CNET Editors' review
Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition is a full-featured digital image editor. Although it won't replace Photoshop or other top-of-the line editing software, it's a great choice for users seeking a fairly lightweight program that still delivers plenty of options.
The program's interface is quite sleek and intuitive, although we were dismayed that the Quick Start Guide, which seems to invite users to click on it for information about different topics, couldn't actually be clicked on at all. This was the only hiccup we encountered, though. The interface is fully configurable, allowing users to customize the layout to meet their needs. The program's four major functions--viewer, comparison view mode, retouching screen, and batch mode--are neatly organized in tabs at the top of the screen, allowing users to quickly find the features they're looking for. The program's Help file explains how to perform certain functions--go here, click on this--but does not get into much detail about how anything actually works. The program offers all the typical photo editing features, including controls for color adjustments and a handful of special effects. We did notice that the program lacks a clone or rubber stamp tool, making detailed image correction nearly impossible. But we loved that the program makes it so easy to create animated GIFs, and the Web photo album feature was extremely impressive. We made an awesome Flash-based slideshow with practically no effort at all.
Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition leaves a watermark on images created using the trial version. It installs desktop icons without asking and leaves a file behind upon removal. We recommend this program to all users.
Publisher's Description
From MasRizal & Partners:
The Choice of Professionals. Image Compressor lets you: views more than 50 major image formats including DSLR RAW; Compare images side by side; Retouch and beautify photo; Batch process, batch resize, watermark, rotate, and add special effects; Compress file size with digital eye technology. Industry standard--viewable in all softwares and gadgets without additional plugin. Bonus: Visual image finder; Screen capture utility; Internet image grabber; Web photo album creator; PDF creator.
What's new in this version: Version 6.8 supports more DSLR RAW cameras.
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All versions:
4.9 starsout of 9 votes
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"Just Getting Better!"
Version: Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition 6.7
Pros
Visual image finder, power enlarger and many other new features!
Cons
Nothing! Absolutely Perfect!
Summary
I'm a happy Image Compressor user since version 6!
Actually, you can get this software with 35% discount.. yeaaa!
The updates just make this wonderful JPEG compression software gets better and better.
All, and i really mean ALL functions you need to work with a digital photo is included in this release.
Updated on Jul 15, 2009
Here's the link:
http://www.payless4sure.com/index.cfm?product=Discount_Image_Compressor_2008_Pro_Edition_Coupon&fuseaction=product.detail&productid=3E4C0FC0304878A977C71E106F543242 -
"Good but needs refinement. Just use Google Picassa."
Version: Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition 6.5.0.4
Pros
This is a very well put together program with great support and can be picked up easily. It will let you batch process an entire folder of images using the image tray feature and you can tweak a lot of aspects of each image as you do this.
The resulting images are compressed down to much smaller filesizes without loosing any quality.
Cons
Having said all this there are quite a lot of drawbacks. It associates itself to every single image filetype in existence and destroys your file associations which you may have taken months to get right! I consider this a violation of my computer rights. You can change this in the options very easily but when you click ok no changes have been made which is odd.
You can also do most of the features of this application with Picassa and I didn't realise it, but Picassa can also batch process as well (which is what attracted me to this app).
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"Good but waiting to see."
Version: Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition 6.1.0.2
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"Convert RAW image to JPEG with a very3x good quality"
Version: Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition 6.1.0.2
Pros
This should be a 6 star software! No other RAW to jpg batch converter i've seen can match with the jpeg quality this software produces.
Cons
Nothing really... maybe the compression speed? But heck, with this kind of image quality - i take it.
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"Impressive"
Version: Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition 6.1.0.2
Pros
Impressive for picture above 1MB. The details, colors are perfect!
Highly recommended for digital camera owner.
Cons
Doesn't seem to compress picture smaller than 100KB though.
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"Excellent for image compression and batch process"
Version: Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition 6.1.0.2
Pros
Simplet yet better image quality than Photoshop
Cons
Image editing functions can be improved
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"Even better than Before!"
Version: Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition 5.1
Pros
As a previous owner of Image Compressor Lite V 5 the 2008 program is an significant improvement.
You can now drag & drop images into the ?Image Tray? instead of having to navigate to them using the old Image Compressor File explorer, and better still, can now edit them before compressing.
There still is a File Explorer But easier to use) and along side the File Explorer is a thumbnail viewer which makes selecting the pictures much easier. It?s nice to be able to just click on the images you want to process and see them transfer to the main image tray, instead of the ?all or nothing? that I used to live with It?s a shame that you can make the height of the explorer / thumbnail viewer greater (maybe SP1?)
When used with picture from a digital camera the program offers an excellent properties page, and when you switch into editor mode, you get a histogram to show the colour & brightness levels.
A very handy addition is the ?Image Compare? which gives you a chance to compare the original & compressed image side by side, whilst in Image Compressor. It is far more convenient that having to minimize the Image Compressor, then open before & after in a separate Graphic Editor
The Preset Editor seems easier to use, and more powerful, however as a Lite user, this could be due to running a ?Full? version of the software.
A previous complaint was the limited range of images that Image Compressor could handle, that?s certainly not true any longer.
Summary
All in all it?s a nicer feeling program than Image Compressor 5 and it?s much more stable, still offers impressive image compression that leaves images that can be viewed directly (unlike some other picture compressors I?ve tried) and it really does work well, you?ve got to really look very hard at the compressed images to identify any loss, and even then it?s often a bit debatable if there?s really anything there, although common sense says there has to be something.
I plan to continue using it as it solves many of my picture storage problems
Cons
There?s still the annoying flash screen that seems to hang on for ages, again how about an option to reduce the time it?s displayed, but at least they?ve got rid of the ghastly fade to transparent in Version 5
You can?t seem to delete thumbnails in the thumbnail viewer, as the program is becoming such a universal graphic solution, you?d have thought that an actual image delete would have been included.
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"The next ZIP killer"
Version: Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition 5.0.2
Pros
Ability to recompress JPEG up to only 8% of the original filesize with no visible quality loss. The image analyzer does the job well done.
Easy to use, support multiple files, just like zipping your files.
Comes with compress, resize, rotate and watermark functions make this software a complete photography tool.
Cons
A little bit expensive for someone who needs the compression function only.
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"Powerful program"
Version: Image Compressor 2008 Pro Edition 5.0.2
Pros
This is a very simple program, which is great. But it is also very powerful. I was able to reduce the size more then 90% with no visable loss of quality. The options are easy to use, and this is an all round great performance.
Cons
Files with a lower resolution do not compress as much.
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