CompuServe Messages

Ben, "Imagemaster is superb at image manipulation . . .It can outperform Photoshop in many ways . . . Photoshop is highly directed at prepress operations . . . Photoshop is a lot more polished [re the user interface] This latter item we will address shortly . . . the former we'll probably keep away from for the largest part . . ." All very accurate assements of the two programs. I use both every day. (actually I use IP). IM is MUCH more powerful than Photoshop. But it is extremely hard to use. Part of its difficulty is its sheer power. But much too much of the difficulty is the user interface. Then there are tools that are just lacking which make the power of IM (IP) almost impossible to tap. For instance, the gamma correction curve and the associated curves under the USER TRANSFORMS option are the heart and soul of image manipulation of scanned continuous tone originals (on their way to becoming halftones). Using the gamma correction curve alone, I could apply every bit of needed tone and color correction and control of dynamic range of _any_ scanned image. The problem is, the tool provided to draw the correction curve is so poor as to make a smooth curve impossible, even _with_ the smoothing function provided. There are no x or y scales at the edges of the drawing area nor a 'read out' of x/y values to aid the user while 'drawing.' The tool needs to be that of a rubber-banding action instead of the present 'sharp' action. True, you do provide access to the resultant curve which is an ASCII file (.TFM) of 256 gray scale values which can be edited. However, editing this file is tedious at the very best. It is NOT the kind of activity that is easy for the user or even intuitive. It is a programmers kind of solution. Worse it is a classic case of making the user work for the computer, when the opposite should be happening. Even if the user is inclined to carry out this activity (as I obviously have), it is almost impossible to make the curve smooth. Any [ MORE ]