Showing posts with label digital painting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital painting. Show all posts

Punch ViaCAD 2D/3D Review

Punch ViaCAD 2D/3D
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Punch ViaCAD 2D/3D ReviewIf you are looking for a great CAD program for a very low price, you have found it. There is not a better value in CAD anywhere. Other consumer CAD programs such as DesignCAD and TurboCAD Deluxe do not even come close to the capability and ease of use that ViaCAD provides.
Don't be fooled by the sub-$100 price, ViaCAD 2D/3D Version 7 offers professional grade functionality with expert level capability. On top of that, it is the easiest to learn and use CAD program available. Much of the functionality mimics that of much more expensive programs such as SolidWorks and Inventor. The user interface, however, is so simple that your designs will come to life very quickly.
Where ViaCAD separates itself from other consumer grade CAD applications is that it is fully capable of doing more complex design work such as boat hulls and car bodies, which, for example, are not normally possible in TurboCAD Deluxe. It provides true solid modeling by utilizing the ACIS kernel and can import and export an amazing variety of file types.
Version 7 of ViaCAD has even more modeling functionality and rendering features than previous versions. Now, for example, you can render your model with very realistic textures that make your design look more like a photograph than a CAD drawing. There are also other numerous improvements to overall functionality that make the program even more capable and easy to use.
ViaCAD is not a perfect program, as none are. It does have occasional bugs, but there is a very good support network on the web and service packs are updated regularly.
I have been a CAD hobbyist for 15 years using a variety of programs such as AutoCAD, IntelliCAD, DesignCAD, TurboCAD, and SolidWorks. I also previously worked as a Sales Representative for SolidWorks. I've been a user of ViaCAD since Version 5.Punch ViaCAD 2D/3D OverviewWith over 100 new features, ViaCAD 2D/3D v7 continues to provide intuitive 2D drafting and 3D modeling tools perfect for all types of design projects. For both Windows and MAC users, version 7 delivers enormous Punch! at a tremendous value.

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Corel Upgrade Painter 11 Review

Corel Upgrade Painter 11
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Corel Upgrade Painter 11 ReviewCorel Painter is in a category all its own. While photo manipulation software comes in all sorts and layout programs abound for every skill set, Painter is a unique program that allows real art to be made directly in a digital format.
This could easily be quite a cheesy goal and a sub-par result meant more for play than serious work. Could be, but Painter does the task so well it is really astounding.
I could have said the exact same words, and have, about Painter IX, a program I have owned since it was released.
I've found that program unsurpassed in all kinds of creative goals for both web and print use, for both serious work and for creative exploration.
I was familiar with Painter IX, and yet I'm still a bit blown away by Painter 11.
It's an easy transition. Everything looks the same and so there's no major transition from the older to the newer. The main difference is in feel. Painter 11 just feels more natural. It has better response, better control, better overall simulation of the various media. Even on the Intuos3, I could always feel a strong bit of distance, and artificiality, on Painter IX. In Painter 11 I just feel so much more connected to the canvas on the screen.
Some have noted some issues with their graphics pad. I've not seen any problems at all. Perfect and easy use, even better than Painter IX in every respect.
Often, new programs try to add so much they become slower, or more complicated, or otherwise a step down in performance for the steps up in function. Painter 11 adds a whole list of new brushes and capabilities, all functioning perfect as I try them out. It does this while speeding up all the various interactions. Everything just seem so smooth. So not only are the brushes and pens feeling so much more natural, the whole experience is sharpened and quick.
The integration with the Adobe products is likewise quite good. One thing I've appreciated about the various Corel products is their ability to 'play well with others'. Instead of trying to mark out its territory by ignoring the major players, Corel enables functions that takes seriously the probable software use of real designers and artists.
Painter has always been a program in its own class, and that sometimes means a company doesn't continue to innovate with it. Corel keeps pushing the edge, making a five star product much better, by making better what it already did great and adding quite useful capabilities on top of this.
Extremely pleased with Painter 11. Well worth the cost, and if you have an older version it is indeed worth an upgrade.
Some reviewers have noted this version seems slower. I just can't see what they mean. Indeed, not only does this program feel quite a bit faster it also seems to work well on a variety of systems. My main computer is a XPS710 with a quad core processor, a nice video card. Of course Painter flies on that one. But, surprisingly, it also works quite smoothly on my laptop, a Dell e1405, that has no separate video processor, is one of earliest dual-core, and only has 1gb of memory. If I do particularly processor intensive tasks it does lag a bit, but significantly less than my Adobe programs. It works better than Painter IX did on the same computer.
As far as operating systems, I've run this on Vista premium (my main computer), XP media edition (my laptop), and Vista home (my wife's laptop). Runs great on each.
I heartily do recommend downloading the 30 day free trial Corel offers to see how the program works on your computer and if you see the worth of an upgrade as I did.Corel Upgrade Painter 11 OverviewExpand your creativity with Painter 11, the most inventive digital painting software on the market. By adding Painter to your workflow, you gain a full art studio that gives you the tools to create unprecedented artwork. Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes, without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art. Support for the entire Wacom product line, including industry-leading Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos drawing tablets, gives you the most responsive digital painting experience so your hand and brush work fluidly as one. Customizable paper textures give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting or photo-painting tools can produce. Painter is changing what's possible in art. Now it's your turn.

The World's Most Powerful Natural-Media Software
Enhance the Creative Process
Enhanced Artistic Media reproduce the texture of their real-life counterparts and intensify color with each stroke
Pen and drawing tablet (recommended), combined with Painter's RealBristle brushes, recreate the natural interaction between hand and canvas
New Hard Media Controls let you create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library

Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
Improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop, and individual color profiles per document, make your colors more precise
Photo-painting tools with SmartStroke technology let you creatively transform reality
Customizable surface texturing gives your art a level of fantasy and detail that other photo and painting software can't deliver

Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art
New Hard Media controls give you the flexibility to play around to find the exact look you desire
Smart composition tools, such as Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths, help you visually arrange your canvas to create perfect compositions

Features
What's Included
Content Libraries of unique textures, gradients, nozzles, patterns, stock photos and brushes, including the new RealBristle dry media brush category
Documentation
Getting Started Guide
HTML User Guide and Getting Started Guide
HTML Help files

Training
Online tutorials and testimonials

Enhance the Creative Process
New--Hard Media Controls Create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library, so you have more creative control over your media. Customizable profiles, dab sizes, transitions and stroke width previews let you play around to create the exact look you want.
New--RealBristle Dry Media Marker, pen, pencil and chalk media reproduce the look and feel of their real-life counterparts in a way that no other software can!
Marker--intensify color with each new marker stroke so you can color in one continuous shade or create a buildup of color
Pen--choose to create fine pen strokes, or thick strokes and ink deposits, by changing the velocity of your stroke. The faster you go, the thinner the line; the slower you go, the thicker the line
Pencil & Chalk--control shading by changing the angle of your stylus on the drawing tablet. Choose whether to draw with the tip or shade with the side of the nib-just like in real life

Enhanced--Selection Tools A new Polygonal mode for the Lasso tool, plus overall improvements to marquee tools and the Magic Wand, let you make more nimble selections the first time around.
Enhanced--Wacom Support Support for the entire Wacom product line, including Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos pen tablets, gives you most responsive digital painting software and the best digital art experience.
RealBristle Painting System Replicate the sensation and interaction between traditional paint and canvas with your pen and tablet. This represents a major milestone for digital painting by making brushes totally responsive to your hand and canvas, creating the most realistic painting experience.
Customizable Brushes Create your own brushes in the type, size or pattern of your choice, so you can make custom brush strokes and create artwork that is truly unique.
Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
New--Color Management Create better color matches with new individual color profiles for every document and improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop. This enhances your workflow because you save time by having fewer color corrections to make.
Enhanced--Adobe Photoshop Support Maintain colors and layers when transferring files between Photoshop and Painter. This saves time when importing and exporting artwork between the two programs, because corrections are less necessary.
Photo-painting Tools Transform photos into paintings by hand, or let SmartStroke brush technology in the Auto-Painting Palette paint a photo for you. It follows the lines and contours in the picture just like a real artist would. This lets you take the best of both worlds--photography and painting--to create new forms of art.
Customizable Surface Texturing Give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting software and photo-painting tools can produce. You can choose paper textures for your canvas, or create and customize your own textures to produce really unique artwork.
Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Enhanced--Mixer Palette & Swatches Extra mixer swatches appear when you enlarge the newly resizable Mixer Palette. Increase the size of the Palette to put more colors at your disposal and have a clearer view of your chosen color. Reduce the size when you no longer need to mix colors so the Palette takes up less space on screen.
Smart Composition Tools Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths help you visually arrange your canvas before sketching or painting to create perfect compositions.
Flexible Digital Art Tools Experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes to your heart's content, and produce exciting results-without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art.
Universal Mixer Palette For multicolor selection, this palette gives you better control over color blending between the Mixer palette and the canvas, so your colors are more precise.
Underpainting Palette This palette includes color schemes based on various artistic styles, such as Impressionist, Classical, Modern, Watercolor, Sketchbook and Chalk Drawing, so you can create art like your favorite muses. You can also match your Underpainting Palette to that of any open image for consistency.
Match Palette Effect Match the color and intensity between 2 images. Just open an image that features your desired color scheme and use the Match Palette effect to bring that color to the image you want to change.
Increase Speed & Stability
Enhanced--Performance Painter 11 is optimized to provide artists with the fastest version of Painter ever. Depending on system hardware, brushes perform up to 30% faster, creating a more true-to-life painting speed.
New--Transformation Capabilities Switch between different Transform modes from one centralized tool, and choose whether to transform the complete contents of a layer, or selected content, for greater speed, flexibility and precision.
New--Resizable Color Palette Adjust colors manually with sliders on the Color Palette. Enlarge the Color Palette up to 800 pixels for a clearer view of your selected color. You can now also fine-tune the color wheel with your arrow keys so it takes less time to find the perfect color.
New--Color Management Interface The fresh and simplified interface makes it easier to control color profiles when creating new files, or when opening Painter and other file types.
Windows Vista Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system from Microsoft.
Mac OS Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system 10.5 from Apple.
Multiple Platform Support Painter 11 includes both Mac OS and Windows versions on the same CD.

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Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade Review

Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade
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Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade ReviewWarning before upgrading from an earlier version of Photoshop: Download the trial version first. Many many people, including me, are experiencing major performance problems related to the new use of the graphics card GPU. Huge lag when drawing or moving windows around, brush cursors disappearing, buggy color management and many other issues which make this release unusable. Disabling GPU acceleration, or trying some of the other workarounds suggested by Adobe, improve performance but not completely.
Not everyone is experiencing this problem, and I'm sure eventually Adobe and the graphics card makers will come up with a solution. But for now, you should first check the Adobe site to whether your graphics card is on Adobe's list of tested hardware (mine is, but I have the performance problems nevertheless), make sure all your drivers are the latest ones, and either try out the trial version first or wait until you see that Adobe has released a patch.Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade OverviewAdobe Photoshop CS4 software offers improved access to its unrivaled power with the new more intuitive Adjustments and Masks panels, which put image-editing tools at your fingertips. Accelerated graphics handling delivers incredibly smooth painting, panning, zooming, and canvas rotation. More powerful compositing, enhanced color correction, and many more improvements help you work more efficiently than ever before.

Upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS4 Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS can upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS4 for special pricing. Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3 Extended, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS are also eligible for special upgrade pricing to certain editions of Adobe Creative Suite 4.
Top reasons to upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS4
Adjustments panel Simplify image adjustment by easily accessing every tool you need to nondestructively adjust and enhance the color and tone of your images; on-image controls and a wide variety of presets are also included in the new live and dynamic Adjustments panel.
Masks panel Quickly create and edit masks from the new Masks panel. This panel offers all the tools you need to create editable pixel- and vector-based masks, adjust mask density and feathering, easily select noncontiguous objects, and more.
Enhanced auto-alignment of layers Create accurate composites with the enhanced Auto-Align Layers command. Move, rotate, or warp layers to align them more accurately than ever before. Or use spherical alignment to create breathtaking panoramas.
Enhanced auto-blending of images Easily create a single image from a series of shots that have different focal points with the enhanced Auto-Blend Layers command, which smoothly blends color and shading and now extends your depth of field, automatically correcting vignettes and lens distortion.
Extended depth of field Combine a range of images, each with a different exposure, color, and focal point--with options to preserve tones and colors--into a single color-corrected image.
Smoother panning and zooming Gracefully navigate to any area of an image with new ultra-smooth zooming and panning. Maintain clarity as you zoom to individual pixels, and easily edit at the highest magnification with the new Pixel Grid.
Fluid canvas rotation Now just click to smoothly turn your canvas for nondestructive viewing at any desired angle--no more tilting your head in the middle of painting and drawing.
Content-Aware Scaling Use the new and revolutionary Content-Aware Scaling feature to automatically recompose an image as you resize it, smartly preserving vital areas as the image adapts to the new dimensions. Get the perfect image in one step without time-intensive cropping and retouching.
Industry-leading color correction Enjoy dramatically enhanced color correction with reengineered Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools that now intelligently preserve color and tone details.
Better raw image processing Enjoy superior conversion quality as you process raw images with the industry-leading Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 5 plug-in, which now offers localized corrections, post-crop vignetting, TIFF and JPEG processing, and support for more than 190 camera models.
Improved Adobe Photoshop Lightroom workflow Select multiple photos in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software (sold separately), and automatically open them in Photoshop CS4 to merge them into a panorama, a high dynamic range (HDR) photo, or a multilayered Photoshop document. And seamlessly roundtrip back to Lightroom.
Efficient file management with Adobe Bridge CS4 Get instant access to Adobe Bridge CS4 with faster start-up, use new workspaces to jump to the right display for every task, easily create web galleries and PDF contact sheets, and more.
New file display options Easily work with multiple open files by using tabbed document display or n-up views.
Extensibility Get and share Adobe Flash technology-based panels that developers create to accomplish customized tasks. Plus, get tips and tricks from the thriving worldwide community of Photoshop users through the new Adobe Community Help online service.
More powerful printing options Get outstanding prints with superior color management, tighter integration with leading printer models, and the ability to preview out-of-gamut image areas. Support for 16-bit printing on Mac OS offers increased color depth and clarity.
Enhanced retouching Retouch images more easily and precisely by previewing source pixels within the cursor of the Clone Stamp and the Healing Brush. Set multiple source points, scale, and rotate in the Clone Source panel.
Higher performance on very large images (Windows only) Work faster with very large images by taking advantage of even more RAM (requires a 64-bit-capable computer with a 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows Vista).
Multi-Touch support on Mac laptops Pinch, swipe, rotate, zoom, and scroll with just the touch of your fingers by taking full advantage of the Multi-Touch trackpad on newer MacBook Pro and MacBook Air laptops (requires Mac OS X v10.5).
Profiles to support the color-blind Design with sensitivity for color-blind individuals by creating soft proofs of your images using built-in Color Universal Design Organization profiles.
Top new features in Photoshop CS4The new versions of Photoshop are about much more than just adding new features. They're about providing you with best practices in the tasks you do daily--about making your work in Photoshop not just faster and easier, but more intelligent, and more natively nondestructive. Here are the top new features and enhancements in Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended.
Live, nondestructive corrections with the Adjustments panelPhotoshop CS4 speeds workflow performance with the Adjustments panel, cutting the time it takes to make nondestructive adjustments like Curves, Levels, Hue/Saturation, and much more. There's no dialog box maze to navigate--just go straight to the task at hand. The Adjustments panel brings the right tool for the right job to your fingertips, dynamically, saving precious time. The panel features the new Vibrance adjustment, giving you greater control over color saturation while preserving delicate tones, such as skin colors. On-image adjustments are now available for Hue/Saturation and Curves. Plus, for even greater convenience and time savings, the panel features a wide variety of modifiable presets for each type of change, including more than 20 new preconfigured, customizable starting points. Photoshop CS4 speeds you through countless tasks with the Adjustments panel.
Re-editable, feathered, density-controlled masksThe new Masks panel smooths and speeds the creation and adjustment of pixel and vector masks, making it easier than ever to apply effects to precisely defined areas of an image. Now, with simple sliders, you can adjust the density and feathering of a mask, to control both the sharpness of the mask edge and how much of the adjustment effect you'd like to reveal. The Refine Mask feature allows simple yet fine-grained control over the mask size and edges. And Color Range has been upgraded for better accuracy and power. It's a fast way to automatically create powerful and detailed masks based on single or multiple colors, with simple controls for the spatial tolerance and "fuzziness" of the color sampling.
More refined, natural results with Dodge, Burn, and SpongeIn the days of film, paper, safelights, and chemicals, photographers dodged and burned their prints during exposure, to darken and brighten areas of an image as they created it. It was an art that required steady hands and practice to master. The newly refined Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools in Photoshop CS4 take the pain and practice out of preserving tonal quality while you spot-correct exposure and color saturation. Simply paint the area you want to adjust and get advanced results in a fraction of the time.
Enhanced Auto-Align, Auto-Blend, and new 360-degree panoramasThe automatic alignment and blending technology in Photoshop CS4 enhances a wide variety of features, but nowhere are the improvements more obvious than in Photomerge¨. Now, when you stitch a sequence of images into a panorama, enhanced blending combines with new vignetting and geometric distortion corrections to bring you even better results--a panorama with more natural colors blended from one end of the scene to the other. Additional improvements include the ability to create 360-degree panoramas, automatic detection of fish eye lenses to compensate for their inherent distortion, and the new Collage option which rotates and scales individual images as they are combined using Auto-Align and Photomerge.
Extended depth of fieldWhether it's the extreme close-up, the microbial world, or simply low-light conditions, there are times when the depth of field you can capture with your camera is extremely shallow. Now, you can shoot the scene with a series of focal points, and use the enhanced Auto-Blend Layers feature to automatically create a new, single image with a depth of field encompassing the entire series. You can even color-correct the images at the same time, automatically. This feature provides breathtaking enhancement of any scene where lighting and depth of field are in short supply.
Fluid canvas rotationPhotoshop CS4 introduces a revolutionary new feature that lets you paint and draw as easily and naturally as sitting down at an easel. With the new Rotate View tool, you can nondestructively spin your canvas to any orientation you desire--a boon to every illustrator, whether you paint by mouse or tablet. No pixel distortion, no craning your head to get the perspective you want, and no matter how you spin your canvas, Photoshop CS4 adjusts your selections, grids, rulers, and other tools and features to match your chosen orientation.
Ultra-smooth, extra-precise pan, zoom, preview, and painting toolsMost modern computers contain a powerful graphics processor (GPU) that is almost like having a second computer inside the box. Photoshop CS4 leverages the power of your GPU with OpenGL technology to blast past the image-viewing restrictions of yesterday. Zoom all the way down to the level of individual pixels, with perfect clarity even at the oddest magnification percentages. Smoothly navigate around the largest images with no stutter or preview lag. Use the new Pixel Grid to easily edit images at the highest magnification. And revel in a faster, easier painting workflow, with brushes you can resize by dragging your mouse; new brush cursors that more clearly preview brush strokes before you make them; and improved, higher precision tablet tracking. Navigating very large images is easier than ever--instantly zoom high overhead to move to a new area of the image, and just as instantly zoom back in to the highest magnification. You can also ÒtossÓ the image across the screen with the Hand tool--the physics engine in Photoshop CS4 will give you a natural pan in any direction.
Next generation Adobe Bridge CS4Finding, previewing, and managing all of your image assets jumps to a new level of power and convenience with Adobe Bridge CS4, beginning with faster performance from startup through to handing off images to Photoshop CS4. New path-bar navigation and workspace selection buttons across the top of the Bridge window let you instantly jump to just the right display for every task, including new Camera Import controls, visual folder navigation, and a new Carousel View for larger image-group selections. In the Output workspace, Bridge now features PDF-based contact-sheet creation and web-gallery creation and uploading. You can preview 3D images and panoramas created in Photoshop CS4. The new Search field helps you quickly find images in Bridge, and is also integrated with the Spotlight feature in Mac OS X and the Desktop Search feature in Windows¨ Vista. You can even switch to the new, intuitive List View, with its familiar data display and sorting controls.
Tighter integration with Photoshop Lightroom 2Professionals and other advanced photographers rely on the one-two punch of Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom software as the complete digital photography toolkit. Photoshop CS4 makes this workflow easier than ever, with improved cross-application support for automated functions, such as opening multiple photographs from Lightroom 2 directly into a layered Photoshop document, high dynamic range (HDR) image, panorama, or Smart Object. Lightroom 2 and Adobe Camera Raw also share the same underlying technology, which means the changes you make with Camera Raw 5 in Photoshop CS4 are recognized in Lightroom 2, and vice versa.
Camera Raw 5 with localized, nondestructive adjustmentsProviding the first step in the processing of raw data from your digital camera, Camera Raw now enables you to make localized adjustments by simply painting the area to be affected, and then using sliders to control the change. Additional enhancements include Post Crop Vignetting, and gradient-based localized correction. You can apply the same Camera Raw adjustments to TIFF and JPEG photographs, and, as always, the corrections you make are completely nondestructive, with the original files being maintained in their pristine state.
Unified tabbed interface with self-adjusting panelsPhotoshop CS4 helps you keep your work area efficient and clutter-free, with a new unified application frame, tab-based interface and self-adjusting panels. You'll notice immediately how the Photoshop interface appears cleaner--instead of having to arrange multiple image windows, Photoshop does it for you with a tab for each open image. Docked panel groups keep to the side of your images, so you have fewer things to move around while you work. Individual panels expand and contract automatically to show you the controls you need, and you can even collapse entire panel groups to their header rows with a single click. Of course, you can still manually arrange floating windows and panels to suit your working style, even moving all of your panels to a second monitor if you prefer.
Smarter Smart ObjectsSmart Object layers allow for nondestructive scaling and transformation of Photoshoplayers. With Photoshop CS4, you can now apply perspective transformations to SmartObjects, work with linked layer masks, and use the new Eyedropper tool option to sampleeither the current layer or all of the layers in the Smart Object at once.
More powerful printing optionsPhotoshop CS4 brings even higher quality to large, detailed images when taken to print. You can now preview out-of-gamut colors and take advantage of a streamlined printing interface. In addition, only on Mac OS X for this release, 16-bit printing is available for the first time, vastly increasing the color depth and clarity possible in printing.
Higher performance on very large images (Windows 64 only) Photoshop CS4 has now been optimized to take advantage of even more RAM on 64-bit-capable Windows PCs that are running a 64-bit version of Windows Vista.
Additional refinementsThe evolution of Photoshop software always includes a vast array of small but important improvements and additions. Extra refinements in Photoshop CS4 include:
Support for multi-touch gestures available on newer Apple MacBook Pro and MacBook Air computers running Mac OS X Leopard
Clone Stamp and Healing Brush live preview cursor for easier, more precise cloning and healing results
Layer-based metadata enabling reading and writing strings to layer properties, such as recording time-stamp information for video
Developers of specialized applications can create custom SWF-format panels that smoothly integrate with Photoshop CS4
Extensible SWF-based File Info panel, enabling developers to add network-stored keywords, perform spell-checking, and other functions
Unique IDs per document for easier downstream tracking of assets
CUDO technology, providing the ability to design with sensitivity for color blind individuals via soft-proofing
Spring-loaded keys to temporarily shift between tools by holding down a tool shortcut key
FXG export
Device Link color profile support
Notes panel, to keep annotations from cluttering the canvas

Creative Pro Online ServicesPhotoshop CS4 gives you built-in access to a world of online resources with Creative Pro Online Services. Search for help; share your screen with colleagues or clients in a few clicks; create and share color harmonies; and more.
Adobe Community Help Get the power of an online search engine with targeted results. Searchable content includes the in-depth Photoshop Help, plus additional Adobe and third-party content chosen by experts at Adobe and in the design and production communities. With Adobe Community Help, you can find the focused answers you need, fast, simply by choosing Help > Photoshop Help (Internet connection required).
Acrobat.com Acrobat.com is a set of online services--file sharing and storage, PDF converter, online word processor, and web conferencing--that you can use to create and share documents, communicate in real time, and simplify working with others. Thanks to the connection between one of the Acrobat.com services, Adobe ConnectNow, and Photoshop CS4, you can meet live over the web to share your screen, present creative concepts and ideas, and brainstorm with up to two online guests for no additional service charge. To share your screen with colleagues and clients, choose File > Share My Screen. Guests can then see your desktop on their screens as you work. You can exchange ideas using the chat pod, add a live video or audio feed, or use the Whiteboard feature to enable guests to comment on content. You can even temporarily hand over control of the screen to a guest to collaborate on a file. Additional Acrobat.com services, such as Share, Create PDF, My Files, and Adobe Buzzword, are accessible via your web browser. (Internet connection required.)
Adobe Kuler Explore, create, and share color themes with Adobe Kuler. Kick start your creative projects with color inspiration from the online Kuler community. Browse thousands of themes by newest, most popular, or highest rated; or search themes by tag word, title, or creator. Themes can be downloaded and moved to your Swatches panel with one click. Or use an interactive color wheel that supports standard harmony rules to develop new color themes that you can save, move to your Swatches panel, and upload to share with others (Internet connection required for community functionality).
Adobe Bridge Home Click Bridge Home in the Favorites panel of Adobe Bridge CS4 and stay up to date with what's new from Adobe, and from the design, web development, and video and audio production communities at large. Watch the latest video tutorials for your Creative Suite 4 components, listen to a podcast interview with a leading designer, or learn about the next training event in your community. Discover tips and resources that can help you make the most of Photoshop CS4 (Internet connection required).
Part of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 familyAdobe Photoshop CS4 and Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended are important components of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 family of software. Creative Suite 4 Design Premium is everything a modern designer needs to create eye-catching images, breathtaking graphics, expert typography, precision layout, and high-quality production for print, web, interactive, and mobile content. Creative Suite 4 Web Premium is a complete solution for creating interactive websites, applications, user interfaces, presentations, mobile device content, Adobe AIR applications, and other digital experiences. Creative Suite 4 Production Premium is must-have software for creative professionals who need to craft world-class video, audio, and interactive media--on-air, online, on-device, and invariably on deadline. Creative Suite 4 Master Collection is the complete solution for customers requiring the ultimate power and versatility of the complete line of Adobe Creative Suite 4 components.

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Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 Review

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011
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Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 ReviewThe Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 is the best digital sketchpad I've ever used! I majored in art in high school and have always used art, crafts or designs in many of my jobs. I've designed t-shirts, done miniatures, sewn clothes for antique dolls, silkscreens for cloth patterns and general art work and photography. Once I owned a computer, I found many great photo programs over the years, but up until now, I really never found a great sketch or art program. I own Corel's Painter, which is not only time consuming to learn the media applications, but it's slow, misses strokes and has several bugs in it's applications. Corel keeps giving me patches, but it has become tiresome to keep downloading patches all the time! I actually would rather do my art by hand than deal with all of Painter's issues.
I've been using this Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 every day, to see how smoothly it runs, and it not only runs smoothly, it's unbelievably fast! I have a Windows XP, and it took only a few minutes to download this great program. Once downloaded, I skipped the directions, as I wanted to see how quickly and easily I could learn to use this program on my own. Talk about easy to learn- anyone from 5 to 95 could use this without reading a direction! I am truly amazed that I could draw a sketch, a complicated geometric design for a piece of dress fabric and a dress pattern all in one sitting! The sketchpad itself is uncluttered with a small corner interface control, that allows you to bring up the nicely small tools window, brushes window or colors window. There is a brush property circle that allows you to choose both the brush size and flow for coverage. You can place these windows anywhere out of your drawing area or keep them off the screen completely.
The Brushes window includes a nice array of media types: pencil, airbrush, marker, chisel tip pen, ballpoint pen, paintbrush, felt tip pen, smear, blur, sharpen (does a great outline), hard eraser, soft eraser, flood fill and flood fill for all visible layers. The Tools Bar window has undo, redo, select, lasso, crop, zoom, rotate, ruler, elipse, symmetry X (top and bottom), symmetry Y (side to side), free hand, line, rectangle, polyline, oval and layers. Those symmetry features made my geometrical fabric design take only minutes to complete! What a great feature! The colors window features a color wheel, where you can create any color imaginable, then save it in the blocks below it. For your image, it has image size or canvas size, crop, adjust, rotate, mirror canvas, flip canvas vertically, mirror layer, flip layer vertically and both symmetry X and Y. Your finished art will work on the standard image formats- TIF, BMP, JPG, PNG and PSD.
I wish I had this program years ago, before I wasted so much time, money and constant patching on Corel's Painter! I'm just happy to have this Autodesk's super fast and easy Sketchbook now! For anyone who just sketches or draws, the inexpensive price of this program will pay for itself on the money you'll save on paper, pen, paints and inks! It's a wonderful, fast and easy money saving way to do story boarding, concept sketches, illustrations, fabric designs, pattern designs and anything that you would normally use a sketchpad and your choice of media for! Artists, designers and crafters will love the professional results they'll get with this BEST digital Sketchbook that I've ever used!
(With my review, I've included 3 images. If you don't see them on the top of this page in Images, you can find them by clicking on my name, then going to My Profile-Customer Images. The first image is of my computer screen, so you can see the corner interface control called the lagoon, which can be moved side to side or removed completely when sketching. You will also see the great moveable tool bar, brush window and color window- which you can move these three anywhere on the screen or remove, when sketching. It's simplistic screen design needs no directions! I made a City Skyline In Fall sketch in 5 minutes using the paintbrush and air brush along with the freehand, line and rectangle tools and spent another 5 minutes coloring it.
The second image I made in 20 minutes for a fabric print design using the symmetry tools. I used both symmetry tools X and Y along with flood fill, airbrush and paintbrush. The third image took me the longest time to create- 35 minutes, due to more detailed floral designs I wanted to create for a scarf print. I again used both symmetry tools X and Y along with flood fill, airbrush, paintbrush and the felt tip pen.
The fabric designs that used to take me endless hours by hand to create, now takes me a mere 20 to 40 minutes with these great symmetry tools! For fast painting, the airbrush and flood fill take seconds to use! The flood fill, which is a paint bucket, can be used to cover an entire area, or you will quickly learn like I did that you can also use this little paint bucket to splash a little color on for a beautiful effect! I did all three of these using only my mouse.
For more professional art, you will want to use a pen and tablet connected to your computer port. Wacom makes the best pen and tablets in all sizes and prices. For a beginner, try the inexpensive Wacom Bamboo or Bamboo Fun tablets and pens. For professional use, the more expensive Wacom Intuos4 Larger sized Pen and Tablets give you the ability to draw, design and paint anything with total pen control for hairline detail! I couldn't believe how easy and fast this program is to use- now everyone can be an artist!)Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 Overview
Relied on by professionals, adored by everyone who loves to draw... SketchBook Pro translates sophisticated technology and professional functionality into a natural drawing experience; use it anywhere you would traditionally use paper and pen!

A Natural Sketching Experience A dynamic and streamlined UI that is easy to learn and fun to use.View larger.

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Corel Painter 12 Upgrade Review

Corel Painter 12 Upgrade
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Corel Painter 12 Upgrade ReviewI've been using Painter since it was sold in a paint can. This program does what others only attempt. I frequently use Photoshop, and other graphics programs, but painter stands alone. My only beef is the occasional crash, I can't remember ever having a crash in Photoshop, but painter does maybe once a week... I couldn't see giving it 5 stars with the crashing. But still this program does some pretty cool stuff.
I also want to mention the new watercolor brushes. I use to do water color with brush and paint. Painter 12 has revamped their watercolor brushes, on previous releases I haven't bothered with them because they never seemed to work realistically. However in Painter 12, It's looking very realistic. The "light Fringe Real Watercolor" Brush lays down color great. It has a "drying" effect that pushes pigment to the edges and also into the deep spots on the texture of the paper. Very cool! You have to wait a moment to allow the strokes to dry, but in the old days I worked with a hair dryer, and had to wait a couple minuets to dry areas, so waiting 10 seconds isn't really that big of deal (it would be nice if it was instantaneous though).
Another great feature is cloning now puts the source picture into the project picture file, so if you like to work on a piece on multiple sessions, you wont have to go hunt down the source file again.
All in all, a great program. some real nice refinements on this release. But please Corel stabilize this program. The price is a premium, the program should be able to stand without stumbling all the time.
Corel Painter 12 Upgrade Overview

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Corel Painter 11 Review

Corel Painter 11
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Corel Painter 11 ReviewJust an Update for the review:
As of January 6, 2010 - nearly a YEAR after release, Corel has released a major patch update that resolves most problems I've had with the product. I have left the review alone (besides adding updates) to show how long it takes for these things to be resolved. I still stand by the fact Painter needs to resolve GUI issues, by appearance and stability.
** A special note, is that I wish Painter would include a dynamic resizable navigational/preview window like other paint programs have. There have been suggested work-arounds but I think it's time for Corel to include a much wanted feature.
As of August 26,2009 - I included a bug that still hasn't been fixed and is disruptive for workflow
As of May 21, 2009 - Corel has released a hotfix for the intuos3 missing stroke, corrupted workspaces, and cut and paste issue. The rest of the bugs still seem to remains.
I actually have been familiar with Painter since the old school large serial tablets and it was called Fractal Design Painter.
I really really wanted to love Painter 11. It has some nice new features such as the hard/real media brushes, and re-sizable Mixer and Color wheel. There is now PNG support too, but until there is a patch, it's not worth the upgrade or purchase. It feels like this should have been partial (but not a good update to) Painter X. The last time it took it to patch was when Painter X encountered GUI glitches on release (in Feb of that year) but it wasn't until June were there fixes. It didn't receive any patches after that and we (as in other people interested in the program) were waiting for the new release to see if it would fix previous problems.
Here's a list of major problems:
** (August 26 2009) Updating a bug issue I didn't put up here. This affects about anyone with a tablet and most likely wacoms. When you chose a brush, you have it at a certain size, for example 2.0, now use the eraser side of your stylus, change the size of your eraser. Flip back your stylus. Your 2.0 size has now increased to 17. I'm told that it doesn't have to happen when changing the brush size, but it happens when you use your eraser side of your stylus.
1. It's slow. It loads fast for a few days but for whatever reason it becomes increasingly slower to load. I'm using a Core Duo with 2gb of ram and even with nothing on (as in other programs running) it's still slow. (I'm a PC user)
2. a: Intuos 3 users will be frustrated. Apparently, there is a bug in this version of Painter. It causes a missing stroke or a random brush dab (the dab issue was present in X). Yes, that's right a painting program that can't register whether or not you're placing a stroke on your tablet. Let's see if this improves with an Intuos4. I feel sorry for intuos3 users right now (and I am one!)
b: Intuos 4 users may find themselves frustrated. I've tested the software in Windows XP sp3 with an Intuos4. The touchring can be downright unresponsive when trying to change brush sizes.
3. Bugs from X are still in here. Watch out for crashes when using guides and rulers. I already mentioned the missing brush dab problem. If you change your brush selector bars to stroke view, it changes them to thumbnail view when you go back to it. Sometimes trying to fix it back to stroke view causes it to crash.
4. CPU bug. For whatever reason, Painter likes to eat about 45% of your CPU or more even when you're idle and not drawing. I don't know why it's consuming so much CPU on idle times (as in I'm not even painting!). I'm told because I'm using multiple cores it may actually be closer to 100% if I had a single core processor.
5. Color Management. It also appears that painter is assigning incorrect color management to documents from the one you specified. This means you're blacks may not look 100% black because of this issue. There's even a bug for Mac users with color management.
6. Copy and Paste bug. Some reason Painter 11 is having issues copying and pasting selections into a new layer. This is really a problem for example if I wanted instead of lifting inks to a Watercolor layer...to copy and paste it into a new layer and setting it to gel.
7. The new Transformation tool...yep that's buggy too. It crops out certain areas, and sometimes doesn't transform selections correctly. What's the point of this tool if it doesn't work properly?
8. Ugly GUI - General User Interface. While the softened colors are better, the rest of the interface is just back to windows 2000. Nothing intuitive about the placement of tools on the tools palette, too many confusing palettes that need to be stored in an intuitive manner for many users, and interface bugs.
9. This maybe should be the number one issue for Corel. Really poor customer service. If you pay for the full edition, people have been told over the phone to go to their PanterFactory forums instead of getting real customer support. That can be absolutely frustrating for someone who just called their center expecting some support with their software package. In addition, the support level on their forums is abysmal. I'm not expecting Corel to be Adobe, but I feel like I'm on a sinking ship with the level of support.
I'm told they're already working on a Painter 12 and really....they should be working on revamping their product. I feel like more of this program is dedicated to photopainting, and the illustrators are feeling more and more ignored unless they help push the product. I really love painter for the natural brush emulation but the support and bugs leaves me bittersweet.
** - Edit I'm also trying to figure out why another person directed a counterpoint to my review about saying the Tilt function was faulty in Painter when this was never once mentioned in my review? I said there was a missing stroke bug, which is a completely different issue with the intuos 3. Reading comprehension...? (I kind of believe that to be a must in a good review before arguing something I never something I never said).Corel Painter 11 OverviewExpand your creativity with Painter 11, the most inventive digital painting software on the market. By adding Painter to your workflow, you gain a full art studio that gives you the tools to create unprecedented artwork. Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes, without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art. Support for the entire Wacom product line, including industry-leading Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos drawing tablets, gives you the most responsive digital painting experience so your hand and brush work fluidly as one. Customizable paper textures give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting or photo-painting tools can produce. Painter is changing what's possible in art. Now it's your turn.

The World's Most Powerful Natural-Media Software
Enhance the Creative Process
Enhanced Artistic Media reproduce the texture of their real-life counterparts and intensify color with each stroke
Pen and drawing tablet (recommended), combined with Painter's RealBristle brushes, recreate the natural interaction between hand and canvas
New Hard Media Controls let you create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library

Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
Improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop, and individual color profiles per document, make your colors more precise
Photo-painting tools with SmartStroke technology let you creatively transform reality
Customizable surface texturing gives your art a level of fantasy and detail that other photo and painting software can't deliver

Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art
New Hard Media controls give you the flexibility to play around to find the exact look you desire
Smart composition tools, such as Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths, help you visually arrange your canvas to create perfect compositions

Features
What's Included
Content Libraries of unique textures, gradients, nozzles, patterns, stock photos and brushes, including the new RealBristle dry media brush category
Documentation
Getting Started Guide
HTML User Guide and Getting Started Guide
HTML Help files

Training
Online tutorials and testimonials

Enhance the Creative Process
New--Hard Media Controls Create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library, so you have more creative control over your media. Customizable profiles, dab sizes, transitions and stroke width previews let you play around to create the exact look you want.
New--RealBristle Dry Media Marker, pen, pencil and chalk media reproduce the look and feel of their real-life counterparts in a way that no other software can!
Marker--intensify color with each new marker stroke so you can color in one continuous shade or create a buildup of color
Pen--choose to create fine pen strokes, or thick strokes and ink deposits, by changing the velocity of your stroke. The faster you go, the thinner the line; the slower you go, the thicker the line
Pencil & Chalk--control shading by changing the angle of your stylus on the drawing tablet. Choose whether to draw with the tip or shade with the side of the nib-just like in real life

Enhanced--Selection Tools A new Polygonal mode for the Lasso tool, plus overall improvements to marquee tools and the Magic Wand, let you make more nimble selections the first time around.
Enhanced--Wacom Support Support for the entire Wacom product line, including Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos pen tablets, gives you most responsive digital painting software and the best digital art experience.
RealBristle Painting System Replicate the sensation and interaction between traditional paint and canvas with your pen and tablet. This represents a major milestone for digital painting by making brushes totally responsive to your hand and canvas, creating the most realistic painting experience.
Customizable Brushes Create your own brushes in the type, size or pattern of your choice, so you can make custom brush strokes and create artwork that is truly unique.
Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
New--Color Management Create better color matches with new individual color profiles for every document and improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop. This enhances your workflow because you save time by having fewer color corrections to make.
Enhanced--Adobe Photoshop Support Maintain colors and layers when transferring files between Photoshop and Painter. This saves time when importing and exporting artwork between the two programs, because corrections are less necessary.
Photo-painting Tools Transform photos into paintings by hand, or let SmartStroke brush technology in the Auto-Painting Palette paint a photo for you. It follows the lines and contours in the picture just like a real artist would. This lets you take the best of both worlds--photography and painting--to create new forms of art.
Customizable Surface Texturing Give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting software and photo-painting tools can produce. You can choose paper textures for your canvas, or create and customize your own textures to produce really unique artwork.
Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Enhanced--Mixer Palette & Swatches Extra mixer swatches appear when you enlarge the newly resizable Mixer Palette. Increase the size of the Palette to put more colors at your disposal and have a clearer view of your chosen color. Reduce the size when you no longer need to mix colors so the Palette takes up less space on screen.
Smart Composition Tools Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths help you visually arrange your canvas before sketching or painting to create perfect compositions.
Flexible Digital Art Tools Experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes to your heart's content, and produce exciting results-without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art.
Universal Mixer Palette For multicolor selection, this palette gives you better control over color blending between the Mixer palette and the canvas, so your colors are more precise.
Underpainting Palette This palette includes color schemes based on various artistic styles, such as Impressionist, Classical, Modern, Watercolor, Sketchbook and Chalk Drawing, so you can create art like your favorite muses. You can also match your Underpainting Palette to that of any open image for consistency.
Match Palette Effect Match the color and intensity between 2 images. Just open an image that features your desired color scheme and use the Match Palette effect to bring that color to the image you want to change.
Increase Speed & Stability
Enhanced--Performance Painter 11 is optimized to provide artists with the fastest version of Painter ever. Depending on system hardware, brushes perform up to 30% faster, creating a more true-to-life painting speed.
New--Transformation Capabilities Switch between different Transform modes from one centralized tool, and choose whether to transform the complete contents of a layer, or selected content, for greater speed, flexibility and precision.
New--Resizable Color Palette Adjust colors manually with sliders on the Color Palette. Enlarge the Color Palette up to 800 pixels for a clearer view of your selected color. You can now also fine-tune the color wheel with your arrow keys so it takes less time to find the perfect color.
New--Color Management Interface The fresh and simplified interface makes it easier to control color profiles when creating new files, or when opening Painter and other file types.
Windows Vista Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system from Microsoft.
Mac OS Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system 10.5 from Apple.
Multiple Platform Support Painter 11 includes both Mac OS and Windows versions on the same CD.

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Serif PagePlus X5 Review

Serif PagePlus X5
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Serif PagePlus X5 ReviewIf I could give PagePlus X5 10 stars, I would.
I was using Quark XPress to lay out a book and pulling my hair out, even though Iv'e used it before. I searched the online help, books, in program help and could not find answers -- to a simple thing of how do you put in a page break. They have no such words in their index.
After that frustration, I looked to see if I could find another page layout program. I briefly peeked at InDesign, but honestly had no hopes for it. And, anyway, it's something like $700 (like Quark).
After about 2 weeks of on and off looking, I accidentally found Serif and PagePlus, which from their website is selling for $99. Once I downloaded it and started using it, it took me an entire week to get over the insanity I had worked up over Quark and having no other options and the incredible relief that here was a program that could do what Quark does at fraction of the price and: EASILY!!! It had page breaks! among all sorts of other things.
There's lots of things I love about it and I'll give a list, but will have to come back and add to it as I use it more and learn more.
First of all, GOD! it opens in a fraction of the time that Quark did!!! I can actually press on it and it opens. With Quark, I'd go away and make breakfast. Geeeees.
It has a very nice, user-friendly interface--all the tools are right out, easy to get to, and big enough so you don't have to search hard to find something. Everything is clear enough so, even if you know nothing about the program, you can start working with it.
So here goes a rather unorganized list . . . It has a PDF button right on the tool bar; PDF file opens (if you choose) so you can see what things look like; Warning comes on if fonts are used that are not supported with PDF.
One of THE most ingenious features is WritePlus--it's on the tool bar, you click it and it opens a word processing program right on top of your publication and everything you have laid out in your publication is simply presented in the WordPlus. Whatever you write in WordPlus immediately also goes into your publication. Both are on the screen . . . . So if you're working with a lot of small columns, you can switch to PagePlus and it's a lot easier to work and make corrections.
Same thing with adjusting photos. You open PhotoLab--right on the tool bar and, boom, you have a whole set of tools to adjust your photos. Amazing! They also have the button on the toolbar for PhotoPlus, but that's a program you need to purchase (also around the same price). But, PhotoLab has everything you need. I've also purchased their DrawPlus, which has all sorts of tools--EASY to use, and also includes photo adjusting stuff. So between PagePlus and DrawPlus, I have absolutely everything I need to lay out books and do whatever I need to create for my websites.
O.K., besides saving in PDF, you can save files in RTF and convert them to a million different things like JPEG, etc.
You can import files from Word into Page Plus. Also it opens any PDF documents that you can then edit and work with.
You can have more than one document open at a time, just like in a browser, it will show tabs on top and you can go between them.
They have tons of drawing tools in PagePlus, it's really amazing. Also HEX option for colors. It comes with a bunch of templates.
Quark has a "library" for objects you create to use again and again, well so does PagePlus--it's called Gallery and it's right there and handy.
The help menu is fantastic! The program also comes with a PDF guide for the program. And if you want to buy a guide book, you can purchase it from Serif, which I did, so I can lie around in bed and read it. (I know major dork, but what can I say).
The same way there is a button for Write Plus and PhotoLab, there is something called Image Cutout Studio that lets you manipulate images. I've not had a need for that just yet, but am curious to explore further. It opens up the same way, on a small screen in front of the main project you're working on.
You can use PagePlus for regular basic documents (they have templates, like flyers, business cards, booklets (now I don't have to use Publisher nay more either); books and also web. Or you can convert a print publication to a web publication.
There is a bunch more stuff, but this is already too long.
Mostly what I love is the ease of use. It's an amazing combination of powerful tools, yet very easy to use.
I write and PagePlus solves all my writing needs. When I am working on a novel, I can have all the tabs open: for character, plot, content . . . and add easily. If I am writing on a book I want to self-publish, I can lay it out and use WritePlus to write it. Easy!
I'll add more here as I find out more.
I am just SOOO happy there was some other option--and a far better one at that--than Quark and InDesign -- at $700! Insane.
I like PagePlus so much I want to get two copies. Yup crazy. And I want to get every other Serif product, even though I don't need it, just to enjoy the intelligence of it all.
OH, they also have live technical support. FREE!! Another amazing thing.
---------------------------------------
MORE. Added June 6.
Since the above . . . forgot to say there is a thesaurus built into PagePlus.
Also, I've laid out a book, soon to be selling on Amazon: The Workings of Energy in the Human Energy Field: A Psychic's Perspective, and I loved using the program. Discovered, in the process, that the PhotoLab (right on the toolbar), lets you adjust JPEG images--which I had to do with my book cover--without having to go to a photo editor.
The only thing I found as a drawback is their live support team seems to know absolutely nothing. I've called 3 times, and none of those times was the person able to answer my question. I'd end up hanging up with them, and finding the answer myself. This does seem to be better with email. I had one very successful resolution that way.
Serif PagePlus X5 Overview
Professional Desktop Publishing Made Easy
Create professional-quality advertising, sophisticated print designs and electronic documents with PagePlus X5, the best-in-class desktop publisher. From brochures to books, menus to magazines, flyers to forms and professional printing to PDF editing, PagePlus X5 does it all quickly and easily--like having a design agency at your desk.

Design Documents Fast Customizable templates and intuitive tools for fast results.

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