What do you do with all those photos you took on your vacation, or at the last school concert, or with your friends or family? In the old days, you might make photo prints and put those prints in a physical photo album, but that's now the way we do it today. Now we take our digital photos and use them to create stunning photo slideshows, complete with fancy transitions and background music. We can then share our slideshows via email or social media.
How do you create a photo or video slideshow? With a photo slideshow maker for Windows. There are many quality slideshow makers for Windows, it's just a matter of choosing the one with the features you need.
In this article, we discuss the best photo slideshow makers for Windows. We'll discuss the key features, pros, and cons for each program, and rate and compare them for your convenience.
1. SmartSHOW 3D
With SmartSHOW 3D, you can bring your photos, videos, and music together to create animated slideshows. Explore a wide range of possibilities with many professional templates and effects, allowing you to experiment and personalise your slideshow. Enhance your slideshows by adding voice comments, captions, title clips, and even 3D collages, making them truly captivating and engaging.
SmartSHOW 3D slideshow maker lets you start from a blank project or one of hundreds of premade templates to create a compelling slideshow with sound, photos and videos.
SmartSHOW 3D is compatible with Windows 8, 10, and 11. You can choose from yearly subscriptions or a lifetime license.
Operating system: Windows 7/8/10, macOS
Licensing: paid
2. Movavi Video Suite
Movavi Video Suite is generally regarded as one of the best slideshow makers for Windows users. It's easy to use, even for less technical users, and lets you create great-looking slideshows with interesting transitions. You can also add animated titles and pro-level video effects such as panning and zooming.
One of the things that makes Movavi Video Suite one of the best slideshow software for Windows 10 is its wide selection of pre-made templates, along with a Slideshow Wizard you can use to get started. This Windows 10 app also includes a large library of free background music, transitions, filters, overlays, and other special effects. After you've created your slideshow, you can save it in a variety of popular video formats, including AVI, MOV, and MP4. You can also save your slideshows directly to YouTube.
Operating system: Windows 7/8/10, macOS
Licensing: paid
Price: £75.95 (free trial version available)
3. Free Slideshow Maker & Video Editor
As its name implies, this program is a free slideshow app for Windows. It's a basic slideshow maker with additional video editing features. You can easily assemble a group of photos, add background music, and apply transitions between slides.
This free slideshow maker for Windows 10 also enables you to add text and emojis over your videos. It includes a variety of special effects, including blur, highlight, and wave. You can also add filters and stickers to your slideshows.
Operating system: Windows 10
Licensing: free
4. PhotoStage Slideshow Pro
PhotoStage Slideshow Pro is one of the easier picture slideshow makers to use. You can create customized slideshows with your own photos, music, and transitions. The program includes a basic photo editor that lets you crop and rotate your photos, as well as adjust brightness, contrast, and color hue. You can export your slideshows in a variety of popular video formats (including AVI, MOV, and MP4), as well as upload to YouTube, Vimeo, and Flickr.
This slideshow software is available in three versions: Free, Home, and Pro. The Free version offers fewer features and may not be ideal for more sophisticated users who want more advanced functionality. To move beyond basic transitions and effects you need to purchase either the Home or Pro versions, both of which offer a larger number of effects and features.
Operating system: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10, macOS
Licensing: free and paid
Price: $50.00 Home Edition, $70.00 Pro Edition (free version available)
5. BeeCut
BeeCut is an easy-to-use video editing program that can also be used to create great-looking slideshows. It includes a variety of video editing functions, including zooming, cropping, and color adjustment. You can also add your own background music to your slideshows.
You can save your BeeCut slideshow videos directly to Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and other social media. It also lets you create slideshows in a variety of aspect ratios, including square, 4:3, and 16.9 widescreen.
Operating system: Windows 7/8/10, macOS
Licensing: paid and subscription
Price: $99.90 lifetime, $59.90 annual, $39.95 monthly (free trial available)
6. Icecream Slideshow Maker
Icecream Slideshow Maker is a basic but easy-to-use slideshow maker for all versions of Windows. It's easy to select the images you want, add your music, and then apply over 20 different transitions between slides. It's available in both free and paid (Pro) versions; the free version is limited to just 10 photos per slideshow.
This program lets you save your slideshows in full HD (1080p), 2K, or 4K resolution. You can also upload your slideshows to YouTube with a single click, save to Google Drive and other cloud storage services, and burn your slideshows directly to DVD. It saves slideshows in a wide variety of file formats, including AVI, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, QT, and WMV.
Operating system: Windows Vista/7/8/10
Licensing: free and paid
Price: free version, Pro version $19.95
7. Freemake Video Converter
As the name implies, Freemake Video Converter isn't a slideshow maker program per se, but rather video converter software that also creates photo slideshows. In its primary function, Freemake Video Converter converts videos between 500 different file formats and devices. As a slideshow maker, it lets you merge a large number of photos into a single slideshow, but without a lot of fancy effects. You can also include videos from all formats in your slideshows.
Freemake Video Converter saves slideshows in both full HD (1080p) and 4K resolution. It can automatically upload videos to YouTube and save your slideshows to DVD. The program is completely free.
Operating system: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
Licensing: free
8. DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is a powerful video editing program used by pros and hobbyists alike. It also lets users create sophisticated photo slideshows, complete with music. It includes a huge library of broadcast-quality transitions and special effects, including wipes, dissolves, blurs, and flares. The software also lets you create pro-level 2D and 3D animated titles and text content.
As a pro-level program, Resolve lets you create slideshows with hundreds of individual photos. It's great for large and sophisticated slideshow projects. Resolve's quick export tool lets you easily upload your video slideshows to YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Because Resolve is a full-featured video editing program, it probably isn't for beginners or casual users; the learning curve is a little steep, but there's a lot you can do with it. (The company also offers DaVinci Resolve Studio for $295 with additional professional tools and functionality.)
Operating system: Windows 10, macOS
Licensing: free
9. Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft's PowerPoint is the presentation program in the company's popular Microsoft 365 office suite. PowerPoint is typically used to create charts and presentations, but can also be used to create simple slideshows. PowerPoint includes a number of slide transitions, as well as a selection of pre-made templates. That said, you have to insert your photos one slide at a time and then add your transitions.
If you're a Microsoft Office user, PowerPoint is a good choice for basic slideshows. Microsoft 365 Personal is available as a subscription for $99.99/year or $9.99/month. You can save your slideshows in Microsoft's PPTX format or in MP4 or WMV video formats.
Operating system: Windows 10, macOS
Licensing: subscription
Price: part of Microsoft 365 subscription, $69.99/year or $6.99/month
10. Adobe® Spark®
Adobe® Spark® is a web-based service that lets you quickly create web pages, graphics, and memes for social media, and short videos. It isn't designed specifically for making slideshows, but you can use it for that. Just select Spark's slideshow maker function, select a template, then add your photos and music. You can save your slideshow in M4V, MOV, or MP4 formats, or upload your video files directly to social media sites.
You access Spark® from any computer with a web browser. It includes a number of pre-made templates and themes you can use for your slideshows. There's a free version available, although it inserts a watermark on every slide. To get rid of the watermark and gain additional features, upgrade to the Individual plan, which costs $9.99/month after a 14-day free trial.
Operating system: web
Licensing: free and subscription
Price: free (with watermarks) or $9.99/month
11. Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC
Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC is a powerful video editing program that includes a built-in slideshow maker for Windows 10 that lets you quickly and easily create sophisticated photo slideshows, complete with music. Premiere's slideshows can include an unlimited number of images, which makes it great for very large slideshows.
When you use Premiere's slideshow maker you determine how long each photo will appear onscreen, the type and duration of each transition, and other visual effects. It also includes collaboration features if you're working on a team project. You can save your slideshows in all popular video file formats.
Operating system: Windows, macOS
Licensing: subscription
Price: $20.99/month
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the common file formats supported by Windows Slideshow Maker?
The common file formats supported by Slideshow Maker are mp3, mp4, WAV, MKV, FLV, AVI, MPEG-1, WMV, MOV, and more.
Which are the Best Slideshow Maker Software?
Here are some of the best Slideshow maker software: Animoto, Filmora, InVideo and so on.
How to choose a slideshow maker for Windows?
It is crucial that you check the compatibility with your operating system. If the program is not compatible, you won’t be able to use it. You have to keep in mind that some software has limited features. Therefore, go through all the tools and functionality before you purchase the slideshow program.
As you can see, Windows 10 slideshow maker programs and services differ not only in price but also in usability and functionality. Some are easier to use than others and some offer many more features.
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