ACDSee Pro 2.5 review

ACDSee Pro looks like the standard version's evil twin: its attractive grey and black view makes it stand out from the crowd, but you can change it to the regular version's light theme, or change the regular version to dark.

Other differences are less obvious. The calendar, which can help you find photos by date or event, is better integrated. Most of the other features are beyond the needs of most home users. The Preview panel displays a colour histogram and, for photos, headline exposure information such as shutter speed and aperture. There's support for display colour profiles, advanced control over white balance and light tone, and even a facility to correct common lens distortions.

The software supports non-destructive editing on common RAW formats and, like ThumbsPlus, powerful batch processing allows you to create a list of more than one edit to apply automatically to RAW or regular images. Batches run in the background while you work; however, you may find this slow without a multi-core processor. A preview feature means you can avoid waiting for unusable results. Other features include watermarking and over- and underexposure warnings.

In other respects, ACDSee Pro is the same as the Standard version, which is undoubtedly a good thing. It's quick to respond, easy to use and has a decent photo editor with a wide range of features. This isn't up to all the requirements of an image professional, who'll still need to invest in a pro-level editor such as Adobe Photoshop, but it's fine for quick edits.

Although the term 'Pro' is often used simply to mark the top-of-the-range version of a program, the extra features found in ACDSee Pro really are aimed at serious photographers and artists. If you're a professional and you don't use a Mac, this is an excellent organiser and thoroughly recommended. However, even keen amateurs are likely to find the standard version good enough.