Photographic Image Editors are typically used to edit existing photographic images, rather than create images from scratch. The editing may consist of correcting defects in the original image, improving the color and other properties of the image, preparing the image for use in other documents such as web pages, and merging elements of separate images together to create composites - limited only by the artistry and imagination of the user.

The goal of this review is to find the 95% solution - an image editor that will meet the needs of 95% of the users out there. Simply counting features, as is typically done by the most demanding users, will almost always give the same result - which for photo editors has been Adobe Photoshop for several years. The question to be answered here is how does the competition compare and which ones are good enough for most users.

Review Results
This review is in work. Until the review is complete, I suggest the following applications for your photographic image editor needs:

• Adobe PhotoShop (commercial)
  
• GIMP (freeware)
  

Photographic Image Editor Features
These are the minimum features that I expect from a photo editor. Having more features does not necessarily make for a better paint program because past a point only a very few users can benefit from the the additional features. As the review continues, the list of features may change.

1. ... in work
   

Candidate Programs
There is an enormous range of image editors, from commercial powerhouses to fledgling image editors. These are the programs included in this review.

Freeware	Commercial
ArtRage Artweaver Brush Strokes DogWaffle GIMP i.Mage Image Enhance ImageForge IrfanView openCanvas Paint.NET Painter25 PhotoFiltre Pixia Serif PhotoPlus PhotoScape Tux Paint Ultimate Paint Vicman's Photo Editor	Adobe Illustrator Adobe PhotoShop Elements Adobe PhotoShop Corel Paint Shop Pro Corel Painter Corel Photo-Paint Deep Paint MS-Picture It! NeoPaint Saint Paint Studio 12 ULead PhotoImpact

User Feedback & Suggestions
I welcome any suggestions on other photographic image editors that should be considered, or suggestions on how better to review the selected programs.