Reply #3: Personally, I would avoid dual purpose software

[Ms. Toad]

My experience of combining two dissimilar functions in one tool is that the combined tool does neither well, so if I were tackling the project you are tackling I'd look for two separate tools.

I use PaintShop Pro for photo restoration (and other image editing). It is an powerful, less expensive than average, fairly easy to use image editor. Many of the techniques are automated (), but you also have access to all of the underlying techniques combined in the automated version. For example, there is the one stop photo fix, which combines several adjustments (color balance, contrast and brightness, clarification, saturation enhancement, etc.). Each of the individual adjustments also can be done with an automated version or additional underlying adjustments (color balance can be done automatically or using the individual tools for black and white point adjustments, channel mixer, grey world balance, fade correction). Very efficient clean-up tools - scratch remover, clone tool, de-speckle, etc.

I don't have an image cataloger (or a recommendation for one). Right now my images are just stored in folders in "My Pictures."