Misc. Imaging Tools

Algolab Raster to Vector Conversion Toolkit (R2V) converts, digitizes and refines architectural, mechanical, various technical drawings, maps, math graphs, graphics for books and journals and more from raster to vector. It digitizes math graphics and also refines vector graphics, creates fine lines and shapes. You can use your scanner to input graphics, and they will be recognized and represented in a vector format, so they can be imported to your CAD or drawing program. Algolab R2V supports input from TWAIN scanners and the following raster formats: BMP, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PCX, TGA. Output in vector formats DXF (AutoCAD), AI (Adobe Illustrator), EMF ( Enhanced metafile, WMF and ASCII XY ( MS Excel, Mathematica, Lotus 123 etc.).

Able Fax Tif View is an image and document viewer/converter for FAX, TIF, PDF, EPS, PS, AI, and DCX files. It supports a variety of FAX images, multipage FAX and TIFF images, FAX (CCITT3), G3F, G3N (Zetafax) formats and more. The images can be viewed and printed, and also edited. You can add annotations, rotate images, insert text, delete pages and more. Other features include Twain support for scanners and digital cameras, automatic image processing tools, and batch processing.

Agama Web Buttons enables you to create professional quality web buttons. You can choose from about 70 template styles and customize them to your needs. The program supports text insertion and image insertion, using 2D and 3D glassy, metallic, plastic and XP or Vista style buttons, with or without rollover effects. Agama Web Buttons even allows you to assemble buttons into a horizontal or vertical navigation menu, and preview them in your browser - the complete HTML and Java code can be saved with the project. The program supports GIF, PNG, JPEG and BMP as well as transparency.

Golden Section is an adjustable, transparent design grid for web, graphic, logo and interface designs. It allows you to control and correct the sizes and proportions in a design project using the Golden Section ratio. It offers multiple grid modes and stays on top of all over windows, independent from mouse and keyboard activity. You can adjust the transparency of the grid, change the color, size and more. Designed for users that are familiar with the concept.

EDGE Diagrammer is a professional diagramming and flowcharting tool that focuses on ease of learning and use. You can create any type of block diagrams with shapes connected by arrows. The program offers built-in shapes and arrow heads, and you can also create your own. Additional features include full zoom, OLE connectivity, poster printing, graphics import and export.

WizFlow is a tool for creating flowcharts and similar diagrams. Wizflow contains extensive features such as full zoom, OLE connectivity for inserting charts in other documents (use with most web page packages), poster printing, graphics import and export including web format graphics, automatic routing, curves, flow symbols, and much more.

LanFlow Net Diagrammer is a drawing tool for laying out, designing, and documenting a network, LAN, internet, or other communications system. Drop in components like computers, workstations, and servers and then connect them with lines and cables of all sorts. Choose your components from the built-in symbols, clip-art, and icons or add your own using any Windows metafile, bitmap, or JPEG (web) graphic. Use simple lines to connect your components or use dashes, curves, arrows or complex combinations for any type of line you like. You can enter explanatory text at any location. LanFlow contains extensive features such as full zoom, OLE connectivity for inserting charts in other documents, poster printing,connection points. Now supports adding over 35,000 symbols.

Picture Collage Maker allows you to create photo collages from your digital images. You can choose from a variety of template layouts or create your own design from scratch, apply image frames, masks, drop shadows and other effects. The images can be cropped and resized to fit, and freely arranged within the collage. The program supports drag and drop image placements, resizing and multiple layers of images and clipart decorations. The result can be saved as new JPG image and/or set as desktop wallpaper.

Photomatix Pro enables photographers to combine multiple images in order to blend exposure settings and achieve an increased dynamic range that can normally not be achieved due to the limitation of film and digital cameras. When capturing scenes that contain very bright and very dark areas, the photographer must usually exposure for the part of the images that he wants the user to focus, or find a common middle-ground thereby sacrificing certain details of the image. By bracketing a shot and creating multiple exposures, each optimized for foreground, background and other details, you can create a series of images that Photomatix Pro can combine into a single, properly exposed photograph that displays the complete range of exposure throughout the entire image. The program offers an automated process that tries to detect the optimal settings, or you can manually process the images with complete control over the blending process. Photomatix Pro requires a series of image exposures, the program is not designed to fix a single photo. The trial version adds a watermark to the output image.

FantaMorph Pro lets you create image morphing and warping movies in real time. You can input any two images, morph them and then export the results to image sequence, AVI, animated GIF, Flash or as a screensaver. The program uses an easy to use interface that allows you to preview the morphing effects in real-time without having to save or export first. You can also apply masks and background images to further enhance the morphing effect. FantaMorph Pro comes with good documentation and several samples included. It supports input images in BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, TGA, PCX and 32-bit formats with alpha.

Visual Watermark allows you to create fancy, multi-layer watermarks to protect your images from unauthorized use. You can insert images (logos etc.) and text, or combine them by using multiple layers, as well as drop shadow effects, opacity levels, gradients and more. The program includes several sample watermarks that can be customized to your preference. Other features include command line operation, WYSIWYG watermark placement and export/conversion to PDF document. The watermarked images can be saved to a new folder, so your originals are not modified. The trial version adds a trial watermark in addition to your watermark.

Likno Web Button Maker enables you to create stylish 3D buttons for use on web sites. It comes with various preset shapes, patterns and button material that can be customized to your needs. In addition, it offers drop shadow effects, button text, background images and customizable lightning angles. The program does not require any graphical expertise, everything is point and click. The results can be exported to JPG, GIF or PNG file.

ProphecyMaster simulates the effects of human aging and applies them to a portrait image of your choice. The program applies wrinkles and age lines as well as some other characteristic of human aging and produces a somewhat believable peek into the future. There are no settings to play with or other options, just load a photo and watch the results.

Easy Watermark Creator enables you to add one or more watermarks to your images, in order to protect and display your intellectual property rights. The program supports 3 types of watermarks, including text based watermarks, image watermarks (e.g. your logo) as well as date watermarks that simply add a visual date display to the photo, which can be a chosen date, or the date extracted from the image`s EXIF data. You can apply a combination of watermarks and save the watermark configuration for later reuse. Other features include batch processing of images, support for transparency, tiling of watermarks and command-line support.

AiPICX is an all-in-one graphics package that views, manages, catalogs, enhances images. It plays multi- track slideshows (or screen savers) with 173 effects. Features speedy views, thumbnail caching and extensive HTML catalogs; advanced image functions correct and enhance photo defects (e.g., backlighting), the program can also remove "red eye". Supports popular image and multimedia formats. You can also print, edit, convert, scan, batch process/encode, apply unique image smoothing/sharpening filters and more.

Aleo Photo Collage Maker enables you to create photo collages and scrapbook pages from your digital images. It provides an easy to use drag and drop interface with a variety of ready-to-use templates to get you started. You can add clipart, speech bubbles, photo frames and image masks as well as text annotations to decorate your design and also insert a simple calendar display. Aleo Photo Collage Maker also includes tools to crop, enhance and edit your images. The results can be saved in various image formats, sent by email, set as desktop wallpaper, exported to PDF format or compiled into a standalone EXE slideshow.

Cover Expert enables you to create virtual covers for your products, including CDs, DVDs and books. You can choose from several template designs and load your own images to be used for the sides and front of the objects. The program provides a 3D environment that allows you to scale, rotate and place objects in the scene. You can adjust camera angels, light and shadow, and also add reflection effects to make the scene look more realistic. Cover Expert can render your design to PNG, JPG, GIF and several other image formats.

PhotoSort enables you to find duplicate photos on your computer. The program analyzes the actual images and can find duplicates or similar photos, even if the file name and size are different (e.g resized versions), or watermarks/logos have been added. The results are displayed in a list, grouped by image and similarity, and provide a preview of the selected image, as well as additional details. You can select files, and then proceed to delete them.

GAXreloaded is a powerful application for web designers, graphic designers and everyone else who works with graphics. It contains a colorpicker, a screen ruler, and a screen capture tool. The colorpicker allows you to view the color value of every pixel on the screen in various formats(RGB, Hex or percents) and lets you sample that color. After youve sampled a color you can export it to Photoshop to use it in your creation or export it to the clipboard in various formats. The screen ruler is handy for measuring objects on your screen. And the additional the screen capture tool allows you to capture every part of the screen and export the image to Photoshop oer save it as a JPG or BMP file. Its also possible to automatically capture a sequence.

Wall Photo Maker allows you to print poster size pictures, using your standard printer. The program enlarges the image and then splits it into segments that fit on standard paper size, and can then be assembled with scissors and glue to build a large poster. You can also choose from several effects to enhance the image, and save the project for later.

Quick 3D Cover enables you to create professional looking simulations of software boxshots, e-books covers, CD jewel cases, DVD cases and some other objects. It includes a series of template that include different boxshot arrangements (one or more boxes), software box and CD combinations, as well as simulated LCD screens and several other office objects like binders, folders and more. You can load the images to use for the front, side, top and bottom and the program will automatically scale them and adjust the perspective to fit the selected object. Other features include shadow effects, reflection effects, adjustable shading and highlights and batch processing of multiple templates. The output can be saved in JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG format.

ARTBorders is a simple tool, that allows you to beautify your images by adding artistic borders and frames to them. It also offers some basic image manipulation features such as color and brightness, red-eye removal and rotation. It comes with about 20 frame designs to use, and additional ones can be downloaded after purchase. The frames can be customized in color, and the program can automatically adjust frame colors to match the image color palette.

Vextractor allows you to transform raster images into vector formats by building centerlines and outlines. It can be used for vectorizing of charts, maps, schemes, logotypes and other similar images. It features recognition of arcs, circles and orthogonal lines as well as polylines smoothing, noise filtering and more. Supported input raster formats are BMP, GIF, TIFF, JPEG, PCX and TGA.

eCover Engineer can help you create 3D style covers for make-believe software boxes. It supports 2 or 3 sided boxes and allows you to freely rotate, roll and size the box to your preference, using easy to use sliders. It includes a very basic image editor, which can be of limited assistance when designing your box cover, which can then be used for the 3D rendering engine to create the virtual box. The program includes a few templates, but they did not look very convincing to us. However, if you have good graphical skills and can create your own designs, the software can make it easy to render them into a 3D style box. eCover Engineer supports JPG and BMP images (not GIF).

Insofta Cover Commander enables you to create very professional looking simulations of product boxes and application screenshots that are suitable for web publishing or printing. It provides several design templates to create software boxes with or without a CD, as well as simulated CDs and 3D-style screenshots either straight or curved with optional drop shadows and reflection effects. All you have to do is load the images to be used for the front, back and side covers, or a regular screen capture of an application window, and the program will apply the selected style, allowing you to further customize the design by adjusting camera angle, shadow, reflection and light settings. The preview is rendered in 3D and can be freely rotated to achieve the desired effect. The finished design can be rendered in various sizes and saved in PNG, GIF, JPG or BMP. Impressive results!

Bravo! Show Creator allows you to create advanced photo slideshows from your digital images, that can be used as screensaver or played with the free Bravo! player. The program offers a large collection of slideshow effects with customizable transitions and timing options. You can also add background music (MP3, WMA, and WAV)or use a background image for your slideshow. The result can be previewed, saved or exported to a standard screensaver file (.scr) or standalone installer, that you can use to distribute the slideshow to friends and family. You can also export to the proprietary Bravo format, however this requires the user to install the free viewer.

Image Thumbnailer and Converter allows you to create thumbnails (based on percentage of the original or exact pixel size), convert image types, and view your images an entire folder at a time, or individually if you choose. A built-in preview allows you to view the resized images as you change them. You can convert your images to JPEG, BMP, TIF or Metafile, rename them, and also adjust the JPG compression level. The program also enables you to create thumbnail web galleries that link to the full size image when clicked. Very outdated Win 95 interface with mostly average functionality.

CoolCollage enables you to create images collages from your photos. You can specify a one or more folders with photos to be used in the collage, as well as the number of pictures for each collage. The program will then create random collages from your photos that you can share as JPG files with others, set as screensaver or desktop wallpaper - a wallpaper changer and screensaver come included.

idFramer allows you to add attractive frames to your photos. You can choose from more than 65 pre-designed frames, or design your own, using textures, masks, transparency, image effects and drop shadows. The frame design are organized in categories, and range from standard wood or color frames to unique effect frames and more. In addition, the program can also add text captions to your images, remove red-eye effects and resize your images(s). You can apply a frame to a single photo, or an entire folder. The framed photos can also be optimized for email sending or printing.

Crystal Button is a program to easily create professional looking web button graphics. It allows you to create a variety of three-dimensional glassy, metallic, plastic and even XP style buttons. You can construct navigation bars, create buttons with different mouse over effects (highlighted, pressed etc.). and even create 3D style images with ease. In addition, you can modify the image material as well as the text, lighting, border type, shape, and more - all using easy to understand selection windows. Crystal Button offers instant preview, so you can see your button changing as you design and edit its look.

FirmTools Panorama Composer is an easy-to-use software to assemble panorama shots from multiple images. Just load the images and the program will automatically stitch and optimize the photos and generate the panorama view. While advanced users will miss the lack of control over the stitching process, the automated process can produce good results without any technical experience needed. The result can be exported as image, QucikTime VR, standalone viewer in EXE format, or as a web page that has the Flash panorama viewer embedded.

SPX Studio allows you to enhance and annotate your screenshots by adding text, balloons, notes and transparent shapes to your images. The program cannot take any screen captures, but allows you to import or paste your existing screenshots, and then add the enhancements to improve them. You can save the finished product as a project file or export to GIF, BMP, PNG or JPG format.

Image Styles is a way to make an unlimited amount of beautiful graphic images in a minimal amount of time. The main random seed algorithm, placed in the heart of Image Styles allows to receive the different images almost every second. You can make skins and icons for your favorite programs, seamless backgrounds for your Web page, textures for 3d-world, or almost anything else. Image Styles has more than 50 built in, ready-to-use effects including generators, deformers, filters, colors adjustment and buffer operations. It comes with a variety examples that you can modify, mix etc. to get started.

PhotoMagic is a photo software suite, that enables you to improve, enhance, print, repair your images, and also add effects or create artistic versions of selected pictures. It also allows you to create high quality enlargements of low resolution images, apply color effects, various lenses, special effects, photographic edges and more. PhotoMagic provides a main interface that is used to launch the individual applications, each one is easy to use and requires little or no graphical expertise. The included print wizard makes it easy to print borderless photos.

Fun Morph is a photo morphing and warping software, that enables you to create fun transformation of images, and save them as video clips, images or Flash movie (.swf). The program comes with several example projects and documentation that explains the morphing and warping process, as well as a real-time preview to assist with the design of your morphs. Additional tools include cropping and color adjustments, as well as several image effects that can be added.

Mosaic Creator enables you to create professional looking photo mosaics, using a source image of your choice, and a collection of images to create the mosaic tiles from. It offers different mosaic patterns (rectangle, puzzle, triangle, hexagon etc.) to choose from, as well as various options to control image distribution and rendering parameters. You can use the step-by-step wizard that will guide you through the process, or use the tabbed interface to configure the options manually. Additional features include printing calculator, ASCII art, text mosaics and more.

True BoxShot enables you to create a 3D style software box cover images to market your software product on the web. The program can render attractive boxshots based on your front, side and top input images (you need to design and edit the actual cover images separately), and then allows you to render the design using various presets or custom settings. True BoxShot supports full 3D rotation with drop shadows and optional reflection effects. You can customize the dimensions of the box, as well as size and intensity of shadows and effects, and preview the changes in real-time. The finished result can be exported to GIF, JPG, PNG or BMP format and optionally rendered in high resolution for printing. An easy to use tool to render your existing cover design with professional looking results. Also available as Photoshop plug-in.

AiS Watermark Picture Protector will help you to make a demo image from your original image. AiS Watermark Picture Protector reads your image from more than 40 file formats (BMP, GIF, Animated GIF, JPEG, PNG, WMF, EMF and others) and allows you to add some transparent or colored text to the image. The program is useful for designers and banner makers, it allows to provide the customer with a sample without actually handing out the original graphic. It also includes a batch mode to process multiple images at once.

PhotoMix allows you to create image collages by assembling multiple images into one single graphic. You can select from different layouts and then simply drag the images into the marked locations. Individual layouts can be saved andthe result can then be printed or exported to a BMP, GIF or JPG file. PhotoMix supports most popular graphic formats and you can create and output images of any size. The program is very easy to use and produces nice looking results.

FaceOnBody is a photo editor, designed to a swap people`s faces between photos. You can transfer your face on Superman`s body, make your brother look like your sister, turn your boss into a bikini model, and so on... The program offers a simple interface and a step by step wizard that allows you to select the scene that you want to modify, and then the picture containing the face you want to insert. It provides the tools that enable you to select and extract the face from the photo, insert it into the new scene. You can also resize it to match the proportions, and adjust color tones to match the new scene. FaceOnBody includes a categorized collection of images that you can work with, however they are not of professional quality, but extracted from various web locations. We found most of them to be of either limited use or poor quality (and possibly copyright protected). However, if you have your own images that you want to work with, you may want to give this program a try as it can produce fairly usable results.

Image Constructor enables you to create basic illustrations and other graphical displays like navigation maps, charts, greeting cards etc. You can choose from a variety of graphical objects that come included with the program and also add your own. The result can be exported to BMP, JPG, GIF or PNG format.

AKS Image Comparer enables you to visually compare 2 JPG images and find the differences between them. The program will load the first and second image side-by-side and then generate a 3rd version that marks the areas that are different between the two. AKS Image Comparer works well with drawings, charts or other simple images, not quite as well for small changes in complex images or photos.

Realty Mailer combines a simple image editor with a basic email program for sending messages with picture attachments. It is designed for realtors that want to email property pictures to a client or an MLS email address. It allows you to resize or adjust (brightness, contrast, sharpening) the images without changing the original pictures and email them from within the program. Overall, the program combines basic image editing with simple email features.

Desktop Ruler resembles a virtual ruler, that can be used to measure or align pixels, inches or centimeters on your desktop or in documents. It offers several useful features that allow you to restrict movement to vertical or horizontal paths, attach the ruler to the cursor and rotate the ruler. The scale also allows you to measure based on resolution that images will be printed, and also includes a precise measuring tool. In addition, you can change the color and size of the ruler interface, and set transparency.

Framing Station enables you to add ready-to-use frames to your digital images. All you have to do is select an image, and choose a frame. The demo version only includes 12 sample frames, while the purchased version claims to include more than 900 frames organized in categories. All frames can be further customized with a text caption and used in 8x10, 10x8, 4x6 or 6x4 format. Framing Station can output the images to JPG format, however they are resized to 600x400 resolution.

Zoner Panorama Maker enables you to create a horizontal panorama stitch from a series of photos that were shot for this purpose. The program can automatically adjust for minor misalignments and also provides a manual editing mode that lets you define shared connection points, however if the images were taken carefully, the automatic mode will do a fine job without the need for further adjustments. Zoner Panorama Maker will also suggest an ideal cropping area before you can save the image in various popular formats.

ePlum GetPictures! enables you to convert any printable file into JPG/GIF/PNG/BMP format with custom size and resolution settings. The program intercepts the document that is sent to the printer (while it is running) and then allows you to optionally resize the image, apply anti-aliasing, rotation, background color or a date/time stamp before you can save it in the selected image format. You can also create a simple HTML image gallery from the captured document(s).

Alive! Jigsaw Producer is a simple program that enables you to create a virtual puzzle from a photo of your choice. Just select the image (JPG,WMF or AVI) and customize the difficulty level by adjusting the number of pieces to be generated. The resulting puzzle is exported as standalone EXE file, and allows anyone to solve the puzzle without the need to install any additional software.

Sketch Studio 2005 is a drawing program for children, that offers built-in drawing lessons, using two pencil shaped characters (Sketch and Smudge), that can teach your kid the basic concepts of drawing. It also includes a tracing option, that allows to load an image and trace it. Beyond this however, the program offers very few features to encourage creativity, as the provided drawing tools are limited to simple pencils and a color picker.