What's the best-kept secret of highly productive people? Elves. Santa has them. Keebler has them. If you're a home photographer, you can too. The versatile, hardworking PhotoElf combines the functions of an image editor and a photo-print program. The print module can rotate, manage, rename, zoom, slide, or find images. The image editor includes photo effects, red-eye correction, advanced cropping, and tools for adding shapes and text. You can adjust the image depth to anything from 8-bit grayscale to 24-bit color. The crop function is particularly clever. Instead of making you select part of the image to crop, it generates a selection area you can adjust manually or with buttons. The program imports images from scanners, and the new version adds useful batch-processing features. The interface is nothing to get excited about, but it's straightforward enough. Given its good usability and capable feature set, we think PhotoElf can definitely lighten the workload of home photographers.
What’s new in version 4.1.12
Version 4.1.12 adds compatibility with Vista and 7 (64 and 32-bit), adds Exif and video.
The ability to completely edit the pic in the printing screen without changing the original.
A great descreening tool.
Very versatile editing.
Has custom picture sizing for unusual size picture frames.
Easy to understand and very informative "tiny tip" and help screens.
Works great for the yellow reflective problem in animal's eyes.
Cons
The autofix function doesn't work very well
Could have a better selection of masks, even after downloading extras.
Summary
This program has everything I've been looking for in photo editing and printing in an easy to use program. Big programs like Corel and Adobe are way too much for me - I don't need all of the features and high end tech stuff. As a genealogist, I scan old pictures, documents and newspaper clippings. This program cleans them up very nicely. It does a great job on digital camera pictures as well. I can create any size picture I want for printing as well as edit the picture without changing the original. The help screens and "tiny tips" are written in plain speak and explain the tech stuff in an easy to understand format.
A big plus for me is that it's easy to remove the yellow reflective eye problem in animals. With most programs if it's not red-eye it doesn't work.
Well worth $20!!!
Terrible software
bwt7
Pros
Cheap, simple to use
Cons
Fouls up your photos!
Summary
Photos edited with this product (all I ever did was cropping, re-sizing, and straightening) are left blurry. I didn't fully appreciate what was going on until I'd processed a lot of photos. It's a much better idea to spend the extra cash and get something like photoshop elements.
This little program is amazing!
mssusanf
Pros
It contains many of the most frequently used editing tools (crop, bright/contrast, gamma, rotate, straighten, etc), a rather powerful organizing ability and can do fluffy silly family-type design all in one program.
Cons
I can't condense this enough so please see my total summary - the cons are not very big though and in no way do they outweigh the good points of this program.
Summary
Okay, now for those cons in more detail:
1. Some of the tools are rather well hidden and not at all obvious - Example: It was totally by accident that I found the program could do "straighten".
2. There may yet be a way to change this that I've not yet discovered, but it would be nice if the program had skins or some ability to change its colors.
3. Some of the help and descriptive files are, while quite comprehensive, a bit redundant and almost condescending at times. Its a mixed bag though whether this is really a con or not. I do like the author's straight talk (no jargon!) throughout all such files and for a beginner each potential new term is spelled out in (at times painstaking) detail. While this is great in many ways, at times they seem excessively wordy and make it difficult to find what you are looking for. It would be nice to be able to have all these as is but also to have maybe a "quick reference" index or something.
4. There is a color editor in the program (RGB adjustments) but it is really not very good. As good as the rest of the program is, this feature, an often needed one, disappoints greatly. I did however find a workaround that helps in some cases - In the "masks" section, one can create a transparent filter in whatever color they may want to - This acts as somewhat of a "layer" and can then add varying degrees of whatever color you have a need to add. Like I said though, it only works for certain situations. For more complex things one still needs to open Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro or whatever your other editing program may be.
Since I am quite crazy about this program, I certainly don't want this review to have the negative predominate thus -
A few more of the good points:
1. Batch cropping works wonderfully
2. The "masks" feature is useful but also just plain FUN
3. You can make your own masks to use. How to do this is very clearly described and the actual doing so is very very easy. In some cases it is as easy as saving a pre-existing image in a specific directory.
4. There are many valuable tips and hints disbursed throughout the program which in some cases give you a means to doing new things you'd never even thought of. The clear directions for making a "multiple exposure" photo come to mind here.
5. Oh organizing! You can view two directories/folders at once - one on each side of your screen. You can VERY easily move or copy files between directories with as little as one click.
6. Print layouts - you can load up over 100 photos at once for printing. Once you have your photos selected for printing, you can then play around with turning them into a collage type affair for printing, or choose batch printing which allows you to select a number of photos per page and the program does the arranging for you, or you can choose from templates that you can also make yourself. Printing really turns into a nice thing rather than the major chore that it can be when using the wrong software. (trust me, I have plenty of experience with that!)
7. Watermarks - This program does a nice job at batch watermarking with a watermark you design yourself pretty much any way you want to.
8. Instant albumizing! The album wizard will create instant albums from any directory you want. I have not yet figured out if there is a way to get it to work with photos spanning various directories. I hope there is but even if not, its not terribly hard to simply copy photos into one new directory to make an album out of, although for those lacking in hard drive/storage space, doing it that way could get really old, really fast.
All in all, I was quite pleasantly surprised at the very reasonable price for something that combines so many features into one program. I've not yet purchased the registration key but I very much intend to as after only two weeks of use, I am quite certain I would miss this program if it locked up for good!
I've used it several years and LOVE it.
picture lady5
Pros
It is very inexpensive, my support has been wonderful and it does everything I want done with my photos and then some. Although I have and use Adobe Photoshop for my web design, I prefer printing my photos, simple cropping, and creating albums using Photo Elf.
Cons
Repairing damaged and color challenged photos doesn't go to well, but, hey it is only $30.
Summary
it sucks!
gina888
Pros
I like nothing about it!
Cons
Like I said, I like nothing about it!
Summary
Recommended only for home-sitters!
peter brachovski
Pros
Very easy to use. Have many features. Interface is very intuitevely.
Cons
Terrible-view interface, (but intuitive). Whis this program i never promote from beginner to professional, because it have'not any professional tool's - it have only basic drawing tools! I was disapointed! Recommended only for home-sitters, not designers (even beginners).
Summary
My choice. Easy to use, well designed, nice features, and excellent support
Brian SRT
Pros
I evaluated several products and found this one to be the most flexible and easy-to-use. After I purchased the program, my support request was answered promptly. I highly recommend this product.
Cons
I like everything so far.
Summary
i think that this sofwware is a great program to use
saolao
Pros
i like how we ca edit the photo's.
Cons
Summary
Worth every penny, Best program for the money, Easy to use!!!
Mur_Len
Pros
1. Easy to use
<p>2. Price was resonable
<p>3. Great features: Print layouts can be automatically formated or done by hand, color, contrast, brightnes, gamma, Masks are fun.
<p>4. It makes owning a digital camera worth it.
<p>5. Version updates.
Cons
Would like to see some more masks.
Summary
Unequaled in many areas. Particularly Manipulation of photos for printing.
davewjessup
Pros
Accomplishes needed tasks in a simple manner. Best program on the market for photo resizing and printing. Outstanding support. Easy to understand manual. Very modest cost. Frequent free updates providing meaningful additional features. Absolutely essential for my hobby of restoring photographs. I purchased copies as Christmas gifts for several friends and relatives. They all give positive feedback.
View, edit, print, and organize your pictures.Whether you are new to digital photography or a seasoned professional, PhotoELF Software will make printing photos easy and enjoyable. PhotoELF has hundreds of features that are both functional and fun. It concentrates on the day to day tasks of using a digital camera and managing thousands of digital images. PhotoELF is designed for Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP, Vista & Windows 7. Besides being able to manage thousands of photos in a snap, it's easy to use and intuitive. View, Edit and Print 82 different image formats as well as video clips. Excellent printing utility with user defined templates. Print up to 144 different photos per sheet. Print any size photo from posters to wallet size and beyond. Supports borderless printers. Rotate, crop, and remove red-eye with ease. Create fun calendars, holiday cards, magazine covers with your favorite all-star or ballerina, and even posters. Add fun masks to your photos from PhotoELFs existing menu or create your own. Edit your photos using a Transparent Paint Palette, Contrast, Brightness, Color Saturation, Sharpness, and DeSpeckle functions. Use the Sepia Tone function with 3 Levels of Sepia effects for that special touch. Extract frames from video clips and save them as JPGs. Create browser based photo albums. Add music to photo albums, MP3 and WAV Files. Slide Show Options (Sequential or Random). View albums with any web browser ON or OFF-Line. Albums are ready for burning on CD-ROM and will autorun when the CD-ROM is inserted. Add captions, watermarks, text or logos to your digital images. This list goes on. PhotoELFs batch operations save you hours of work. Batch edit hundreds of photos in seconds including: batch renaming, resizing, compressing, cropping, rotating, printing, and much more. Just One Software Package is ALL you need to View, Edit, Print and Organize your Digital Photos. Try before you buy with the fully functional trial version. PhotoELF is The digital camera companion
