Auto FX Photo/Graphic Edges 7.0 Platinum Edition

NOTE: Pricing for this product is in US$.

Photo/Graphic Edges 7.0 Platinum Edition (PGE 7.0) contains hundreds of border and frame effects, which is why you have to buy it on DVD. They are split into eight edge types, from Darkroom to Vignette, ten effects from Transfer to Smudged Edges, and 13 frame types from Film to Storyboards. There are also Adornments – objects that you can add over the top of your frames, from flowers to nails — and subtle edge effects called Overlays. New in version 7 is the Preset button, which offers a choice of presets for each effect that Auto FX feels works well with another.

For many creatives, the main flaw with PGE 7.0 is that the majority of its pre-canned borders and frame — whether the standard effects settings or the full-on presets — are cheesier than fondue. With some tweaking, it’s possible to create something non-cheesy, but the workflow is tortuous.

PGE 7.0 is slower than an upturned tortoise. Even on our well-specced Mac with moderate-sized images, every change we made was followed by a five- to ten-second wait. Options include Effects, Background, Mood and Lighting tabs. There are so many, in fact, that playing around with them is the best way to learn – but it’s too slow.

You can work with layers and multiple images, but this is fiddly compared to Photoshop. Controls you’d expect, such as cursor-key nudges and visual controls over edge size, are missing. We also found a major bug when you use presets with multiple frames, as other images you import to fill those frames often come in with the wrong aspect ratio.

PGE 7.0 works as a Smart Filter but doesn’t support CMYK or 16-bit images.