TechRadar Verdict
Pros
- +
Good suite of tools
- +
Powerful
- +
HTML editing options
Cons
- -
Daunting to novice users
- -
Some tools hard to find
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Magix Photo Premium 9 is one of the most expensive image-editing suites, but the price is justified by the number of tools on offer.
Along with the core image editing tools, you'll also find options to draw images, as well as create animated banners and even use basic HTML web-editing tools.
When you load the application you're presented with a tabbed menu allowing you to choose which tool you need. However, these tools are all independent, so you won't be readily able to simply switch between them at will.
Opting for Photo Editing, you'll need to decide what you're trying to do before you even load your images. This is because the menu choice offers a basic 'Fast' editor, an 'Edit photos in detail' option, or even more specific tools, ranging from 'artistically distort photos' to 'face re-touching'.
Old-fashioned interface
The interface has quite an old-fashioned look to it. There is a large main area for viewing your images, with the main controls running along the top. Down the left-hand side you'll find image-editing tools better suited to those looking to add special effects, such as 3D (which looks amazing), text or shapes.
However, making simple edits to your photos can be quite tricky and we found that this is a suite aimed more at the high-end user.
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For quick retouching of photos, where professional tools are not needed, an 'Optimise photos fast' option lets you perform basic editing tasks, such as adjusting brightness, contrast and focus, and quickly removing red-eye from photos.
Magix Photo Premium 9 is a rather odd package that offers a whole host of fun and powerful tools, but at the same time manages to hide the basic editing functions away.
Experienced photo editors will like the speed at which you can manipulate images and create new projects, but the novice user may find it a little too complicated and tricky to get to grips with.
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