Have used Picture It! and Digital Image Suite 9 in the past, but found DIS 10 to be the best from Microsoft so far.

Easier to use than Adobe and JASC software and a fraction of the price.

Powerful editing tools and filters ensure your photos will look there best. Minilab enables you to edit multiple pictures similtaniously, a great time saver. A host of other tools and filters enable the creation of the 'perfect' photo or project. With over 3000 templates and 5000 clip-art images, you can do a lot more than edit photographs. The Intelligent Panoramic Stitching tool is fantastic.

The Organising and Archiving software makes storing and finding your phots easy.

Takes a little time to be come fully conversant and the excellent manual is invaluable.

All in all, a great piece of software for the price.


Microsoft DIS 10.0 - it's my preferred choice   March 6, 2005
 90 out of 90 found this review helpful

I'm not a professional graphic designer, photo editor or any other creative individual. What I wanted from a program was the ability to edit photos, change their size and composition etc with ease. I also wanted different filters and the ability to cut out the misc stuff in photos that made the difference between good photos you'd show to friends and poor photos that you'd dump.

Given my above wants I trialled the mainstream products from Adobe, Ulead, JASC and Microsoft. I also trialled the free progams I could find on the internet. In my opionion, the best products, in order from the best to the worst are:

1. Microsoft Digital Image Suite [DIS] 10.0
2. Adobe Photoshop Elements V3
3. JASC Paintshop Pro 9
4. Ulead PhotoImpact 10
5. The free stuff found on the internet

I felt instantly comfortable with Microsoft's software. It has all the features I had read about regarding the Adobe and JASC products but I found these features to be more user friendly and intuitive to use within DIS. It is for this reason I rated DIS the highest. Interestingly, I also found Microsoft's program performed the edits I requested more quickly than the other programs. Overall, Microsoft's DIS may at first appear to be a relatively simple program, but that is down to its simple and intuitive layout rather than being a simple program. I have actually found DIS to be a very powerful program.

My gut feeling is that Adobe's Photoshop V3 is ultimately more powerful than Digital Image Suite and, if I were a professional creative person, then I would probably be willing to spend loads of money and/or time on a course that would teach me how to make the most of it. But I don't have the inclination, time or money for that. I want a program that I can quickly get to grips with and for me Microsoft's software allowed me to do just that.

I put Adobe's product ahead of PaintShop Pro because I felt that its layout had greater clarity than JASC's program and therefore I found Photoshop less confusing than Paintshop Pro. However, I did wish that Adobe had made taking a photo from your photo album to its Photoshop software more user friendly.

And I put Ulead's product last of the mainstream brands because it did not appear to have as many features and therefore did not appear to be as powerful as the other branded software and... gosh was its layout messy and confusing. I didn't find it user friendly at all. Truth be told I found some of the free internet software to be much more simple to understand. The only reason I put the free internet software below Ulead's product is because Ultimately Ulead's product was more powerful than the programs you don't have to pay for.

Finally, the only reason I gave MS' DIS 4 stars and not 5 is because I believe that professional creative people will most likely find Adobe's software more powerful and suitable for them. As for the rest of us photo editing hobbyists I'm in no doubt that you will find this program does all that you require and then some, and therefore for us I'd give it 5 stars.


FAB   February 11, 2005
 11 out of 13 found this review helpful

Simple to use and packed with features - at time of writing alot cheaper to buy at John Lewis stores