When you first start up , you choose to either open an existing photo, start with a blank canvas, or take a new picture with the iPhone's camera. Seven icons across the top of the screen represent the tools you can: Zoom, Brush, Eraser, Paint Bucket, Eye Dropper, Smudge and Clone Stamp. Several options along the bottom of the screen let you select color, transparency, brush size and type; adjust curves; select filters and effects; undo and redo; and save image.

Taking a closer look at some of these tools and options, Zoom lets you get right down to the individual pixels for fine detail work. The Brush tool features eight different brushes ranging from hard- or soft-edged to scattered dots and more, all with unlimited sizes, colors, and transparencies. This really allows you to paint anything you can imagine, providing you have some artistic skills.

The Eraser tool will erase everything except the original photograph, making it possible to erase effects from part of a photograph. For instance, you could use the black-and-white filter and then selectively erase part of it to reveal the colors below, like in a black-and-white picture of a girl holding a bright red rose.

The Paint Bucket lets you quickly fill the canvas with any color. You can also set the color to a light transparency to just tint an image. An Eye Dropper tool selects any color from the canvas just by moving your finger over it, while a Smudge tool smears the pixels in the direction of your stroke--great for blending effects while painting.

With the Clone Stamp tool, you can select a part of the image and then wherever you paint, PhotoForge duplicates that part. I was surprised to see this really cool tool included in the app. Clone Stamp also makes it possible to remove an unwanted object from the background of a photograph.