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[News] New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle ProANN.lu
Posted on 12-Dec-2003 18:48 GMT by Felix Schwarz22 comments
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As a special gift to our customers, IOSPIRIT are - for the first time - offering a bundle with all our graphics programs at an especially attractive price of only 99 EUR (you save 40%, more than 60 EUR).

The "IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro" contains the respectively latest, full versions of fxPAINT 2.0, fxSCAN 4.0 and VHI Studio 6.0

The bundle is only available as 3 CD-set and only as long as stock lasts.

To the product page >>

New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 1 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 12-Dec-2003 19:40 GMT
Pay for Amiga software? why when you can download it from alt.binaries.warez.amiga for free of charge.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 2 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Mr. Anonymous on 12-Dec-2003 21:17 GMT
In reply to Comment 1 (Anonymous):
Got your OS 4.0 Beta, yet?
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 3 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Richi on 12-Dec-2003 21:19 GMT
two jerks, anyone else?!
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 4 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 12-Dec-2003 22:52 GMT
Don't feed the trolls.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 5 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Richi on 12-Dec-2003 23:04 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (Anonymous):
I'm not feeding anyone and these comments should be deleted very soon.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 6 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 13-Dec-2003 10:03 GMT
Would anyone who is using FXPaint regularly like to comment on how useful it is?

How does it compare with Art Effect or Perfect Paint? How good is the custom brush handling? Do brushes have 8-bit alpha channels?

Layers?

Perspective?
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 7 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 13-Dec-2003 11:12 GMT
In reply to Comment 6 (Don Cox):
Speaks for itself, doesn't it?

http://www.iospirit.de/index.php?mode=products&modmode=info&product_id=1&o_infogroup_objcode=html-31
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 8 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 13-Dec-2003 11:43 GMT
In reply to Comment 7 (Anonymous):
I was hoping for some intelligent comments from somebody who is actually using the program regularly.

Favourable quotes on the manufacturer's web site don't tell you much.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 9 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 13-Dec-2003 13:03 GMT
In reply to Comment 8 (Don Cox):
Don, there is a demo. Why not download and try it out?
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 10 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by StAn on 13-Dec-2003 14:30 GMT
The demo is unusable...
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 11 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by StAn on 13-Dec-2003 14:33 GMT
Ok, please forget my last comment.
(it's been a long time since I've tried the demo)
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 12 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 13-Dec-2003 16:21 GMT
In reply to Comment 11 (StAn):
OK, I tried the demo.

I couldn't find an icon for cutting a brush from the image, which is the most basic paint operation, IMO.

I couldn't see any way to set up or control image layers (even 3 layers, as in TVPaint, is useful).

It uses the Photogenics method of painting with one button and unpainting with the other, which is OK until you select a new colour and everything you did recently changes colour. (Unless you remembered to Fix it.)

The palette file is in an undocumented binary format, which makes creation of new palette files impossible. It would be better to use the same format as Pagestream (an ASCII format which is easy to edit and convert to from other palette lists).

There is a mass conversion utility.

It looks nice and seems responsive (on Amithlon). It opens several images at a time (Perfect Paint only does one). It does not insist on using a swap file like Art Effect.

The Demo limitations are quite tight.

It crashed when I selected "FX Video" from the menu.

No perspective, no animbrushes (these are used in still painting too). Text is done in a modal requester, one line at a time (compare Personal Paint, which has multiline text with choice of justification, and animated colour fonts).

The emphasis is very much on image processing and "effects" rather than painting. However, graphics tablets are supported, including pressure.

I think version 4 will be good, but IMO it is hard to justify paying for this version when Perfect Paint and Personal Paint and TVPaint are free.

The above is the result of a short test of the demo. Maybe somebody who is using the program regularly would care to comment? I may have been unfair.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 13 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Travis Halfman on 13-Dec-2003 21:12 GMT
In reply to Comment 12 (Don Cox):
I've been using FXPaint regularly for a year. The compositing tools are very simple to use and incredibly powerful. I tend to use "Rub Through" the most because I like the ability to un-paint back on the portions of the original I want to keep.

The regular "Compose" option is even more powerful allowing for masks, drop shadows, size change and so on.

The blurring options are top-notch as well. I use "Smooth" set on 3 to take some of the grain out of negative scans (with a Canon FS2710) at 2710dpi. The "Reduce JPEG Artifacts" seems to work well, too.

To grab a brush, first select a portion of the picture you need using the far right crop tool. Then open the brush manager and select the Image to Brush button (use bubble help). The brush will be added to the brush manager. I almost never use brushes.

Mostly I use fxPaint to do compositions, color correction (it works quickly with Amithlon and on the whole image instead of a tiny preview like ImageFX), batch conversions and HTML export (for nifty slideshows).

I use DrawStudio to add text and drop shadows to images.

TJH
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 14 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Travis Halfman on 13-Dec-2003 21:17 GMT
In reply to Comment 13 (Travis Halfman):
I forgot to mention that fxPaint is one of the most stable programs I use. I have found frequent unrecoverable freezes using the Amithlon module (which is INCREDIBLY fast), so I just use the 68k version, which is still very fast on an Athlon 2000, and has crashed maybe five times in the year since I bought the program.

TJH
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 15 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 14-Dec-2003 09:47 GMT
In reply to Comment 12 (Don Cox):
As you said - you tested it shortly and the demo is quite restricted. In the demo, you can't see the most exciting stuff at work and the "DEMO" barres your view. I agree, that the Demo might be of limited use - but then it HAS to be. I'm using it almost daily and am VERY satisfied with it.

Sorry to say, but your comparison with PerfectPaint and Personal Paint is pathetic. PerfectPaint is tolerable because it's for free, BUT you compare it with a commercial title here. PfPaint throws an insane amount of hits, crashes regularly, corrupts memory, relies heavily on external code, does not run on PPC or x86 and does not allow you even anything close to the realtime experience with fxPAINT (have you ever tried the light effects with the positioning mode - never seen that anywhere else but it's incredibly useful and awesome)? For PersonalPaint, it's an 8 Bit painter, does not even run on MorphOS, neither has PPC-support ever worked for me. It's ok because it's for free now, but again, comparing it with a top-notch title as fxPAINT is completly pathetic.

More parts you missed: fxALBUM and HTML-export (incl. slideshows, skinning, etc.), fxCONV with ARexx-scripts, ImageMap-export, fxVIDEO works fine in full version, the powerful layer tool, full PNG support (incl. transparency), interfacing with the rest of the graphics suite, .. I can go on with this for at least an hour or two :)

So, sure, if you look at a title for 5 minutes and its the demo, you have no docs and no tutorials that come with the full version, etc .. you may not see the complete picture. But then, look for five mins at PPaint and PfPaint and you run away screaming ;) .. if you even get PfPaint to start in 5 minutes ;)

Anyway, the fxPAINT full version is really one of the most outstanding developments we have seen on this platform, really worth buying, especially at such a REALLY cheap price.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 16 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 14-Dec-2003 12:39 GMT
In reply to Comment 15 (Anonymous):
"For PersonalPaint, it's an 8 Bit painter, does not even run on MorphOS"

It should do. It runs fine on Amithlon - much better than on an A4000. It also runs on CGFX on an A4000. The point I made was that it has better support for text. Typing the text you want into a single line in a modal requester is clumsy and outdated.

Obviously the demo does a bad job of selling the program. I still say that a _paint_ program (and even an image-processing program) should have a simple icon for cutting out parts of an image to use as custom brushes, as Art Effect does.

There should also be a way to attach any image to any brush as the 8-bit alpha channel for that brush (scaled to fit). This allows you to design your own "media" (like chalk, airbrush, watercolour, etc).

FXPaint has a false distinction between "images" and "brushes". There should be a single selection panel, so that any image (including a small image cut from a large one) can be used as a brush, or as an alpha channel or layer mask. It isn't the only program with this problem.

I also stand by my criticism of the palette file format.

At least my comments brought out some reports from actual users, which is what was wanted.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 17 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 14-Dec-2003 17:47 GMT
In reply to Comment 16 (Don Cox):
For PPaint on MorphOS, check www.morphzone.org's forums, nobody got it working yet. That's a fact. Period.

For the cutting tool: it's there, you just failed to select it.

For the text: I agree, that's still a weak point.

For the demo: well, a demo has to be limited. If it was not, do you believe anybody would purchase the full version (especially with piracy obviously being at an all time high)? That is just normal with the demo/commercial full version concept. You can't blame that on fxPAINT.

For the palette format: erm, what palettes will you import then? I guess you haven't checked out the power of the different palette modes yet, either :)
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 18 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Raynald Le Moing on 14-Dec-2003 20:42 GMT
In reply to Comment 17 (Anonymous):
So what's the use of a demo which demo-ed nothing ?

and
"As a special gift to our customers, IOSPIRIT are - for the first time - offering a bundle with all our graphics programs at an especially attractive price of only 99 EUR (you save 40%, more than 60 EUR)."

Where is the gift for their customers who, by definition, own at least one of these softwares ?
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 19 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 14-Dec-2003 22:28 GMT
In reply to Comment 18 (Raynald Le Moing):
Last time I checked, IOSPIRIT offered a lot more than that :)

.. but well, I guess nowadays it can't be expected of ppl to actually think or check before they post crap. It's just to common to work that way nowaydays it seems.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 20 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 15-Dec-2003 09:30 GMT
In reply to Comment 17 (Anonymous):
"For the palette format: erm, what palettes will you import then?"

Pantone, Focoltone, etc.

It is also useful to be able to generate a palette with an ARexx script.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 21 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 15-Dec-2003 09:43 GMT
In reply to Comment 17 (Anonymous):
"For the cutting tool: it's there, you just failed to select it."

Which one is it?

I just went through all the icons with the bubble help on, and none of them say "Cut out brush" or anything similar. There are only eight icons on the main tool window. In most paint programs, one of them would be a Brush Cut, with options for rectangle, ellipse, polygon, freehand.
New product: IOSPIRIT Graphics Megabundle Pro : Comment 22 of 22ANN.lu
Posted by Don Cox on 15-Dec-2003 11:04 GMT
In reply to Comment 15 (Anonymous):
"More parts you missed: fxALBUM and HTML-export (incl. slideshows, skinning, etc.), fxCONV with ARexx-scripts, ImageMap-export, fxVIDEO works fine in full version, the powerful layer tool, full PNG support (incl. transparency), interfacing with the rest of the graphics suite, .. I can go on with this for at least an hour or two :)"

I didn't miss them. They are good bonus features, but the first priority in a paint program should be to get the painting tools right.

These features are image-processing tools rather than paint tools.
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