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What is "Graphics" doing here? Well, you can't promote your music online with your own web site, or make CD labels without a good graphics app (or 10) can you?
From creating web buttons to putting a dog tail on your buddies head, graphics apps can't be overlooked as an essential part of the computing puzzle. I use them every day in almost everything I do on my computers. I created the Demon Digital logo, and drew the web design in one of my favorite apps, RealDraw Pro. Any way you slice it, "paint" just doesn't cut it. slice it, cut it, get it?
Our choices:
RealDraw Pro - This is an amazing application, although not free, it does everything the big money apps do and more. The guy that writes the apps at mediachance is a freakin genius. You will find some of the controls a bit different than other windows apps, but then you will find the same behavior in all their apps, and it is very easy to get used to. Results are awesome for experts and beginners alike, with features
such as "Mega-Render" which takes what you have created and renders it into a huge file ready for printing on your nearest billboard printer. There are way too many features to go into now, just try it.
UltraSnap - Another one from Mediachance, this is a screenshot taker. Yeah yeah, I can do that with any app or with ATL+Print Screen. Well not like this! Click the window you want a shot of and it pops up as a screen shot in UltraSnap, drag it off the app onto your desktop and it is now a jpg! THAT is wayyy cool. Shadows, compression, and other features make this the best screen shot app we have ever used.
Microsoft Image Composer - First of all, good luck finding a copy. MS discontinued it after the release of Front Page 2000. But if you can find a copy of Front Page 98 or 2000, Image Composer comes with it on a separate CD. I will be emailing MS to ask them if it is considered abandonware, and can I supply it to people. If they say "Go for it", then I will have a download link for you. It's not a super powerful
image editor, but it is super fast, super easy and does a lot of every day tasks in a much simpler way than todays apps do.
Any2Icon - Create icons with multiple options from any image file. In other words, don't use a clnky hard to use Icon editor, use your favorite drawing app and then create an icon from your jpg and bmp files. very handy.
JPEG Resizer - Simple to use, batch file compression. Resize those 3MB 5MP jpg files from your digital camera BEFORE sending them to Aunt Martha with the 33.6 modem dial up connection. Also good for keeping image file size down for web sites. FREE
Pixie - Very small, simple color picker. Shows color info in many formats, we use this constantly to match colors when drawing. FREE
Acoustica CD/DVD Label Maker - An obvious necessity for audio creation enthusiasts, this app works great and it works fast. Once again, the support is unbeatable as well.
Easy Graphics Converter - Convert from bpm to jpg or tiff or gif or whatever format you think you might need. FREE
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