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Arcsoft Panorama Maker Pro |
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 Arcsoft Panorama Maker Pro is an image stiching program automatically producing seemless panoramas which can be used for sharing, printing, or sending to a webpage. It works both under Windows and Mac (Mac doesn't support raw format at the point).
The program interface and workflow are extremely uncomplicated and intuitive. Every workflow step and required action is either obvious or explained by pictograms and pictures.
The workflow is organized in stages with every action having a separate screen. Thus you have few controls in each of the screens and all the controls refer exactly to the action you are to perform at the moment. This makes the program absolutely clear and understandable.
In the first screen you choose images for the future panorama (ArcSoft Panorama Maker Pro supports jpgs, bmp, and raw files) and decide on the stitch mode. The size of the resulted image is also set here with explanation on which size is better for which purposes. The images can be rotated. There’s an auto select option, that lets the program to automatically select all images in the folder at one click saving your time. The four accessible panorama modes – horizontal, 360’, tiled, and vertical – are at the bottom of the screen in pictograms.
Next step – ordering - needs no particular comments. The images are ordered correctly, manually or automatically, and the program starts analyzing and stitching the images. The progress bar gives you the notion of the time it’ll take. On the screen you see both the whole sequence in numbered thumbnails and bigger image preview line foe better view. You can remove images out of the line and add new ones at this stage.
The preview of the resulted panorama will be given to the user for evaluation. If there are any deficiencies in the automatic panorama you can always turn to manual setting of control points and fine-tune the result by setting your own check points or shifting the ones set by the program. This screen is a perfect example of minimalist approach to setting controls on a screen: this screen has only zoom slider and Add Match button.
In the test picture I didn’t like the auto-stitching of the last to fragments (you see the shift in the horizon line outlined below). This made me turn to manual fine tune mode. Note the navigator at the top of the image and under the zoom control.
As you see in the screenshot of the panorama preview window this gave good result – the horizon line is fine and seems don’t show. The preview, by the way, is shown in the cropping frame, that you can change. Panorama may be straightened at this point if offset. You can adjust Contrast and Brightness, and add a frame
The output formats are the widespread JPG, TIF, BMP, and TGA. It also can be QuickTime (.mov), Flash(.htm, .html), or PTViewer (.htl, .html). To view the latter formats the client would need to have Apple Quick Time or PT Viewer installed as, rather inconveniently, PortPano does not provide any viewer of its own.
You can also print your panoramas directly from the program in multi sheet or banner paper mode.
Overall I can praise the interface and resulted quality a lot (automatic in most of the cases and manual in all the rest). The installation was smooth and easy. The manual is rather precise and gives good explanations even if it is very brief. The program is very easy to understand and master even without looking into the manual.
You can buy Arcsoft Panorama Maker 4 Pro through the MyPhotoSoft Amazon affiliate program for $55,99, a 30 percent discount.
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