This application gives you dozens of advanced tools for editing photos and images, and while you'll need to spend some time with it to learn how to use the more complex features, PhoXo is an incredibly powerful little application that all amateur photographers should check out.

PhoXo's main display borrows some tools and layout choices from Adobe Photoshop. While PhoXo is markedly less powerful, features like layering and intuitive feature select tools should make longtime Photoshop users feel at home. You can add text, coloring and a number of image effects.

Casual users will also appreciate PhoXo's large number of frames, which include serious and humorous options in a variety of colors. There's also some clipart. Unfortunately, most of the simple cartoon characters, animals and other choices look silly and amateurish, but you might still find yourself thumbing through them and experimenting just for fun.

PhoXo doesn't come with a help file. As a result, you're on your own to figure out the program's many features and tools. However, many of the icons do a fairly good job of explaining the various tools' functions, and you'll probably figure all of the important features out fairly quickly.

This program is not Photoshop, but if you're looking for a simple way to cut out photo elements or add some fun filters to your images, PhoXo does a great job. It's an extremely small program, so casual users with netbooks and other low-power PCs will find PhoXo to be much less frustrating than Photoshop and a much easier tool to use overall.