Suggestions for OS X graphics program?
December 26, 2011 5:01 AM Subscribe
Suggestions for Graphics Applications (OS X)?
I've been using a copy of lemkesoft's excellent Graphic Convertor for several years, but with Apple's decision to drop Rosetta from Lion I'm faced with a choice as I migrate my Macs to 10.7.X: upgrade or purchase a new product.
I'm very happy with Graphic Convertor but was curious about what other products are out there? My needs are modest, I use Graphic Convertor mostly for pasting and annotating images, nothing too seriously advanced - this presentation where I overlaid the photos of US Presidents on a presentation of Total US outlays and % of debt outlays is probably the most complicated stuff that I currently use the tool for.
A few things that would be nice to have:
I've been using a copy of lemkesoft's excellent Graphic Convertor for several years, but with Apple's decision to drop Rosetta from Lion I'm faced with a choice as I migrate my Macs to 10.7.X: upgrade or purchase a new product.
I'm very happy with Graphic Convertor but was curious about what other products are out there? My needs are modest, I use Graphic Convertor mostly for pasting and annotating images, nothing too seriously advanced - this presentation where I overlaid the photos of US Presidents on a presentation of Total US outlays and % of debt outlays is probably the most complicated stuff that I currently use the tool for.
A few things that would be nice to have:
- Auto alignment of items on a graphic
- Better tools for grouping and group manipulation
- More in depth undo (I find Graphic Convertor seems to only go one level, whcih makes me save version files for each change)
- Easier resizing of images
- Flat learning curve, although I don't mind investing the time if the utility of the tool warrants
Best answer: 2nding Acorn or Pixelmator. For you I'm thinking Acorn, it has a lot less UI "chrome" than Pixelmator.
posted by Scoo at 9:15 AM on December 26, 2011
posted by Scoo at 9:15 AM on December 26, 2011
Best answer: Inkscape. It's free and more than capable of doing what you need it to.
posted by neversummer at 10:26 AM on December 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by neversummer at 10:26 AM on December 26, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: GIMP is a free Photoshop-style program. I've never used it seriously but I know people who have had good results. It is notoriously a bit fiddly though.
The aforementioned Acorn & Pixelmator are both excellent and will serve you very well.
If you can forgo pasting images, the built-in Preview app in Lion will let you resize, save as different formats, annotate with text or shapes, and adjust the contrast, brightness and saturation.
posted by Magnakai at 5:33 PM on December 26, 2011
The aforementioned Acorn & Pixelmator are both excellent and will serve you very well.
If you can forgo pasting images, the built-in Preview app in Lion will let you resize, save as different formats, annotate with text or shapes, and adjust the contrast, brightness and saturation.
posted by Magnakai at 5:33 PM on December 26, 2011
Best answer: Photoshop Elements is a decent subset of the full version of Photoshop. It does resizing well and has multiple undos. I think the learning curve is easier than Graphic Converter (FWIW, I switched from GC to PS over a decade ago.) It's about sixty bucks but you often get a copy free with a quality scanner, so check your friends who already have full blown Photoshop and may have a copy lying around. I use an old version for simple edits.
There's also the new free Photoshop Express, although that is likely too narrow for your needs.
GIMP has come a long way, and will do what you want, but its not very mac-like (the OSX version runs through X11.) Learning curve is likely high.
Inkscape is a vector imaging program (think Illustrator) and likely not what you want. Also an X11 program.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:41 PM on December 26, 2011
There's also the new free Photoshop Express, although that is likely too narrow for your needs.
GIMP has come a long way, and will do what you want, but its not very mac-like (the OSX version runs through X11.) Learning curve is likely high.
Inkscape is a vector imaging program (think Illustrator) and likely not what you want. Also an X11 program.
posted by ChurchHatesTucker at 5:41 PM on December 26, 2011
Best answer: 2nding inkscape. It's primarily a vector editor, so it typically works with mathematical representations of lines and areas instead of pixels directly, but you can place a bitmap in there.
Auto alignment of items on a graphic.
There are guide lines you can place to snap to and a menu for alignment and distribution of objects.
Better tools for grouping and group manipulation
Grouping of objects and shapes is a basic feature of Inkscape. It may take you a while to figure out the icons, because lets face it, "ungroup" is an impossible Pictionary word.
More in depth undo (I find Graphic Convertor seems to only go one level, whcih makes me save version files for each change)
Inkscape has a substantial undo buffer. And the data format is XML, so you could theoretically put it into revision control without much overhead.
Easier resizing of images
It depends on what you mean; Inkscape will allow you to scale the image, but it doesn't do anything to make a 32x32 pixel image less blocky when shown fullscreen on a projector. But as long as you're working and presenting on computer monitors, it should do pretty close to WYSIWIG.
If you go to print though, you'll discover that images for the web look crappy printed out. Inkscape does have a "trace bitmap" feature which I've used successfully to upscale low res imagery for printing. Works best with text and charts since they tend not to have a diversity of colors.
Downscaling (making images smaller) is of course, not a problem.
Flat learning curve, although I don't mind investing the time if the utility of the tool warrants
I found it pretty intuitive, and not that much different than adobe illustrator, but then I've written software to implement Bezier curves. For your needs, you'd just need to find the "import bitmap" option, and the alignment menu.
posted by pwnguin at 12:28 PM on December 27, 2011
Auto alignment of items on a graphic.
There are guide lines you can place to snap to and a menu for alignment and distribution of objects.
Better tools for grouping and group manipulation
Grouping of objects and shapes is a basic feature of Inkscape. It may take you a while to figure out the icons, because lets face it, "ungroup" is an impossible Pictionary word.
More in depth undo (I find Graphic Convertor seems to only go one level, whcih makes me save version files for each change)
Inkscape has a substantial undo buffer. And the data format is XML, so you could theoretically put it into revision control without much overhead.
Easier resizing of images
It depends on what you mean; Inkscape will allow you to scale the image, but it doesn't do anything to make a 32x32 pixel image less blocky when shown fullscreen on a projector. But as long as you're working and presenting on computer monitors, it should do pretty close to WYSIWIG.
If you go to print though, you'll discover that images for the web look crappy printed out. Inkscape does have a "trace bitmap" feature which I've used successfully to upscale low res imagery for printing. Works best with text and charts since they tend not to have a diversity of colors.
Downscaling (making images smaller) is of course, not a problem.
Flat learning curve, although I don't mind investing the time if the utility of the tool warrants
I found it pretty intuitive, and not that much different than adobe illustrator, but then I've written software to implement Bezier curves. For your needs, you'd just need to find the "import bitmap" option, and the alignment menu.
posted by pwnguin at 12:28 PM on December 27, 2011
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posted by bcwinters at 5:24 AM on December 26, 2011 [1 favorite]