Sporting an Explorer-like interface, I Spy is a quick, handy tool for previewing images within a hard drive's subdirectories. Four different options are available for viewing thumbnails of a variety of graphics types -- large, medium, and small (icon-sized) thumbnails, as well as a icon listing with file details. Graphic types supported by I Spy include GIF, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIF, TGA and more, although support for Photoshop (PSD) images is noticeably lacking. Also surprising is the lack of right mouse button functionality in both I Spy and WebImage.
WebImage's specific objective is to be the graphics tool of choice for 'net and (specifically) Web users. It succeeds at its goal in part by bringing together the impressive features listed above and also in part due to Web Effects - additional features specifically designed for Webmasters. Web Effects allow for easy creation of basic images from scratch, button stamping of images (for adding a distinctive iconic quality to your images), adding of borders to your images (for adding an additional distinctive look), text additions, animation tools (in the 32-bit release), and embossed tiled backgrounds (for yet another interesting and quite unusual look).
Additional image enhancements for graphics include rotation, resize, mirror, brightness, color contrast, gamma, remove noise, and invert. Graphics file types supported by WebImage include those listed above for I Spy as well as Fax G3/G4, SunRaster, PCX, and XWD. WebImage isn't limited to Internet users; graphics users of all types will likely find WebImage to be a critical application. Still, for the many Web graphics designers out there, due notice is served — your tool of trade has arrived.
Pros: Web Effects, image mapping, a graphics app with Web page designers in mind
Cons: Severely outdated, lacks animated GIF support and many of the more advanced features offered by the competition
