AKVIS MultiBrush for Windows

We've tested a lot of image editors lately, and most have been pretty disappointing, so we weren't expecting much from AKVIS MultiBrush. But we're happy to report that this program exceeded our expectations on a variety of levels.

AKVIS MultiBrush has a sleek user interface that is extremely straightforward and seems perfect for novice users. Five navigational commands run across the top of the window; these allow you to open new images, save, print, and undo and redo actions. A simple toolbox resides on the left side of the window, and hovering your mouse over each tool calls up a description. We quickly jumped into the program by opening a saved image, and, using the Color Brush tool, added a bright pink stroke to our image. The Navigator palette on the left side of the window let us adjust the brush tool's diameter, hardness, opacity, and spacing. Also from there, we were able to quickly zoom in and out. The Undo feature let us reverse our actions, and we were able to save our finished masterpiece as a JPEG, BMP, TIFF, or PNG file. AKVIS MultiBrush offers a link to an ample Help feature on the developer's Web site, but the program is so easy to master that we doubt most users will need it.

AKVIS MultiBrush has a 10-day trial period, but some features, such as the History feature, are unavailable in the trial version. This program leaves behind Program folders after uninstallation. We recommend it for all users.