ACDsee unwraps Photo Editor 2008

Photo editing programs come in many flavors. At the professional end of the category, you have applications like Adobe Photoshop. Then there are semipro offerings like Adobe Elements and Corel Paint Shop Pro. And then there's ACDsee Photo Editor 2008. Photo Editor is geared toward folks who want to do more with their photos than just editing. Sure, the software made by ACD Systems International, of Victoria, British Columbia, has plenty of editing tools, but it's very much a project-oriented application--projects like digital scrapbooks. That's evident in the new version of the program released yesterday, which has beefed-up layout tools; new templates from designers like Andrea Gold, Maggie Lamarre and Vicki Stegall; and new ways to integrate text with pictures. Also new to this edition of the program are built-in "how-to" guides to improve the software's useability and a number of "under the hood" changes to improve performance. Photo Editor is priced at $49.99, but a free 30-trial download of the software is available at the product's web site.