Software Review:
By David Fiedler
Special Features
As with most of the graphics products we've reviewed, a full list of features is both exhaustive and exhausting, but here are some selected features of this $99 program:
Create Adobe Photoshop-compatible custom-shaped brush tips
Full multiple-layer Adobe Photoshop file format (PSD) support
Support of Adobe Photoshop file format plug-ins
Picture Tube brushes allow you to easily paint with realistic graphic elements
Clone and paint with any area of your image
Flood fill tool allows solid fills, as well as custom patterned, linear, rectangular, sunburst and radial gradients
Normal and Bezier line tools
Includes line and filled object shapes
Create composite images with multiple layers support
Comprehensive blend mode controls control layer interactivity
Layer grouping, naming, ordering and visibility for efficient editing
Merge and flatten layers to combine elements together
Magic Wand tool to select an area of a particular color, hue, or brightness
Photography tools allow you to dodge and burn images for exposure correction, and adjust color levels
Resize images based on physical size or percentages
Resizing options include smart, bilinear, bicubic and pixel sizing
Includes special effects filters, such as buttonize, chisel, cutout and drop shadow
Image deformations include circle, cylinder, pentagon, perspective, pinch, punch and skew
Standard image filters include Gaussian blur, edge, noise, sharpen, dilate, emboss, erode, hot wax and mosaic
Create your own image filters
Use the Color Replacement tool to easily replace selected colors
Create and print CMYK color separations
Separate, edit and combine CMYK, HSL and RGB color channels on screen
Histogram support let you equalize and stretch RGB and luminance values
Pressure-sensitive tablet support
Direct interface support for Kodak DC40, DC50 and DC120 digital cameras
Enhanced TWAIN device support for scanners and digital cameras
Batch file format conversion
Built-in screen capture utility allows you to capture a variety of screen elements with "hot key" activation
Microsoft Explorer-style thumbnail image browser
Native 24-bit image editing mode for photo-realistic color editing
Support for transparency in animations
On-screen image editing functionality allows for simple touchups and frame modification
Animation Wizard creates new animations from existing animated and still-image files
Cut and copy frames from file to file, or within the same file, with drag-and-drop editing
Customizable frame transitions and effects
Customizable text effects include back lit, highlight, flag, drop shadow and bounce
Automatically renders image and text effects for instant preview
Over 40 graphic file formats supported, including BMP, CDR*, CGM*, CLP, CMX*, CUT, DCX*, DIB, DRW*, DXF*, EMF, EPS+, FPX, GEM*, GIF, HGL*, IFF, IMG, JPG, KDC*, LBM, MAC, MSP, PBM, PCD*, PCT, PCX, PGM, PIC, PIC, PNG, PPM, PSD, PSP, RAS, RAW, RLE, SCT, TGA, TIF, WMF, WPG, WPG (Vector)*
[ Move on to the next part
of the review ]
This article first appeared in May, 1998.
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