Review: AcidImage

I wanted an app to view, manage and edit photos, quickly and in a convenient way. Yes, I know I expect much, but after some investigation I have found AcidImage and decided to give it a try. One the official website you can find a complete list of AcidImage features. It's really long and provides almost everything you can think of. After almost a month of evaluating and every day usage in different situations I would like to share with you my opinions.

At the beginning, I'd like to write about a very important part of every app - interface. AcidImage has easy to use and intuitive interface. Images are grouped in folders and/or categories with small thumbs exactly as in XP, so with one glance you know what is in a particular folder/category. After entering a folder you will see photo’s thumbs, which number can be set to 1, 4 or 20. If you don't like thumb view there's always a list view. Clean and great way if you have lots of images (e.g. on SD card). If you tap and hold a folder or photo a pop up menu will appear (view, copy, move etc.). Generally, navigating through many photos and folders with AcidImage is a pleasure.

Now the main feature - photo viewing. If you decide to view a single image it will load in a second. If it's big (e.g. 2848x2136px ;) it can take a bit more (~3-7s), but the progress bar will show you estimated time left, so don't worry. Time required to load a photo depends on it’s size, SD/MMC card speed and processor speed. Of course, AcidImage is a native image viewer so forget about conduits and conversion. Just put a card with photos to a slot and enjoy. Images received via BT or mail also can be viewed. In the view screen you can rotate and zoom your photo. The zoom is smooth from 5% to 1600%, without a doubt one of the best AcidImage features. You can zoom any part of an image, exactly as you want. It really convenient, because for e.g. if you view photos taken by digital camera, "fit screen" is too small and original size is often too big. Smooth zoom is a perfect solution.

Ok, but what if I want to view many photos? Answer is simple - slideshow. AcidImage provides you with customized slideshow mode. You can set delay between photos, loop, order and cross-fade effect properties (very nice).

AcidImage is not only image viewer, but also manager. I was very pleased to find out that "groups" behave not like standard palm categories but more like labels. You can assign certain photo to more than one group. Groups are displayed in both thumb and list view with different icons. You can arrange your photos in many groups and still hold them in one directory (e.g. /DCIM, default for cameras).

Another interesting thing is security. You can set a “private” attribute to a photo, so it will be displayed only after inputting the password. You can show, mask or hide private records. Bad news is that it only works in AcidImage, so another viewer will display images marked as private, but if AcidImage is the only one you don’t have to worry.

As I mentioned at the beginning, You can view pictures transferred to your handheld during HotSync or via Bluetooth, infrared/beaming and as email attachments. In receiving preferences you can choose what to do when a photo is for e.g. beamed to you (ask what to do, show then save, automatic save to card/RAM etc.). In the other way, when you want to send a picture resize dialog may come in handy (very practical).

During all my time with AcidImage it was stable and I haven’t found any serious flaws. This is what you can expect after professional developers. The only thing I can say is I wish. I wish I could delete a folder on card and I wish there were more photo editing features.

Conclusion is obvious, because AcidImage proved to be one of the best application in it’s category, or even the best. Powerful capabilities combined with intuitive interface couldn’t give other result. I wish I hadn’t seen AcidImage earlier…