Tesco PhotoRestyle review

Can Tesco take on Adobe?

21 November 2006 11:00 GMT / By Stephen Patrick

If you own a digital camera then at some time or other you’ll want to edit, correct them or simply edit them for a tighter image. There are a variety of applications out there that will readily do the job, with PaintShop being our long-term favourite. However, at £10 (inc. VAT) Tesco PhotoReStyle, has to be the best priced version out there.

For your money you get a package that is high on content, low on frills. Installation is quick and easy, as the program only needs 100MB to install the full package. Once loaded you’re straight into the program and are presented with what looks like a cross between Windows Paint and PaintShop. If you’ve used either package then you’ll be able to find your way around quite easily.

The look is clean and the main page devoid of clutter. However, the basic tools are easy to get to when you need them. Drawing tools are lined down the left-hand side but the real tools are in the toolbar across the top. Vector drawing is supported, so you can draw lines and standard shapes should you need to. There is even a quick button to the Red Eye remover. For the most part, the basic tools are exactly that and trimming photos and getting the most from them is quick and easy.

For the more advanced user, there are over 90 filters, including the usual Artistic, Sharpen and Blur that allow you to get the most out of your pictures. Once again, there is nothing here that can’t be found in similar packages. There are a host of paint tools but to be fair, the package is a little basic to get anything but average effects from them.

You can save off to 25 different formats, with even Adobe PDFs supported, so you can easily share your images with friends. The software comes with two licenses, so you can have a copy on your desktop PC as well as your notebook. If you’ve a favourite plug-in you like to use then it’s likely to be supported, as the program uses the same plug-in extension as PhotoShop.

The big letdown with this package is the support, which is close to none existent. True, you can visit the Tesco Software website but that’s limited and the documentation that comes with the program even less so. To this end, unless you’ve used such programs before it may take time to get to grips with the finer points. That said, the basics are quite self-explanatory.

Verdict

Tesco PhotoRestyle doesn’t offer anything new but at this price it doesn’t need to, all it has to do is deliver the basic tasks for a great price, which it does.

If you’re serious about editing your digital photos you’ll have outgrown this package and will be ready for something more advanced.

However, if you just want something quick and easy to get rid of red-eye and trim you pictures to size with, this is about as good as it gets for the price.

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Tesco
Price as reviewed: £10
The good: Great price, easy to use
The bad: Basic, no documentation
Quick verdict: You won’t want to swap your current package for it but it’s an easy to use bargain priced package that is only let down by poor documentation
Score