PTLens is an excellent application to correct or add distortion to your pictures.

You'll be able to apply a fish eye effect, modify perspective, chromatic aberation and vignetting. PTLens also lets you correct barrel-pincushion distortion on a wide range of camera models. It doesn't seem to allow you to add new models though. Adding effects is really easy thanks to sliders and you can immediately see the changes in the preview. You can also simply disable an effect you don't want by unselecting it.

The program's interface does feel a little clunky, and you wonder why the directory is on the right, instead of next to the preview. We appreciate that a Photoshop plugin for PTLens comes in the installer though, as many photographers prefer working straight in Photoshop. The plugin will work exactly as the standalone application.

Despite the slightly unintuitive interface, PTLens is an excellent tool for correcting image distortion. Recommended for any serious photographer!

Download PTLens 8.7.4 in Softonic

This very basic image editing tool can be used to remove any scratches on your old photographs but that is just about all you can do. In this sense, it is a very specialized program and as a result won’t appeal to many users.

Retouch Pilot’s major advantage is its simplicity. While a lot of people will be frustrated by the lack of functionality, those who are wary of complicated procedures and difficult to use tools will appreciate the minimal approach. Simply open the file you want to clean up, select the scratch tool, (there is only one other tool, the “Undo Brush”) and carefully trace over or click the parts of the image that need to be fixed.

In terms of effectiveness, the program can do an excellent job on obvious flaws when they contrast highly with the surrounding colors, especially when working on monotone photographs. However, for highly detailed images or not so obvious discrepancies, the program stumbles and the desired result is not so straightforward to achieve.

The interface is uncomplicated and there is an extensive undo history although this may be somewhat unnecessary with the availability of the Undo Brush. For someone who has a collection of old, slightly damaged photographs that they would like to scan and clean up a little bit, this is a convenient solution. However, for anyone who is serious about getting great results and having complete control, they should check out Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

Download Retouch Pilot 3.0.2 in Softonic

Photoshop is the World’s leader in digital imaging software. It has been the industry standard design application for years, and with each new iteration it pulls further ahead of its competitors thanks to its huge user base and professional experience.

When digital photography was in its infancy and image editing wasn’t high on many agendas, Photoshop didn’t stand out much from the alternatives such as Paint Shop Pro. More recently, however, the Adobe team has taken the ascendancy, and since version 7, Photoshop has been all about fulfilling users’ requests and prayers for a top quality graphics package. CS3 can be regarded as version 10 and adds more to the mix for photographers, designers, and video editors.

Having nailed the interface in previous versions, CS3 keeps to the same winning formula, meaning that anyone who has used Photoshop before will immediately feel comfortable. Changes come in the form of Adobe Bridge, a replacement for the file browser, more photography filters and the star of the show, the “Vanishing Point”. This filter lets you edit, clone, and retouch images while keeping the perspective; great!

Without going in to too much detail, Photoshop is a program for professionals and as such has a steep learning curve. Anyone who is willing to devote the required time to learn the basics will definitely be rewarded with a much higher degree of control over their images and will also find it easy to tap in to all the great resources throughout the web, be it in the form of tutorials or plug-ins, that will extend the functionality further. The flexibility of the program lets you customize the interface, the brushes, the fill patterns, tool presets, filters, and practically anything else you may find within the software.

With all the power that you get, it’s testament to the Photoshop team that it runs so smoothly on any modern PC, although if you start getting heavy with layers or high resolutions, there will be a noticeable hit to your system’s resources. As you become more accustomed to the operation of the program, you will pick up more efficient habits such as the multitude of keyboard shortcuts. Each one is customizable, and there are key combos for every operation to save you from time spent trawling through menus and toolbars.

Adobe’s Photoshop CS3 is another giant leap forward for digital imaging software and it remains a long way ahead of the chasing pack. It may overwhelm beginners with the sheer quantity of tools and options, but ultimately it will reward anyone that doesn’t mind putting in the ground work to learn the basics. Highly recommended for everyone with time, money and an interest in imaging, particularly photographers and designers.

Download Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended in Softonic

Neat Image is a digital filter designed to reduce visible noise in digital photographic images. With this program you can easily make your digital images noise free (grain free). It works with images from any digital camera or scanner and gives you the complete control over noise filter settings.

Neat Image incorporates the most advanced noise reduction algorithms in the industry. It uses device noise profiles to make noise reduction custom-tailored to your imaging device. Depending on the edition, Neat Image works as a standalone application and/or a Photoshop plug-in. The plug-in works with Photoshop CS/7/6/5, Photoshop Elements 2/3, Paint Shop Pro 7/8/9, PhotoImpact 8/10/XL, Photopaint, Photoline, and Microsoft Digital Image Pro.

Download Neat Image 5.9 in Softonic

You've probably seen a ton of online racing games already, but Trackmania Nations Forever is quite different from anything you have seen so far.

To begin with, this great game is completely free. No trial periods, no disabled functions, no nagging windows. It's for you to play and enjoy for free, as long as you want, as much as you feel like it. Also, Trackmania Nations Forever is not that much about arriving first to the finish line, but rather about having fun along the way; hence the extensive social component of the game and the incredible jumps and spins you'll be able to perform. Last, but not least, it also enables you to customize the game, featuring a complete editor with which you can create not only tracks, but also design your very own car.

Trackmania Nations Forever includes three different gaming modes (Solo, Online and Party play) which give you a different approach to the game: you can either play against the PC and try to break your personal records, play with friends on the same computer or in a local area network or play against other Trackmania drivers from all over the world with its superb online multiplayer mode. The Solo mode works with a system based on medals (the best your racing times are, the more medals you get and the more tracks you unlock) while the Online mode uses a worldwide ranking to measure players's achievements.

In a way, we could say that the most important element in Trackmania Nations Forever is gameplay. Everything has been carefully planned and designed to be as easy for the player as possible: for example, you can register your profile by simple filling in a two-field form, or control the car with just the arrow keys. This simplicity is what makes the game so much fun and so wickedly addictive.

Despite this apparent simplicity, however, you'll find a very elaborate game. Track and car design are simple, but realistic and very accurate. An excellent soundtrack adds the final touch to a game that, in my opinion, sets a turning point in online racing games.

Trackmania Nations Forever is probably one of the greatest online racing games you'll ever see: fun races, customizable elements, an extensive user community and excellent gameplay.

Download Trackmania Nations Forever 2.11.11 in Softonic

While advanced image editing tools such as Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro are great for fine-tuning your photos and making sure they look gorgeous, not all of us have the time to tinker around with all the various palettes, tools and menus.

If you've got a bunch of digital photos that you quickly want to optimize then PicJet Studio could become your new best friend. The software comes with a range of tools that will automatically make adjustments to your pictures when you drag and drop them onto the corresponding tool's icon.

The editing tools in question are 'Collage', which automatically adds two images together when you drag them in; 'Converter', which transforms a picture from one format to another; a 'Stamp' tool for quickly adding text to an image: and a 'Resizer' to help you make an image fit to specified dimensions without any fuss.

PicJet performs all of these tasks remarkably quickly, and almost the instant you commit the file to be changed, the new version of it will appear in the save location. What I like about this process is that the app doesn't overwrite the original file. Instead it adds a tag onto the filename indicating what's been done (e.g. a file called 'image' would prompt a file called 'image_resize' to be created when resizing.

Ultimately this is a tool for performing very quick adjustments to files. There are only four adjustments you can make and you won't find any advanced editing tools or advanced effects in here.

But if you want a quick way to convert, resize, stamp or create collages from your images, PicJet does the job without any fuss - and for free!

Download PicJet Studio 2.6 in Softonic

Background Remover is a Photoshop-compatible plug-in for Windows designed by ImageSkill Sofware that can work with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Ulead PhotoImpact, Macromedia Fireworks etc. The main purpose of the Background Remover is to extract some part of an image i.e. “the object” and remove part that which is unwanted, i.e. “the background”.

It is capable of determining areas of pixels to be modified, areas of pixels to be partly modified and areas of pixels to remain unmodified. The partly modification means the restoration of the non-distinct edges of objects. It is done by reinstating their partly transparent nature and also by subtracting the background color so that only the object color is left in these partly transparent regions. This ensures that the cut-out object will blend or composite correctly with a different background. The cutting objects may be used for collage, scrap-book and greeting card creation.

Download Background Remover 3.0 in Softonic

Improving your photos to make them look just perfect can be a lengthy and boring process, especially if you're not very familiar with graphic editors.

Magic Enhancer Lite helps you in these situations by providing you with a quick, easy way to optimize your pictures. This program works as a Photoshop plug-in but don't worry if you're not precisely a Photoshop expert: the plug-in is so easy to use it doesn't require any artistic abilities.

Simply open the photo you want to work with in Photoshop and select the Magic Enhancer Lite option from the plug-ins menu (it's a bit hidden, in Filter > Image Skill). The plug-in will automatically load an optimized version of the photo you just opened, but if you're no happy with it, go ahead and adjust the sliders by yourself until you obtain the result you're looking for.

The difference may not be very noticeable at first sight, but if you click on the image you'll be able to compare the original photo with the optimized one. On the downside, I must say the plug-in has a tendency to close Photoshop once it's done, which I don't know if it's the way it should behave or rather a bug.

With this Photoshop plug-in you don't need to be an expert photo editor to obtain really high quality shots in just a couple of clicks.

Download Magic Enhancer Lite in Softonic

Originally written to test some routine functions, this program evolved to become Mono, a shooter that mixes the classic Asteroids game with Robotron with Paint Shop Pro. Picking up power ups as you go, you must shoot the large balls of color which then break in to several parts which you must also destroy. As you hit the balls, they leave what looks like a stain on the screen and soon you have a really cool multicolored background that then changes when your pod gets hit.

Download Mono 1.03 in Softonic

Pixel Creation Suite is the kind of program that pleases and annoys me in equal proportions, because it's got positive and negative features.

On the upside, Pixel Creation Suite is a photo editor specifically designed to apply special filters and effects to your pictures. It includes loads of different filters, classified in diverse areas (PixelCreation, PixelPack, PixelPaper and PixelSampler) which actually correspond to other tools from the same developer. With Pixel Creation Suite you can have all of them under the same interface and apply them to your photos to obtain really attractive results.

On the downside, the program fails in incredibly simple points and that makes the user feel somewhat deceived. To begin with, the developer doesn't seem to be sure about the name, as the program is referred to as "Pixel Creation Suite" on their web, but once you run it, you see "Twisting Pixels" everywhere. Then, although effects are very simple to apply they can't be easily removed, which obliges you to open the same picture again every time you want to try a different filter.

Despite these flaws, I think Pixel Creation Suite is basically a good application that makes photo effects easy to apply for everyone.

Download Pixel Creation Suite 1.39 in Softonic

So you’re back from vacation, you’ve downloaded all your photos to your PC, but you’re not convinced by the quality of the images. What you need is to retouch them, adjusting colour balance, eliminating red eyes, setting sharpness and removing noise. While it won’t equal a great picture at first try, at least it'll get you rid of all the imperfections. Corel Paint Shop Pro (PSP) is a hands-on and complete photo editor that intermediate users will take to their liking.

We instantly fell in love with PSP’s easy-to-handle interface. Select the tool panels you need and drag and drop them into the main window. The best way to work with PSP is via the left hand panel, a descriptive menu of all the actions you can undertake, like printing, retouching, collage, or adding text and graphics. Clicking on one option will give you access to a sub-menu with more choices. You can always go back to the main menu by clicking on the house icon. If you have multiple images opened you’ll be able to access them in no time thanks to the tab-browsing feature. The only element that we didn’t like was the image browsing pane at the bottom of the interface, which we found to be pretty cluttered.

Corel is aware that the majority of users have nor the time or the experience to retouch their photos in depth. For these users, there are the “one step photo fix” and “one step noise removal” buttons, to edit your photos in one click. Paint Shop Pro offers numerous editing variations like Illumination, 3D, Texture and Edge effects. Just like Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro works with layers, making it easy to have a history of all the changes you have made to your photo. Although PSP offers fewer effects and editing tools than Adobe’s stellar creation, we believe there are enough options to keep the photo enthusiast well occupied. We appreciated the extra features like photo collage, to create an original mash-up of your favourite pictures, or web share to upload your images to an online photo album. You can also easily create a custom card thanks to the text editor.

The only real drawback to Corel Paint Shop Pro is the lengthy installation process and having to create a Corel account to install the program. However once you get past that step, you’ll be happy to know that the application starts up fairly quickly and does not overuse memory. Beginners will find the help file to be very complete and simple to use.

Paint Shop Pro is an excellent photo editor offering the whole range of tools and effects that you would expect, and a bit more. A well structured interface and clear cut options make it a good choice for beginners.

Download Paint Shop Pro X2 in Softonic

If you'd like to apply any special color effects to your pictures, the usual thing is to grab hold of any graphic editor and play around with its filters, but this takes time and above all, some experience in photo editing. Now you have a quicker, easier option: use Mystical Tint Tone and Color.

This tool, which can work as a standalone application or a plug-in for the most popular photo editors, enables you to apply color filters to your pictures in a very fast way. The problem is that being a demo version, its restrictions don't allow to load your pictures and you can only use the pictures included in the program.

Mystical Tint Tone and Color includes many filters and the results are really attractive. On the downside, the program's interface is a bit confusing and not very user-friendly.

Download Mystical Tint Tone and Color in Softonic

The tool allows retouching common image imperfections (stains, scratches, dust, blemishes) using similar parts of the image.

Unlike common cloning tools that have a bit of a problem when it comes to pasting the cloned object into a picture with complicated color transitions, AKVIS Stamp boasts automatic adjusting of the "patches" to the color range, texture and brightness of the target background.

As a result the restored part of the image or the cloned object blends into the original background and looks absolutely natural.

The field of AKVIS Stamp application ranges from portrait enhancement (as it brilliantly removes wrinkles, scars, scratches, and "treats" porous skin) to retouching of different image flaws (spots, stains, dust). The recently added feature — Edit mode — of AKVIS Stamp makes the program yet more flexible and handy. (See AKVIS Stamp Tutorial for details on the Edit mode).

The stamp tool is similar to the Healing Brush, which first appeared in the 7th version of Adobe Photoshop. For more info about this amazing tool see google-list — results for "Healing Brush tool".

Now the healing tool is available for users of other photo editing software, as AKVIS Stamp works under Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Ulead PhotoImpact, Corel Photo-Paint, ACD FotoCanvas, Picture Publisher pro, etc.

The tool can be helpful to the users who stick to Adobe Photoshop of earlier versions (v5, 6 that do not have Healing Brush) therefore updating their software almost to the 7th version functionality. The advantage of AKVIS Stamp tool is that you can easily manipulate cloned areas using the Edit mode of the Stamp.

Download AKVIS Stamp 3.0 in Softonic

Retoucher does not only remove dust, scratches, stains and other defects that appear on damaged photos but is also able to reconstruct the lacking parts of the photo using the information of the surrounding areas.

The work is done automatically; you only have to indicate areas to be restored, push the button, and here you are - the surface becomes smooth and imperfections disappear. It looks like magic when you observe the scratches vanishing before your very eyes.

It works under image processing programs that support plugins. It is compatible with Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Jasc Paint Shop Pro, Ulead PhotoImpact, etc.

Download AKVIS Retoucher 2.5 in Softonic

With Artful GIF Animator, you can create from scratch, import from AVI, edit and optimize your animated GIF images to develop state-of-the-art animations for web sites.

Artful GIF Animator lets you import and export multiple graphic formats. With its easy-to-use interface, you can drag and drop JPEG, BMP, GIF, ICO and even AVI files into the program and then edit and preview frames on the fly - while you are editing a frame, it animates the resulting picture.

It offers many important add-on capabilities, such as tuning up the individual position and editing the color palette for each frame, optimizing animated GIF images using five different color reduction methods, and others. All these makes Artful GIF Animator an excellent add-on tool for Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

It is recommended for experienced web designers as well as for those who are taking their first steps in graphic design. Excellent documentation is included.

Download Artful GIF Animator 1.3 in Softonic

Microworld Sharptype is a filter plug-in for Photoshop, it mainly concerns on generating ultra-clear type at small point sizes in Photoshop, Fireworks, Paint Shop Pro, PHOTO-PAINT, Painter or any compatible host. Sharptype can provide far sharper type than the built-in Photoshop engine, which will improve your compositions' readability dramatically.

Sharptype is similar to Microsoft Cleartype and Adobe Cooltype, it uses a distinct method to render font, and does not use functional routines provided by operating system, and however, it optimizes vector information to sharpen the vertical and horizontal lines. Sharptype provides 5 rendering methods and 3 enhancing modes, and currently has support of Truetype and Opentype fonts.

Flexible combination of bold, italic, outline, underline and strikethrough rendering styles, font preview, can search additional user defined font directory other than system default, built-in character map makes the insertion for figure fonts easier. Global encoding and native keyboard layout enable us to support multiple languages inside one unique version.

Download Sharptype 3.0 in Softonic

Create and customise over 350 special effects for quick and easy title, banners and highlights.

From Simple outlines, contours, dots and lines through PopArt Scribble, patch up and Comic Book to highly Polished chrome, gold Steel and even semi transparent effects such as glass and mist. Easy to use... Just type your line of text, select the effect and choose the colours and apply! Edit the results in Paint Shop Pro like any other image - add a drop Shadow or other effects rotate or resize.

New in version 2 is a custom option, which lets you choose any image or texture as a basis for the effects.

Download textArt 2.0 in Softonic

Outliner is a Photoshop-compatible plug-in that can work with commercial software like Adobe Photoshop and Corel Paint Shop Pro, or free like software IrfanView and XnView.

It gives a user the easiest way to get image contouring with desired quality. It just picks out various edges making them more expressive. The user can easily manage range of edge appearance in the processed image getting fantastic artistic effects.

Outliner can be very useful plug-in for web designers creating graphic icons and for artists dealing with engraving.

Download Outliner 1.0 in Softonic

Batch Image Resizer is a windows-based program which resize and converts JPG, BMP, PNG, Photoshop, TIFF, PCX, Targa and Paint Shop Pro images. Does the work fast and easy. Supports Ratio Aspects, retain EXIF/IPTC header, resize by pixel dimensions or ratio. Great tool for digital photographers and web designers.

Download iRedSoft Image Resizer 3.27 in Softonic

Photo management programs are ten for a penny these days, as software developers wise up to the fact that the rise of digital photography means that folk now have more pictures on their hands than in the days of scrapbooks and flip-albums. Sorting through your pictures is far from an easy task, but applications such as PhotoMeister help to lighten the load. While many of its rivals excel in image editing and optimization, this app concentrates on helping you keep your snaps organized before sharing them with the world.

The principal feature of the utility is its ability to import photos from any source (either on your PC or direct from your camera) and sort them into albums. Things are made easier thanks to the inclusion of an Import Wizard, making it great for those taking their first steps in digital photography. However, this method can get a little annoying after a while, and seasoned users are likely to be left dreaming of drag-and-drop capabilities, which are notably absent from PhotoMeister.

If you’re the type of person who likes to bore everyone with your holiday photos then PhotoMeister opens up a world of possibilities. The tools under the ‘Impress’ menu give you a plethora of options for sharing images, allowing you to insert them into web pages, slideshows, email, photo books, screensavers, PDA albums or burn to CD. Although the quality of the web album templates isn’t great, it provides a very quick way of sharing your latest escapades with everyone, with no technical knowledge required.

Image editing is not PhotoMeister’s strong point, and it’s lacking in the kind of advanced manipulation features you’d find in Photoshop Album or Paint Shop Pro Album. Having said this, it contains a neat one click optimization function, which auto adjusts the picture to make it as pleasing on the eye as possible. There’s also a batch conversion mode to help you speed up the process of applying a change to multiple images.

If you’re looking for something to help you manage and share your pictures more easily, Photomeister is great, especially if you’re new to computing. Just remember, that you’ll need an external image editor alongside it to get the best out of your digital pictures.

Download PhotoMeister 2.6 in Softonic