Ulead Photo Explorer 8.5

Photo Explorer is the cheapest of all these image cataloging programs. Indeed, if you buy Photo Impact 10, you get it free. It works, essentially, as a folder browser, in the same way as ACDSee and Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album.

You don’t get a system of hierarchical keywords, but you can enter image descriptions and search for text. This is also a PC-only program.

Photo Explorer is cheap, but it’s likely to leave you frustrated in the long run as your photo collection grows. The main problem is the lack of a decent keyword tagging and searching system, since free form text descriptions are slow to apply and too arbitrary for a systematic filing system. Searches take quite a long time, too. On the positive side, the image-enhancement tools are good, incorporating a barrel distortion fix.

Beginners might benefit from the simplified Easy Access display option.

More at Ulead DVD PictureShow 2 + Photo Explorer 8