14 DAY TRIAL // Probably all of us associate summertime with vacation and the time when we all get the chance to go on relaxing holidays, away from the stress or monotony of everyday life. And, usually, people choose to spend their vacation with friends (the more the merrier, right?), the result of that being that we all come back home with loads of digital images of groups of buddies, all having fun in their own way. This considered, you might find yourself in the situation of not having at least one single photo only of yourself, or together with a special someone. And, let's face it, it's frustrating to try and cut large images, only to come to realize that you cannot extract the exact area you need. To get you out of this predicament, I would suggest an alternative to MS Paint or any other graphic editor you might be using: Click 2 Crop, an application that was designed for the main purpose of cropping and adding frames to your photos. Since these are not its only functions, I will describe all its features step by step.
When you launch Click 2 Crop, your first reaction at seeing the numerous buttons will probably be one of panic but, in all fairness, they will seem less confusing once you hover your mouse cursor over each of them and read their brief descriptions. This way, you will get an overview of all the actions you can perform.
First of all, you will, of course, need to open a picture. Given the numerous graphic formats supported by this application, no restrictions will be imposed on you in selecting exactly the file you want. Moreover, you will have the possibility to explore all the images on your computer and to visualize them as a file tree, a list or as thumbnails. Either way, a simple mouse click on a picture will enable you to preview it in the main window of Click 2 Crop, and you can enlarge and crop any area you need, to make sure you will be able to get the result you are looking for.
Once you have chosen your picture, simply apply the changes you need. If you do not have anything specific in mind, you can start by accessing each of the menus and testing their components. Speaking of which, there aren't many menus, because the functions are neatly organized in relevant categories, offering several presets per section: aspect ratio, crop dimension or zooming guides - you will notice that you always have the liberty to create a customized configuration to better suit your requirements. These predefined values have been added to help you achieve the dimensions you need in little time, and they include brief comments that summarize their purpose.
Besides these presets, you can use the standard actions provided by the image editor, such as rotating, flipping or setting the image as wallpaper - in other words, you will be able to use the cropped image as the background for your desktop, without even having to save it first.
But let's assume that what you're looking to achieve is finding a suitable frame for an enlarged region of an image. Not only will Click 2 Crop provide you with several types of borders (ranging from classical frames to amusing ones that your children will simply love), but also with the possibility of customizing them by replacing the default transparency with a color of your choosing.
On the other hand, if you only want to adjust the hues of a particular photo, you can use the Variants button or the White Balance feature - these will help you obtain several variations on the same image, and you can later select the one that you like best. Still, if you are more accustomed with working with basic image editors, you can use the Sepia and the Gray modes, or even the color inversion, in case an interestingly looking picture is what you have in mind for a final outcome.
Nonetheless, sometimes you might need to correct the contrast of your photos or to make them stand out by sharpening them. In this case, you can use one of the four levels of sharpening, and stick with the one you like after previewing the outcome in real-time. Next, you just need to apply the Red Eye Removal tool, and you can get a perfect picture that looks just as if it was taken by an expert.
The Good
One of the great things about this software is that it does not claim to do more than it actually does: it crops your pictures with several mouse clicks, while it also enables you to adjust their appearance to suit your needs (ranging from image rotation to using white balance) and to enhance them by adding attractive frames. Also, even though there are numerous functions, only the most frequently used ones are displayed within the main window, whereas the rest can be easily accessed from the menus.
The Bad
When rotating the image, the selected area remains fixed, regardless of the rotation angle, meaning you have to rotate the image first and then choose the region you are interested in. Also, the application does not seem to be fully compatible with Windows Vista as it displayed some errors that did not occur on Windows XP, and which could only be removed by restarting the program.
The Truth
Unlike other shareware image editing applications, Click 2 Crop allows you to fully evaluate its features during the trial period, without any watermarks or other restrictions regarding the output file. Personally, I think this is great because you can use your pictures within collages or other projects and make sure that the outcome truly satisfies you. If this is the case (and I believe it will be), just take out $19.95 from your wallet and use Click 2 Crop for ever and ever.
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
