News and tips for creative professionals in graphics, publishing, web design, and more

Review: JVC Everio GZ-HM400

Rob Mead — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:50:00 -0800

Designed to sit at the top of JVC’s Everio camcorder line, the GZ-HM400 should give its rivals a run for their money.

Review: SketchBook Mobile for iPhone

John Brandon — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:31:00 -0800

Autodesk's app is one of the better painting and drawing apps on the iPhone. It's the rare app that appeals to both novices and professionals.

JavaScript getting faster, could displace Flash

Paul Krill — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:45:00 -0800

JavaScript's creator claims JavaScript has displaced Java as a Web client, outlines projected enhancements

Review: JVC Picsio GC-FM1 pocket HD camcorder

Tim Moynihan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:14:00 -0800

On paper, JVC’s Picsio GC-FM1 pocket HD camcorder is loaded. But pocket-camcorder championships aren’t won on paper, they’re won on-screen and in your hands

Novation Launchpad debuts

Jackie Dove — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:30:00 -0800

Novation has unveiled Launchpad, an easy-to-use audio controller that works with Ableton Live 8 performance software to let you create musical compositions.

Review: 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs (Late 2009)

Roman Loyola — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:29:00 -0800

The Late 2009 iMacs are really about the new displays—and the displays are impressive.

Review: Studio One Pro 1.0.1

John Brandon — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

New kid on the block: StudioOne is a powerful new music creation and production app that rivals Apple and Avid offerings.

OWC unveils new quad-interface 12X Blu-ray burner

Roman Loyola — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:34:00 -0800

OWC expanded your external Blu-ray choices by releasing its new Mercury Pro 12x Blu-ray burner.

Review: Google Picasa 3.5 photo organizer

Kris Fong — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

When it comes to organizing, editing, and sharing photos, most Mac users know iPhoto. But Google offers Picasa, a free photo editing and sharing app that rivals iPhoto ‘09.

Sorenson Media releases Sorenson Squeeze 6

Jackie Dove — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:15:00 -0800

Sorenson Media has released Sorenson Squeeze 6, an update of its video encoding software. This version is designed to let users more easily encode and publish video to the internet. It adds e-mail and text notification, secure review and approval, optimized video codecs, new filters, and more.

Review: Acorn 2.1 image editing software

James Dempsey — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0800

Acorn 2.1 is a great app for digital photography hobbyists, bloggers, or anyone who needs a decent amount of flexibility in editing images but doesn't require the power of a full image editor.

Creating a favicon for your Web site

Chris McVeigh — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

Go to any major Web site, and you’ll almost certainly see an icon to the left of the address in your browser. This tiny image is called a favicon (or Favorites Icon), and with a little effort, you can create one of your own.

Readers' entries to the Macworld pumpkin carving contest

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:30:00 -0700

Check out these amazing reader submissions for our great Macworld pumpkin carving contest.

Review: VHS capture tools compared

Christopher Breen — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:15:00 -0700

If you have a box of VHS slowly deteriorating in the basement, use these tools to convert them.

Self-promotional sites with iWeb

Adam Berenstain — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:30:00 -0700

Pulling together a self-promotional Web site can be complex. Using iWeb for the task can make your job easier.

Review: Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone

Jackie Dove — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:12:00 -0700

The good part about Adobe's new Photoshop.com Mobile iPhone app is that it's easy, intuitive, fast, and fun, and does what it says it will do. The bad part is that it doesn't do that much.

Review: ScreenFlow 2

Rob Griffiths — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:30:00 -0700

ScreenFlow 2 adds transitions, audio ducking, clip playback speed adjustment, and more to the screen recording and editing suite.

ScreenFlow 2.0 adds powerful new editing features

Lex Friedman — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:25:00 -0700

Telestream's already-powerful screencasting studio, ScreenFlow, gets more powerful with version 2.0.

Review: Adobe Photoshop Elements 8

Rick LePage — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:18:00 -0700

Adobe's low-cost image editor features some interesting new tools and lots of small changes that add up to top-notch program.

Maximize your iMovie editing space

Jeff Carlson — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:30:00 -0700

The designers of iMovie have included several options for maximizing the editing environment for any screen size. Whether you want to focus on your project instead of your video library, or just want to recover some elbow room while editing, the following techniques will help.

Review: Canon Vixia HF S10 HD camcorder

Jim Feeley — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:47:00 -0700

The overall image quality, deep manual controls, and decent ease of use make Canon’s Vixia HF S10 an excellent choice for both advanced and casual videographers.

Macworld's Great Pumpkin Carving Contest

Macworld Staff — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:30:00 -0700

Your trusty Macworld editors have many talents. Carving pumpkins may or may not be one of them. Take a look at the Apple-themed pumpkin carvings we created and decide for yourself.

Multiple-Clipboard utilities (and why you should use one)

Dan Frakes — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:00:00 -0700

In this week’s Macworld video, Dan Frakes takes a look at three of his favorite utilities for gaining multiple Clipboards, in the process showing you how they can improve your productivity.

Pro Applications Update tackles Final Cut Studio

Philip Michaels — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:33:00 -0700

Pro Applications Update 2009-01, released by Apple Thursday, includes updates for Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Color, Motion, and Compressor.

Review: Sanyo Xacti VPC-FH1 HD camcorder

Jim Feeley — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 03:47:00 -0700

Sanyo’s Xacti VPC-FH1 is a high-definition (HD) camcorder that delivers good-looking video and stills.

Review: Sports Cards for iPhone

Roman Loyola — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:37:00 -0700

This set of 60 sports-themed frames lets you turn give your mobile photos a trading card look. Unfortunately, there are limits on what you can and can't customize.

Scary fonts

Jay J. Nelson — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:00:00 -0700

Planning a Halloween party or celebration? Or just sending a card? Here are places where you can find some original fonts for the occasion.

Sharing home movies with iWeb

Adam Berenstain — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:00:00 -0700

The My Albums templates in iWeb aren’t just for pictures––they can hold videos, too. Here’s how to use them to organize your movies in one convenient place online.

Save printer ink by using an ink-saving font

Rick Broida — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:46:00 -0700

Ecofont is a free typeface that promises to reduce ink use by up to 20 percent.

Cartoon you: Photoshop gradients for monotone or duotone effects

Pariah S. Burke — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 06:30:00 -0700

Here's how to use Photoshop's gradients to create an elegant duotone avatar for social networking Web sites or chat clients.

Mac writing tools

Jason Snell — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:15:00 -0700

In advance of National Novel Writing Month, Jason Snell shows you various Mac tools for writing, organizing, and focusing.

TypeStyler makes long-awaited OS X debut

Philip Michaels — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:33:00 -0700

Strider Software has brought its desktop publishing app, which lets users customize and create special effects with fonts, to OS X after seven years of development work.

Review: MCE 8X Blu-ray Disc External Recordable Drive

James Galbraith — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:30:00 -0700

The MCE 8x Blu-ray Disc External Recordable Drive is a relatively speedy optical drive. If you intend to use the drive with USB, it’s worth a look.

Review: Logic Express 9

Christopher Breen — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 08:30:00 -0700

Logic Express 9 packs a load of features into a mid-priced digital audio workstation application. As such it may be today's best musical bargain, albeit a sometimes challenging one.

Review: Toon Boom Studio 5

Dan Ablan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0700

Toon Boom Studio 5's stop-motion feature, annotation layers, and export functions make this not just a fun program to use, but one rich in sophisticated features.

Design basics: The alignment analysis

Lesa Snider — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:00:00 -0700

You don't need a degree in graphic design to create great-looking documents. You just have to follow a few simple rules. Today we learn about alignment.

E-on Software unveils Vue 8 lineup

Jackie Dove — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:52:00 -0700

E-on software has unveiled its upcoming Vue 8 product line, scheduled for release the first week of November. New features include 3-D terrain sculpting, a new directional displacement engine, and the third generation of E-on's atmospheric technology.

iMovie update improves device compatibility

Philip Michaels — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:41:00 -0700

iMovie 8.0.5, released Tuesday, improves compatibility with importing video captured on the new camera-equipped iPod nanos, among other changes.

Review: JR Hexatone Pro for iPhone

John Brandon — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:24:00 -0700

Using this music-making app can be a challenge at first, especially given the real estate available on the iPhone's screen. But once you learn JR Hexatone Pro, it is actually one of the best music apps available at the App Store.

Epson introduces new PictureMate Charm photo printer

Roman Loyola — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:30:00 -0700

Epson announced a new compact photo printer called the PictureMate Charm.

Mac News Briefs: Logic Pro update enhances features, addresses stability

Macworld Staff — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:04:00 -0700

The minor update to Apple's professional music recording, editing, and mixing software allows Flex Markers to align and snap to MIDI notes, makes performing a punch-in recording with Replace Mode behave correctly, adds an option for latency measurement to he I/O plug-in, and causes TDM plug-ins to behave as expected.

Cartoon you: Quick avatars with Photoshop filters and effects

Pariah S. Burke — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:45:00 -0700

How to use Photoshop filters to build creative avatars for social networking and Web sites and chat clients.

Get prints in minutes with the Fujifilm Instax mini 7 camera

Sarah Jacobsson — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 05:36:00 -0700

Fujifilms Instax mini 7 is a modern version of a Polaroid instant camera. After pressing the shutter, a credit card-size color photo emerges from the top of the camera body.

Adobe releases Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone

Dan Moren — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:26:00 -0700

Adobe has released Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone, an application that lets iPhone owners edit their photos and upload them to the company's Photoshop.com online photo storage service.

First Look: Samsung DualView TL225 camera

Tim Moynihan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:54:00 -0700

Tim Moynihan looks at Samsung's DualView TL225, which features two LCD screens, one of which is on the face of the camera.

Xinet unveils updated asset management tools

Jackie Dove — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:47:00 -0700

Xinet released new versions of its digital asset management and video asset management systems.

Review: FastMac External Slimline USB 2.0 BD-R 4X Optical Drive

James Galbraith — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:00:00 -0700

Though it won’t set any speed records, the FastMac External Slimline USB 2.0 BD-R 4X Optical Drive is a dependable performer. Bus-powered and compact, this portable burner should appeal to mobile users interested in burning Blu-ray and other discs.

AIR 2.0 will flow to Flip cams, local apps

James Niccolai — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:20:00 -0700

Adobe has unveiled an update to its AIR runtime environment, due in beta later this year, that gives it greater access to local desktop resources.

iPhone app lets up to 10 people play the piano

Sumner Lemon — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:48:00 -0700

Yamaha and two partners have developed an iPhone application that lets up to 10 people play a piano at the same time.

Review: Acoustic Guitar for iPhone

Brian Beam — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:28:00 -0700

This guitar app does some nice things within the confines of the iPhone's limitations. But as decent as it is, Acoustic Guitar is no substitute for the real thing.