Review: ACDSee Photo Manager 12
See our review of the new ACDSee 14 released in Sep 2011
ACDSee
Systems newest version of their photo management
software, the feature-packed ACDSee Photo Manager 12 offers an enhanced interface for easier navigation between organizing, viewing, editing and sharing features. Registered users of ACDSee 6 and later are eligible to upgrade for less than $35.00 (USD). Go to ACDSee
to download now.
New Features in ACDSee Photo Manager 12
Designed for amateur photo enthusiasts and scrapbookers, ACDSee's new release offers a slate of new features:
- New interface improves navigation between tasks. The main features are organized into 4 groups: Manage, View, Edit, and Online.
- One-click visual tagging enables you to tag images for editing, sharing or review.
- Search and sort by edited state.
- Improved Saturation tool for more true-to-life representation. An enhanced Selections tool better isolates a specific area for editing or enhancing. There is an improved Noise Reduction tool that helps correct luminance and color noise without losing image sharpness.
- Simplified sharing. Drag and drop files from ACDSee 12 to your own web space on the ACDSee Online web site (get 2 GB free space).
- Ability to optimize images for the web and upload them to your web site via included FTP uploader.
- Set categories, keywords, and create backups and more as you import images from your camera.
- Save frequently-used searches for ongoing use.
- Share your categories, keywords and ratings with other ACDSee users by embedding them in your image.
- Enhanced slideshow features, including pan & zoom, black & white, and sepia effects, plus support for music files.
Organizing Features
Sharing
Create instant Flash slideshows and PowerPoint presentations with captions and titles.
Email photos straight from ACDSee. The program will automatically adjust the file size to make emailing easier without bogging down your or your recipient's email with huge files. The program also creates CDs, DVDs and prints in a variety of sizes.
Upload to online sharing sites like SmugMug and FLickr with the Uploader tool. You can also add a slideshow or photo layouts to a Web page or blog with the Photo Widget, powered by ACDSee Photo Managers free album-hosting service, SendPix.
ULtra Fast Viewing
ACDSee Photo Manager has the fastest viewing software we have found. The Instant Preview feature enlarges images when a user scrolls their mouse over thumbnails, without waiting
Organizing
ACDSee is great for organizing your images, You can define categories, assign key words, rename and rotate images and more as you download photos from your camera. Once they're imported, they are already names and categorized, which is a wonderful time saver.
You can search for photos and other digital media by date using the virtual Photo Calendar tool. However, it doesn't always find photos in subfolders. ACDSee allows you to use multiple keywords to enhance the search process. Images can be tagged with keywords, ratings, and metadata. Photos can be assigned to as many categories as desired and new categories can be added. A handy feature is the ability to save search criteria for future searches. Using the PhotoDisc feature you can organize images stored on CDs and DVDs without copying them to your hard drive.
Editing Features
ACDSee Photo Manager automatically saves a copy of your originals so you can restore them at any time. Custom borders, drop shadow and edge effects are available to enhance your images. An improved shadow/highlights tool corrects images that are too dark or too light. Other editing features include the ability to make corrections and add special effects to a selected portion of your image, a red-eye tool with custom eye colors and a Blemish Correction tool.
ACDSee also has tools to add text, create a vignette, or apply an artistic effect such as sepia or stained glass. For advanced editing features, we recommend ACDSEE Photo Editor, which you can get as a bundle with Photo Manager.
File Support
ACDSee supports over 100 file formats including BMP, GIF, IFF, JPG, PCX, PNG, PSD, RAS, RSB, SGI, TGA and TIFF.
Scrapbook Design
ACDSee Photo Manager is great for digital scrapbookers. The organizer enables you to browse through your digital scrapbooking templates, embellishments, kits and photos whether saved on your hard drive or on CD. For example, you can break down your templates by designer or kit to make them easy to find. Create categories for your papers, elements and photos. ACDSee's companion Photo Editor software has numerous features for digital scrapbookers. Learn more:
Digi-Scrap with ACDSee Other Features
Batch editing, a built-in CD/DVD burner, a slide show creator with transition effects and sound, a new tool for creating videos, file transfer, a Sync tool for synchronizing your image folders with and external drive, and the ability to export image data to text files are other useful features.
Should You Buy It?
ACDSee Photo Manager is powerful software with impressive organization and creative capabilities. The interface is straightforward and there are many helpful wizards to walk you through projects. Photo Manager remains one of the best photo manager-organizer programs on the market. It is priced well (about $65) and you can try it free for 30 days.
Buy ACDSee Photo Manager 12 Now
Other Products by ACDSee
ACDSee
Photo Editor - Easy to use with tutorials and comprehensive editing tools. Create personalized greeting cards, scrapbook pages, invitations and more.
ACDSee Pro 3 Photo Manager is professional-grade digital image management software to organize your workflow, providing excellent photo cataloging and organizing capabilities.
FotoSlate
4 Photo Print Studio - Quickly and easily create contact sheets or wallet sized prints. Save on expensive printer ink and photo paper with the Test Printer Paper Saver Wizards. Finish perfect photos with 100+ themed frames or create custom calendars.


