The New Image Editors

Posted by Stretch | Filed under Apple, Software

In the past few months, 3 major Photoshop contenders have all been released, Pixelmator, Acorn and DrawIt . All are fighting for the same thing. To be the best Photoshop replacement. But with three different ones, plus other older pieces of software, which one do you choose?

I want to be clear up front: I won’t be comparing the applications’ feature lists exhaustively in the article. I am also going to concentrate on some major items that are always requirements for me. That means I’ll miss some that are critical for you. And I’ll be concentrating on the UI and the behaviour of these apps, because that’s where we spend the most time. Little things that get short shrift in other reviews like application and document icons will be covered.

Testing

My test platform is my aging, but much loved, PowerBook 17 G4 1.5 with 2 GB RAM and an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. I am not using benchmarks at all, and any time I mention how fast something is it’s a subjective measure. I should mention I am a professional Graphic Designer, and I spend a lot of time in Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, but I am not an extreme Photoshop professional. I don’t use a tablet. I am always on the lookout for new interesting software with an eye to improving my efficiency and capabilities.

The test image is one that I have taken with my Samsung NV3. The image is a relatively slow exposure taken on a city bus on my way to work one morning. I will be handling the picture in its original format: JPEG, 3072 × 2304, 3.2 MB. This camera doesn’t output RAW files. The photo is stashed in iPhoto ‘08 (v. 7.1). There are a lot of undefined edges and reflected colours and halos.

It is a very good review of all three of the applications. If you are trying to choose between all three, I’d highly recommend reading it.

Via Daring Fireball

Permalink | October 31st, 2007

2 Responses to “The New Image Editors”

  1. MHC Says:
    November 5th, 2007 at 9:09 am

    What I’d be interested in with this crop of new image editors is one that can work and save images at a higher rez than 72ppi for printing purposes.

    I tried to look in the screenies on those websites, plus the one at Pixel image editor and it doesn’t seem to be the case (development of the app has picked up again after a rather long hiatus). Maybe in future versions?

    Let’s hope: there is nothing I would love more than see Adobe eat its socks for a while and come back down on Earth to join the pleb.

  2. Stretch Says:
    November 5th, 2007 at 2:03 pm

    Its probably worth checking with the devs of these to see if they are or have implemented that.