After Photoshop

Foreword

A lot has been said and written about the reasons for Adobe to shun the coming New York expo and to withhold a Mac OS X version (even a carbonized one) of Photoshop. We’ve pointed at destroyed Premiere sales, declining After Effects, squeezed-out Distiller and useless ATM (all of them good reason to be seriously disturbed) as well as a long history of Adobe making Windows-oriented decisions when launching software (witness eBook’s server, or the Atmosphere beta, or the Acrobat history). We’re afraid that Adobe’s at last showing the strain of pretending that it still likes the Mac.

The reason we’re afraid is that the Mac community has become addicted to that flagship of image edition, Photoshop. It is the mainstay of every graphic artist’s toolbox. It is so predominant that not even specialist tools have been able to grow in its shade: their low cost doesn’t protect them against the pirated copies of Photoshop. And thus, we need Adobe because we need Photoshop.

Or do we? The Adobe decision to arrive late at the party is casting the spotlight on applications that would normally nor get significant attention. Part of this spotlight is the following analysis of graphic tools on Mac OS X by our specialist Roberto Tolín, a famed photographer and a serious Mac OS X buff who also moderates in our Digital Image forum.

Alternatives to Photoshop on Mac OS X?

This is the question being asked by thousands of Mac users in these moments due to a fundamental reason: there is no version of Photoshop for Mac OS X. Some will say, come one, you can use in in Classic. I don’t think that’s a good answer, at least for the time being. The behaviour of Photoshop in Classic is less than optimal. Redrawing speed appears disagreeably slow on a G4/400, not to mention on lesser machines on which a different alternative would be a neccesity.

To get a first glimpse of the available options we can surf to Apple’s page: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/ . We will be trying out three of the suggestions plus an application that’s not on the list.

Photoretouch Pro by Binuscan

We recently reviewed this application in Macuarium: http://www.macuarium.com/macuarium/actual/especiales/2001_06_06_binuscan.shtml . We won’t be adding on it since the article is lengthy enough, but we must add some news. It is still an unfinished application in an Alpha 0.8.3 version. Even so it is perfectly useable if we don’t need to work with images bigger than 35-40 Mb. Its support for working in CMYK and RGB far outstrip Photoshop’s, and it gives the user complete control on export parameters for EPS, DCS, DCS2, etc.. It’s tools comprise everything a user needs for editing an image after scanning and making it ready for print, in CMYK as well as in RGB for photographic impressions (Durst Lambda, Fuji Frontier).

It doesn’t come with all the layering and filtering possibilities of Photoshop but those are hardly used in this type of applications.

It is available in multiple languages, comprising Spanish, English, German, and French, (its maker, Binuscan, is of French origin and based in Monaco) and switching among them does not need a reinstall of the program.

Its website: http://www.binuscan.com/prp/index.html

PhotoLine 32

This application is a real find. I have only been able to work with it for some hours yet but I’m seriosly considering buying it for use with Photoretouch.

It is surprisingly powerful and has all the commonly used Photoshop options. Layer, transparencies, actions, filters, editable text, work in CMYK, vector drawing, morphing, selections and a really long etcetera. Unlimited undos (the available memory’s the limit), editable brushes, compatibility with pressure-sensitive drawing pads and a good stability make the most versatile and powerful image editing program to run native in Mac OS X (carbon) at the moment.

One of PhotoLine’s virtues is the ease of transition for those coming from Photoshop. Of course there are some differences, but in most cases those are simply small changes in manu placement and the lack of some refinements. The screen capture shows it with all palettes visible, and those can be eliminated or moved at will.

You might notice menus are in German, as it comes before English in my Mac OS X preferences. It currently ships in both languages.

Photoline has a 30-day trial version available, and the price of the full app is $69, ridiculous for its capabilities. It is also the work of an European company (a German one) which like Photoretouch merits some extra support for fighting back ;-).

I thoroughly reccomed a visit to it’s website: http://www.pl32.com/ .

The application is in continuous development and the authors are accepting suggestions on their website.

TIFFany3

This program also came as a surprise, but this time of the bittersweet variety. It was originally designed for NeXT and is the only one of the list that runs on Cocoa. TIFFany is a very disconcerting program. It is radically different from any other so it as a high learning and its use doesn’t strike as comfortable or specially logical. As can be seen in the screen capture, the center-right menu contaings the actions to carry through, and in this software almost everything is dome using actions: you pick one and see the results in a small previsualization window. If the desired effect is achieved, then the resulting symbol is dragged onto the complete image to apply the action. Very surprising but not specially practical.

This is an application with a lot of power but which will probably not enjoy a great success.

Its website: http://www.caffeineSoft.com/

Graphic Converter 4.08

This application does not strictly belong in the category of the others but I can include it as a great ally to them. It can open and convert almost any image archive. Its cost is very low ($30) and there is a Spanish version.

Its ability to navigate folders is extremely useful for finding an image and it allows basic corrections without having to resort to another application for it.

http://www.graphicconverter.net/gcdownload_es.html.

Wrapping up and forecast

Some may wonder at the absence of GIMP from this article. The main reason is that currently it can’t be reccomended to any professional due to the complexities of its installation. Even aficionados with time and knowledge will find it complicated. When it has a normal Mac installer and CMYK support it will be time for it to receive the attention it deserves. Even if the MacGIMP project is striving to produce the first, it can’t do much about the second (http://www.macGIMP.org).

I would like to close with a small reflection. In these times of persecution against piracy (as Adobe is famously waging) it would not be out of place to be more realistic and down-to-earth. The current price of Photoretouch, PhotoLine and Graphic Converter put together is almost half of Photoshop’s, and they give a far superior set of services. If a small company can’t spend 90.000 pesetas ($450) in the software it expects to live off, then it’d better close shop. For the normal user who doesn’t live off prepress, PhotoLine is powerful enough for doing anything he wants and I consider it a real surprise.

All these applications save Photoretouch (yet) have trial versions that I reccomend using.

The next months will see new options appear but at the moment the most urgent development is a Mac OS X ugrade that gives a bit more stamina to these applications. Let’s see what "Puma" will bring in.

Roberto Tolín Sommer

(If you care to see some screen captures, visit the Spanish version