I found that Funtastic Photos from Ohanaware s a nice step up from the editor in iPhoto. And, for the current Holiday price of $28 it's hard to pass up.

First I tried the "no manual" check. To me, it is a good test of the "intuitive quotient" of a piece of software to see how far I can get without looking in the Help file. I give Funtastic Photos an IQ of 95.

After becoming fairly comfortable with the program I decided to go through the very nice tutorial to see what I had missed. The tutorial is well done and managed show me a couple of tips I had missed.

The editing tools are extensive and non-destructive! There are dozens of "1 Click Styles" that allow you to edit your photos easily and quickly. If you don't find a preset that suits you, you can chose from about fifty individual editing options. If you think you may use a setup again you can even add it to the list of "1 Click Styles."

After you have your photos edited to your liking you can choose from about 20 pre-formatted output options including a Collage and the "Funtastic Cube" which lays your photos out so they can be cut and formed in to a cube. A nice touch is when the cube is printed out it has step by step instructions for making the cube.

One of the tricks I learned from the tutorial involved using these page layouts. After you drag and drop the pictures you want to the appropriate lay out you can nudge an individual picture around to fit a mask with your arrow keys. Nice!

You also are able to share your photos directly to Facebook, MobileMe, Flickr and Picassa from within Funtastic Photos. It is also possible to save a copy locally in a wide variety of formats including "Funtastic Photos Document" which allows you to save an edited photo with the original information so you can "rewind" changes later.

I found Funtastic Photos to be a very useful companion to iPhoto and an economical addition. It has become part of my software toolbox.

Macsimum rating: 8 out of 10