xatshow

xatshow is a lightweight Windows application that allows you to create slideshows and screensavers for your computer, as well as slideshows suitable for DVD players, webpages, and digital cameras.

You are welcomed by a clean feature lineup that provides quick access to the main functions of the utility, namely PC Slideshow/Screensaver, Video CD/DVD, Web Slideshow, and Digital Camera. Each of the aforementioned categories comes bundled with several tweaking parameters designed to help you set up the process in detail.

Xatshow gives you the possibility to generate a PC screensaver or slideshow by providing info about its name, selecting the folder that includes the images, inserting an audio file (MP3, WAV, MID), picking the saving directory, as well as setting up the slide duration, image size and quality, transition, and background color.

Advanced settings allow you to specify the transition duration, pick the slide order and image rotation angle, enlarge images (to full screen size), run the slideshow once, synchronize the slideshow to music, as well as assign an action for the EXE file upon installation, such as “ask to install as screensaver when first run,” “always install screensaver and run slideshow,” or other options.

When it comes to customizing the dialog for the screensaver/slideshow, you may pick an image for the top and bottom logo (BMP file format), enter the text for the information box, as well as alter the text and background colors.

What’s more, you can preview the slideshows, use the built-in timeline for making some changes (it needs extra time to generate the waveform), and insert suggestive text and image captions. You may create EXE files, run the slideshow, email it to a friend, or install the slideshow as your screensaver.

Xatshow provides several additional parameters for helping you create slideshows for CDs/DVDs, webpages, and digital cameras. You may activate the anti-flicker filter, embed additional files to the CD, include the original pictures on the CD/DVD, instruct xatshow to read the image orientation from the image (if available), use the JPEG information (EXIF data) stored in the specified file and attach this information to all output images.

You may rename and renumber the images, output a progressive JPEG (smaller than conventional JPEGs) for generating a low-quality photo and gradually improving the display as more data is received, and preserve color sampling and comments.

Xatshow proves to be a reliable application that comprises a decent suite of features for helping you generate slideshows and screensavers. However, several improvements in the GUI area to make the process intuitive are welcomed.