CreativePro.Com Reviews

Review: CtrlChanges for InDesign

Editor in Chief — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:07:25 -0600

This article is excerpted from the August/September 2009 issue of InDesign Magazine, #31. Subscribe to InDesign Magazine.

Pros: If you require text changes to be tracked in your InDesign files, CtrlChanges gets the job done and is simple to use.
Cons: Difficult to see the text in tracked deletions. Must buy pricey Pro version to see which user made certain changes.
Score: 3.5 [Editor's note: InDesign Magazine uses a 5-point rating scale]

Review: Alien Skin Bokeh

Editor in Chief — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:12:27 -0600

Pros: Accurately simulates shallow depth of field. Gives much greater control over highlight appearance and apparent depth than Photoshop alone. Plug-in's sliders are simple enough that moving beyond the presets is very easy.
Con: $199 price is too high given how infrequently you'll be able to use it. Note that that limited use is not a deficiency in the product, but a reality of the difficulty in masking more complex images.
Rating: 7.5

Snap Art 2 Makes Photoshop Art Easier, More Realistic

Editor in Chief — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:25:03 -0600

Score: 9/10
Pros:
Faster filters with more realistic default settings than in version 1; new focus regions work well for reducing filter effects. Factory Settings category folders make organization much easier.
Cons:
CMYK is still not supported. New focus regions don't apply a true mask and don't apply multiple filter settings to an image.

Review: Tiffen Dfx Suite Version 2

Editor in Chief — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 02:20:34 -0600

Score: 90
Pros: Truly useful filters; excellent interface; great customization capabilities.
Cons: No way to output masking information.

Review: HP DesignJet 130 Large-Format Printer

admin — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 01:57:55 -0600

HP's DesignJet 130, a 24"-wide, photo-quality inkjet printer, is aimed squarely at the photography and design market. Priced at $1,295 for the base model, the six-color, dye-based DesignJet 130 produces high-quality large-format printing.

The HP DesignJet 130

The DesignJet 130 is a little long in the tooth, but its output is good enough to give even new eight-color printers a run for their money, and its price still can't be beat.

Review: Wacom Intuos4

Editor in Chief — Mon, 04 May 2009 02:02:00 -0600

Score: 95

Pros: Beautiful design, great feel. New buttons, TouchRing, and Radial menu are useful additions that let you drive a huge number of functions from the tablet.

Cons: No way to access menu items using the Mac driver; no way to share settings among multiple machines.

Reviews: Font Manager Face-Off

admin — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:49:50 -0600

This article is excerpted from InDesign Magazine, June/July 2007 (Issue 18).

You may work with hundreds or even thousands of fonts. The more typefaces you have, the more creative options you can explore. The downside is that managing a multitude of fonts can become a daunting task for both you and your computer.

Review: SiteAssist Professional 1.0

Editor in Chief — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:43 -0600

Rating: 80

SiteAssist Professional 1.0 ($199; upgrade $99) is the latest update from WebAssist. If your goal is to quickly frame out an elegantly coded (if conservatively styled) Web site, SiteAssist Professional is worthy of consideration.

Review: Adobe Illustrator CS4

Editor in Chief — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:12:19 -0600

Pros: Multiple artboards, intuitive Blob brush, better gradient transparency control, real clipping masks, easier to use Appearance panel.
Cons: None. It may not be a perfect program, but it's a perfect upgrade.
Rating: 95

Review: Flash CS4 Professional

Editor in Chief — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:11:00 -0700

Pros: Major new tools for 3D and inverse kinematics, Motion Editor, XFL file format, improved integration with other CS4 apps, easy authoring of Adobe AIR.

Cons: Object-based animation model can be tricky, small 3D and inverse kinematics toolsets, weak Deco tool.

Rating: 90

Review: Adobe InDesign CS4

Editor in Chief — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:27:20 -0600

Pros: New Suite-wide common interface, export to Flash format, great links tracking, smart guides and smart align, conditional text, live preflight, enhanced tables, smart text reflow (that adds or deletes pages), and new IDML format.

Cons: Limited Flash authoring, no video or animation playback in exported SWF files, some issues when combining transparency with interactivity. New interface may rattle some people at first.

Rating: 90

Review: Adobe Dreamweaver CS4

Editor in Chief — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:33:51 -0600

Pros: Better features for working with CSS; improved Photoshop integration; new Live View and Live Code more accurately render web pages within Dreamweaver.

Cons: For Mac users, new interface takes over your screen, and requires some retraining for all longtime users.

Rating: 85

Review: Adobe Photoshop CS4

Editor in Chief — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:55:59 -0600

Pros: Well-designed new interface; selective editing in Camera Raw; Collections in Bridge; improved dodge, burn and saturation tools; amazing content-aware scaling; interactive brush resizing.

Cons: Bridge still not well-suited for refined comparisons of images; no histogram display in Bridge; Loupe in Bridge still has technical problems; no dedicated straightening tool in Photoshop; Camera Raw selective editing doesn’t let you selectively apply white balance.

Score: 95

This is what a must-have upgrade looks like:

Camera Raw 5

Editor in Chief — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:02:00 -0600

Return to the main Photoshop CS4 review.

The important addition to Camera Raw's Basic pane is the clarity slider, which debuted in Lightroom. Somewhat akin to sharpening, Clarity performs a lot of micro-contrast adjustments that refine an image's details.

Camera Raw’s interface. Click the image to see a larger version.

Bridge CS4

Editor in Chief — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 01:59:25 -0600

Return to the main Photoshop CS4 review.