Ashampoo Photo Optimizer is an easy-to-use tool for tuning and fixing your digital images.

The program takes an app-like approach to photo tweakery. There are no selection tools, no drawing or paint options, no floating toolbars: you just select one or more photos and apply your effects in a click or two.

Tools on offer include the usual Crop, Resize, Rotate, Mirror, Sharpen, Blur, Straighten, and adjustments for brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and gamma.

There's also text and image watermarking, red-eye removal, noise filtering, and an "Image Age" effect.

These individual effects are also quite basic. You don't get to choose your resize algorithm, or correct contrast with a Bezier curve: mostly you have just a slider or two.

Despite that, there are some neat touches. The Crop tool supports common aspect ratios; a neat "Straighten Horizon" option provides two points which you just click and drag to positions on the real horizon; images are auto-rotated based on their EXIF orientation; metadata is preserved when saved.

Also, you don't have to manually edit your images at all. An Auto Optimize tool can fix an entire folder of photos in a click, while a smart Preview feature helps you check the results.

Whatever you're doing, the finished images may be saved in a few core formats (JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, JNG), exported as emails or printed.