Tom Arah looks at some recently released creative add-ons from Alien Skin and Twisting Pixels that could help make your work stand out

With all creative professionals using Adobe Photoshop it’s difficult to make your work stand out. The solution is to extend your creative arsenal by choosing from the wide selection of Photoshop plug-ins.

VERDICT: Clean and efficient photo management and sharing let down by some surprisingly old-fashioned and underpowered editing.

If you want more than XP’s basic in-built image handling, Microsoft wants you to turn to its Digital Image Suite.

RECOMMENDED

VERDICT: Best-of-breed photo management, editing and sharing with great usability and value – what more do you want?

VERDICT: Paint Shop Pro Photo XI is moving in the right direction but it’s not easy teaching an old dog new tricks.

Paint Shop Pro (PSP) is a long-established and popular software brand, but over the years it has come to seem dated – an old-style bitmap editor rather than an up-to-date PC Photography package.

It’s a perception that new owner, Corel, is determined to address as shown by the recent release’s change of name to Paint Shop Pro Photo (PSPP).

VERDICT: For a new release Snapfire already looks old-fashioned and terminally unexciting – but at least the basic version is free.

Corel describes its new Snapfire program as a “next-generation modular digital imaging platform” designed to provide “all the tools users need to easily organise, enhance and share their digital photos”. That sounds ideal - especially as Corel is providing the program for free from its new Snapfire.com site.

RECOMMENDED

VERDICT: Modern photo management software that’s a pleasure to use and which offers some surprising power –especially considering that it’s free.

Since 2004, when Google bought up Picasa and began giving it away for free, the software has been developing quite a name for itself along with a growing userbase.

VERDICT: Some reasonable hands-on editing power but image management and sharing are seriously disappointing.

Serif PhotoPlus is not well-known, but it’s now in its eleventh release so it must be doing something right.

VERDICT: A wide range of power, but too old-fashioned and confusing for most users.

Ulead (since taken over by Corel) PhotoImpact was the first major bitmap editor to recognise the need to focus on digital camera owners.

Tom Arah looks at Microsoft’s upcoming Expression Studio and its underlying WPF and XAML-based strategy.

Key to understanding Microsoft's future plans is an appreciation of Windows Vista’s new presentation subsystem, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)...

Tom Arah explains why the new Windows Presentation Foundation in Windows Vista is set to revolutionize computer-based design.

Recently I’ve looked at the history of computer-based design for both print and screen. It’s been a strange story with many twists and turns...