Have Fun With Images With Picture Play Update

B eing the center of the Digital Hub means that you should have access to all sorts of software that will let you manipulate your photos, music, and movies. Apple does a great job of providing the software to control much of your digital world in the form of iLife, but there are times when you may want to something like combine several pictures to form a single collage. To do that you need something more than iPhoto, but less than Photoshop; you may need Picture Play, a photo manipulation application from Crescendo Software. The company has just released an upgrade to Picture Play, version 1.8. The new version adds many new features, as well as bug fixes. From Crescendo Softwareis press release:

Crescendo Software is pleased to announce the release of Picture Play 1.8, a major and important update to the award-winning shareware image composition tool for OS X.

Picture Play lets you combine digital photos, scanned images, or any other graphics to create rich and diverse compositions with editable text content, backgrounds, and stylish effects including translucency, transparency, rotation and more. Its powerful multi-layered engine allows you to rearrange and edit individual objects freely until your original artwork is how you want it. You can then print, or export to one of many standard file formats, to share with family and friends, on paper or the web.

New In This Version :

  • New resolution setting for documents that allows for higher quality output from Picture Play. Can be set at the creation of a new document, and changed at any time using the iDocument Settingsi window (see below).
  • Documents can now be viewed at any zoom percentage, not just the standard levels. The zoom button can now also be pressed to reveal a list of common zoom levels and also another item, iActual Pixelsi which shows the full document at screen resolution. The iOther...i item at the bottom of the list allows you to zoom to irregular sizes.
  • New iText Stylei tab on the Objects palette when a text object is selected allows the modification of all the style properties of a text object without opening the Edit Text window.
  • Document palette has been replaced with a new iDocument Settingsi window, that can be accessed from under the File menu, reducing screen clutter and allowing for new features (see below).
  • The background can now have translucency and transparency settings the same as normal image objects, and can be modified using the iDocument Settingsi window.
  • Objects can be double-clicked to open the iEdit Texti window for text objects, or switch the Objects palette to iImage Effectsi mode for image objects.
  • The iNew Documenti window now includes iReal sizei and iMemory usagei statistics dependent on the current settings.
  • Contextual menus now contain the iDuplicate Objecti command.
  • Resizing handles on objects are now the same size no matter what the magnification or resolution is set to.
  • Object palette slightly larger to accommodate new features and now has a minimum height of four object list items instead of three to utilise some of the screen space where the Document palette was.
  • Color wells now have a nicer, more intuitive look.
  • User interface cleaned up and tweaked across program making it especially better under Classic.
  • More fixes to make windows respect the dock and available screen space better.
  • Resizing windows live under OS X is now quicker.

Bug Fixes :

  • NilObjectException errors in undo/redo system eliminated.
  • Text and picture clippings are now dealt with correctly and can be dragged onto work area.
  • Fields that only want numbers now donit accept other characters.
  • The iAddi or iModifyi button on the Text window is no longer default as return presses were being trapped by the text field anyway.
  • Rulers now refresh on mouse up properly.
  • Numerous miscellaneous/minor bugs fixed.

Crescendo Software is offering the latest version of Picture Play free to currently registered users. Picture Play can be downloaded and is fully operational for 30 days, afterwards the software will require registration to function. Registration cost US$14.9. You can find more information on the product at Crescendo Softwareis Web site.