The Good
* Can add frames, "decorations", and effects to images.
* Comes with many frames, "decorations", and effects to pick from.
* Has ability to take pictures directly from webcam (if applicable).
* Has an auto-timer for the webcam feature.
* Can print or export the projects as images.

The Bad
* The purpose of the program is not very clear. Supposed to be a "portrait maker" but has no ability to print out/save single images.
* The interface needs improvements in terms of aesthetics and user friendliness.
* Doesn't properly take photo from webcam.
* Error when trying to print.
* Pretty bad output quality.

Free Alternatives
Ashampoo Photo Commander 6

For final verdict, recommendations, and full review please click here.

Ashraf  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+122)

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Hi,

Installed fine on XP pro sp3.

I clicked on 'select an image', I was presented with their portraits. I thought I would be selecting one of my images, there is no browse for images as one would expect when clicking 'select an image'.

Undeterred I clicked the 'add single photo' button, The selection window states 'select an output path'. There was no default window for selecting anything.

I tried to drag and drop a photo to load something, drag and drop is not supported even though it is a very simple function to implement in software. In trying drag and drop I accidently dragged the existing 'hard coded image' and to my surprise it moved from it's frame and placed itself under the buttons. Difficult to describe so I've included a screen shot here.
http://my.jetscreenshot.com/demo/20091129-ecpt-87kb

I tried to fathom how to load an image and clicked the 'configure button'. You can see the default locations for Frame, Backgrounds, Mask etc yet when you click any of the browse buttons it says 'select frame folder'. But clicking on the portrait button gave me the option to import images, I did that and clicked apply. Then, going back to the 'select photo' I still get the default images supplied with the program, none of my images were imported.

To get one of my photos visible I had to copy my images to the hard coded folder 'C:\Program Files\Plato Portrait Maker\Image\Portrait' and only then could I select one of my own.

At this point I realised that this software is very poorly written, it is highly unintuitive and as for being offered at nearly $40
! that has to be a joke.

Uninstalled, it's appalling at best.

Andy Pandy  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+72)

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Confused....is this some kind of webcam software or is it an image editing program?

The broken English on thier site make it hard to understand just what this is/does.

A portion from the website:

"....It is like a self adhesive sticker machine that you can take photo by yourself at home only if you have computer camera...." ??????????

Tina  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+66)

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OK I downloaded it, can somebody tell me how to get rid of the aliasing error ?

see screenshot: http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7613/capture833.gif

The backgrounds are not my taste, they are all in toddler style, nothing advanced or fashion. I am currenty residing in an Asian country and you be amazed when you see what crazy things you can make with those stickermachines.

On their website:

'People can change the photo style as they want by just selecting different frames from thousands of choises'

Where ? I could find only 318 choices.

Clicky Girl  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+50)

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Plato Portrait Maker is really not very useful at all to me. The output shown in their own screen shot demonstrates the poor quality, just look at the white jaggies in the anti-aliasing inside the frame.

If you let it down-size a large photo to use in a project, be prepared for a blurry photo in the final output. I do not understand why it outputs two pages, numbered page 1 of 0, and page 2 of 0, for one project in either landscape or portrait mode when either way it will fit on one page.

The software has "Shotting-delaying" as an option. Software developer, Shooting Delay is probably a better description for that option. If you are presenting software to an English audience, try hiring someone that reads and writes English AND has decent spelling skills to proof read your web site and your software interface. I'm not saying I'm correct all the time, but then again I'm not trying to sell anything.

The images used to create a project are sized ok for ipod or small email attachments but print output is awful. At small sticker size, details in the photo, frames or background is lost. Printing those small size images used to create the project any larger is so blurry it is awful.

What you get with the software:
88 "BackGround" image files, all 320x240 pixels, includes hearts and flowers, lightning, landscapes & buildings, animals, and a lot of cartoons or childish themes.

16 "BaseMap" image files, all 1024 x768 pixels, to use behind your project include landscape, foliage and floral subjects. I don't know why it shows the tiny "BackGround" images to choose from by default instead of the larger BaseMap images when you choose to save your "portrait" as an image.

43 "Emotion" clipart type files, all 64 pixels square.

266 Frame files of various designs including holidays, all 320x240 pixels.

35 Mask files, all 320x 240 pixels.

16 Portrait files, all 320x240 sample images of actors, singers and so on.

If you change the path to a new folder via the configuration option or seek an image to use in a folder outside the default folders, it gets lost on where to get the files it normally uses. I was constantly having to drill back down to the software folder to get to these pre-configured locations for frames or backgrounds etc. It failed to show me subfolders in the Windows standard "My Pictures" folder - showing only thumbnails in the root of this folder without any navigation buttons. Really awful file handling.

I've spent too much time on this poorly written software already.

diana  –  14 years ago  –  Βρήκατε αυτό το σχόλιο χρήσιμο? ναι | όχι (+18)

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