The Panorama Factory

This robust application provides several tools to build seamless panorama photos of high quality from a series of individual shots. However, the watermark that's automatically added to images created with the nonregistered version of the app will frustrate some users.

The Panorama Factory launches a compact but nicely designed, relatively uncluttered interface. Two toolbars of buttons sit atop a vertical row of buttons (part of the Stitching Wizard) and a pane for editing and manipulating your photos. Initially the steps in creating a panorama photo appear rather complicated. Perhaps the easiest method for novices to master this app is to use the Stitching Wizard. We liked that the Wizard panel can be docked to right left, right, top, or bottom edges of the application's window to remain in easy access. For those users who prefer, the Wizard can simply be floated over the main window. In our tests, the Panorama Factory performed very well. Importing and tweaking images was made relatively simple thanks to the Wizard. We like the variety of tools included for manipulating images, including the command for automatically blending overlapping images. And we were especially pleased to see a histogram for helping to visualize the color balance and color corrections within the manipulated image. The app's online Help feature is very robust and thorough in describing the steps required to build and polish a panoramic image.

While the watermark on images built with the nonregistered version will cause some aggravation, the price may keep away others. However, Web builders and professional graphic artists will appreciate the ease of use and clear functions of this app, and be willing to pay for the Panorama Factory's straightforward features.