dacs.doc electric

Do you have images on your hard disk? Pictures you took with a digital camera? Scans? Images you downloaded? Attachments sent with e-mails? If you think about it, I bet you have hundreds, if not thousands of images. How in the world can your quickly and easily organize them?

When Jeff Setaro gave me CompuPic Pro to review, I thought to myself, "Another image utility? Why bother?" However, I have to admit that I’m impressed. While it may not replace ThumbsPlus, my image viewer of choice for a while now, I can honestly say that it’s definitely going to be my first choice for a while.

The interface is nice - clean and professional, with easy-to-use icons and logical menus. I quickly found all of the features I was looking for, such as batch image format conversions, cataloging images, renaming file groups, and building Web page catalogs of images.

CompuPic Pro is different from an image editor such as Photoshop. It’s a great compliment, because Photoshop edits files, and CompuPic organizes them. It can also do batch operations, such as renaming groups of files or cropping, overlaying text, rotating or adjusting the contrast.

First and foremost, it’s an excellent and fast image cataloging program. I opened several large directories full of images on a Pentium 450, and it was seconds before the screen full of images was cataloged. I like the fact that it catalogs images as you go, with ThumbsPlus I have to make thumbnails, which can take a while.

If you want to put a bunch of images online you can quickly do it with CompuPic Pro. It’ll take a directory full of images and upload them to several popular free online image sites, such as PhotoLoft.com or Printroom.com.

One major drawback--Windows 2000 (and I believe ME, but I haven’t looked) have a simple image catalog program built into Explorer. Don’t buy this if you’re planning on using it just for cataloging images. Buy it for all of the amazing features.

One complaint--it appears that the Mac version is lagging behind the Windows versions. I know it’s a smaller market, but you know how I feel about the Mac. ThumbsPlus is finishing a Mac version that is almost identical the Windows version. I would like to see CompuPic Pro on OS X in the near future.

A final note--if you do decide to purchase it, do it through this link: www.compupic.com/masters/ dacs/cpro32.exe, because DACS gets a little bit of money for the sale. Think of it as a commission for letting you know about this great product.