This Story Posted:
June 24th, 1999

[4:47 PM]
BoxTop Software Releases Major Performance Upgrade To PhotoGIF

BoxTop Software has announced the release of PhotoGIF 3.5, a major performance upgrade to the Photoshop plug-in that optimizes GIF images. There are several new features in this upgrade and we are letting BoxTop tell you about them. According to BoxTop Software: On the surface, the two plug-ins that make up PhotoGIF, still look all the same. This is not an interface update. It doesn't change the ways PhotoGIF works in either the format or filter plug-ins. It changes how well they work, and how well the two plugins work together to make one spectacular Web graphics tool called PhotoGIF, which was recently reviewed by TidBITS. There's a new manual and a much tighter integration between plug-ins, now, and the polish that a package of plugins should have. This makes for a good change, but the core changes are even better. To begin, the filter version has been redone from almost the ground up, to perfect many of the new features that were introduced in the last filter version. Layer manipulations and dithered transparencies in the filter version allow you do things like smooth drop shadows over image backgrounds, vignetted GIF images that fade into colors even when you change the colors behind them, and more that were not possible to do easily with any tools before. I could not begin to count the times I've heard someone ask - "How do I make a transparent GIF with a drop shadow?" and all the other variations of that same question. The answer is PhotoGIF. The filter version was also the center of attention in this update to continue our endeavors to make PhotoGIF work with all image editor programs - not just Photoshop. Not everyone uses Photoshop, and a lot of people use other tools with Photoshop. We know it gets to be a pain to toggle between applications just to save a compact GIF file. Improvements to core color reduction and dithering methods allow smaller and better looking images to be saved, too. We've done the math again, that made PhotoGIF such a great tool to begin with. Its an even better GIF cruncher, since TidBITS said it was a great one. This may be the one PhotoGIF update we're most proud of, after all the many updates of the last four years. It feels good to get back to core innovation, even if it isn't so obvious on the surface as a brand new interface. You can check out the upgrade for free with the demo from the company's web site. The upgrade is free to registered owners of version 3.x. The Mac Observer Spin: PhotoGIF is a very cool tool for making the smallest GIF images possible. BoxTop Software