IdPhotos Pro

IdPhotos 2008 bills itself as an easy way for users to create photos appropriate for a variety of identification types. Although the program has potential, it wasn't as easy to use as we had hoped it would be.

The program's interface is sleek, and at first glance it seemed like it would be fairly intuitive. Users first select the type of document for which they need a photo; specifications for documents from 31 countries are listed, including those for passports, visas, and other types of ID. Each document type notes, for example, what color the background should be, whether the ears must be exposed, and so on. Next, users select the photo they want to use, and the program walks users through the process of centering and cropping the image. This seemed like it was going to be an easy process until we ran into a big error message reading "A part of the crop is out of the image." What did this mean? We consulted the Help file, an online PDF, but it's written in such poor English that it's practically meaningless. We tried the program with two other photos and finally got it to work with the third one, although we're still not sure why that photo worked and the other two didn't. We did like that the program gives users a variety of formats in which they can print images, and overall we felt like the program had the potential to be very useful, if only it provided clearer instructions for its users.

IdPhotos 2008 is free. It installs desktop icons without asking but uninstalls cleanly. We recommend this program with reservations.