Pola Editor's Review

Polaroids were for many years trendy photographic toys. They were fun but expensive to use. But guess what! Now, in the digital era, Pola, a free standalone application, can transform any image into a Polaroid without the use of an actual instant camera. Two clicks are enough to let the application perform the Polaroid transformation.

Pola is a minimal tool that supports the drag&drop command which makes the overall Polaroid transformation extremely easy to use. Just drag&drop any of your images onto the main window of the program. Automatically a crop editor will appear: there you can select the desired zone of the image to be displayed with the help of a fixed frame. After you are done with cropping your image, push the Shoot! button and in a few seconds a Polaroid version of your image will be saved by default as .png in the folder where the original image is.

Although not visible, Pola comes with a toolbar which can be accessed by clicking on the main window. The toolbar offers additional features such as shadow effect, virtual cartridge use (sepia or faded color tone), or message editor with custom fonts. You can also change the appearance of the interface by choosing from a series of original Polaroid skins. There is an artistic touch to these skins as the whole transformation process is virtually exposed in real time similar to what a real Polaroid does.

In order to become a popular application, Pola needs a mobile version (besides the Windows and Mac versions) and probably social network support for sharing your creation with others. But overall the application is extremely compact and user-friendly. It is easy to use, requires no installation and the use of system resources is almost non-existent.

Pluses: free, requires no installation, drag&drop support, basic photo effects, no deterioration of the original image while applying the effects, Polaroid like skins;

Drawbacks/flaws: lack of sharing option, dark images get an overall blue effect;

In conclusion: With two clicks Pola can create digital Polaroid moments from any image.

version reviewed: 3.0a