Stone Design has released iMaginator, an image processing application that provides an interface for the Core Image technology found in Mac OS X v10.4 "Tiger." Core Image helps optimize graphical effects on the Mac, but it features a plug-in style architecture that uses Image Units for blurs, filters and transitions.
iMaginator enables users to access those Image Units and manipulate their own photos or other digital images. They can layer them, apply text, or crop, scale, rotate, flip, skew or perform other actions on them. Files can be saved in TIFF or JPEG format or as a QuickTime movie that shows the result of each change to the image.
Including the seven new Image Units -- Oval Mask, Crop Fade Mask, Make Transparent, Colorize, Fun Mirror, Grayscale and Polka Dots -- created by Stone Design, iMaginator features access to 106 effects, transitions and filters. It also includes built-in batch processing and compatibility with AppleScript, as well as support for Tigeris Spotlight search engine and LinkBack capability, which allows users to copy and paste an iMaginator-created image into a LinkBack document, such as Stone Designis Create, and modify it in iMaginator, with saved changes automatically happening in the master LinkBack file.
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iMaginator is US$49, with free upgrades for the life of the software. A 14-day demo is available on the Stone Design Web site. Mac OS X v10.4 is required, of course.