This slick software suite helps families edit and organize their photos in creative ways. Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10 includes the easy-to-use Digital Image Pro 10 (Picture It!) for photo/digital image editing, and Digital Image Library for organizing and archiving photos. The two programs are well-integrated with each other, so that users can easily jump back and forth between the applications.

Digital Image Pro 10 is a quality digital image editing software that sports some new features in this tenth edition of the series. Home users get professional results with this title, and most will have a good time fine-tuning their digital images. One of the most appealing qualities of the software is superior ease of use. Users are offered instructional video tutorials and how to's that help them learn how to improve images. Batch editing is one of the more handy features--I use it for image scans because I know that the images are always a little dark and I can easily apply lighting effects to an entire batch of scans in one easy step.

Users can easily crop, rotate, resize, straighten, and flip their images. There are auto fixes for properties like exposure and contrast, but users can also adjust these, and other elements, as they please. It is as straightforward as "pulling" a curve on a graph in different directions to adjust such things as colors, saturation, and luminosity. Special effects can be applied to images, and the tool to remove spots or blemishes is invaluable. This tool enables users to eliminate dust or pieces of hair from scanned photos, remove skin blemishes, and so forth. 

One of the new features of this tenth edition of Picture It! Digital Image Pro is an auto fix for camera phone images! Intelligent Panoramic Stitching merges vertical and horizontal photos for seamless panoramic images. Improved red-eye corrections and mini-lab features that help automate enhancements to digital camera photos.

Families will love the program's face touch-up features. Tools are available that allow users to enhance eye and lip color, remove blemishes and correct lines/wrinkles, whiten teeth with the airbrush, and correct skin tone. 

Mats, borders, frames, and edges can be added to images; a nice range of special effect tools (such as stained glass, mosaic, glowing edges, and watercolor) are included; text can be added to photos; a Smart Erase feature helps users completely eliminate entire objects from a scene; templates for various printable projects are ready to use; and a collection of images, photo stamps, and photo strokes are available to enhance projects. Handy print guides help users get it right the first time.

The second program included in the suite, Microsoft Digital Library is designed to help users organize their digital images. This is an especially handy program for families with large collections of digital photos. With this tool, users can now add flags to pictures. The ready-made flags are: for review, needs touchup, to share, and to print. Two miscellaneous flags are included. 

Keywords can be added to photos so that searching for,and grouping, images is easy. Keywords can be "birthday", "holiday", or any user-selected word. Keywords can be added in batches as well. Captions can be attached to photos, and images can be rated on a 5-star system so that favorite photos are easily located. 

A new feature that is a whole lot of fun, especially for kids, is Photo Story 2.0. Users select a number of photos and turn them into video quickly and easily with this fun tool. The end result is fantastic! A title page is offered, and the photos pan and zoom as user-selected music files play (or narration with the use of a microphone). Turning still photos into personalized videos is an exciting family activity that is made easy with Photo Story.

There are digital image editing programs on the market that offer more features, and those that offer less. This suite is ideal for a home user who wants more control over photo editing than they have with basic image editing software, and who enjoys tweaking and organizing photos. It includes enough (and the right) features to please families, without overwhelming.  

Microsoft Digital Image Pro 10 is also sold separately at a lower suggested retail price. If families don't feel the need for the digital image library, this individual product makes sense. To buy separately: Microsoft Picture It! Digital Image Pro 10.0

Our Rating:   A

[For more information, user reviews, or to buy: Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10.0]

Reviewed August 2004

To Buy this software:

Buy Microsoft Digital Image Suite 10.0 at Amazon.com

Buy Digital Image Suite 10.0 Eng Na CD at Amazon.ca