PhoXo Review – Like an Advanced MS Paint with Tweaks and Effects

very good
key review info
  • Application: PhoXo 8.2.0
  • Reviewed on:
application features
  • Clean and intuitive interface
  • (7 more, see all...)

Professional image editors like Photoshop or GIMP grant endless possibilities to users who have the necessary expertise or are willing to spend a lot of time getting to know everything and beyond, in order to create stunning effects. However, not everything is keen in such programs, simply because they are too complex to work with. 

Designed for people with less experience in graphic editing applications, PhoXo is seemingly professional, yet it contains just a few advanced drawing tools and effects for photo enhancement, along with some pretty handy tools, such as the ability to apply watermarks to multiple photos at once.

Installation and interface

Setting up PhoXo takes minimal time and effort, since the installer wizard integrates familiar options. As for its interface, it actually looks like a better version of Microsoft Paint. The workspace contains a toolbox, the menu bar and some buttons on the top of the screen, in addition to two separate panels with clip art and frames.

The tool offers support for BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, TGA, ICO and PSD. Plus, projects can be saved to the app's proprietary format (.oXo) and resumed at a later time.

Photos can be opened from file, imported from the Clipboard or captured from a scanner or camera, while a new project can be created by specifying the canvas width, height and resolution (HD and full HD are supported).

Standard drawing tools

A toolbox with basic drawing utilities is shown on the left side of the main frame. It is possible to select freely or by drawing a rectangle, move objects, use a magic wand to make a selection by color, zoom in and out, add text with customized font settings, and pick a color from the image (i.e. eye dropper).

Apply a photo affect and view results in real time while adjusting settings
Apply a photo affect and view results in real time while adjusting settings

Users may also draw lines, resort to a pen or paint brush, erase any mistakes, enlighten or darken any sections of the photo, clone objects multiple times, remove the red eye effect, fill space with solid color, gradient or pattern, apply stamps and shapes, stretch, crop, rotate or shear objects, put them in perspective, as well as apply a fade effect.

Tweak settings for drawing tools, insert clip art and frames

For most of these functions, it is possible to adjust settings. For instance, users can make an elliptical selection instead of rectangular, add or subtract selections instead of making new ones, tweak the magic wand tolerance, add shadow to text, change the pen size and opacity, apply texture when filling space with patterns, as well as exchange lines for arrows, rectangles or ellipses, alter their width, and draw dashes or dots instead of solid objects.

In addition to a library with shapes and patterns, PhoXo puts at users' disposal a collection of emojis depicting faces with different moods, vehicles, animals, flags, and figures. Several types of frames are available too while new content can be downloaded from the developer's website and organized into different categories.

Apply numerous photo effects

As far as effects are concerned, it is possible to add shadow by adjusting the blur, darkness, opacity and offset, change the skin tone by color and saturation, apply black and white (automatic), insert glow or self-portrait and tweak the softness, brightness and contrast, make the picture mosaic and adjust the pixel size, as well as apply soft edge and modify the softness.

Apply the pencil sketch effect
Apply the pencil sketch effect

Other effects include motion blur (set speed and angle), radial, zoom or regular blur (level), sharpness (radius, amount and threshold), noise (amount), oil paint (size and roughness), emboss (orientation), splash or posterize (level), texture (type, size, opacity), 3D grid (size, depth), pencil sketch (pen size, roughness), shift (size), ribbon (amplitude, frequency), bulge, twist, illusion, wave, ripple, lens flare, sunshine, glass tile, blinds, and 3D frame. Advanced users may create custom filters by indicating the convolution matrix, scale and offset.

Multiple layers, ASCII paintings, and batch watermark

Multiple layers are supported. They can be merged or deleted, made invisible or transparent. One of the most entertaining tools of PhoXo is represented by the tool's ability to instantly convert an image to ASCII text and show it in a plain text document. Moreover, the photograph can be set as the desktop wallpaper (center, tile, stretch). Users may also apply watermarks to multiple images in batch mode after adjusting its position and save the files as PNG, GIF or JPG (adjustable quality). Any of the program's windows can be hidden.


The Good

The software utility is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7 and 8/8.1. It ran smoothly in our evaluation without hanging, crashing or popping up error messages.

CPU and RAM consumption is low. Multiple languages and an online tutorial are available.

It is very simple to use, yet it contains a resourceful collection of filters and tweaks. Multiple layers are supported and it is possible to apply watermarks to more than one photo in batch mode in just a couple of steps, as well as to obtain the ASCII art of an image automatically.

Complete help documentation is available.

It is free to use.

The Bad

It goes without saying that professional users have no business with this app.

The Truth

Perhaps the obvious aspect about PhoXo is that it shouldn't be taken too seriously. Although it is loaded with a surprisingly rich library with effects and adjustments, the tool lacks the refinement abilities found in professional graphic editors. It's a pretty decent and fun app for beginners but cannot be used for complex projects, such as graphic design or professional presentations.

user interface 3
features 4
ease of use 5
pricing / value 5


final rating 4
Editor's review
very good
 
NEXT REVIEW: PhraseExpress

PhoXo (13 Images)

Open photos with popular file formats to editUse basic drawing tools and some advanced onesEasily add captions with customized settingsApply masks and adjust the opacityOpen photos from the Clipboard, scanner or digital camea
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