With sales of digital cameras still on the increase, hard disks up and down the land are doubtless filling up with hundreds of digital images.

Now if you're the type to give your snaps meaningful file names and systematically sort them right from the outset, skip all that follows.

If, however, you tend to end up with scattered folders full of uncategorised and virtually untraceable images, read on.

First off, Adobe Photoshop Album lets you transfer images onto your computer from a digital camera, scanner, CD drive or pretty much any other device.

Once aboard, images are displayed in a central working area called the Picture Well, from where they can be easily sorted into groups - family, friends, places, events and so on - and 'tagged' with captions, notes and short audio recordings.

Of course, you only get out what you put in. To be able to retrieve every photo of Fido burying his bone one frosty morning in 1999, you have to tag them with date and subject matter information - but luckily, this procedure is easy and rewarding.

You don't even have to worry about where you originally stored your pictures, as they can be retrieved, viewed and collated regardless of location.

Aside from organisational abilities, Album invites you to share your snaps.Options include making a slideshow and template-based calendars and greetings cards.

Adobe's proprietary PDF format is used throughout, presumably on the grounds that almost everybody already has a copy of the free Acrobat Reader on their computer.

Print, email and CD recording options are also on offer, and you can even design a simple gallery for your website.

On the image editing front, Photoshop Album integrates nicely with Photoshop Elements, a cut-down version of Adobe's professional-level Photoshop proper and we'd recommend getting hold of a copy if your pictures need serious tweaking.

However, Photoshop Album includes a few quick fixes and effects to keep an undemanding snapper satisfied.

DETAILS
Price: £34
Contact: Adobe 0131 458 6842
www.adobe.co.uk