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

Brushing up with Brush Pilot

James Dempsey — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:34:00 -0700

Jay Hilgert’s Brush Pilot is a simple application that lets you preview, install, and delete brushes anywhere on your hard drive. James Dempsey takes a closer look.

News: Toon Boom Studio 5 released

Jackie Dove — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:53:00 -0700

Toon Boom Animation has rebranded its animation application as an educational tool for multi-technique animation. It's also added a stop-motion animation feature to version 5.

Mac News Briefs: iBank updated in advance of iPhone app release

Macworld Staff — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:07:00 -0700

Version 3.5 of iBank expands the personal finance manager's syncing capabilities. Other programs updated Wednesday include VMware Fusion, Slideshow, and FlightAlert XT.

PulpMotion creates professional multimedia presentations

Kris Fong — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:01:00 -0700

Aquafadas’s PulpMotion produces professional multimedia presentations that are anything but ordinary.

Review: Brushes for iPhone

Tim Mercer — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:28:00 -0700

You'll be impressed with what you can do with Brushes, a $5 mobile studio in your pocket that lets you sketch or paint anywhere, anytime. The app sports a number of impressive features wrapped up in a really simple and efficient interface.

Shape Collage turns a collection of photos into creative collages

Kris Fong — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 05:01:00 -0700

Shape Collage turns a collection of photos into a collage of practically any shape, whether you’re going for a traditional design or something totally out there.

Mac News Briefs: iFinance 3 out of beta

Macworld Staff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:34:00 -0700

iFinance 3 has been rewritten from the ground up, according to developer Synium Software. Also, Xcode, AutoCorrectXT, and Adium all saw updates on Monday.

Web2 Delight lets you easily download videos from YouTube

Aayush Arya — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:01:00 -0700

As great as video sharing Web sites like YouTube are, they often don’t allow you to directly download the videos on their site. Web2 Delight doesn’t just make this possible; it makes the whole process positively painless.

iLovePhotos uses face detection to sort photos

Kris Fong — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 05:01:00 -0700

You’ve probably heard about the Faces feature in iPhoto ‘09 that makes it quick and easy to find all photos of a particular someone in your iPhoto library. But if you don’t have iPhoto ‘09, iLovePhotos can give you a similar result for free.

ViewIt helps sort your camera's photos

Kris Fong — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:01:00 -0700

With ViewIt, you can simply drop your camera’s photos onto the ViewIt window, view and mark what’s good with just a key press, and copy only those images to your Mac.

Sumo Paint: Photoshop-like Web-based image editor

Kris Fong — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 05:01:00 -0700

For image editing, Sumo Paint offers many Photoshop standbys. And best of all, this Web-based application is free.

Mac News Briefs: Storyist writing software now at version 2.0

Macworld Staff — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:44:00 -0700

Storyist, which features word-processing and organizational features, now adds a new "collage" mode to help visualize connections between story elements, a full-screen view, multiple windows, and support for comments and bookmarks. The Sync'Em synchronization utility also saw an update, while Casio previewed a new WXGA projector due in September.

Nik Software releases Complete Collection Lightroom edition

Digital Arts staff — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:14:00 -0700

Nik Software updated its Complete Collection, which bundles all of the company’s award-winning digital imaging software tools at an affordable price, to include Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 support.

Microspot Interiors Pro adds new wall and vertex editing tools

Peter Cohen — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:41:00 -0700

Microspot Interiors Pro has new wall and vertex editing tools to make it easier to visualize 3D spaces.

PhotoPresenter helps make creative slideshows

Aayush Arya — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 05:01:00 -0700

Rife as Mac OS X already is with slide-show capabilities, PhotoPresenter builds onto those and puts many more options and styles at your fingertips.

Extensis releases Universal Type Server 2.0

Peter Cohen — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 07:25:00 -0700

Universal Type Server 2.0 now supports Open Directory and Active Directory and other key improvements.

Mac News Briefs: Daz 3D releases enhanced version of animation program

Macworld Staff — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:13:00 -0700

In addition to releasing a free version of Daz Studio 3, the developer rolled out Daz Studio 3 Advanced, which targets 3-D animators, designers, and illustrators with professional level tools.

Enlarging images with Alien Skin's Blow Up 2 plugin

James Dempsey — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 09:37:00 -0700

Pros know that enlarging photos is not always as simple a task as it looks. James Dempsey shows you how Alien Skin Software's Blow Up 2 can produce high-quality enlargements without a lot of fuss.

Adobe's Acrobat.com collaboration services emerge from beta

Elizabeth Montalbano — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:12:00 -0700

Adobe's Acrobat.com collaboration services emerge from beta Monday.

iMovieLocationEditor helps edit iMovie's locations

Jeff Carlson — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 05:01:00 -0700

If you want to use the same custom location several times in iMovie '09, you can use iMovieLocationEditor to edits iMovie’s locations.

Image-placing shortcuts in Adobe InDesign

James Dempsey — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 10:03:00 -0700

Adobe's InDesing page-layout application usually offers more than one way to take care of a task. That's certainly the case for placing images in a document. Join James Dempsey as he shows off some ways to improve your productivity with a few handy keyboard shortcuts.

Spring cleaning—but how?

Jackie Dove — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:25:00 -0700

What happens when you find a bunch of old floppy disks and you haven't had a drive in years? Jackie Dove found out when she uncovered some old fonts stored on floppy disk.

Tweetube helps you share video on Twitter

Scott McNulty — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 05:01:00 -0700

Tweetube is a complementary app to the third-party service of the same name that allows you share a variety of media on Twitter.

Mac News Briefs: Adobe puts out Acrobat, Reader security updates

Macworld Staff — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:55:00 -0700

The software maker says the 9.1.2 versions of its PDF creation tool and viewer address critical security vulnerabilities. Also, new versions of Vue Personal Learning Edition and PDF Enhancer were released Tuesday.

Anime Studio Debut 6 released

Peter Cohen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:45:00 -0700

Smith Micro has rolled out a new version of Anime Studio, its animation software for hobbyists.

Review: Canon PowerShot A480 digital camera

Roman Loyola — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:00:00 -0700

If you’re a tripod-shooter, a steady-handed photographer, or just want a bargain-bin camera with good image quality, the PowerShot A480 is worth a look.

Review: Nikon Coolpix L20 digital camera

Tim Moynihan — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:00:00 -0700

Nikon’s Coolpix L20 is a great representative of a growing category of cameras: very affordable, easy-to-use point-and-shoots with surprisingly stellar image quality and a bit of fashion sense.

Mac News Briefs: Comic Life gains enhancements in 1.5 update

Macworld Staff — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:49:00 -0700

Comic Life 1.5 adds a number of enhancements, including the ability to create single page comics by dragging and dropping images.

Slideshow: Macs at the Maker Faire

Heather Kelly — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:01:00 -0700

Maker Faire is a two-day do-it-yourself tech and craft fest held in the Bay Area. We paid a visit to the fourth annual event and took note of all the Mac- and Apple-based exhibits on display.

Exploring Photoshop Actions

James Dempsey — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:36:00 -0700

Though its been part of Photoshop for some time now, Photoshop Actions doesn't get the attention that it deserves. James Dempsey looks to remedy that in the latest Creative Notes post.

Adobe aligns software branding to shine light on Flash

Elizabeth Montalbano — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:15:00 -0700

Adobe is aligning its Web design and developer tools, including a new one developers can begin testing Monday, under its Flash brand.

Digitize VHS video tapes

Christopher Breen — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:10:00 -0700

Senior editor Chris Breen takes a look at two products that can help you transfer video tape content to your Mac.

Review: Olympus Stylus Tough 8000 digital camera

Derrick Story — Fri, 29 May 2009 03:00:00 -0700

The Stylus Tough 8000 is the camera you can take anywhere, from freezing European ski slopes to the tropical waters of the Caribbean.

Mac News Briefs: Finale 2010 coming soon

Macworld Staff — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:20:00 -0700

The latest version of the music notation software was announced Thursday. Also making news were new input devices from Verbatim and a new version of ADmitMac from Thursby Software.

Canto Cumulus 8 released

Peter Cohen — Thu, 28 May 2009 07:40:00 -0700

Canto has released Cumulus 8, a new version of its Digital Asset Management system for Macs, PCs and other platforms.

FileBrowse helps organize media files

Nathan Alderman — Wed, 27 May 2009 05:01:00 -0700

FileBrowse is a beautiful, well-made media browser program, though how useful you find it will likely depend on what files you’re perusing.

New Yorker cover drawn entirely on an iPhone

Cyrus Farivar — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:50:00 -0700

Artist Jorge Colombo used the iPhone app Brushes to create this week's New Yorker magazine cover.

First look: Sanyo VPC-WH1 waterproof HD camcorder

Roman Loyola — Fri, 22 May 2009 10:00:00 -0700

In this video, Roman Loyola takes a first look at Sanyo’s new VPC-WH1 HD camcorder. This device shoots 720p (30 frames per second) video and it’s waterproof. You can take it underwater up to 10 feet deep.

Review: Olympus Stylus 7000 digital camera

Derrick Story — Fri, 22 May 2009 03:00:00 -0700

The Stylus 7000 certainly delivers in terms of style, ease of use, and a creative feature set.

Review: Casio Exilim EX-FC100 digital camera

Ben Long — Thu, 21 May 2009 03:00:00 -0700

It’s the high-speed shooting features that really set the Exilim EX-FC100 from other point-and-shoot cameras. Otherwise, it's a very capable device, offering all of the features you’d expect in a compact, pocket-size camera.

Review: Tiffen Dfx 2

Ben Long — Wed, 20 May 2009 03:00:00 -0700

Tiffen, one of the leading manufacturers of lens filters, has released a package of plug-in filters that simulate the effects of their real-world lens filters; and it's very exciting that Tiffen has done such a good job in producing a plug-in collection that’s useful and performs well.

Mac News Briefs: Music notation program Sibelius updated

Macworld Staff — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:21:00 -0700

Sibelius 6 adds a number of features aimed at boosting efficiency and making it easier to collaborate. Also, HashBang unveiled a rebranded version of its iCal-to-desktop calendaring embedding app, while the Caboodle organization utility saw an update.

Simulating tilt-shift photography with the Bokeh plugin

James Dempsey — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:02:00 -0700

Alien Skin Software's Bokeh does more than just add and adjust out-of-focus areas of an image to enhance the subject matter. It can also add tilt-shift effects to an image, as James Dempsey explains.

Sony unveils new consumer DSLR cameras

Roman Loyola — Sun, 17 May 2009 21:00:00 -0700

Sony today announced three new digital single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras, aimed at consumers interested in transitioning from point-and-shoot cameras.

Review: Nikon D90 digital SLR camera

Ben Long — Fri, 15 May 2009 02:22:00 -0700

If you shoot pictures with a digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera and carry a point-and-shoot for its video capability, then Nikon’s D90 might be the camera for you.

Mac News Briefs: BoinxTV update adds audio, image adjustment features

Macworld Staff — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:24:00 -0700

The newest version of Boinx Software's live video production software adds a number of new features and bug fixes, including support for a high-quality chroma key filter. The developers for rooSwitch and RapidWeaver also unveiled updates Thursday.

Review: Canon PowerShot A1100 IS digital camera

Ben Long — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:00:00 -0700

Canon's PowerShot A1100 IS provides a very good price/performance ratio, and it’s even available in four fashionable colors. If you’re looking for a good entry-level camera, you should consider the A1100.

Add focus to your images with Bokeh

James Dempsey — Mon, 11 May 2009 10:50:00 -0700

If you want to apply the visually distinctive appearance of light in the out-of-focus area of a photograph -- a term known as "bokeh" -- you've come to the right place. James Dempsey shows you how to do it with a $199 plug-in from Alien Skin Software.

Review: iShred for iPhone

Brian Beam — Mon, 11 May 2009 08:47:00 -0700

As long as you're willing to put in the time and effort to learn your way around it, iShred: Guitar + Effects is a terrific app.

Review: GE A835 digital camera

Ben Long — Fri, 08 May 2009 06:00:00 -0700

If you’ve finally decided to jump on the digital camera bandwagon, GE's A835 isn’t a bad choice, but for just a little more money you could get a camera that delivers better image quality.