New Graphics Bundle Available

Wacom has announced the availability of their new Graphire Power Suite. The new package includes Wacomis cordless mouse and such popular graphics applications as Painter Classic. According to Wacom:

Wacom Technology Corp., the worldis leading maker of graphics tablets, has begun shipments of its new Graphire(TM) Power Suite, which combines two best selling paint and photo imaging software programs -- Adobe Photoshop 5.0 LE and Corel Painter Classic -- with its Graphire USB cordless pen-and-mouse input system.

Aimed mainly at the rapidly growing digital photography market, Graphire Power Suite also includes four other graphics/imaging and business office productivity applications: ParaGraph(R) PenOffice(TM) 2000 SE for annotating Microsoft(R) Word 97/2000 documents; Sensiva(R) for drawing symbols to execute actions; Adobe(R) ActiveShare(R) to share photos; and PenTools(TM).

  • Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) 5.0 LE, with 11 pressure-sensitive tools, offers a set of image editing features from Photoshop 5.0 that hobbyists and business professionals need most. These include web support import and export of GIF, JPEG, and PNG files; advanced editing capabilities including multiple undoes; creative color correction controls; painting, retouching, text, masking and selection tools; layers and paths; more than 95 special effects filters; and Windows Wizards and Mac Assistants.
  • Corel Painter Classic provides a simplified interface to a powerful program that mimics traditional art media such as pens, pencils, crayons, chalks, water colors, felt tip pens, oils and airbrush. Users can choose from many different paper textures, patterns and materials.
  • Sensiva is new gesture recognition software for PCs. A Mac version is in development. By drawing symbols with a Wacom pen, Sensiva can simulate a hotkey such as Control+R, access any Menu items such as File/Save, or automatically type text, such as an email signature. Sensiva knows what and where you draw symbols, and the same symbol can be used across applications. For example, drawing a Z can perform a zoom in any application.
  • Paragraph PenOffice 2000 SE for PC users is special inking software that lets a user add a signature or handwritten notes to Microsoft Word 97/2000 documents that can be saved in the MS Word native format for others to see. PenOffice SE also allows ideas to be jotted down on an electronic scratch pad that can be attached to email, and for comments and notes to be added to any document on the screen for saving as a BMP file.
  • Adobe Active Share, for Windows 98, is an image management tool to share photographs with family and friends on the Web, via email or in prints. It allows digital photos to be imported and put into albums. Included are quick fix tools to remove redeye, trim, rotate and adjust color.
  • Wacom PenTools 3.0 is a set of eight Photoshop pressure-sensitive plug-ins that can be used for cleaning up images or selectively applying noise. It also includes Super Putty to pull and stretch images and 3D Chisel to add bevel effects. PenTools works in any program that accepts Photoshop plug-ins, including Painter Classic.

The Graphire Power Suite is available for US$99.95. You can find more information at the Wacom web site.