Feature: ACDSee Photo Editor 2008
Idea: Searching for a inexpensive, quick, complete, easy to learn/use Photo Editor

I need to find an inexpensive fast, easy to learn photo editor. Don't get me wrong - Adobe has the top 3 bitmap photo editors in Lightroom, Photoshop Elements and Photoshop CS4. But all of these Adobe photo editors have 4 consistent problems -1)they are not cheap, 2)they are not fast on start-up [but otherwise perform fairly promptly], 3)they are not easy to learn and 4)they depend on online and/or third party sources to fill their documentation gaps. Adobe Lightroom comes pretty close - its start-up time and cost are right on the margin but the learning curve is hefty [the early version with less features was closer to my customers needs; but Adobe has not yet learned the art of controlling feature creep]. So I am looking for an economical, fast, and easy to learn but still talented photo editor.

The search has gone online and Picnik among others has caught my attention but it fails the start-up test going well over the 5 seconds startup criteria and also falls on the wrong side of easy to learn [hard for Picnik or any other online photo editor to achieve consistent speed because of the variability of online connection times]. Why demand such a fast start-up time for a photo editor? Well many photo editing moments are quick touch ups that occur throughtout the day - particularly if you are doing Web work. And the last thing you want in your workflow is a 15-40 second wait for the photo editor to boot up. Well why not just leave the photo editor on the tray running all the time? Sure it delivers fairly fast response time but then acts as a memory wait .. uhhh weight on the whole system when it is not being used. And big memory editors are also often "feature packed" adding to the learning curve. So for the many readers who are new to digital photography and/or to computing, a cheap really fast and good photo editor is still a moving target.

Basic Core Features of our Lightweight Photo Editor

Perhaps the only way to guarantee a fast start-up and fast running photo editor is to restrict its core features. So here is our core, basic editing features:
0)Drag and drop images from File Manager or any other drag+drop source;
1)cropping+image resizing like in Photoshop's Crop tool;
2)rotate, straighten, flip, perspective-fix commands like in many editors;
3)Color correction like in PaintShop Pro's Manual Color Correction command;
4)Color Balance like in Lightroom's Temperature, Vibrance, Saturation, Hue commands;
5)Lightness control like the Photoshop Exposure and Levels commands;
6)Image touch up like Photoshop's Clone and Healing Brush tools;
7)Text tool like in Techsmith's Snagit Editor;
8)Paint and fill commands like in many photo editors [no gradients or brushmaking tools];
9)Blur/commands commands like Photoshop's Smart Blur;
10)Sharpen commands like Photoshop's Smart Sharpen;
On the bubble are the following possible commands. However, ease of learning as well as speed of operations should take precedence for inclusion of these commands:
a)Frame tool like in Paintshop Pro's Frame command;
b)Combo of Lightroom's Apply Presets and Photoshop's History Brush;
c)Plugins/extensions like Adobe's basic plugin architecture;
d)masking/selection tools set like Photoshop's Quick Select and Refine Edges.

What is definitely off the operating list are complex graphic ops like layers/objects, animations, vector drawing commands, 3D extensions, compositing tools like panoramas and bitmap fills into polygon surfaces, CAD rendering, etc. One can use the PhotoShops, Xara Xtreme Pro, Painter, AutoCADs and many other graphic tools for these high level animation, compositing and natural media painting/rendering tasks. Our aim is to go from 0-60 in basic photo editing in 5 seconds or less.

How Does ACDsee Photo Editor 2008 Fit the Bill?

We downloaded and installed the trial version of ACDSee Photo Editor 2008.
Installation was simple and quick as was the startup time. And the program uses a Microsoft Office-like ribbon for most of its major functions. So Photo Editor was fairly simple to learn with the notable exception of its object layering features which required a fair amount of sleuthing to figure out. So the next stage was to edit a few images with ACDSee and see how it fared:
1a)Cropping - no shading, no perspective, no builtin resizing - well below par
1b)Resizing - by percentage or absolute value, but only one method - below par
2)Rotate, flip, perspective correct - no rotate, no perspective nor skew - below par
3)Manual Color correction - two tools - on par
4)Color balance and toning - several tools - above par
5)Lightness control - several tools with good controls - well above par
6)Image touch up - both clone and healing brush with nice extras - above par
7)Text tool - horizontal, vertical with options - on par
8)Paint and fill commands - paint + brushes - above par; fills - well below par
9)Blur/smooth commands - very good blur set, below par on smoothing
10)Sharpen commands - 4 sharpen tools - above par
If you get the impression that ACDSee Photo Editor is a bit chimeral - with good to very good features lumped togther with below par - welcome to the group. At first I was blown away by some of the features of the program - I really like the combo of the image tray along the bottom and the adjustment panels to the right which can be quickly opened/closed[see screenshot above].

Another example of excellence is the How-To Panel. The How-Tos panel brings FAQ tips right onto the program screen and makes learning [or reminding oneself] how to operate the program very convenient and effective. This is a feature that I have seen appear and then disappear from many major graphics programs.

Here is a vote for a)keeping these How-to panels in the software and b)constantly updating the How-to contents for new features or changing most frequently asked questions as part of the reqular software updates provided by the vendor.

The particular How-to shown in the screenshot to the left, Work with Brushes, is an example of how a program can guide a user directly on the working screen towards understanding how to use a feature in the program.

Fortunately ACDSee has made their How-to selections a strong crossection of the things one needs to know in order to come up to speed in the program. I like the fact that the How-tos use plenty of small photo examples showing which specific features are used. I also appreciate the fact that that the How-to does not immeditaely leap into the middle of the topic but always shows the user how to get their image and the program to the point where the described tool or method can be used.
In sum, this How-to feature coupled with the online Help file significantly reduces the time to get up to speed in the ACDSee Photo Editor. Score well above par for ease of learning. On Ease of Use, I am still of mixed minds. I have never been fond of the Microsoft Office Ribbon bar. And being new to ACDSee Photo Editor I have found it a bit clumsy to find all of the different commands and tools that I am used to in photo editing - even the basic tools set. So give ACDSee a on-par score for Ease of Use.

As for our optional features I found ACDSee to be quite useful with two exceptional features:

The Artistic Adjustment set of effects quickly inspired some painterly fantasy which I have posted at my PixofCanada.com website. The original Cobourg Beach shot seen in the topmost screenshot has been taken on a artistic trip courtesy of ACDSee.

The second tool which I found very useful was the Vignetting tool as seen here:

The Vignetting tool is a great way to control the transparency between layers which can be any solid color fill or another image. Transparency is so hard to work with in other tools so this is a pleasure to have control over.

Summary

Lets see how ACDSee Photo Editor 2008 meets our requirements for a lightweight photo editor:
Inexpensive - at $50US ($35US for any ACDSee product user) = A-
Speedy startup and operation - 5 second boot up, generally crisp operating response = A
Complete core photo editing commands - a real roller coaster here = B-
Easy to laern/use - Definitely easy to learn, still not sure on use = B+ (subject to change)

In sum , ACDsee Photo Editor garners some pretty good marks. The problem in core photo editing is that ACDSee is missing top notch cropping with resizing, resizing options, straightening features, fill options and smoothing options. Since I spend at least 20% of my image-edit-time cropping, resizing and straightening photos I have put a big emphasis on these features. Download the free trial and see if you agree with me or what your own priorities are. But also consider some of the exceptional features of ACDSee Photo Editor 2008 - fast start-up, quick edits for most commands, and great Artistic Adjustment, Vignetting/Transparency tool, and good Lightness and Brush control options. At $50 the Vignetting tool is worth the price of admission.