Adobe Reader has been in existence for over a decade and has gone through various evolutions during this time. One result of this is that it has been increasingly loaded with plug-ins and extensions which mean that it's consistently criticized as being bloated and slow.

The truth about Adobe Reader's speed

It is true to a certain extent that the extra plug-ins and extensions can make Adobe run more slowly. Adobe Reader is still a PDF reader that has much to offer though. With the latest version of Adobe Reader, Adobe have addressed some of the speed issues and the memory footprint has been improved consistently throughout the development of Adobe Reader XI.

Interface and stand-out features

This version of Adobe Reader is not only slightly faster, but also displays a clearer, simpler interface that makes it easier to use. Adobe Reader XI still features the classic tools from previous versions (Zoom, Text selection, Snapshots and Read out loud), but now it also includes renewed features such as the ability to leave comments as sticky notes. A new feature you’ll find in Adobe Reader X is the Share tool, with which you can easily share the document by email or via the Adobe SendNow service.

Built-in security precautions

If you were worried about security issues in Adobe Reader, fear not: Adobe Reader XI is probably the safest version ever released, thanks to the new Protected Mode than loads images, code and 3D objects in a special area in memory, isolated from the system.

Adobe Reader XI is undoubtedly an important update in the history of this popular PDF reader – an essential tool to open, read and print PDF documents.

Download Adobe Reader XI 11.0.03 in Softonic

If you're not familiar with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, it's a photo processing app that's designed to be used by professional photographers for the post-production of batches of photos, and it's often used in conjunction with Adobe's seminal app, Photoshop.

Download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Beta 5.0 (32 bits) in Softonic

If you're not familiar with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, it's a photo processing app that's designed to be used by professional photographers for the post-production of batches of photos, and it's often used in conjunction with Adobe's seminal app, Photoshop. It's an incredibly accomplished image processing suite that's aimed mainly at professionals.

Download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Beta 5.0 (64 bits) in Softonic

Professional and mid-range photo cameras offer support for RAW format, a kind of digital negative that lets you tweak the images with great control and flexibility in order to obtain the perfect result before saving it to JPG. And now with Adobe Camera Raw you can work on RAW images directly in Photoshop.

Adobe Camera Raw is a Photoshop plug-in that launches automatically every time you open a RAW file in Photoshop. It enables you to work on the original image with plenty of tools, all conveniently organized in several tabs: basic adjustments, tone curve, grayscales, split toning, lens corrections, camera calibration and more.

While using Adobe Camera Raw, you'll be able to see the results of your adjustments in real time in the preview pane, and also take several snapshots along the editing process, and save custom presets for later use.

Adobe Camera Raw is very easy to install. Simply unzip the archive and copy the 8bi file into the Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Plug-Ins/CS4/File Formats folder. The only con is that it's only compatible with Photoshop CS4.

Adobe Camera Raw is a handy plug-in that lets you view and edit RAW images in Adobe Photoshop.

Download Adobe Camera Raw 7.4 in Softonic

What is Lightroom?

If you're not familiar with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, it's a photo processing app that's designed to be used by professional photographers for the post-production of batches of photos, and it's often used in conjunction with Adobe's seminal app, Photoshop.

The new interface

This latest version of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom looks great. It's divided into seven sections - Library, Develop, Map, Book, Slideshow, Print and Web- which let you easily flit between different stages of management, processing and presentation. There's also some awesomely configurable options, running from how the app looks to how it acts, before and after processing. There's only one thing - the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom interface is vast, and to get the most from it, you'll need a large screen.

Photo management

The upside to using a dedicated photo processing app is the ease with which Adobe Photoshop Lightroom allows you to see, categorize and manage your photos. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is no exception, with a great import features and options, and, new to this version, location-based organization. You'll find the tools to manage this function under Map.

Photo processing

In version 4 of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe's self-stated aim has been to "extract more detail from highlights and shadows, make a wider range of targeted adjustments, and easily share your images and video clips on social media and photo sharing sites". It certainly provides some interesting options to do this, including highlight and shadow recovery, white balance features and local noise/moire tools. This is in addition to all the usual editing tools, which are present and easy to apply.

Presentation options

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom really excels when it comes to presenting your photos and passing them on. You can email directly from this new version, as well as sharing with a variety of social networks and photo sharing sites. The Book feature is also new, allowing you to create a variety of beautiful photo books from templates. This complements Adobe Photoshop Lightroom's Slideshow option, giving you even more scope for creating en eye-catching and imaginative end product.

Video management

In this version, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom really ramps up video support, further increasing its versatility. This means that you can make even more complex edits to video clips, as well as easier video publishing.

Conclusion

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is an exceedingly promising piece of software. It can look complicated - and even overcrowded - on first glance, but once you become more familiar with app, you'll see everything adds up to offering you one of the most comprehensive photo processing apps around.

Download Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.4 in Softonic

GIMP has been around for over two decades and development has been stable over the years. The newest update for GIMP gives a slew of new features and a glimpse into the future for this incredible open source image editor.

Features

All the features of GIMP are still present. You can create your own images with tools for airbrushing, penciling, cloning, and creating gradients. Power users can create their own brushes and patterns to use later. GIMP also allows users to manipulate images imported into the program. You can crop, add text, resize, and create nested layers. There is even a way to animate your creations.

New additions

GIMP has now been updated with many user interface tweaks to make the application accessible to newbies. The biggest interface addition is the ability to edit in a single-window. GIMP versions of the past drew criticism for their confusing interfaces, but the developers are addressing many of these issues in this newest version. While single-window mode is great, it is also disappointing that there is no way to view multiple projects side by side.

Other updated features include easier text editing, nested layer groups, and a shift to using the Generic Graphics Library (GEGL), which is a more sophisticated image processing framework. GEGL was introduced a couple of years back in a developer version and has now made its way into the sable, consumer version. GIMP developers hope to move entirely to GEGL by version 2.10. One of the major advantages of GIMP using GEGL is the ability for non-destructive editing and high bit-depth images.

GIMP now only saves to its own XCF format to retain layers and other file manipulation information. Users can still choose to save in formats like JPEG and PNG but will have to "export" the project instead of saving. This follows in the footsteps of Adobe Photoshop.

The latest GIMP is better than ever. Its developers are taking the user experience into serious consideration and are speeding up development for this already great photo editor.

Download GIMP 2.8.4 in Softonic

Introduction

PhotoFiltre is a relatively small application and unlike Photoshop, will install and launch very quickly. The interface, loaded with all the features and options, can be confusing at first glance but you'll soon get used to it. The right side is composed of the shape and drawing tools and an optimizable color palette. The top bar has all the essential image editing and modification options. PhotoFiltre sadly doesn't let you customize the interface and choose your favorite tools.

Features

Among all the image modification tools, of particular usefulness is the quick contrast/hue and saturation buttons because you can check out the effects and immediately and easily correct the image if you're not satisfied with its quality. If you trust PhotoFiltre, you can also let it adjust these parameters automatically.

Like any self-respecting image editing application, PhotoFiltre includes the most widely used filters to transform your image, but if you need to make really significant changes, you'll find yourself limited. Furthermore, unlike Photoshop, PhotoFiltre doesn't include layers, making it more challenging to work on different elements of the image separately.

Like the excellent free image viewer Irfanview, PhotoFiltre covers the majority of image formats and can batch process and convert images rapidly. PhotoFiltre has five different zoom options yet they seem to be more or less similar. The magnifier is probably less precise than the drop down percentage pane, and the auto zoom adjusts the image’s size according to PhotoFiltre's window size.

The image explorer is located at the bottom of the screen, and if you set it according to your image file you'll be able to quickly preview all your pictures. However, if you work with multiple image files, it can quickly become confusing, as you’ll have to open up an explorer tree pane every time to look for your pictures.

PhotoFiltre contains all the essential tools and options to edit and optimize pictures.

Download PhotoFiltre 7.1.1 in Softonic

Adobe Creative Suite 2 is a suite of photo and web applications that originally debuted back in 2005.

The apps included in Adobe Creative Suite 2 are as follows:

• Adobe Creative Suite CS2 (Standard)
  
• Acrobat 3D 1.0 (Windows)
  
• Acrobat 7.0 Standard
  
• Acrobat Pro 8.0
  
• Audition 3.0
  
• GoLive CS2
  
• Illustrator CS2
  
• InCopy CS2
  
• InDesign CS2
  
• Photoshop CS2
  
• Photoshop Elements 4.0/5.0
  
• Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0

This is a lot of applications for a suite but is very useful for graphic and web designers. Adobe's most current version of its Creative Suite is currently on its 6th generation, offering tons of upgrades from Adobe Creative Suite 2. Still, legacy users will be glad to know that the software installs fine on modern operating systems like Windows 7 and 8 by installing the software in Compatibility mode.

Photoshop is still plenty useful for Adobe Creative Suite 2 users, offering tools for basic image editing. Users who are looking for a free, modern alternative to Photoshop will want to try out GIMP instead.

Adobe Acrobat Pro 8.0 is very outdated as well. The most current version is Adobe Acrobat Pro XI. Users who want a simple PDF viewer can download Adobe Reader XI or Foxit Reader.

It's nice to see that Adobe is allowing users to continue to use Adobe Creative Suite 2 but there are more modern and free applications that may serve you better.

Download Adobe Creative Suite 2 Standard (CS2) in Softonic

Full of features

Photoscape includes just about everything you need to view, optimize, edit, print and have fun with your photos. In fact, it's so complete that many would call it a free Photoshop alternative. Sure, it's not quite up to the level of Photoshop, but it's truly a great alternative to Adobe's big shot - and it makes photo editing a lot more fun!

Easy to use

From the program's main window you can choose what you want to do: view pictures, optimize those that didn't come out so well, print several photos on a single page collage-style or perhaps add any of the dozens of filters and special effects included in the program.

Smart interface

One of the first striking elements in Photoscape is its uncommon interface design. The application is very striking and in many ways it's easier on the eye than Photoshop.

Conclusion

There's really nothing negative to say about Photoscape. Just download it, test it, love it and keep it forever. It's free!

Download Photoscape 3.6.3 in Softonic

The Organizer in Adobe Photoshop Elements lets you not only browse photos, but also rate them, add a caption, use them as wallpaper and also add name tags to them in order to identify the people that appear on the images.

The Editor in Adobe Photoshop Elements includes all the tools you need to edit, fix, share and design all sorts of printed creations with your images. The program features three different editing modes (Full, Quick and Guided), suitable for all levels of expertise. You'll be able to resize, crop, remove the red-eye effect, adjust color and lighting, tweak levels and contrasts, or simply apply some automatic quick fixes to your photos. Adobe Photoshop Elements also helps you apply more elaborate effects in an easy, step-by-step process.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is also a perfect tool to create photo collages, postcards, calendars and other similar goodies with your images. The Sharing tool, in turn, allows you to create online albums, burn your images onto CD or DVD, send them by email, and share them on Facebook or Flickr straight away.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a great application for quick image editing, photo sharing and easy-to-create photo artwork. On the downside, some tools can be a bit confusing at first. Also, Adobe Photoshop Elements doesn’t really work as a stripped-down version of Photoshop – it’s a totally different program that combines the power of Adobe tools with a great simplicity of use.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a powerful application with which you can organize, edit, enhance and share your images in many ways, without requiring professional photo editing skills.

Download Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 in Softonic

Adobe have long provided some of the best creative tools around for digital designers and Adobe Creative Suite is about as good as it gets for professionals.

Adobe Creative Suite CS6 Design Premium consists of: Adobe Photoshop, the world's most powerful image editing tool; Adobe Illustrator, for pinpoint retouching and editing; Adobe InDesign, for professional desktop publishing; Adobe Dreamweaver, the ultimate web design tool; Adobe Flash and Catalyst, for creating animations and multimedia web content; Adobe Fireworks, for specialist web design work; and Adobe Acrobat X, the most popular PDF reader and writer out there.

Adobe Creative Suite CS6 Design Premium also includes several useful online tools for ultimate power and control over your designs.

Adobe Creative Suite CS6 Design Premium is one of the most powerful design packages available.

Download Adobe Creative Suite CS6 CS6 Master Collection in Softonic

While the original Premiere application is mainly intended at professional video editors, Adobe Premiere Elements brings video editing closer to the average user. The program features a complete set of simple yet powerful tools that will help you extract video from several sources, combine them into a movie, add special effects and filters and share with family and friends.

The interface in Adobe Premiere Elements is very similar to that in Adobe Photoshop Elements. The application is divided into two main parts: the Organizer and the Project editor. Both work seamlessly with each other and share the same sleek, elegant dark interface.

The Adobe Premiere Elements Organizer lets you browse your media (photos, audio and video), rate them and add captions to them. The Editor, on the other side, is where the creative part comes in.

The editor in Adobe Premiere Elements features the classic video editing working space, with a special area for imported media, a built-in preview window and a timeline at the bottom. Though it may seem confusing and difficult to use at first sight, a bit of effort and patience on your side will help you master the program without much fuss.

Adobe Premiere Elements works with all popular media formats (including HD video) and features a bunch of extra material (special effects, transitions, graphics and text, menus, titles and more) with which you can easily create awesome movies.

Moreover, Adobe Premiere Elements also features all the necessary tools to share your movies, either by burning them to DVD and Blu-ray, or by uploading them straight away to Facebook and YouTube.

Adobe Premiere Elements is the perfect way to get started with video editing and the powerful tools included in the original Premiere suite.

Download Adobe Premiere Elements 11 in Softonic

Nowadays, it is increasingly losing ground to Adobe's InDesign but its continued use in the professional publishing industry is testament to the power and quality of QuarkXPress.

The reason for its longevity is simply because QuarkXPress is a very powerful design and page layout software package but at the same time, retains an intuitive and versatile interface that lets you combine elegant typography with color and pictures. The end result is highly professional web and print layouts.

However, those looking for major improvements in version 9 of QuarkXPress might be disappointed. The update adds a little more power to your elbow in the form of an App Studio for mobiles and iPads allowing you to create your own interactive publications. Beyond this, many of the modifications and updates are relatively subtle, such as the possibility to export to ePUB for the eBook Market, iPad, Sony Reader and NOOK format converters plus an image grid.

Getting content into QuarkXPress had previously been one of it's major bugbears but the developers had already made it far more flexible in version 8, accepting content from products from rivals such as Adobe Bridge, iPhoto or Extensis Portfolio allowing you to drag content from QuarkXPress to Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Word or the desktop. Version 9 enhances this flexibility to take into account the rapidly expanding eBook and iPad market.

It's hard top sum up all of QuarkXPress's features in a few words but if you've never tried it and you're into Desktop Publishing, it's safe to say you won't be disappointed although you should also check out Adobe InDesign too before making any decisions.

Download QuarkXPress 9.3 in Softonic

Probably the most notable new feature is the Content Aware tool which makes editing Photoshop more "intelligent" plus there's a new design and a streamlined interface. In addition, basic video editing functions have been added for the first time.

When you first open Adobe Photoshop CS6, the most eye-catching thing is the revamped colorful user interface. However, if you don't like the new look, you can revert to the old grey interface via Preferences - Interface. Beyond this however, there are some useful new features.

Content Aware

Content Aware intelligently moves selected objects and adjusts them accordingly with the background or surrounding objects. This enables you to simply drag and drop objects in Photoshop much more easily without having to readjust the background. Don't like the position of a person in an image? Just move them to another position instantly and the background automatically adjusts.

Video Editing

Adobe Photoshop CS6 brings video editing to Photoshop for the first time. Its integrated with all of Photoshop's traditional tools which makes it very powerful when it comes to retouching scenes, adjusting colors and filter sets etc. It also allows you to add audio tracks although it's not very advanced otherwise.

Bridge file browser and Mini Bridge

Adobe Photoshop CS6 features a more powerful file browser which allows you to sort and manage pictures according to specific metadata. The fully integrated file browser with thumbnail previews photos quickly and opens them instantly for easier library management.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 brings some interesting new features to this powerful photo editing software. Particularly interesting is the Content Aware function which makes retouching and manipulating photos incredibly easy.

Download Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended 13.0.1.1 in Softonic

Overview

This is usually a trick for Photoshop experts, but now with FotoMix you can also create that illusion, even if you have no idea about how to use Adobe’s editor. The program has been especially designed to help you achieve this effect in the easiest way possible.

Interface

FotoMix features a simple interface divided into several tabs, each for a specific purpose: select background image, select foreground image, create a composition with them and add up some final touches.

Features

Using FotoMix is really simple: all you have to do is select the background image, the foreground person or object you want to use and apply one onto the other. Then simply erase the redundant background in the Composition tab, and polish the result in the Touch up tab. The resulting image can be embellished with a frame and saved in several different graphic formats.

FotoMix is a handy tool for photo composition that doesn't require any graphic editing skills. On the downside, more advanced users will find it annoyingly limited: the tools are too basic, and there’s no undo function when you’re mixing the foreground and background images.

FotoMix is an easy-to-use photo editor that lets you create image compositions without any editing skills.

Download FotoMix 9.0.6 in Softonic

Touching up photographs in a powerful program like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom may be overkill for most people who aren't professional or amateur photographers. Programs like Toolwiz Pretty Photo simplify the process by giving easy to use presets for filters and effects.

While filters are all the rage these days, they aren't the only features that Toolwiz Pretty Photo has to offer. There are color, hue, and focus adjustments to name a few. Many effects give manual controls for more advanced users, though the novice can figure them out fairly quickly.

One thing that Toolwiz Pretty Photo is sorely lacking is a live preview of the changes to an effect. This makes adjusting something like blur very annoying. You have to re-drag the area you want blurred each time you make an adjustment in order to see how the blur changes. This makes editing photos take much longer.

While Toolwiz Pretty Photo brings nothing new to the table, it does offer users some great editing features that aren't included in other photo editors.

Download Toolwiz Pretty Photo 1.0 in Softonic

- Restricted access to content by User Roles - Ability to work with huge size media archives (up to 500K-1M files per catalog) - Version Control (Check in/out). Avoid work being redone because you've lost your original versions! - Powered by free, reliable and widely adopted PostgreSQL database engine - Import more than 100 formats including - Super simple and clean interface - Focused on cataloguing (no built-in fancy image editors and publishing tools) with excellent bridge to external photo editors like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign. - Quickly classify and filter your content by tags using AND, OR operations

- Provides True multi-user access - Affordable price for small teams - No need to hire a system administrator, and no specialist knowledge necessary to install and administer the Server. - Much more secure than web-solutions all your content remains inside your firewall - Focus on image cataloging and multi-user access - Automatic Metadata (XMP,IPTC) syncing - Support for unlimited hierarchical tag structure

Small companies, who need to create a centralized photo library in the following industries: Manufacturing, Engineering, Architect and interior design, Landscape design, Non-profit organizations Plus home users with a large number of photos

Download Daminion Server 0.9.5 in Softonic

It's designed specifically for use with images created in Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements and the latest version has been fully updated to make it compatible with the Adobe CS6 suite.

This means Perfect Resize now features a new scaling technology, faster performance and a completely new user interface.

Perfect Resize allows you to enlarge an image to any size or resolution you need but most importantly, it maintains fine image detail and eliminates what are known as "edge halos". Cropping and resizing is simple and you can do it within Adobe Photoshop CS6.

The only downside to Perfect Resize is that, although it's much simpler than most CS6 apps, it's still not something that beginners will pick up quickly. Fortunately, there are many tutorials on the developer page to help.

Perfect Resize will help you produce accurate and unblemished enlargements and give you professional results.

Download Perfect Resize 7.0.7 in Softonic