Image software generally refers to picture or image editing software. This software is usually sold as part of office software packages, but more robust products are available on the market. These products can be used to create and edit all types of multimedia including: photos, clip art, DVDs, video, etc. Today's sophisticated imaging packages allow all organizations and individuals to produce professional results without professional assistance. Built in wizards will make the tasks easy to learn.
Please note that the term Imaging software is also used to refer to disk imaging (products used to duplicate your disk for data integrity, data restoration and redundancy), but this page will focus on picture imaging.
Common features included in digital imaging software include:
- Creating images (DVDs, videos, clipart)
- Editing images
- Photo editing (including cropping, red eye reduction, color correction, etc)
- Image storage and organization
- Interfaces to word processing, publication and communication software
Major providers of this software include:
- Corel
- Shutterfly
- Image Software
- Cabinet NG
- Microsoft
- Acronis
Factors to consider in purchasing your image editing applications include:
- Use of images - used in documentation, support or to show on web
- Use of images – used in database or management within file structure
- Types of images you typically deal with (tif, jpg, img, etc.)
- Interface to your other office software applications
- Web interfaces
- System resources: Not usually an issue, but sometimes small business environments are on over-taxed hardware already.