"Panorama Makers" from commercial developers used to be plentiful, costing up to $49 in some cases, but the majority of those developers have quit this particular software genre because there's no point in trying to charge for a Windows app when the actual creator of Windows provides it entirely free.

Microsoft Research created and released its panorama app -- ICE (Image Composite Editor) -- several years ago and has continued to update it ever since. In its latest guise, both 64-bit and 32-bit versions are offered. I'm not a big fan of Microsoft but have to say that when it gets it right, the results are impressive. ICE is an example of that:

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/ice/

I work with images a lot, so was interested in Teorex's panorama maker the last time it was offered here, and downloaded and road-tested it against the then version of Microsoft ICE as well as the long established Open Source panorama app, Hugin, which in some ways is even better than Microsoft ICE:

http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Hugin, like ICE, is continuously developed. Unlike ICE, Hugin is cross-platform, so works as effortlessly on a Mac as it does on a Windows computer.

Today's offer from Teorex is of software unchanged from the GAOTD of August 2014, something I have to say comes as a surprise because if this developer is serious about challenging the supremacy of Microsoft (Windows) and Hugin (Mac) then it needs to keep the product as up to date as its freeware rivals.

Though PhotoStitcher 1.6 -- when it actually worked for me: the program crashed too often for comfort -- has a few gimmicks absent from both ICE and Hugin, nothing in its performance, still less its GUI and ease-of-use, came anywhere near the quality standard set by the freeware competition.

Back in August 2014, I didn't understand why Teorex was trying to sell PhotoStitcher as a $20 commercial product. I still don't understand now, because that $20 is the cost of a re-install and thus a serious disincentive against even bothering to download and install when ICE and Hugin are up-to-date, entirely free, and always re-installable without charge.

MikeR  –  9 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+81)

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Installed and ran fine on Windows 8.1
I take a lot of panoramic pictures and have 5 different programs to handle them, so is always interesting to try a new one. Loaded 3 photos (6000 x 4000) and tried a cylindrical stitch. Quite fast and an excellent result. same with a spherical stitch. But then I tried a plane stitch and it crashed my computer and I had to physically turn the power off to recover it. This is NOT good. A well written program should always trap errors and giver the user a way out.
I will certainly keep the program as the working results are good - but avoid the plane stitch option!

Harroman  –  9 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+56)

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I'm not sure what you mean by 'plane stitch' (perhaps I'm confusing it with 'cylindrical'), but if for example you mean stitching together multiple, overlapping images from a digital camera - a very common use for such software - then I agree that the problem you describe really is a severe stopper.

As a splendid alternative to try, can I strongly recommend the freebie version of Panorama Plus (http://www.serif.com/free-panoramic-photo-stitching-software/) which is the bees-knees.

With lots of exposures, it's perfectly feasible to produce (for example) 360 degree panoramas (lots of RAM needed for that though, at least 3MB depending on image res.). 2-dimensional panoramas work a treat. Any multiple TIFF or JPEG images can be combined, e.g. satellite imagery, i.e. they don't have to be from a camera. It's best to aim for at least 30% overlap on adjacent images. 1D panoramas can be converted into Quicktime videos but you need to buy to get that feature (http://www.serif.com/panoramaplus/). Brilliant.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'plane stitch' (perhaps I'm confusing it with 'cylindrical'), but if for example you mean stitching together multiple, overlapping images from a digital camera - a very common use for such software - then I agree that the problem you describe really is a severe stopper. As a splendid alternative to try, can I strongly recommend the freebie version of Panorama Plus (http://www.serif.com/free-panoramic-photo-stitching-software/) which is the bees-knees. With lots of exposures, it's perfectly feasible to produce (for example) 360 degree panoramas (lots of RAM needed for that though, at least 3MB depending on image res.). 2-dimensional panoramas work a treat. Any multiple TIFF or JPEG images can be combined, e.g. satellite imagery, i.e. they don't have to be from a camera. It's best to aim for at least 30% overlap on adjacent images. 1D panoramas can be converted into Quicktime videos but you need to buy to get that feature (http://www.serif.com/panoramaplus/). Brilliant.
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Alex H  –  9 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+32)

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Misnamed as Photostitcher when in fact it is a panorama maker, which is totally different. It works good as a panorama maker. I suppose it depends on what photos you want to join as a panorama, but I found it worked better than ICE mentioned by MikeR. I also found the freebie by Serif PanoramaPlus mentioned my Alex H as totally useless and was just a used as a pop-up plug for Serif's paid version which like all their products don't give trial versions.
Pos panorama Pro (v1.25) is a good freebie but has not been updated in a while.
http://www.image-editor.net/Pos-Panorama-Pro-Panoramic-Image-Software.asp?RefName=PosPanoramaPro1.00

TeoreX the makers of InPaint however, make excellent software. Even if they are one-trick ponies, they do the job well. My gripe with TeoreX is that as soon as they offer the 50% discount they then update to next version shortly after making your download link useless. Then when you email them they tell you it's an 'old' version and offer you an upgrade of only 50% off (the same discount offered to general public). They do, after a few emails, supply you with your paid download version.
Where is the incentive for loyal customers?

denismorrow  –  9 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+18)

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Microsoft Image Composite Editor is Free & does everything this program can & does it very well so not for me I'm afraid

PaulW  –  9 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+7)

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PaulW, Microsoft ICE is free for non commercial use. Professional photographers, or even people who sell at craft fairs, need another product.

PaulW, Microsoft ICE is free for non commercial use. Professional photographers, or even people who sell at craft fairs, need another product.
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Rick_S  –  9 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+12)

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