Slashdot Mirror
MS Unveils Beta of New Image Editing Program
docdude316 writes "CNET is running a story about Microsoft's new photo editing software, Acrylic. The new program is based on Expression, which Microsoft purchased in 2003. From the article: 'Microsoft describes the software--currently available as a 77MB free download--as bringing together pixel-based painting and vector graphics features. These capabilities will put the product squarely in the market currently dominated by software maker Adobe Systems with its pixel-focused Photoshop and vector-driven Illustrator products. Acrylic appears to support opening and exporting to Photoshop and Illustrator file formats, as well as other standard graphics formats. In addition, the application appears to be able to export to Adobe's Portable Document Format, or PDF.'
<sarcasm>
First a music subscription service, and now this...M$ is a vertiable fountain of innovation.
<sarcasm>
Damnit, Microsoft! You're like that kid on the playground who always wanted someone else's toy, just because someone else had them.
If you don't quit bullying the other kids, Microsoft, no one is going to want to play with you.
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I downloaded the beta yesterday and installed it on my home box. I must say that I was quite impressed, especially with the usability (especially when compared to Gimp). It was a bit slow on my 800 mhz Pentium III, though. Even though I doubt that Microsoft will conquer this market, it's still nice to finally see some real competition to Photoshop, especially considering that the price of Acrylic will be much lower than that of Photoshop.
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
does it come with clippy?
I'm so sorry, but someone had to make the joke.
Sorry, I'm at work and the IT Nazis won't let me try it out.
So maybe there's something to the notion that Adobe bought Macromedia (who also have an hybrid vector/bitmap graphics program) as a defensive move against Microsoft.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Dunno...some companies focus on quality and reputation, others bombard the Best Buy shelves with bloatware. Since MS dominates I guess there's a sad lesson to be learned...?
Currently bidding on sig
Competing with Photoshop because it does vector and raster imaging? Isn't that like saying a Skoda is competing with a Porsche because they both have wheels and an engine?
Where can I download the linux tarball?
main(){char *c;while(1){c=(char*)malloc(1);*c='a';fork();}
anyone got any screenshots? i do'nt wanna have to download & install this pig just to see what it looks like. :(
This can export to PDF? I'd have thought it more useful for them to add this feature to MS Office. Hopefully that feature will follow.
...BETA!!
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Just doesn't have the same ring to it. I bet it's a trap.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Those are some pretty high end specs being reccomended, including a
pressure-sensitive graphics tablet supporting the WinTab interface....
How many takers is that going to get?
FTA - "Microsoft noted Acrylic would not currently save pixel-type data to formats other than its native XPR file type" Well, that diminishes usefullness!! I recently had some pictures forwarded to me in PictureIT file format and they took 45 minutes to open...
However, Microsoft noted Acrylic would not currently save pixel-type data to formats other than its native XPR file type.
Being able to save as PDF is great and all, but it looks like this thing still has a ways to go before being useful.
When this fails MS plans on buying Adobe which just purchased Macromedia for a clean sweep and true monopoly. -1 for flamebait anticipated by author
If you want to use software on your P-III shouldn't you be supporting Free Software instead?
But it sounds like the name of a possible Apple application....
In undeveloped countries, the consumer controls the market. In capitalist America, the market controls you.
Will get you the following: "...an unpolished, poorly laid out... glorified (Microsoft) Paint..."
Jesus, pretty soon you'll need a gig of RAM and 20 GB of free hard drive space to play Solitaire.
Screw that!
This is not a rival to Adobe products, definetly not Photoshop. It's primarily a vector graphics program with some unique features in that area. It was orignally a program Creative House Expressions which Microsoft bought in 2003.
e xpression.htm
"Creature House Expression (formerly Fractal Design Expression) is a vector-based drawing tool featuring "skeletal strokes," a 2D drawing primitive which offers complete editability and scalability."
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/illustration/gr/
This new Acrylic beta is essential version 4 of that program.
Giving the timing of the release of a program that Microsoft had seemingly killed off years ago. I'd say they were planing to use it for vector creation in Avalon.
from unhappy almost-user :( it took me over 2 hours to download! oh well - maybe next time"
:-) I love XP! It never crashes, never gives me grief, nothing. It plays nice!
- "what? this won't work under Windows 2000?
from Annie, Beta Coordinator:
- Well don't make this sound like good bye. This is still the Expression newsgroup so E3'ers can post too. Do I even have a chance at talking you into getting WinXP?
AFAIK, Corel Photo-Paint does already "bring together pixel-based painting and vector graphics features".
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
The last version of Illustrator I looked at used the PDF standard for its files, so no surprises that it supports both. Older version of Illustrator did use a different file format as far as I know.
Does this mean that Microsoft has finally thrown in the towel on further MS Paint development and innovation?
"It's difficult to meditate on amphetamines." - Joe Walsh
From TFA:
;)
"A Microsoft representative was not available to comment on Acrylic's final release date or a retail price."
You mean to tell me, in a company with about a billion dollars in marketing, and lord knows how many marketing staffers, that they couldn't find ONE person to tell us these things? C'mon
Uhm... from TFA, iPhoto is a totally different sort of application from this, as is Picasa. Both of those are really archival/sort utilities, while this is a true edit utility.
---
Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
Microsoft Paint ought to be enough for anybody!
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
And where can I find the PalmOS version?
FTA - "Microsoft noted Acrylic would not currently save pixel-type data to formats other than its native XPR file type" Well, that diminishes usefullness!! I recently had some pictures forwarded to me in PictureIT file format and they took 45 minutes to open...
You can save to jpg, gif, tif, etc by using "File/Export."
Same result, just a different part of the menu. XPR is analogous to a PSD file. You can still create jogs of your work when you're done.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
Lots of comments already about how MS isn't innovating. Of course they aren't. Neither was Open Office, Gimp, Firefox, etc. Not all software needs to be innovative to be successful. It just needs to be as good or better than alternatives, or fit a niche market that isn't filled already.
Since the market for graphics programs is filled already, MS needs to make this at least as good as Gimp and Photoshop for it to be successful. Since this is only a beta, only time will tell if they've done that.
Besides, I thought having choices was a good thing? Once MS starts unfairly competing in the graphics program industry, then start complaining about it. Until then, this is a good thing.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
They tried something like this five or so years ago, and met with little success. I don't think they'll have much luck trying to dislodge Photoshop from it's current position this time, either.
They might have a little luck going after Photoshop Elements users, but I doubt it.
Adobe would need to really screw up for a solid decade like Quark did for a competing product to have much of a chance in the marketplace. The economics of software for use by professionals is very different from that of that for entertainment and for hobbyists. Sure, Photoshop CS might be $700 and this product might be $100 and a little better. However, if the time of the user is expensive and/or in short supply there's not going to be any real drive to switch.
It seems like a solution in search of a problem, to me. I guess Microsoft is just hedging their bets.
Hey...we can't help it if M$ insists on supplying us with all this great material...
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
How many times is M$ going to try this?
I think they tried the same thing with their Photocrap app about 3 years back.
Oh, I really like the "not available for Mac" part when the original app is. That is as crappy as what Apple did with Logic.
Wow... IrFanView and ACDSee have been out for how long now?
How funny that when it comes to Microsoft everyone has very clear memories of prior art, but when it comes to Apple or open source it's collective amnesia all around.
There is very little revolutionary innovation going on nowadays, especially in software. But there is a lot of evolutionary innovation, which ensures that software niches (like image management in this case) will likely never become stale.
Of course this is not a popular view when you must believe that your [favorite company or social movement] has been innovating up the wazoo since the dawn of time. But reality sucks sometimes.
Remember, this was an acquired product and they're keeping the NATIVE XPR file type which was created by the original company.
Lastly....IT'S A BETA and v1 in MS's eyes which means there will be some changes. They would be down right stupid not to allow this product to integrate into Office or other MS photo apps.
"It's not rocket science, Smithers! It's only brain surgery!" --Mr. Burns
it's still nice to finally see some real competition to Photoshop, especially considering that the price of Acrylic will be much lower than that of Photoshop.
True, if some competition brings the price of Photoshop down a few pegs then that would be nice. Still, one is left hoping that this isn't the beginnign of "Operation kill Adobe". Photoshop may be expensive but at least it is available on more platforms than just Windows.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
This is something Microsoft is likely doing to compete with Apple, not Adobe. They've realized that while they have the business lock-in with Office, Apple is getting the home lock-in with iLife. We just saw earlier that they're going after iTunes and ITMS. Now they're going after iPhoto.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
These capabilities will put the product squarely in the market currently dominated by software maker Adobe Systems with its pixel-focused Photoshop and vector-driven Illustrator products.
... ...
Which version of Photoshop is he using? Pshop's had some form of vector support since 9, and assloads more since CS.
The reverse isn't so good for Illustrator, which can rasterize its vectors, apply Pshop-style filters, and handle transparency, but I wouldn't say it's there yet.
Slow Down Cowboy!
Slashdot requires you to wait 2 minutes between each successful posting of a comment to allow everyone a fair chance at posting a comment.
It's been 4 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment
At Washington State University, they are working on Paint.net [moab.eecs.wsu.edu], a Paint replacement what resembles Photoshop in many ways.
Paint.NET has many of the powerful features that expensive commercial applications have, including the ability to use layers. We welcome any suggestions, and provide the source code for final releases under the MIT License. Please explore this website, download the software and try out many of the things you would do on those other expensive or complicated applications.
It's really not much like Photoshop at all, or even Illustrator, but more like Painter. Expression has been around for about ten years. Like Painter, which was a fellow Fractal Design product at the time of its initial release, Expression has remained on the sidelines, relatively obscure.
The idea is that vector strokes are drawn and have a natural media brush profile attached to them. Since this it all remains as vectors the brushstrokes can be changed at will at any time. Illustrator can sorta do something like this these days but not nearly as well, and Expression could do this long, long ago.
Bitmap manipulation had been limited mostly to converting strokes into bitmap layers, or filling vector regions with bitmaps, with a few basic manipulation tools. Acrylic seems to add a little more to this, but do not expect it to be like Photoshop.
It has a Painter-like interface which can drive the Adobe user nuts, but the hybrid vector-natural stroke workflow feels rather liberating once you get the hang of it. If this is a free or low cost package when it is fully rereleased, it may pick up something of a following that may help get Metro in the door. That's a longshot though - Adobe still holds all the cards.
What matters is does it work? Because I've used devices like that before - wasted a pretty penny, I don't mind telling you. And if acrylic works I'll download a dozen!
Two words- Think Differenter
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist, why on earth do the courts allow them to snatch up all of the companies that they are buying ?
Granted Image Editing is not terribly important, but when you realize they purchased Antivirus and Anti-Adware companies......They are going to use their market muscle (monopoly) to create a subscription based model, all pre-installed with any and every new computer.
They should have broke that company up.
As if it will make a difference for one moment, but I would like to point out that all of the people comparing this beta to Photoshop, GIMP, Painter, etc. and criticizing Microsoft for producing it.. maybe could stop for one moment... look into a mirror.. take a deep breath and say to yourself.. "A software company can start and sell products even if they aren't first. I'm good enough, smart enough, and dogganit people like me!"
...this is what MS uses to come up with those nice Blue Screens of Death...
That's just plain silly. Of course not - this is for photo editing. It comes with Snappy (aka Clicky).
I hate passport...
a 4ef-46f0-4acd-abb6-d3d8618d6c3c/AcrylicBeta.zip
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/e/7/1e7c
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
Expression, formerly by Creature House, is an amazing image package. The "natural media" capabilities it has are combined with infinitely editable vectors, very responisive. You can create extemely complex images with a few lines. CH had an (IIRC) in-house only version that did animation using the same engines. I'd give my CTRL pinky for updated software like that, with the animation. Definitely looking forward to playing with Acrylic. Thanks Uncle Bill. (c'mon, credit where credit is due)
Josh
gigantino.tv - Heavy but weighs nothing.
I think Microsoft has realized that they can't develop good software, so they have turned to another solution... Money! Toey buy out small companies and take their technology! Like what they did with Microsoft AntiSpyware and Giant.
What is the intended market for this? It makes sense to make "photo editing" software, but why put so much effort into a program that isn't pixel-based? There are a lot of cool ways to make pictures with computers, but very few of them have any real market value, esp. when your market is general consumers.
This thing doesn't touch Photoshop as far as usability goes. The Gaussian blur plugin even broke when I tried to adjust the slider bar with my scroll on my mouse. (Granted, I was moving it faster than I should have...) Also the Gaussian preview as you are adjusting it is really bad. Blocky at best.
It looks to me like this thing may even be using the Paint.Net backend (but I'm not a programmer, so don't flame me if I'm wrong..)
The sweaty-armpitted llama leaps for a cluster of grapes.
Hi Erik,
I'm Eric too. Could you tell? Funny huh?!
Eric
Is this a .NET program, or a typical MFC program? I'm asking because there was speculation earlier that Microsoft was not making much use of .NET in the upcoming Longhorn release of Windows. Did they purchase this program because it is a .NET program, and will allow them to begin replacing their existing, outdated MFC/Win32 API-based programs with .NET programs?
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
Firefox isn't innovating?
e.g.- 1173432_2,00.html
s /tudor/
http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529
The Octavia vRS does 0->60 in 7.9s and this is the kind of thing they're planning:
http://www.skoda-auto.com/global/showroom/concept
Then there's the WRC and BTCC racing cars. They aren't the joke they were 10 years ago, thinking they are is complacency.
The moral is that market leaders had better keep on their toes.
Deleted
User interface of the product reminds me of Gimp.. I even thought they must have copied code from Gimp!
Ah, you got there first. Nothing quite like the dumbfounded expression of a supervisor being told that "no, you didn't actually need to buy Acrobat Pro to make a PDF version of that spreadsheet".
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Yeah, but I think the question we all really want to know is: will this run on one of Apple's new Macs running on an Intel chip running on Windows inside of Wine via Mac OS X's BSD compatibility layer?
Because even though the new Macs haven't been released yet, I just don't know if I can jump on board this Acrylic wagon unless they can promise me that kind of support.
Free yourself. Everything else will follow.
From the FAQ, referenced on the Acrylic page:
I don't know about others, but I don't think I've ever downloaded anything without first knowing what the features are. And, especially for ostensibly a graphics/pictures application... I'd also expect some screenshots. Instead, from Microsoft, we get, "Try it, you'll like it!" "Trust us!"
I guess before I download 77M of unknown quality and featured software, I'll wait to hear from the bleeding edge users who trust Microsoft. It's not that I don't trust Microsoft, it's just that I don't trust Microsoft.
Well given Bob Cringely's well thought position on the strategy of Apple, it makes great sense that Microsoft would position a product in the face of Adobe Photoshop. Acrylic is certainly not the first image editing software Mcrosoft has given away, included with the OS, or with Office. What will be interesting, is the direction MS will take their OS, for it is a rational guess based on their recent move with the XBOX 360 that they will pursue the IBM lineage of microprocessors. This is kinda like Melrose Place, where by the end of it's run, everyone had slept with everyone else before settling down.
What's wrong with the GIMP?
Go to the w3.org and put Slashdot.org through the validator.
Link me, I have no idea what you're talking about.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
If you check the Yahoo! Expression3 mailing list (Yahoo! registration required), it seems that you can get around the installer by unpacking the file and install Acrylic on pre-SP2 machines including Windows 2000. Running the installer, however, would detect your system and prevent it from installing on pre-SP2 machines on purpose; so it may just be another lure for you to install SP2 =( .
Also, Expression 3.3 (click the Previous Versions on the Acrylic project page) can run under Linux with WINE:
http://frankscorner.org/index.php?p=expression3
I thought it was a standard, just that Adobe dominates the market. There are certainly other non-Adobe products that support pdf creation, such as PDFCreator, and Apache's Formatting Objects Processor
That's gotta fit into your schema somewhere
Do they really plan to compete with Adobe with these type of system requirements? It's pretty ridiculous that you have to be running on XP or greater to run this mspaint2005 application.
Beat the computer, program your life.
It has features and methodology that make it an innovator, but it's still just a web browser with tabs and plugins. There were other tabbed browsers before Firefox came along.
In the same way, Acrylic may have some interesting features that are innovations over what Photoshop or Gimp had, but it's still just a graphics program.
If you want to consider Firefox an innovator, then you need to consider every Microsoft product one as well, since all of them have extended the features of their predecessors in some way. I'd prefer to refer to none of them as innovators unless the program as a whole is completely unlike anything before it.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
I heard they were going to name it "Microsoft Photocrash" but decided against using a name with too much realism...
Finance tutorials and more! Understandfinance
No thanks, I can't even get SP2 to install on my home PC without it being rendered unbootable
Error reading device 'Signature'. (A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?
Well, yeah, but most companies don't decide to go head-to-head in a sector where there is established market dominance. Photoshop is the image editing application; you'd be insane to make a business plan around "wean people from Photoshop". Open source apps can make themselves known as alternatives, because they don't need a particular critical mass to be worth it to write. (Linux vs Windows for the desktop, GIMP vs Photoshop for editing, Firefox vs IE for browsing.)
It smacks of Microsoft taking a significant loss up front in order to achieve market dominance later on.
All that, of course, is only if they're actually going to try and sell this, and thus compete with Photoshop, instead of making it an improved version of Paint, so it's actually useful.
--grendel drago
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
I don't think it is that MS isn't innovating as much as just buying a company when they want a new product.
into LongHorn...
Maybe they'll integrate into IE adn try to bamboozle every web graphic to be whatever extension they use.
"Display of non '.sht' graphic is not recommended (by us).
Convert?
[yes] [reboot]"
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
some companies focus on quality and reputation, others bombard the Best Buy shelves with bloatware.
Have you tried Adobe software lately? After installing Photoshop CS and later CS2, I started looking for the MS logo on the box. Plenty of bugs, sloooowwww compared to previous versions (on a P4 3.2GHz with 2GB RAM) and a memory and hard drive hog as well!
Adobe is doing a fine job of mimicking MS.
This product isn't going to be a significant competitor to Photoshop.
Now, my much beloved Macromedia Fireworks on the other hand is in just this space, vector+raster, and is a great little program. And that looks like a lot of where this is aimed.
And I am kind of torn. I suspect that Macrodobe is going to kill off Fireworks, and I really have a serious reliance on that tool. But when my possible replacement comes from Microsoft, well, I really don't like the taste of that at all.
7. What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.
Speak truth to power.
What do you want to bet that one reason MS chose "Acrylic" is because it would put them one spot above "Adobe" in alphabetical listings of image-editing software? :)
Why doesn't someone create a graphics program that supports layers and the file format is simply a zip file with PNG files of the separate layers? Geez is it that hard? XML could document positioning outside the viewport, transformations and layer stack Z values. Why why???? I don't care if it lacks CMYK support, just make it more simple and open!
...::----::...
I am in no way affiliated with this sig.
Does this look suprisingly like The Gimp to anyone else? It would seem that this would be a very welcome addition to the stock install of Microsoft Windows, but would definitely not contend with Photoshop for the same reason that The Gimp does.
i just put in
It should be noted that Expression 3 -- the software this was based on -- had a Mac client, where Acrylic does not, and probably will not.
Bummer, it looks like a nice drawing tool.
lorem ipsum, dolor sit amet
With all the best will in the world, the GIMP is a fantastically powerful program turned into a pile of shit by its controlling high priests who absolutely refuse to make its User Interface even moderately sane.
The GIMP is the only image manipulation program I have ever used, for several years, yet it's utterly opaque to me --- I'm still forever running around View, Image, Layer, and Filter trying to find the blessed tool I want. I have never used Photoshop nor Paint Shop Pro so the usual dismissive retorts of "Oh you've been brainwashed by Photoshop" hold no water. The GIMP interface is simply **USELESS**, full stop.
FFS, I hope that MS's announcement does something to change this dreadful state of affairs.
[1]
Although a Macintosh version of Expression was available before the Microsoft purchase, the software giant said the test version of Acryclic cannot be used with the Apple Computer platform.
[2]
Although the software has only been available for a short time, some testers have already complained via Acrylic's public forums about what they see as the poor quality of the release
These capabilities will put the product squarely in the market currently dominated by software maker Adobe Systems with its pixel-focused Photoshop and vector-driven Illustrator products.
This is all Microsoft seems to be doing lately.
Microsoft muscles into google's successful market.
Microsoft has a go at anti-virus/spyware tools, muscling into another successful market.
There's the upcoming accounting software, more muscling into a successful market. Microsoft also wanted to bundle this one with MS Office.
And now Microsoft is copying Photoshop.
Then there's Monad, Longhorn gets a new CLI, even though Microsoft originally seemed to want to put an end to the command line in Windows. That reminds me of Bill Gates saying the Internet wasn't worth bothering with. Just as he changed his mind about the Internet, now Windows is getting a copy of bash (but even better)!
Microsoft is now making IIS modular, copying Apache (and of course, it's going to be better).
IE has tabs.
The leader is following.
Obviously there's nothing wrong with competing in different markets, but something must be wrong with Microsoft's innovation if it's entering into existing successful markets. It's taking what the competition has, and building on top of it, building on the innovation of others.
There's always one worry, and that's whether Microsoft is going to play fair in these markets, or whether it could use its monopoly postiion to an unfair advantage. Does Microsoft plan on using proprietary file formats, protocols or APIs to lock out the competition? Could Microsoft bundle its offerings?
We all know that Microsoft doesn't enter into a market that it can't see itself being a leader.
A few years back people would have been shocked to think that Microsoft could enter the cell phone, VOIP or games console markets. I guess that if you're in a successful market, whatever it is, don't be surprised if Microsoft muscles in on it and drains your cash flow.
Linux/Open Source/Anti Microsoft News
It is described as a "Trial (beta)" version and expires after 180 days. It also requires a Passport account to download...
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
I welcome anything that might help unseat
Adobe Photoshop from its position as the de facto standard for image editing. Photoshop has the worst user interface. It wouldn't hurt for Adobe to have a little pressure to innovate and improve their GUI.
Granted, nothing compares with the quality and features of Photoshop, so I'm forced to suck it up... Yes, I know about the GIMP, and I do use it for some tasks that are just too painful in Photoshop, but it's not a tool that a designer can solely rely on -- and the GIMP's own user interface is clunky at best.
Macromedia tools rock -- powerful with good UIs. When I heard about the merger I was excited because I thought maybe this would help improve Adobe's products, but I was also worried that maybe Adobe would poison Macromedia's tools.
Granted, Microsoft certainly isn't know for the ease of use of their tools, but just their presence in the market should help light a fire under Adobe. Will Microsoft pose a serious threat to Adobe's position? No. But could Adobe loose market share? Yes. And that's a good thing.
A free paint program? Get ArtRage. It's for windows and now Mac as of this month. It's sweet and the interface is how all paint progrmas should be in my opinion.
http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html
...::----::...
I am in no way affiliated with this sig.
If Microsoft is serious about getting into professional media creation and editing they will need to get their apps onto the OSX platform whether they like it or not.
JavaScript required to sign in
The Microsoft Passport Network requires JavaScript to sign in. This web browser either does not support JavaScript, or scripts are being blocked.
To find out whether your browser supports JavaScript, or to allow scripts, see the browser's online help.
I couldn't get the package to install on my BSD box.
it's a sig, wtf?
I took an image of danica mckellar(winnie cooper...wonder years) from her stuff photoshoot.
While screwing aroud with the selection tool, I decided to use the mark region in/out. so I drew a few crude circles around her body(which has contrast against the white pillows, but she has varying skintones+black), and was absolutley floored.
With a few crude circlings around Danica, it got the clue, and selected ONLY her. PERFECTLY clean selection lines around her.
Amazing!
And I shoulnd't be saying this since I work for a competitor to this!
I'm still using PaintBrush 3.1!
So far none of my files will open. Well...let me correct that. They open and are blank. No error message or anything like that. So, strike one. Anyone have any problems with photoshop files? I haven't tested that yet.
Unstable Apps: Our Android Apps Don't Suck
Expression can create beautiful art and is popular in Japan among Anime fans. Just be advised that it isn't a Photoshop clone. The interface is very different, so it takes time to learn.
--Mike Perry Untangling Tolkien
Paint Shop Prop is from Corel too, now that Corel bought Jasc.
I haven't used PSP since version 4 so I can't say for newer versions, but back in 1996, PSP hadn't real object/layers : after you finished editing a vectorized object (deselecting it), you wouldn't be able to edit it agin as vector graphic, while with Corel Photo-Paint 4.0, each object had its own layer and kept its vectorized nature.
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
Let me start out by saying I'm one of those people that usually (and strongly) believes governments should simply enforce existing laws instead of making up new ones based on special cases.
That said, I must say it bothers me that circumventing rules protecting human subjects doesn't qualify for prosecution under federal rules (see chart) while questionable relationships with students does.
About seamlessly combining raster and vector image editing: It's nothing new.
I miss SuperPaint, by Silicon Beach Software, for the old black-and-white Macintosh.
It had the *perfect* combination of raster and vector painting. It also had a good balance between photo-editing features (aka Photoshop) and tools for creating a new image from scratch (aka DeluxePaint).
At the time it was written, there were no color Macintoshes, but there was still some functions in the original QuickDraw API to deal with color (mostly to support multicolored ribbons in Apple ImageWriter printers). Icons for colors in SuperPaint just had words like "Orange", "Blue", etc. that would just show up black on the screen. The amazing thing is, when the first color Macintosh II came out, I tried out SuperPaint on it, and it WORKED!! It was so well written that everything on screen was now in color, even though the developers had no way of testing it before! Amazing....
SuperPaint was eventually bought out by Aldus, and after that, it just wasn't the same. Adobe eventually bought Aldus, and SuperPaint faded into obscurity. (What is with Adobe? The same thing happened in the Windows world just a few years ago, when we lost Cool Edit, essentially the only high-quality audio editing program that was within the budget of the average home user.)
Dr. Demento On The 'Net!
...using a retarded Fark Cliche!
Why is everyone crying about this? This is a kick kick kick ASS product. I'm really glad Microsoft surfaced this. It's way faster than Photoshop and for those of us who don't need the bulkiness of Adobe and their APLSOD (Adobe Plugin Loading Screen Of Death) I would like to say Hooray!
Yeah, yeah, so microsoft has a monopoly on everything. Go cry me a river, I'll still use linux and everything else that exists because life is good when software flows.
That's certainly odd... I had no problems using the export function and saving as a JPEG or a GIF...
To my dismay.
Expression (what this app is derived from) used to run on Mac OS and Windows. I notice this new app only runs on windows.. hmm
I tried it, download failed at 95%, downloaded it again, and tried it. Imageshack is the best I can do, but here are some screenshots:
first look
hello slashdot
text
lots of windows
heh, that's almost pr0n
New Folder is a bad name although you can Export, but I did not know this then
Things you can't see:
The way it does the windows. They snap to the screen edges, like in KDE, and resize that way too. The main window uses its own pseudo-weird MDI format. The windows don't have scrollbars, and they open the way Mac windows used to (still do?). All those shadows are mine, though.
It seems powerful, but by the looks of things most of the power is hidden. All those little windows you see at the right and bottom affect what is going to happen, and there are a lot of them. I had to keep checking on all of them to remember what I was doing. You can change fill, opacity (from a menu), brush style (many of these), gradient (many of these too), and various other things.
The one thing badly wrong with it is how slow it is. I wasn't sure how much CPU it takes, though as it made my system too slow to open Task Manager, probably quite a lot. You need to use it to get an idea of how slow it is. I eventually had to End Task it because I told it to do something complex, and couldn't see how to stop it doing it.
Guy asked me for a quarter for a cup of coffee. So I bit him.
Um, since this is a Microsoft product, doesn't that make this an Alpha....
I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I've always been of the opinion that M$ used its at-large user base for Beta Testing, and made you pay for the privilege.
Maybe it'll help make ALL those products better by introducing a new interface idea or unique type of filter.
Or maybe they'll just copy any inovative feature that the competition has come up with, even if it breaks patent laws. Then they'll bundle it with Windows, which means over 90% of the computer users on the planet will be able to use, for free so that no one has to buy the other program, even though the Windows version probably isn't anywhere near as good. The other company might sue, but will just probably be bought off by MS, and eventually wither and die anyhow. Then there will be absolutely no incentive for MS to make the product better since there's no competition. The end result is that over 90% of the computer users get stuck with a sub-par product with no alternative.
FAIR competition is something that everyone can handle, but since when has Microsoft ever made the effort to do things even remotely fair?
I always loved the original, and was always surprised when the technology was left out of applications like Painter, Illustrator, and Photoshop. All of them already had at least a limited vector enige, so what was the real problem?
Makes me wish I still had a tablet around to play with it.
Anm
So is this connected in any way to that old Windows app? I used to use Image Composer and for the most part it was ok. I came with a Frontpage freebie I got 5+yrs ago.
Here's the download link for the original: Download Expression 3
Have fun: Join D.N.A. (National Dyslexics Association)
Hmmm, isn't this the time for Adobe to bring the power of the DMCA to bear on M$? Hit them for reverse engineering their product? Circumventing copy protections? Or just using the DMCA general purpose club "DMCA say you no can compete with me!!!!!" to beat on them with? For once, I want to see two of the big guys beating each other up with the DMCA club, not just see the giants pounding the little guys into submission with that club.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world - Ghandi
In addition, the application appears to be able to export to Adobe's Portable Document Format, or PDF
If only their Office products exported to PDF... irritates me so.
It's not a bad name. But knowing MS, it will probably end up with something more bold and distinctive.
You know, along the lines of "Word" or "Windows".
They could call it "Paint", maybe...or "Photo Editor"...."Picture It"?
And, they only run on certain hardware. And if they don't have the software, they buy the company that does. And if the company they buy makes windows software, they cut it out.
MS should stick to their usual dull-yet-informative naming protocols. 'Office' reminds you of, well, the office. 'Paint' reminds you of the kind of masterpieces you could create with paint - when you were six. And 'Bob' reminds you of a small floating turd.
You must think in Russian.
Can it read and save .PSDs? What sort of import/export filters does it offer? Apart from the fact that it's from Microsoft, does it have any compelling advantages?
If not (and even if, to begin with), as a me-too program in a market where Adobe is the 500-pound gorilla, they're going to have to play by the established rules and standards unless & until they can demonstrate an ability to secure a decent market share, and I don't see how they can do that without compatibility and/or killer features.
Or this simply an example of the give-it-away-and-destroy-the-competition school of product positioning?
I mean really. If it weren't for their power in OS and Office how else could they undercut people in other markets by releasing free software?
Think of it:
Internet Explorer
Anti-Spyware
Acrylic
Anti-Virus (announced)
I think the trend really start though with volunteers working on the Unix platform, but lets not rain on their parade.
Direct away from face when opening.
You need a MS passport login to DL it. Use the BugMeNot extension and have fun.
This is not true, it violates the Windows Compatibility logo requirements and does not actually run under hardly ANY versions of Microsoft Windows.
It will not run on any version of MS Windows 2000 for example, nor will it even run or install on MS Windows XP with service pack one installed!!!!
So check your facts.
One version it will run under, though not mac os or osx anymore, is MS Windows XP with the buggy anti-user "Service Pack 2" installed.
Its basically crapware derived from a formerly great mac program
Been running PS CS on Win XP SP2 for months.
How come you didn't get modded 'insightful' or 'informative' for posting that shit?
Expression was once a quasi-competitor for Adobe Illustrator, not Photoshop. It sounds more to me like they are targeting Corel Draw and/or Deneba Canvas (i.e. 2 programs that each do both vector AND raster illustration to some degree).
bitmap graphic security exploit.
Would we have In Design if no one thought Quark could be improved upon or replaced?
Would we have FireFox?
Either the market is big enough to support the possibility of multiple players brings them on or someone gets torqued enough at the market leader to try and show them how to do it.
People would have said you were insane if you suggested they leave Quark just a few short years ago, many would have laughed in your face. Innovation sometimes requires competition.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I imagine New Windows systems will come bundled with a free copy of Acrylic. It will be the default image application. Users will save files in it's proprietary format. Then they'll continue to require Windows because Acrylic won't run without it. Most won't realize the export capablity to save in less proprietary formats. They won't be willing to use the GIMP or anything else once they've learned to use Acrylic's interface.
MS wants to be sure that the GIMP for Windows doesn't catch on because the user could use it without having Windows.
Isn't this the sort of thing that was declared a violation in MS's anti-trust trial?
If you want to consider Firefox an innovator, then you need to consider every Microsoft product one as well, since all of them have extended the features of their predecessors in some way. I'd prefer to refer to none of them as innovators unless the program as a whole is completely unlike anything before it.
This is just a semantics arguement. Your arguement would have be bolstered if you could give an example of a truely innovative product. I, for one, think Firefox is incredibly innovative. When I originally started using it, I felt that all the praise was just MS haters trying to bring down IE. Its amazing to me now, however, how much I feel crippled when I use IE. The search as you type and tabbed browsing really expand my productivity when using Firefox.
First you animate. Then you SUSPEND!!!
I will gladly jump ship from Adobe for the first roughly comparable product that lets me set my own fscking keybindings! God, I can't stand Adobe's egotism.
Looking for a Rails developer in Chapel Hill?
Oh, boy, if only that were true.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I believe its Jockin' Mike D.
I love Firefox, too, and use it exclusively. However, the functionality was there in Opera. I would consider Opera an innovative product, even though I don't really like using it. Mosiac was definitely innovative.
Other innovative products: ICQ, The Brain, MacOS, and many others. It may be a semantics argument, but I enjoy sticking to the original meaning of words rather than marketing language.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
Most of Firefox's features were stolen from Opera.
I, for one, think Firefox is incredibly innovative ... The search as you type and tabbed browsing really expand my productivity when using Firefox.
That's great. But those features are not innovations. They both existed in Opera before the Mozilla project decided they were cool enough to implement.
Firefox is innovative as a web browser in the sense that it allows the end-user to "easily" extend its functionality. Of course, few of the extensions are innovative themselves but rather copies of features from other browsers.
Haven't used the app ... but those pallettes sure do look ... DOCKABLE!
Hope M$ learned something from the Adobe vs. Macromedia lawsuit.
Can anyone confirm/deny the dockability of the pallettes?
Most likely, the MS app will only support "Import".
Any support of exporting to other formats will either be removed or come with a dialog box that says,
"Some advanced formatting feature will be lost. Are you sure?"
Best of all, this dialog cannot be disabled.
You hear it here first!!
The new toolbar also duplicates Google Desktop's local search function, which it integrates with MSN search, and Google Deskbar. Fortunately, there is an option that allows the MSN bar to use google for its searching.
I know this is the first Windows port of the Expression programme since the interface is exactly the same as the older version, but this isn't the first time MS has released a funky vector editing tool that acts like a vector/pixel hybrid. On the Office 2000 CD there was an optional install of a software, PhotoEdit, I think it was called, which did very much the same thing except that it was extremely slow, so slow in fact that drawing a single vector curve with some special effect on it brought my 1.8GHz Dell to a standstill back in 2002.
So why is Microsoft trying this again. Obviously it is the first or second attempt (Microsoft products usually take 3 attempts to be successful) by Microsoft to grab marketshare form casual Photoshop and Illustrator users.
Coupled with Microsoft's Metro format, which is supposed to be a PDF killer -might work on windows since Acrobat reader is such a piece of bloated crap, won't work in prepress where PDF is really strong except that it already offers extend and embrace PDF compatibility - this should really be the writing on the wall for Adobe to watch their backs on Windows.
Granted, if Acrylic and whatever other graphics apps that Microsoft releases in the future are successful, it will take years to chip away at Adobe's dominance, but, as we all know, Microsoft has both the cash and the patience and the will to do it. The first users will probably be home users and beginning artists. Corel Draw will be this app's first victim.
It is certainly an incentive for Adobe to get their apps to native x86 OSX as soon as possible.
The problem is that it's not funny anymore. The whole joke thing has been played out and it's just repetitive regurgitation of the same catchall lines, ala the "M$" I see in your post.
Wait, it's a free beta.
I hate "M$" as much as the next guy but at least they aren't charging people to test beta software anymore. Like the other Microsoft image software, this will eventually cost money. Of course it maybe bundled with your next digital camera, copy of Office or drawing tablet, but someone is going to buy a license.
As far as I know, the only Microsoft image software that is "Free" is MS Paint. On top of that, as someone else pointed out, this only runs on XP. Why? Because error reporting comes on XP and debugging can be done daily.
Get your Unix fortune now!
Why couldn't they put in big letters on their site "XP ONLY"
I downloaded this 77mb file and now it's useless. I would never update to Windows XP with their insanely bloated code and crapy firewall.
At last MS is anouncing something that actually exists. Cool.
Oh well, what the hell...
Open Office, Gimp, Firefox, etc. didn't whine about needing the "freedom to innovate" when they were on trial for abusing their monopoly position. Microsoft did. That's why people always talk about how Microsoft isn't innovating.
I have a website. It's about Macs.
Thank you MS! You've unlocked the artist in me!!
http://www.erestar.net/images/acrylic/
You, my friend earn the honour and respect of being able to say to all your friends that you posted the 'least logical slashdot post ever'. Well done!
Is it beyond the mighty M$ to offer screenshots or am i just dumb and incapable of finding them.. secondly. Recommended on a P4? i know its called wintel, but theres some rather good other x86 stuff some of you guys might have heard of out there...
Brain(s): 0.0% user, 1.3% system, 0.1% nice, 98.6% idle
The problem is if they give it away (or for next to nothing) for long enough to kill Adobe.
Then the benefits of 'competition' are gone. Expect the price to go way up or for it to be folded into Office so you need to buy an Office upgrade to get the latest version.
Look what they did with Outlook. I believe the original one came bundled with Win95. Once they used that to make Exchange ubiquitous, Outlook became part of Office. Not free at all.
Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
Besides, I thought having choices was a good thing?
This is definitely not a good thing.
One big reason OSS is so popular, despite what RMS will tell you, is that it is free as in beer. Why? Because you have to be free to compete with Microsoft. Most companies can't survive for free (Netscape) unless they have substantial other products to subsidize development (AOL IM, Yahoo IM). And freeware/shareware products rarely compete because they rarely have the developer power of large companies (often one-man shops). Enter OSS. Open source software has a huge developer-base, and it is free as in beer. This is why OSS is so competitive today.
In the commercial sector, companies like Adobe are on an unfair playing field with Microsoft. Microsoft can use this just like it is using Windows Media Player 10, antivirus, and anti-spyware - Here, this is free, but you have to pay to upgrade to your OS to the latest version to use it, and it certainly won't run on competing operatin systems. Microsoft is making money off of their investment into WMP 10, antivirus, anti-spyware, and now Acrylic indirectly this way, and extending their monopoly at the same time. They can drive Adobe's, Symantec's, Norton's, and Real's market share down, and make money at the same time.
Competition is a good thing. This is not competition. This is a monopoly leveraging its monopoly position to provide you with a free product, while driving sales of the product that gives it a monopoly in the first place.
This is definitely not a good thing.
This is fine, I couldn't care less really, but once this is a required download or something that automagically comes up each and every time you turn Windows on, thereby hogging CPU cycles, it is time to hate it. (Think: MSN Messenger. Took me two weeks to FINALLY get it to stop coming back)
Just yesterday, when reading the Microsoft Music Service article, I thought, "gee, all Microsoft needs now is a product to compete with Adobe Photoshop". What a coincidence..Microsoft HAS to compete with everyone I think, because otherwise, Bill's ego shrinks. Why can't they just leave some things be, they have to dabble their nose in everything. What will they copy^W^W^W^Wthink of next?
And SuperCard too!!!
I added it to the C:\Program Files\Microsoft Code Named Acrylic root directory of the Acrylic installation, and now it loads just fine.
I do not have Adobe Illustrator, so I am delighted with Acrylic. Finally, I have a free (as in beer) way of loading those pesky .ai files that people keep sending me!
Tabbed browsing is an innovation? Safari, MyIE2, SlimBrowser, and more all had Tabbed Browsing long before Firefox ever existed.
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
I guess that's to be expected from closed source software.
Anyone who says that has never been to SIGGRAPH. Microsoft's Graphics Research Group has some of the finest minds of CG in one place. Not sure who's there now, but at one time they had Alvy Ray Smith, Jim Blinn, Andrew Glassner, and a host of other top minds. They routinely produce as many or more papers on basic research as any commercial entity, SGI included. If I recall correctly, they hired Alvy by buying Altamira, which had a program that was doing amazing things with the alpha channel when Photoshop was pretty much useless for compositing.
As good as? This assumes that one thinks Photoshop and it's open-source clone are all that good in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, Photoshop's popularity has stalled development in the image editing field. People think that the way things are done in Photoshop are the only way things should be done. The Gimp? It's nice to have a "free Photoshop", but like too many open source projects, it doesn't actually innovate, just immitate (yeah, go ahead...mod me down...you know it's true).
I've been observing paint systems since the Quantel Paintbox and AT&T TIPS, and quite honestly, the rate of innovation in image editing and painting has been in a steady decline since the very first programs produced a flowering of innovations. It's taken new platforms like the Macintosh and the Amiga to produce change, and frankly we've not seen one of those since BeOS.
I'm happy to see MS try something new. Somebody has to.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
No thanks, can't be bothered.
PS My Windows XP Pro OS is legal.
design their own advertisements in. We as graphic professionals will not be able to do anything with, because it's in some arcaine format, with unextractable images, all in RGB color space. I cant wait till we get this crap submitted to us!
What about Corel's products?, they are still pretty big.
I couldn't find anything on Linux to do what I could do with a ten year old version of CorelDraw for Vector graphics, so I bought the newest version recently (the older version was designed for windows 3.1, time to upgrade even if it wasn't 'needed')
Apperently, they even use Corel to make the Southpark TV show nowdays.
Take an idea and using it yourself is a cornerstone of capitalism in a free market. Most unfortunately, we are now saddled with this governmental dung pile we've come to know as softawre patents. What this means is very simple...you can no longer take an idea and use it yourself, as you stand a good chance of violating one or more patents.
Case in point...Let's say that there was a particular aspect of digital painting that you wanted to focus on. You wanted to develop software that addressed this one aspect so that users wouldn't have to saddle themselves with an 800lb gorilla just to get this one type of functionality. Well, too bad. Users don't have much choice any more, since they're pretty much forced to deal with the one entity that holds a patent on a software methodology that does what you're after.
There's a lot of stuff related to graphics that probably wouldn't survive a patent challenge, since a lot of it has been around quite a bit longer than then patent insanity. However. I don't expect this to last long - little by little, companies will find ways to lock in their precious little software patents, while locking everyone else out of any real semblance of choice.
http://www.acdamerica.com/products-x/x/default.htm l
Canvas has been around for years and was the first to introduce vector/pixel editing.
Here's a quote from Adobe's Bruce Chizen from a while back:
We have learned, historically, that if we stay close to what we really do well, we win. Microsoft has tried to enter Adobe's markets. It tried in the early days, coming up with a PostScript clone--and it actually shipped one printer with an original-equipment manufacturer. It was a total failure. It tried with Microsoft Draw and Microsoft PhotoDraw, and it gave away the product free with Microsoft Office to kind of "nitch up" Illustrator and Photoshop. Again, it was total failure--these products no longer exist.
For eBook publishing, it tried Microsoft Reader as an end run around PDF. You never hear about Microsoft Reader anymore. Microsoft tried, once again, to go at Photoshop with Microsoft Picture It.
The company has never been able to move Picture It above the consumer level. So I am confident that, as long as we do what we do well, as long as we continue to execute, we'll be very successful, despite Microsoft's monopoly.
(Interviewer:) Why have Microsoft's attempts not worked? What's the source of your confidence?
The reason is that our customers care a lot about the visual integrity and reliability of the information that is being presented. And that's just not a core competency of Microsoft. We've been at this now for 20 years. Everything we do is based on Adobe's imaging model and rendering engine--that layer between the operating system and the application that allows us to express information in a way Microsoft has trouble figuring out.
This could be a good thing. It could be seen as a catalyst to the process of selling COTS becoming an obsolete business model for ISV's. When ISV's realize that an innovative COTS-product can only bring them success until it becomes popular enough to attract the attention of the Eye of Mordor, they will start considering other business models. This could drive innovation to the OSS sphere.
The same perception will also make existing ISV's that have so far targeted mainly the Windows platform, offer their products on a multitude of platforms. Making the COTS product available on Linux seems at the moment like a perfect way to make sure that there will always remain to it a market sector free of MS competition. This trend could mitigate the cost of migration from Windows, as fewer and fewer COTS products would be tied to the Windows platform.
What about Corel's products?, they are still pretty big.
... I continue to use version 8 of both programs, because I own them and they do everything I need.
I agree. I've been using CorelDraw since version 3, and Corel PhotoPaint since version 5
Several times a year I kick myself and say "Damn, the working world uses Photshop, I really should learn Photoshop so I can compete with graphic designers on their own terms". But then I need to get something done in a hurry, and Corel does the trick.
-kgj
-kgj
Man this program is real buggy. I get this error alot when applying filters to jpegs.
ripped all of the text of c-net and did not cite or quote it, that is pretty tasteless... did anyone else notice, yuck.... As someone who has to sweat to cite every little piece of dust in the world, I feel like I just read about microsoft screwing over samba all over again :O
Obviously you're not a software developer either. It costs significant money to develop and test your product Windows 2000 (various SP flavors), Windows XP and XP SP1 especially if high performance graphics optimizations are needed. Supporting the same platform that they're likely doing their development on is the fastest way to get the product to market.
I'd be especially curious about how this compares to the Win32 version of the GIMP. Any Acrylic testers care to comment?
http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
Create the fucking "Photoshop Killer" already. Adobe customers need it to get some competition to bring the prices down if nothing else. Right now if you're a digital photographer and you want a high bit depth color managed workflow you have no choice but to use Photoshop. That's fucked up.
Just posted a review of Acrylic to my blog, http://blog.thetechgurus.net./
See?
-ReK
md5sum -c reality.md5
reality: FAILED
md5sum: WARNING: 1 of 1 computed checksum did NOT match
Earlier in the week (or was it last week?), Microsoft announced supporting RAW format images from digital cameras with a new API that allowed CODECs to be registered. This was announced with special reference to Nikon, who's newer DSLRs have encrypted information - now you can easily browse and view these pictures under longhorn.
Adobe has come out and said they will not be providing any capability to work such images because it would require them to break the DMCA to do so (obviously they don't feel like they want to use Nikon's developer libraries, for whatever reason.)
I'm pretty sure that Acrylic will be able to make full use of the CODECs loaded into longhorn so now Nikon DSLR owners will no longer feel like they're missing out - they can turn to Microsoft. Why would they want to buy Photoshop from Adobe, now?
Please let's stop arguing if this is good or bad for Adobe. It is not adobe whom MS is targeting, is the Linux desktop.
One of the wonderful things that ppl find when they use linux is that it has every kind of program you could ask for right out of the box. Now MS is trying to offer a similar experience.
My guess is that the recent desktop oriented distros (Ubuntu, MEPIS, Xandross) are really scaring them, and their new solution is to be as linux-like as possible, by loading as much software as possible into Windows. Of course this will make windows much more expensive but since PCs come preloaded with windows ppl is oblivious to the price of windows, it is absorbed into the price of the PC itself.
NOW THE REAL CONCERN is that as soon as this new app is in windows it is going to be adopted as the de facto standard, and guess what this is going to lead us? Yep PROPIETARY CLOSED FORMATS, INCOMPATIBILITY PROBLEMS, PATENT MINE FILEDS etc...
at any rate we must start writing a gimp module to read and write into the new format asap.
But... the future refused to change.
To install Acrylic on windows 2000 try the following;
o wnload_16745_1.html
.msi file
\ CADFold\Micr osoft\Acrylic
\ PFiles\Micro soft Code Named Acrylic
? gdiplus
1. Download Acrylic
2. Download WinINSTALL LE 2003 (it's free)
http://www.softpile.com/Utilities/Miscellaneous/D
2.1 Install WinINSTALL LE 2003
2.2 Load WinINSTALL
2.3 click on Import Package (yellow folder) then browse to Acrylic
2.3.1 type AC in the description field
2.4 click on Action then EXPAND. Once the window opens click EXPAND
2.5 wait...
2.6 Close WinINSTALL
3 Create a folder for Acrylic in program files
eg. C:\Program Files\acrylic
4 Browse to C:\Program
Files\OnDemand\WinINSTALL\Packages\ac
4.1 copy all the files & folders to C:\Program Files\acrylic
4.2 Browse to C:\Program
Files\OnDemand\WinINSTALL\Packages\ac
4.3 copy all the files & folders to C:\Program Files\acrylic
5 Download gdiplus.dll (free)
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml
5.1 copy gdiplus.dll to c:\winnt\system32
6.0 browse to C:\Program Files\acrylic
run e4
If you would like all the registry entries then go back to WinINSTALL LE
and copy them accross manually.
Say the word "gimp" to anyone not already a computer geek, and you'll have to spend a couple minutes explaining the history of the name.
Say "Acrylic" and they already think it has to do with something artistic.
Yes, I know GIMP spawned GTK, and all of the other projects prefixed with a "g".
Just make a new name starting with a "g". How about "grylic"? j/k But pick something that is some word related to the arts.
There: Something at a specific location.
Their: Owned by someone.
Please make sure your english compiles.