photoshop

There are invitations to Phoenix, the new app discussed in this post, set aside for Webware readers. Read on to learn how to get yours.

As I reported from Demo 2008, new Flash- and Flex-based Web apps are putting traditional desktop apps to shame. The database Blist, the widget maker Sprout, and the photo manager Joggle are all Web-based apps that give up almost nothing to run inside a browser.

Flash-based applications are inherently cross-platform, because there are Flash runtimes that work in Internet Explorer and Firefox; on Macs, Windows, and Linux. (There are even Flash runtimes for mobile phones … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Nik Software on Wednesday announced a new variant of its photo-editing software that will run as a plug-in to Adobe Systems' Photoshop.

The company's Viveza plug-in brings the "U Point" editing method, already available in Nik's Capture NX software, to Photoshop. The software functions as a Photoshop smart filter, which means it can be applied nondestructively and updated later.

Viveza will ship in the first quarter for Windows and Mac OS X and cost about $250, Nik said at the Photo Marketing Association trade show here.

The U Point system is an attempt to … Read more

Picnik, an online photo-editing service, has released specifications that will let other Web sites use its tools.

The Seattle company on Tuesday released its application programming interface, or API, called Picnik-in-a-Box. "Sites can use the Picnik interface to load, edit, and save specific images provided by users, customize certain portions of the Picnik interface, and give users a superior image-importing and -exporting experience for applications or Web sites," the company said in a statement.

Web site developers wishing to employ the feature can obtain a key from Picnik that grants access to the API, Picnik said.

Among sites … Read more

Photo-editing specialist OnOne Software has acquired technology called Liquid Resize that brings a new twist to the task of resizing digital images, the company said Thursday.

There are numerous ways to expand or shrink a photo, but Liquid Resize's method, called seam carving, is unusual in that it can change the height-to-width proportion called aspect ratio. It does this by trying to determine what areas of the photo should be preserved intact and what parts are background that can be stretched or deleted.

The result is that background can stretch to fill gaps between people in a shot that'… Read more

I'm going to buy a new desktop computer to feed my digital photography appetites, and it's time to let the wisdom of the crowds steer me in the right direction.

There are innumerable options, but there's one particular choice I'm wrestling with: is my money better spent on a PC with a dual-core processor or a quad-core chip with a lower clock frequency?

For the benefit of anybody else in my situation, I thought I'd seek expert guidance from Adobe Systems, Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices, and Intel and publish the results, but I got conflicting … Read more

Good news for photo enthusiasts who wish they could they could use Photoshop Lightroom for high dynamic range photography and panorama stitching: support is on Adobe Systems' radar screen, if not necessarily its roadmap.

That's the word from Kevin Connor, Adobe's senior director of professional digital imaging product management and the executive who oversees Lightroom, Photoshop, and the Digital Negative (DNG) format. I spoke with him Wednesday during the Macworld trade show here in San Francisco.

Connor is intimately familiar with these two fast-changing domains in digital photography. High dynamic range (HDR) photography combines multiple exposures of a … Read more

So you've been convinced to make the leap from Photoshop to GIMP. You've downloaded the program, run the executable, figured out that old instructions decrying the difficult installation are outdated for the current version, but now what? Now, my GIMP Padawan, is when you start treating GIMP like it's Firefox and you get your plug-ins on.

What about GIMPshop, you say? No worries, as my Australian friends would say. We're going to take a look at the GIMP-plus-Photoshop mash-up, too.

… Read more

Online photo editing has just taken a significant step closer to its computer-based predecessors: Picnik has added a curves editing feature.

Curves, one of the early killer features that drew people to Adobe Systems' Photoshop, lets people adjust in detail the distribution of light and dark tones in photographs. For example, it can be used to bring details out of shadowy murk or carefully increase contrast.

I didn't try out the feature: curves editing is reserved for those with premium accounts, which cost $24.95 a year. But it looks like it can edit red, green, and blue channels … Read more

Molly Wood and CNET TV's Insider Secrets takes you through a tripartite of free alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Although Photoshop's a great program, for some users it provides way too much editing power and it's way too expensive. Try one of these freeware substitutes, and also check out our series on building your own Adobe Creative Suite using top-notch freeware applications. Part One; Part Two