CNET Editors' review
Our least favorite type of program is the kind that takes what should be a simple task and needlessly complicates it. Unfortunately, that seems to be the entire point of Merge. This program takes the process of merging two images--something that can be done easily in countless other programs--and makes it a confusing, frustrating, nonsensical mess.
The program's interface is both unintuitive and extremely unattractive. A dockable toolbar on the right side of the interface contains a series of unlabeled buttons and collapsible menus that represent the program's features. We had an easy enough time selecting the two images that we wanted to merge, but everything from there was a process of trial and error. The program comes with a rather thorough Help file and a quick-start tutorial, but the way these documents are written makes them hard to understand. It's unfortunate that the program is as user-unfriendly as it is, because it actually has a decent set of features; images can be scaled and flipped individually, and there are special effects and controls for brightness and contrast. But even very simple tasks are harder than they need to be. Think you're going to move an image by clicking on it and dragging it? Not so fast--you're actually going to have to right-click on it, draw a line to where you want it, and then let go. Such strange behaviors make Merge annoying to use, especially when there are plenty of alternatives out there that actually make sense.
Merge installs a desktop icon without asking but uninstalls cleanly. We recommend this program with reservations; there's nothing functionally wrong with it, but there's nothing about it that we particularly like.
Publisher's Description
From Venning:
MERGE is a graphic utility for overlaying two images in any relative position prior to saving the result to a file and printing. You can merge the two images in many different ways as well as smooth blending in of just part of an image to the final result. There is a batch merge feature which is useful to watermark all of your favorite pictures. Merge also allows text entry of any size, font and color to be merged with an image. No need to worry about image relative positioning, size or scaling differences.
What's new in this version: Version 2.2 features a new 'macro' button; adds surreal effects, explicitly set image size.
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All versions:
3.7 starsout of 11 votes
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Current version:
2.0 starsout of 1 votes
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My rating:
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"Too Difficult For Me"
Version: Merge 2.2
Pros
- Easy Download and Removal
Cons
- Confusing GUI and definitely did not like the inconsistant use of definitions in the Help feature - It doesn't help
Summary
Tried this software after reading CNET member reviews which generally claim it is easy to use. This was inspite of the conflicting statements in the CNET Editors review. I certainly did not find it easy, and could not achieve much in the way of results. I was able to merge images, and after experimentation and no aid from the Help feature, was finally able to resize, but was never able to blend images. After over 4 hours of continual experimentation, I elected to stay with 2Pic. I dislike failure, and so will most likely try again after another product update.
Removal, using REVO Uninstaller, was effortless.
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