusting of sports photos and this program is FANTASTIC!! Set up the 'custom toolbar' with the buttons you use most often, and you can go right down the line from getting the next image, doing the automatic fixing, special fixing, saving the image, and moving to next image just by going thru a half dozen toobar buttons! It has saved me tremendous time preparing my photos.

btw, I read through the list of suggestions in the special box above -- and most of them are already present in this software package; it's just that they are not easy to find. The program is so powerful, there are levels and levels of things you can do, and set up.

Reply   |   Comment by JC  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)
#46

Erik Piper: In comment #18, you wrote: "Regarding updates and upgrades: Updates are different from upgrades. Updates are improvements and fixes within the same version number. Upgrades are new version numbers. Updates are free; only upgrades cost money. The update checker *makes* updates, but only *informs about* possible upgrades."

Does this mean that we GOTD users can get updates without voiding our free license?

Also, I want to thank you heartily for reading and responding to the comments and participating in this community. It is much appreciated.

Also much appreciated is this excellent software. I have tried many photo viewers and editors, and Zoner is among my favorites. Thanks a lot for providing it to us.

Reply   |   Comment by JonathansToolBarAndGrill  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)
#45

Help... please...Does this program automatically search for photos when you first open it. I don't want that (Picasso did this) because there is no room on PC (over a TB of them) or time to sort. I want full control over which photos I want to view. As a digital scrapbooker I
have an addition 2TB of images as well.I constantly change where they are located. Thank you

Reply   |   Comment by Cindi  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+14)
#44

Based on the above remarks I used Revo Uninstaller to uninstall the previous version first. Then when I ran it the first time it asked if I wanted my settings from version 8 and 11 !! Gee, I didn't know I had so many versions on here and they didn't show in my program files! Just thought I'd mention this FYI.

Reply   |   Comment by copmom  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+27)
#43

One area that this program excels is in the ability to made slideshows. Each picture can have its both own audio and text description if required. Even some very expensive slideshow programs are not as versatile as this and for that reason alone it is a first rate piece of work.

Reply   |   Comment by OldScotty  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#42

#21: "... Looking for a scratch/dirt removing feature that works faster than what I have found–don’t see any at all here other than clone tool. ... I think I will stop adding programs now and wait for my first panorama?"

Might look at the Gimp -- portable version here http://goo.gl/aycJ if you're getting tired of install/uninstall [just delete the folder if you don't want it anymore]. FWIW, there are generally 3 types of scratch/dirt filters I'm aware of... the older, generally standard filter looks for blobs or shapes or whatever you want to call them that don't match surrounding pixels & are within the diameter & threshold settings you enter. A company that's now part of Kodak developed hardware & later software processing http://goo.gl/RmLgq . And there are more recent math-based algorithms that are available in specialized pay-ware, & to some extend in filters used by the Gimp.

* * *

#26: "where’s the Healing brush tool? I can’t find it"

That's one of the tools you only get in the Pro version -- please see the 1st comment for a link to the comparison PDF file.

* * *

#27: "Does anyone know if this application includes an easy way to tag images- with tags that are saved as part of the metadata, not in some external database?"

You can edit the EXIF info.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+17)
#41

Lately I have problems using Lightroom (broken files report, while other photosoftware doesn't report that).
Can someone tell me if Zoner can import tags in hierarchy order?

Reply   |   Comment by Dirk  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+7)
#40

At the risk of spamming the comments:

To people who are submitting improvements ideas in the feedback box,

1. You are all wonderful.
2. Three of you are going to get a prize...
3. ...but only if YOU INCLUDE SOME CONTACT INFORMATION SO WE CAN GIVE IT TO YOU!

Thank you!

Cheers,

Erik Piper
Zoner Software Customer Support

Reply   |   Comment by Erik Piper - Zoner Software  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+21)
#39

Zoner is such a well done, well thought out app that I found myself continually holding it to a higher standard, expecting [& searching for] Photoshop-level features that just weren't there... that isn't a criticism of Zoner -- the lowest price I saw this morning for Photoshop CS5 from a known retailer is $660 -- it's my honest reaction to software that seems very professional, very well done. As an organizer/viewer it's pretty complete, with it's biggest negative being no facial recognition -- something that's included in competitor Adobe's Photoshop Elements [which Adobe has been pricing quite aggressively]. As an image editor it falls shy of pro-level work without real layer support. You can still do quite a lot of editing, but without layers many things take longer, & others just aren't possible. While the Home version isn't too bad a deal for $45, before I bought it, or paid $70 for the Pro version, I'd want to take a good look at PaintShop Photo Pro X3 [Google/Bing for pricing on the Ultimate (~$90) & regular (~$40) versions] -- info & d/load trial: http://goo.gl/d5gR . [Note that what was once a web design favorite, PaintShop Pro is now a very high impact install, & not as responsive as Zoner, but does more & has layers. I've never been a PaintShop Pro user (Photoshop since v. 2 or 3 or something), but knew of it & downloaded/installed the trial this morning just to compare... feature per dollar it wins easily.]

Using Zoner is in a word: Easy. Browsing to/for images & videos is very intuitive & the program window free of clutter. For organizing/sorting there are more built-in criteria than most would ever dream of using. The viewer will handle many video formats, & handled HD as easily as lower rez DVD-sized video previews/playback. They might save new users some time disabling the Editor tab when you have video in the viewer, rather than finding it won't work once you're in the Editor. Editing worked mostly like expected, though with the default dark gray window it sometimes was hard to find the cursor. It would also help if the developers showed the name of the tool, + any hints on the bottom status bar, as some of their icons aren't the usual designs we're familiar with. Filters have different options for previewing effects, including the opened image window itself, which is nice. Re-sizing prompts a message that the original will be altered, which is IMHO a rather large negative -- a re-size & then Save-As [for e-mail, web, slideshows etc...] is one of the most common tasks. Other than layers I would [realistically] have liked to have seen selections based on colors, cursors that hint at the tool [e.g. a cursor that looks like a brush], some sort of undo history, & GPU [graphics card/chip] acceleration.

Installing Zoner has a moderate impact on Windows -- I'd probably judge it more harshly if I hadn't monitored the PaintShop Pro install soon after. Uninstall [to check out the Pro version trial] was worse than most regarding folders left behind, better than many at getting rid of most registry entries. The program folder itself holds 591 files, 16 folders, & takes up ~175 MB. In XP Pro I also got folders in My Documents, User\ Application Data, & User\ Local Settings\ Application Data. Monitored registry adds = 1552 [with < 12 garbage entries like MRU]. In win7 32 I got added folders in My Documents, User\ AppData\ Local, & User\ Appdata\ Roaming. Monitored registry adds = 3728 [with maybe 100 garbage entries like ...\Shell\Bags\...] -- *probably* why I added Zoner in XP Pro but not 7 when it was on GOTD last.


A quick example of one way I use layers in Photoshop that might be relevant to the average, home user, showing one reason why I think they're so important... Most digital cameras have small flashes. But higher ISO settings add noise, & the lens doesn't let in much light, so you often have to use that flash. And you often get pictures like a couple my wife took on Xmas -- 1 or 2 people in the center well lit, the rest of the image darker than you'd like it. Using P/Shop & layers it takes just a minute to fix it: I duplicate the base layer, lighten it enough so the outer portions look good, add a layer mask, then add a circular gradient to that mask -- sometimes I might add a little fine tuning, adjusting the layer's transparency etc. but that's it. From the quick look I took at PaintShop Pro it *looked* like it *might* take 2 or 3 times longer [I don't know the software], but 3 or even 5 minutes still isn't all that bad. Without layers & a gradient layer mask [or some sort of gradient mask], you could be sitting there a while -- one way would be to inverse-select the center, feather [a lot], lighten, then deselect & keep repeating that, working your way to the outer edges.

Reply   |   Comment by mike  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+41)
#38

Not sure what the differences are between this and Paint Shop Pro, which I already have. So can see no advantage.

Reply   |   Comment by Clive  –  13 years ago  –  Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-13)
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