Overview

ACDSee 14 is a powerful photo editing/management solution for home and business users that contains all of the features needed to edit, organize, and share photographs within a comprehensive, feature-rich interface. By combining user-friendly editing tools with efficient organization resources, this software makes it easy to maximize your creative potential and get the most enjoyment of your photographs.

Installation

The installation process is relatively straightforward, and the system requirements are nominal, as you only need about 1 GB of RAM, 1 GB of free hard drive space, a display adapter that supports a minimum resolution of 1024 x 768, a CD/DVD burner (if you plan on creating discs), and a processor that is equal to or greater than the Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon XP in computing power.

Interface

The functionality of the ACDSee user interface is split into four main components – Manage, View, Edit, and Share. These four modules cover virtually every aspect of photo editing and management, and all of the self-explanatory features are easy to learn due to integrated help documentation. Ultimately, the interface is ideal for computer users of any skill level.

Pros

• Categorize media based on albums, places, ratings, and color-coded labels.

• The Manage module lets you easily organize and browse through your portfolio of images using a variety of criteria within a personalized wall that gives you convenient access to all of the digital media on your computer.

• Utilize the View module to zoom in, create slideshows, or fill your screen with the desired photo.

• The Edit module lets you easily eliminate flaws, selectively edit, and add frames and special effects

• The Share module seamlessly integrates the ACDSee interface with various social networks, FTP/e-mail clients, your printer, and your smart phone.

• Customizable metadata panel gives you the ability to view only the most important photograph properties based on your preferences

• Comprehensive built-in search function makes it easy to find photographs based on keyword tags, folders, creation/modification dates, and even camera file information.

• Lets you synchronize your media folders with external hard drives to create automatic backups

• Supports more than 100 different file types, including various audio, video, and photo formats such as BMP, JPG, GIF, PSD, PNG, MPEG, WAV, TIFF, and MP3

• Supports geo-tagging, which lets you specify the location where photographs or videos were taken

Cons

• A slight learning curve may be required to master some of the more advanced features.

Alternatives

Some of the more notable alternatives to ACDSee 14 are , , , and . Of these alternatives, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is by far the most popular, however Picasa is a close competitor, with IrfanView following closely behind.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a free program that will help you enhance your digital media experiences and easily manage your photo/video library, this software divides an ideal solution. With a plethora of useful features and a user interface that practically anyone would feel comfortable with, ACDSee 14 is by far one of the most recommended photo editing/management software for average computer users.