As producer of a floppyzine with lots of graphics, I'm always looking for a new way to bully pixels around. My favorite image-editing tool comes from
Alien Skin Software. Its Black Box disk is a collection of six software plug-ins: Drop Shadow, Glass, Glow, HSB Noise, Swirl, and The Boss. Each performs what you'd expect from its name (The Boss is a sophisticated embossing tool).
Most of the plug-ins duplicate Adobe Photoshop "channel operations" or "chops," which are normally time- and RAM-consuming processes. These tools are not limited to Photoshop, however. You can use them with Fractal Design Painter, PixelPaint Pro, and ColorIt! for the Mac and Micrografx Picture Publisher for Windows.
Alien Skin makes sure there is plenty of variability for each plug-in, via sets of slider bars that control things like opacity and blur. The simple accompanying manual offers many useful and easy-to-understand examples of how to use The Black Box. I wouldn't have known what to do with the amazing "refraction" feature of the Glass plug-in otherwise.
The Black Box for Macintosh /Power Macintosh and Windows: US$89. Alien Skin Software: +1 (919) 832 4124, fax + 1 (919) 832 4065, e-mail alienskin@aol.com.
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