Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I upgraded to Photimpact 8 from version 6 - only it was actually a downgrade. Even after downloading the patch there are still to many bugs. After you chose a printer for one picture it doesn't remember which one or the printer setup for the next picture, even if you never leave the program. The The backspace key will not back up the lasso tool to a previous point as it did in PI6. About half the time the print command refuses to print unless you reset the resolution. But when you just click OK, the complaint goes away and it prints any way. The ruler keeps coming back to the print preview page no matter how many times you click it off, etc. I admit I haven't tried contacting Ulead. Their reputation for lousy customer service tells me it would just be asking for more frustration. Ron
Rating: 
Summary: Great buy for the money
Review: I've used both Photoimpact 6 and 7 and 8 just gets better. I've had none of the installation problems listed above. My CPU is an AMD 1.2gig unit and I have 650+ megs of memmory. I have the program installed on its own 40 gig hard drive. I use the program for digital photography only so I can't say how it does on Web pages, but for what I use it for, I don't think that I have even started to make a dent into what can be done with it. I find removing unwanted details from a poto easy with the right tools and enhancing a photo is easier still. One thing, especially if you are dealing with 3.0 megapix or higher resolution or if you deal with uncompressed photos, get as much memory, hard drive space, and the fastest CPU you can afford. At near minimal requirements, working with these large files will define the word slow.
Rating:
Summary: Good Product that Crashes Your System
Review: One can open .jpg, .bmp, .tif and many more files files and begin enhancing photo images and other graphics. Design creative, colorful, unique and impressive displays; there is it is! and absolute must on the Programs list - It's an expression of "your" own artistic skills and abilities. Select the effects tab, creative, partical effect...you won't believe your eyes! That's just the beginning (hundreds more). It's easy to learn, and this software was designed by a genius who made it simple for average people like me. I have to get back to the fun and games now. Photo Impact is worth about one and a half zillion new-colored megabucks. It's unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Special effects - photo images
Review: One can open .jpg, .bmp, .tif and many more files files and begin enhancing photo images and other graphics. Design creative, colorful, unique and impressive displays; there is it is! and absolute must on the Programs list - It's an expression of "your" own artistic skills and abilities. Select the effects tab, creative, partical effect...you won't believe your eyes! That's just the beginning (hundreds more). It's easy to learn, and this software was designed by a genius who made it simple for average people like me. I have to get back to the fun and games now. Photo Impact is worth about one and a half zillion new-colored megabucks. It's unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: The patch is out -- the problems remain
Review: PhotoImpact 8 has been patched, but my issues (see my earlier review "Wait for the patch release") have not been corrected. I found no change in the performance or behavior (inability to echo keystrokes) in Unsharp Mask. And I was looking for one of two responses to the pressing Enter to activate a crop issue (the word Enter is missing in my earlier review because I naively surrounded it with angle brackets): 1) make it work, or 2) Update the manual and on-line help to stop saying it does. I agree with the other reviewers that this is an amazing product for the money. Unfortunately, Ulead has clearly demonstrated to me that they have poor communication between Engineering, email support, phone support, documentation, and their customers. My installation, support, and functionality problems destroyed my confidence in the company and the product. The failure to include an Unsharp Mask fix (or rollback to PhotoImpact 7 functionality which was excellent) further undermined my confidence. I now consider PhotoImpact an amusing toy. I mentioned in my earlier review that I owned other photo editors and was looking at Photoshop. My conclusions: I bought and love Photoshop (and the third-party books that support it); I'm giving away my copy of Paint Shop Pro (the file browser trashes Windows XP's ability to show you EXIF data in JPEGs); I'm hanging on to my copy of Photoshop Elements 2.0 (it was practically free and works much like it's big brother); and am keeping PhotoImpact because of all the stuff it contains -- and they just might fix Unsharp Mask. I sold the five books I had on PhotoImpact/Paint Shop Pro/Photoshop Elements. My digital editing library is now exclusively focused on Photoshop and my 3 Megabyte JPEGs and I no longer wait for PhotoImpact 8's Unsharp Mask.
Rating:
Summary: The patch is out -- the problems remain
Review: PhotoImpact 8 has been patched, but my issues (see my earlier review "Wait for the patch release") have not been corrected. I found no change in the performance or behavior (inability to echo keystrokes) in Unsharp Mask. And I was looking for one of two responses to the pressing Enter to activate a crop issue (the word Enter is missing in my earlier review because I naively surrounded it with angle brackets): 1) make it work, or 2) Update the manual and on-line help to stop saying it does. I agree with the other reviewers that this is an amazing product for the money. Unfortunately, Ulead has clearly demonstrated to me that they have poor communication between Engineering, email support, phone support, documentation, and their customers. My installation, support, and functionality problems destroyed my confidence in the company and the product. The failure to include an Unsharp Mask fix (or rollback to PhotoImpact 7 functionality which was excellent) further undermined my confidence. I now consider PhotoImpact an amusing toy. I mentioned in my earlier review that I owned other photo editors and was looking at Photoshop. My conclusions: I bought and love Photoshop (and the third-party books that support it); I'm giving away my copy of Paint Shop Pro (the file browser trashes Windows XP's ability to show you EXIF data in JPEGs); I'm hanging on to my copy of Photoshop Elements 2.0 (it was practically free and works much like it's big brother); and am keeping PhotoImpact because of all the stuff it contains -- and they just might fix Unsharp Mask. I sold the five books I had on PhotoImpact/Paint Shop Pro/Photoshop Elements. My digital editing library is now exclusively focused on Photoshop and my 3 Megabyte JPEGs and I no longer wait for PhotoImpact 8's Unsharp Mask.
Rating: 
Summary: Stick with Photoshop
Review: Poor customer service, poor tech support, and no support attempting to obtain online training classes. At least one can obtain Photoshop training almost everywhere, including highly recommended training CDs/DVDs, etc. I'm going with that.
Rating:
Summary: Major Crash
Review: Read all the reviews before buying PhotoImpact 8.0. Was a Jasc user prior. Would love to say that the product was great, but I can't get it to work. Totally freezes my system. Re-installed 3 times. Start the program, computer totally crashes. Finally I've had to uninstall it again, put it on the shelf and be glad it works for others. Contacted Ulead by fax & email, no response, 3 days later. Not mad, just disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Stick with Photoshop
Review: Ulead's PhotoImpact 8 continues the Ulead tradition of cramming tons of useful features into a relatively inexpensive program. The previous version of the product received top ratings from a number of leading sites such as CNET. Version 8, in my opinion, adds very few new features that would justify the upgrade for most people. And unfortunately, the very strength of this program is also its Achilles' heel. Since it packs in so many features (photo editing, vector graphics, 3D features, HTML page creation, etc.), it has become a huge install (over 500 MB if you install everything). Further, it is extremely slow to load at startup. I have a 2.0 Ghz pentium with 512 MB RAM, and it can still take between 20 and 40 seconds to fully load the program. Many users have indicated problems with stability and program crashes, though I have not experienced this yet. And many of the extra features such as the HTML page creation and the javascript rollovers are of questionable value for the following reasons: 1) They tend to create VERY basic output, as with the HTML page creation, and you can probably do better on your own or with any inexpensive web page tools. 2) These extra functions sound good on paper, but in reality they only contribute to the huge installation size, the slow loading of the program, and the cluttering of the already overcrowded menus. PhotoImpact 8 can be a great graphics program and an alternative to expensive options such as Adobe Photoshop. In the low end of the price spectrum , your two best options are PhotoImpact and Paint Shop Pro. But Paint Shop Pro, long the market leader in this price range, has regained the lead. They have just come out with their version 8 Beta, and it is truly an elegant program. It is fast, a much smaller install, and limits itself to just being a great graphics editor (rather than trying to do everything like PhotoImpact). Ultimately it's hard to go wrong with either one, but I believe Ulead has lost the lead, and Paint Shop Pro has regained it.
Rating: 
Summary: Ulead loses the lead
Review: Ulead's PhotoImpact 8 continues the Ulead tradition of cramming tons of useful features into a relatively inexpensive program. The previous version of the product received top ratings from a number of leading sites such as CNET. Version 8, in my opinion, adds very few new features that would justify the upgrade for most people. And unfortunately, the very strength of this program is also its Achilles' heel. Since it packs in so many features (photo editing, vector graphics, 3D features, HTML page creation, etc.), it has become a huge install (over 500 MB if you install everything). Further, it is extremely slow to load at startup. I have a 2.0 Ghz pentium with 512 MB RAM, and it can still take between 20 and 40 seconds to fully load the program. Many users have indicated problems with stability and program crashes, though I have not experienced this yet. And many of the extra features such as the HTML page creation and the javascript rollovers are of questionable value for the following reasons: 1) They tend to create VERY basic output, as with the HTML page creation, and you can probably do better on your own or with any inexpensive web page tools. 2) These extra functions sound good on paper, but in reality they only contribute to the huge installation size, the slow loading of the program, and the cluttering of the already overcrowded menus. PhotoImpact 8 can be a great graphics program and an alternative to expensive options such as Adobe Photoshop. In the low end of the price spectrum , your two best options are PhotoImpact and Paint Shop Pro. But Paint Shop Pro, long the market leader in this price range, has regained the lead. They have just come out with their version 8 Beta, and it is truly an elegant program. It is fast, a much smaller install, and limits itself to just being a great graphics editor (rather than trying to do everything like PhotoImpact). Ultimately it's hard to go wrong with either one, but I believe Ulead has lost the lead, and Paint Shop Pro has regained it.
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