September 1997 — Ed-Tech Trends

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Digital Imaging Is Innovative, Useful and Now Within Educators' Reach

While not offering the same level of control as competing packages from Corel and Adobe, Picture It! may be useful for educators looking for a project-based package that is extremely easy to use. Collages, calendars, awards and more can all be created through a friendly, hand-holding interface. For distance learning projects, students can create and send electronic slide shows from within the application. Picture It! supports 21 standard graphics file formats, and can download pictures directly from most digital cameras.

While Adobeís (800-888-6293) PhotoDeluxe will also guide users through the editing process, it offers more independence when theyíre ready to strike out on their own. For around $50, PhotoDeluxe features a lot of special effects such as smoothing, artistic effects like Charcoal Painting, Glass Lens, distortion and more. Cleaning up images is easy, thanks to photo editing tools and available online help. Images can be input from digital cameras, scanned in, or copied from Kodak PhotoCDs or floppy disks. And, since PhotoDeluxe works with most word processing programs and desktop publishing software, educators donít have to break the budget purchasing compatible software in order to integrate images into projects created in other programs.

 

Corel Photo Paint grafik -- Big Package With Big Features

Hands On: Corel PHOTO-PAINT 7 Plus

Corelís (800-772-6735) PHOTO-PAINT 7 Plus is a much more robust package for photo editing, which is reflected in the price. Boasting features such as Lens objects, which apply 12 different color and tone effects without permanently modifying the underlying image, and numerous plug-in filters, PHOTO-PAINT 7 Plus gives serious image editing power. At $495, however, one would expect some extras. (Corel offers various upgrades; call for pricing.) And extras it delivers, including Kodakís Digital Science Color Management System; Corel TEXTURE, for creating realistic natural textures such as wood, marble, clouds and more; the ability to work with graphic tablets and pressure-sensitive pens; Object and Gradient transparency adjustment tools; and many more features not available in lower-end programs.

Setting up PHOTO-PAINT 7 was easier than we expected from such a complete package. Within minutes, powerful tools such as masking were being implemented, to great results. Performance was more than acceptable on our Compaq Presario 4406ES. This packageís ability to support almost 40 different image formats is just one indication of its power.