ACDSee 7 Photo
Management Software

The latest photo management software from ACD Systems, ACDSee 7, boasts a host of new features and excellent photo organization and manipulation tools. Although it is not as simple to use as say, Adobe Photoshop Album or Ulead Photo Explorer, it has tremendous flexibility and a mind-boggling array of tools. So what's so good about ACDSee? Well, first let's understand a bit of history.

I’ve been a fan of ACDSee through out the years, since the release of ACDSee 3, back in the days of Windows 98. ACDSee 7 contains many of the great image manipulation features I’ve come to expect from this software, and then some. In this ACDSee 7 review, we’ll have look at the key features of the product.

ACDSee 7 photo management software

Browsing Your Images

One of the nice features I like about ACDSee 7 is the Windows Explorer-like user interface. You navigate through your photos using folders and the program does a great and speedy job of updating thumbnails for your viewing.

The main screen in ACDSee 7
 

There is a feature called Image Well which allows you to move all your photos into a virtual folder. This saves you from having to navigate from folder to folder.
 

Tagging Your Photos

ACDSee 7 offers a variety of views into your photo collection. For example, you can select to view your photos by date, by image size and several other properties. Just like in Adobe Photoshop Album , you can specify metadata (i.e. properties about each photo) and add tags. For example, you can specify tag a photo with keyword ‘Dad’s birthday 2005’. Subsequently, you can do a search on this keyword and ACDSee 7 will automatically locate that photo for you.
 

Image Editing Features

In terms of image editing features, the program gives you the basic functions like rotate, crop and the like. Noise removal and addition of special effects is also supported. There’s a nice new tool called Image Comparison, where you can compare up to 4 photos in terms of exposure, histogram and other properties.
 

Slide Shows

ACDSee7 also supports a vast array of sharing options. You can easily create a slideshows in PDF, Flash and screensaver formats. I tried this out – it’s a great tool if you want to distribute a version of your photos to friends and family.
 

Limitations

Just one or two shortcomings about ACDSee 7 which should be mentioned here. I find that the software has a tad too many options – so it may scare off beginners. The other thing is that CD and DVD burner support is not built-in (to my surprise). You need to download a separate plug-in from ACDSee to allow this.
 

Conclusion

All in all, ACDSee 7 is a great photo management tool for serious digital photography enthusiasts. It has many options for flexibility in organizing, editing and sharing your photos. It stacks up very well against competing products like Adobe Photoshop Album and Ulead Photo Explorer. If you’re looking for a good photo manager, then ACDSee 7 should be high on your list of considerations.

Touch Up Your Photos Easily

Ulead PhotoImpact is a great photo editor that does its job - yet doesn't burn a hole in your pocket. I've used this program for a long time and it has never let me down. PhotoImpact has all the usual tools you expect in a photo editor, contained within a smart, uncluttered user interface. It's definitely worth a try, especially if you don't want to invest in expensive commercial editors like Adobe Photoshop CS.

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