Jasc Paint Shop Pro 5 With Animation Shop Back With a Vengeance Jim Fox
For years, Paint Shop Pro, published by JASC Software, Inc., has been the industry leader in image viewing, editing, and conversion software. Paint Shop Pro 5.0 with Animation Shop is the latest version of this popular program. With this latest version of the Paint Shop Pro series, JASC has truly raised the bar to new heights! The new 32-bit Paint Shop Pro 5.0 now includes an extensive list of innovative and powerful new features, including image animation.
One of PSP's new features is Animation Shop, an image animator. Using wizards, users can quickly create graphic animations, including sophisticated image and text transitions. Adding variety to the animations, the user has the choice of how each frame transitions to the next. These Frame Transitions, much like video special effects, include fades, blinds, dissolves, spins, twists, zooms, and more. Adding even more variety, the user can elect to have text overlay the frames and select from such Text Transitions as shadowing effects, fade, lighting and marquee. Once the animation is complete, the Optimization Wizard optimizes the animation palette and compresses the information. The result is an animation optimized to load more quickly in a Web-based environment.
Paint Shop Pro 5.0 now includes direct support for Kodak DC40, DC50, and DC120 digital cameras. In addition, users may now print CMYK color separations directly. The new tree-based file browser uses a Microsoft Explorer style interface. Paint Shop Pro 5.0 with Animation Shop supports nearly 40 file formats, including JPEG, Kodak Photo-CD, PCX, and GIF. Newly added file formats include Multi-layer PSD, Kodak PhotoPIX, FlashPix, Scitex CT, Pro Photo-CD, 24-bit IFF, PSP, and enhanced metafile.
Complete layer support has also been added to this latest release. Layer functionality includes comprehensive blend mode controls, layer grouping, naming, visibility, transparency locking, user masking, and variable opacity. A layer palette permits users to control layer actions and other characteristics. Users can easily add, duplicate, delete, arrange, view, merge and perform other layer operations. The entire image, or just selected layers of the image, may be rotated and resized. Resizing may be based on the actual print size or on percentages. Resizing options also include smart, bilinear, bicubic and pixel. Users may define viewable grids and display optional on-screen rulers.
The program also includes a wealth of additional editing capabilities. In addition to multiple levels of undo (limited only by available hard disk space) with viewable history, a number of new selection tools have been added. Retouch brushes now include dodge, burn, saturation, hue, lightness, and HSL to target modes. An adjustable cropping tool and Free Form deformation tool have also been added. The already powerful image manipulation capabilities have now been further enhanced with the addition of arithmetic, buttonize, blur, gaussian blur, sharpening and unsharpening.
Paint Shop Pro 5.0 with Animation Shop has all of the power and features of a top of the line graphics program, yet it is very affordable. If you are a serious graphic designer and looking for a program to make those eye popping Web page graphics, check out Paint Shop Pro 5.0 with Animation Shop. You won't be disappointed.
One of PSP's new features is Animation Shop, an image animator. Using wizards, users can quickly create graphic animations, including sophisticated image and text transitions. Adding variety to the animations, the user has the choice of how each frame transitions to the next. These Frame Transitions, much like video special effects, include fades, blinds, dissolves, spins, twists, zooms, and more. Adding even more variety, the user can elect to have text overlay the frames and select from such Text Transitions as shadowing effects, fade, lighting and marquee. Once the animation is complete, the Optimization Wizard optimizes the animation palette and compresses the information. The result is an animation optimized to load more quickly in a Web-based environment.