![]() These aren't simplified, semi-automatic enhancements. This is a separate window, available in both the Organiser and PhotoPlus itself, which offers a stack of expanding panels for fixing white balance, lighting, chromatic aberration, lens distortion and more. It's difficult to see the point of the PhotoFix tool, too. ActionScript is heavy-duty stuff, and we struggled to get what we wanted from the controls presented here.And while Serif PhotoPlus X5 does come with a raw converter, it doesn't support the same range of cameras as Adobe Camera Raw, its adjustment tools are limited, and its highlight recovery is very poor, often producing strong colour casts or severe underexposure. ![]() We wonder whether Serif has bitten off too much here, though. DrawPlus also goes further than Photo & Graphic Designer by supporting some ActionScript commands for tasks such as creating internal and HTML links and playing sounds. Once again, Serif's software has the advantage over Xara's, as its QuickShapes parameters are easy to animate – it took us about 30 seconds to create a 3D clock with moving hands. The Image Cutout Studio closely resembles Photoshop Elements' Quick Selection Tool, and is just as effective at isolating a part of a photo.īoth programs can create keyframe animations and export them as videos or in Flash format – perfect for designing animations for a website or video production without the cost and complexity of Adobe Flash Pro or After Effects. Its docked window layout is a little neater than Photo & Graphic Designer's, and its Align functions are better implemented.ĭrawPlus's vector-drawing tools provide plenty of scope to get the most from its palette of shapes and curved linesīitmap manipulation is much more sophisticated in Serif's editor, with colour correction, heal and cloning tools and creative effects that pay homage to Adobe Lightroom. Both can convert flat shapes into 3D, but DrawPlus let us edit the 3D object's facade without having to turn the 3D effect off and on again. Both programs can blend two objects, creating a series of replicas that morph from one to the other, but DrawPlus can plot them along a curved path. Its QuickShapes tool generates squares, spirals and clock faces, with simple controls for actions such as turning a circle into a pie chart slice. The two packages' vector graphics features are uncannily similar, but most of the differences lie in DrawPlus's favour. ![]() It's been a few years since we last reviewed DrawPlus, so rather than focusing on the new features, let's see how DrawPlus X5 stacks up against Xara's software. If this sounds familiar, that's because Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7 pulls off exactly the same trick, with vector drawing and lots more besides wrapped up in a fast, friendly interface, all for £57 including VAT. However, we're pleasantly surprised not just by the quality of the results but also by how easy it is to get to grips with the interface. With so much crammed into a sub-£100 program, it might seem optimistic to expect the highest levels of sophistication. The ability to isolate parts of a photo is extremely useful for graphic design and DTP projects
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