Article Abstract:
Adobe Photoshop 5.0 earned a 5-star top-notch review for its long list of new features and continued ease for even the casual user. The History palette is one its best new features, as it lists previous operations, can recall an image's state and compare versions. The History brush allows you to paint portions of an image, allowing you to experiment and combine multiple images to create the best image possible. Type and color handling is much improved. The other big new feature in this release is the new Layer Effects. Instead of using channel operations to get a desired effect, such as shadow or embossed type, those looks can be had in a few seconds through Layer Effects. Other new production tools include a Magnetic Lasso and Magnetic Pen, a Measure tool, and an Actions palette.
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Article Abstract:
Fractal Design Painter 3.0 offers designers the advantage of an unlimited variety of textures that can be created and applied with the program's brushes. A particularly appealing texture that comes with this version is Ciphertext, which consists of erratic rows of random letter and numbers. The feature allows the creation of 'text-tures,' textures consisting of letters and words. The designer can then fill an image with words without having to work with a variety of text selections to create a type collage. Text-tures are useful for setting a mood or reinforcing data. They also work as backgrounds for brochures. The steps involved in creating text-tures with Fractal Design Painter are discussed.
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Article Abstract:
An evaluation is presented of Adobe Systems' $219, ImageReady and Macrodmedia's $299, Fireworks. ImageReady is easily learned and has the look and feel of Photoshop. It is a solid program but does not contain spectacular Web-graphics features. Fireworks is full of new technology and impressive features however, it also suffers from many first release problems. Both programs offer real-time previews of optimized images, and they each allow users to dave favorite settings and apply them to other images. The innovative vector technology in Fireworks offers great special effects options, however, ImageReady offers more-powerful batch-processing capabilities than Fireworks.
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic: