ProShow Gold offers a sizable library of professional-looking transitions, backgrounds and effects to help you showcase your images and videos in modern fashion. This slideshow software is perfect for professional photographers, but it can also be a good choice for family photo projects since the slideshow wizard is easy to use and offers several tools to help you create just the project you want. Since there is no limit to the number of images or videos you can add, your slideshows can be as long or as short as you like. Unfortunately, this program is not available on Mac, so Apple users will have to look elsewhere for compatible software.
This software has more effects and controls than most programs we reviewed, which makes it a bit difficult to start using. But once you get the hang of it, the advanced toolset and wide range of features give you a lot of creative freedom. This program works in layers, so you can easily grab and move specific sections or add effects without permanently changing your original image. You can import your photos directly from social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and Google Photos, or you can simply pull them from your computer.
Inexperienced users will appreciate the ProShow Wizard which pops up the minute you open this software and quickly takes you through the slideshow making process. It automatically assigns effects and transitions to your images so you can create a full-fledged show in just minutes. We noticed that this software takes a little longer to generate slideshows than some other programs, which can be a little frustrating. However, the effects and transitions the wizard puts in place are very stylish and sleek, so the end product is worth the wait.
If you’d prefer to add your transitions and effects manually, this program allows you to do so. With over 420 transition effects and more than 30 backgrounds, this program offers more than most others. This software doesn’t let you play more than one music track at a time, so if that’s important to you, you might want something different.
The slideshow we created with this software was crisp and true to color, even after we added styles and effects to our images. This is a good program to use if you want to hand out physical copies of your slideshow since you can create DVDs or Blu-rays. This program also allows you to post your completed projects directly to YouTube, Facebook, SmugMug and Vimeo so you can share your creations faster.
One of the biggest downsides to this program is the lack of an official user forum, like Photostory Deluxe’s, which can really help you learn more about the program and connect with other users. The company does offer free email and phone support seven days a week as well as YouTube video tutorials, so you can get help when necessary.
It would be hard to exhaust all the features available on ProShow Gold. You’ll likely discover there are more features than you will initially use, but having virtually all of the options you will ever need is worth the investment and learning time. With all of its transition effects and other tools, you’ll be able to make professional-quality slideshows with ProShow Gold.