Ulead/Corel Photo Impact 12 is testament to the 2D graphics genius of the developers at Ulead. More good graphic ideas and processing techniques have originated here and Photo Impact is testament to that. The program has all the basic features of Adobe Photo Elements or Corel Paintshop Pro but with Ulead's special effects and wizards there is a graphic sauce of no small delight and effectiveness. I think of Photo Impact as the photo editor built around some brilliant graphic plugins and dialogs.
However, there is real substance to the Ulead Photo Editor. The GUI is quite complete:

The toolbar on the left shows that Photo Impact comes armed with pointer, masking, vector draw, text, cropping, image transforming, smears, brushes, cloning, touch up, object, fill and magnifier tools. The vector draw, smear, brush and touch up tools are particularly powerful and inventive. In the menus, one can discover that Photo Impact has a full set of file, edit, plus masking and selection.

Notably missing from Photo Impact is layering as done in Photoshop or Paintshop Pro. Instead Photo Impact has Objects which are similar to Photoshop's new SmartObjects. But users who are used to the very robust layers capabilities of Photoshop or PaintShop will find the mapping to Objects is not complete in Photo Impact. Layers color blending, transparency+fill, adjustment layers and styling are not nearly as complete as in Photoshop.

Also one will not buy Photo Impact for its color adjustments (Adjust menu command).Although Photo Impact does support HDR-High Dynamic Range colors and clever Color Replacement features it is missing the sophistication of of its Corel Paintshop cohort in such areas as Channel Mixer, B+W conversion, Curves, and Manual Corrections.

But Photo Impact is packed with a whole range of Web graphic features that puts Adobe and the rest of the Corel line to shame. In addition, Ulead follows the high Corel standard for program customization; but does not offer savable workspace layouts.

If you consider the screenshot above, Photo Impact supplies 3 key features that Photoshop and Paintshop are just beginning to adopt. Below the primary image is a the Document Manager which has a photo strip of the images being open and actively edited in Photo Impact. And next to the right hand Easy Palette (the panel for control dialogs) there is a strip of icons on the right and at the bottom of the palette panel. These icons control such overall workspace options as Setting Mask Mode, display of various panels, etc.

But perhaps the most important "mode" for Photo Impact is its ability to switch from Full Edit to Express Fix mode. Express Fix provides guided steps for all photo edits with many auto ops.

When I am in a real hurry I just switch to Express Fix and get the quick Color Cast, Smart Curves and Focus commands. Note that Photo Impact provides an set of One Click Presets to further speed up the process. Also note that the menus and their sub commands have been shortened to a starter set. This along with Photo Impact's new Smart Guide panel is one of the fastest ways to learn how to use Photo Impact. And like most graphics software - the learning curve is not small - but Photo Impact has the knack for making it Fun.

Fun Special Effects and Wizards

Here is where Photo Impact really stands out. It is packed with some of the best filters, special effects, and wizards in the business. Take the PhotoFrame dialog - they are as good as

some $50 or more plugins. Now Photo Impact supports Adobe plugins so users have hundreds of plugins from third party vendors to choose from. However, let me advise users to spend a little while with the Photo Impact effects before going out and buying any plugins. And so here comes a quick list of our favorite Photo Impact effects shown with its menu command.

Effect | Artistic | Contour Drawing

One of the features I have been dreaming for in PaintShop and Photoshop is a way to find the edges of an image and ten emphasize them with thicker or thinner lines. Here it is. This can be used to obtain a dry cut effect or simply as another sharpening trick. The real kicker in the Photo Impact implementation is the ability to control the background transparency.

Effects | Artistic | Finger Paint

Okay, so in kindergarten Mrs Gallagher punished me for running roughshod at recess and excluded me from finger painting class - I was devastated. Well the Photo Impact Finger painting class is now in session and there are 6 finger painting styles to choose from and lots of controls over how each style is painted. Have at it budding artistes!

Effect | Fills and Textures | Kaleidoscope Effect

Since Window's XP SP2 came out, Paint Alchemy's Terrazo plugin that creates wonderful kaleidoscope effects that the user can control. Photo Impact has now filled the void - and very well. There is now more control of the window. Not only can I move it anywhere on the original image but I also resize it and change its blend surface. This effect is worth the price of admission to Photo Impact alone.

Effect | Lighting | Creative Lighting

I find the lighting controls in Paintshop and other photo editors hard to control. First, you have control to place several lights and another group to control each specific light. I can never seem to get control over the process. Photo Impact solves that problem by only allowing placement of one light at a time That allows Photo Impact to provide more control of that one lights color, intensity and spread. And since you can save the presets, one can edit out a light from the command History Panel and then restore it later with one command if you need.

Here we show the Lighting color being changed. But there are controls for Elevation, Spread and Skewing (still have not got that one down). Unfortunately the GIF screen capture does not show the subtle tones possible with this command.

Effect | Distort | Particle Effect

This is the type of command that drives most Photoshop photofinishers wacky - too them its just too tacky. Well in contrast, I am like a kid in a candy shop with Particle Effects. There are so many ways to interesting things with this control plus Lighting I find myself exporting layers from Photoshop, working a little particle effects magic and then reinstating the finished layer back in Photoshop.

One extra feature to note here. Photo Impact has a few effects which it allows to be animated including Particle Effects. That is what the Key frame control is about in the screenshot. I have only dabbled with this so far but promise to tell you more on another review of Photo Impact.

Effects | Distort | Custom Effect

Photo Impact like most photo editors has the usual set of distortion commands: Pinch, Punch, Wind, Motion, Sphere etc. Better yet is Photo Impact's Custom Effect dialog. Here you have 8 of the most common image distortion commands at your disposal as presets which you can modify. Just drag and drop along the curve to make you own distortion. Used with the Effects | Distort | Warp with Grid command, users have a nifty approximate for Photoshop's Liquify command.

Summary

Photo Impact at $60US street is one of the better middle tier photo editors. Users new to photo editing will find its Express Fix and Smart Guides as very helpful intros into the full power of Photo Impact. But seasoned pros will also find that Photo Impact has a lot of unique features and effects. For example, for GIF Animators there are at least a half dozen tools including an animation wizard that add real pizzazz to that art. Web graphic artist have dozens of commands at their disposal including a very nifty Component Designer. And photofinshers have seen above only 7 of what are well over a dozen unique and creative special effects. In sum, the price to feature value for Photo Impact is emphatically DO NOT MISS BARGAIN.