WASHINGTON -- Snapping photos with digital cameras is fun -- especially when you know that you can reuse digital "film" forever. But taking pictures is just the beginning. You have to get those pictures into your PC, manipulate them if necessary, and then print them out. Those latter stages can be time-consuming and frustrating, especially for newcomers. Thankfully, there are software programs available at little or no cost ease the pain of getting pictures from your camera to your printer. That process is referred to in the digital photography world as "workflow."

---- Getting the Photos In ---- The number one complaint of new digital camera users is confusion about how to get pictures from the digital film card into the PC.

Most cameras allow you to hook them up directly to your PC, using a USB cable or, with newer models, a firewire connection.

The drawbacks of attaching your camera directly to your computer are that the transfer of images will be slow and using your camera as a transfer device will consume battery life.

That's why many digital photography enthusiasts prefer a digital film reader. These devices attach to a USB or firewire port on your PC. You remove the film card from your camera, insert it into the digital film reader, and transfer the images. No direct connection of the camera to the PC is ever required.

Some popular digital film readers include the Lexar firewire reader, a firewire device, and the USB Camramate, from Microtech.

There are many more digital film readers on the market, and a trip to your local computer store will turn up a few.

Once you insert the card into the reader, though, you're still faced with how to get the images onto your PC. If you're not comfortable using Windows explorer, a file manager, to transfer the images, you need a program that recognizes your card reader and automatically transfers the pictures.

There are few if any tools more convenient for this job than Breeze systems' downloader 1.4 for digital cameras. Available as a free download, this little tool can be configured so that when you start it, it will automatically locate images on your digital memory card, create a directory on your hard drive for you, and copy or move the pictures to your hard drive.

Once the transfer is complete, the program will even close itself automatically and open an image viewing program of your choice. In short, the downloader can make moving images from a digital card reader or a camera attached to the PC a one-click operation.

---- View and Edit the Photos ---- Microsoft's Windows XP contains built-in image viewing capabilities in its Windows explorer file manager.

But what if you don't have XP? In that case, you'll need software that allows you to view thumbnails of your images.

Thumbnail viewing programs have become quite sophisticated.

Among the leaders are ACDSEE, Thumbs Plus, and Irfanview.

Irfanview is free, Thumbs Plus is shareware with a trial version available, and ACDSEE is a commercial product, but also with a free trial available.

Before you run out and buy an image viewer, though, be sure that you do not already have one. Many PCs today come with image viewing software.

Image viewing software typically comes with rudimentary digital photograph editors. These usually allow you to sharpen photos, adjust lighting, and remove red eye. For more sophisticated editing, you'll want to look to programs such as Adobe Photoshop or the lower-cost but still sophisticated Adobe Photoshop elements. Paint Shop Pro, from Jasc software, has long been a low-cost alternative to Adobe's products, and Paint Shop Pro is available as a free download in a trial version.

---- Print the Photos ---- You can print digital photographs from most image viewing and editing programs, including those mentioned above. Printing those photos, though, is not always as easy as it should be.

That's why there are several programs on the market designed specifically to make printing digital photographs easy. Among the most popular are Epson's Filmfactory and Qimage Pro.

Both are available in trial versions.

As people continue to adopt digital cameras, the tools designed to make digital workflow easier will continue to evolve. For now, though, the software programs discussed here should meet your needs at little or no cost, DPA reported.