Misc. Imaging Tools

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

ArcSoft Panorama Maker enables you to transform a series of overlapping photos into a seamless panorama image. The stitching process is done fully automatic - you only have to provide the proper photos. The program uses advanced technology that can even detect the movement of objects and people and remove multiple instances as needed. Furthermore, you can also fine-tune the result, using the tools provided. Other features include image enhancement options, multi-page print output and more. ArcSoft Panorama Maker supports horizontal, vertical, tiled, and 360 degree panorama styles. The program can save the output as image files, Flash or QuickTime movie.

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.

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.

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.

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.).

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.

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.

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.

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.

IncrediFace enables you to easily turn pictures of your friends and family into into funny movie poster, celebrities, animals and many other things. You simply select a picture (portrait works best) of a person, and insert it into one of the many templates that are provided. IncrediFace lets you fine tune the result to adjust angle, size and skin tone of the inserted photo, so that it closely matches the template. You can then add additional objects like expressions, cartoon elements, speech bubbles and much more by simply dragging them from the provide library of objects. It also includes sound effects, and you can even record your own audio and add background music. The result is saved as a show that can be exported to standalone EXE file, interactive CD, image file, screensaver, web page and several other options. The program is extremely easy (and fun) to use, and produces professional quality 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 limit use or poor quality (and possibly copy 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.

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.

ButtonFly is a visual graphics editor to create cool Web buttons and menus for your Web site. It comes with hundreds of customizable button templates and you can also start from scratch and create buttons from various shapes, add text, effects and more. The available effects include drop shadows, relief, shading, blurring, colorizing, thickness, opacity and more. The resulting images can be saved in GIF, JPEG or BMP format, copied to the clipboard or sent to an external editor for further modification. In addition, the registered version includes 28 dynamic effects like rollovers, bounces, waves, rotations, and zoom.

Just Banners lets you create static or animated banners for many uses. The banners can be of any size, you can add text, images as well as customized skinned controls to create Windows-type banners with drop-boxes, buttons, checkboxes etc. You can preview your creation at any time and also save it as a template for later editing. The banners can have rectangular or rounded shapes, dogears, dropshadows and more. The program can also be used to create buttons.

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.

Zan Image Printer is a virtual printer driver, that enables you to convert any printable document into standard BMP, TIFF or JPEG images. You can simply select the Print command from any application that supports it, and then select the Zan Image Printer instead of your regular (paper) printer. You then have the option to select the image format and output quality, and save the document as image file. Additional features include optional text extraction, command line options, macro commands for output file renaming, cropping, Image downsize scaling and more.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.