Tech Daily

News | Analysis | Comment | Features | Reviews

Callisto PhotoParade 3.0

A fun, easy way to present your photographs to friends and family.

Paul Rowlingson, vnunet.com; 15 Jan 2001

Price: £13.5
Manufacturer: Callisto

Small Callisto PhotoParade 3.0

Utilising an extremely engaging and simple interface, PhotoParade is designed to make the process of creating a slideshow from your snapshots as easy as possible, while still providing you with a great range of options.

A wizard style of user interface has been deployed here, with each stage of the slideshow creation process clearly presented and explained in an informative, helpful manner. Should you make any errors during the creation process, simply use the 'back' button to return to the main menu where corrections can easily be made.

To create a slideshow you simply load PhotoParade, and follow the step-by-step instructions. This begins with naming your slideshow, followed by locating the images you wish to use. PhotoParade has full support for the most common file formats of photographs, including Jpeg, Bitmap and PhotoDeluxe files.

Once the photographs have been chosen and loaded, you begin to edit your chosen pictures to create your final slideshow. From this one screen you can reorder, resize, rotate and flip your photographs, and adjust the colour settings (brightness, contrast, sharpness).

This is also the area in which you add any multimedia elements you would like present in your slideshow. You can give each photograph a title and caption if desired, and add a sound file to each image. This can be a pre-recorded Midi file or, with the aid of a microphone, you can record a sound file directly from within PhotoParade to add an extra element of personalisation to the slideshow.

Once you have finished editing your photographs, you get to choose a theme for the finished slideshow. These themes are included in the program, but depending on which edition you choose to purchase (Standard, Premium or Super) you are supplied with a varying number of themes. The Standard edition includes four themes, the Premium edition nine, and the Super edition 37.

These themes are animated or static graphics that frame your chosen photographs, which not only add a great sense of fun, but also help to create an attention-grabbing presentation you will be proud of and eager to display to everyone you meet! The themes cover practically every occasion and subject, from birthdays and holidays, to sports and special effects. In addition, there is a standard theme which allows you to simply display your photographs against a black background - great for those occasions when a more serious tone is required.

The resulting slideshow will look extremely professional, whichever theme you choose to use. The final product can be saved to your hard drive, or to floppy disk - if the file is too large for one disk it is automatically split into small enough sections to fit on multiple disks.

Along with all this, you can convert any slideshow you wish into a screensaver, or even email a slideshow to somebody from directly within PhotoParade. The recipient will need a copy of PhotoParade Player to view the slideshow, but this is available for free download from the PhotoParade website.

This is a great program that allows you to create something far more entertaining than could be obtained from a traditional slideshow, and is a superb way to create a lasting memory of a specific event, whether it be a birthday, holiday, party, wedding, christening, family day out, or anything else at all.

Pricing:
Standard Edition: £13.50
Premium Edition: £20.50
Super Edition: £27.25

Please note that these are approximate prices. The product is sold as a download, with all transactions taking place in US dollars.


All Home and Entertainment

Like this story? Spread the news by clicking below:

Post this to Delicious del.icio.us    Post this to Digg Digg this    Post this to reddit reddit!

Verdict

This is an essential purchase for anybody looking to do more with their photographs, and with its ease of use you are sure to be creating professional looking slideshows in no time. Impress your friends and create lasting records of any occasion.

Reviews Disclaimer
Readers are reminded that the opinions expressed, and the results published in connection with reviews and/or laboratory test reports carried out on computing systems and/or related items are confined to, and representative of, only those goods supplied and should not be construed as a recommendation to purchase.