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Idruna Software Photogenics Copyright 2002 Todd Ogasawara Note: This article was originally written for publication on Microsoft's PocketPC.com website. It is reproduced here with permission from Microsoft.
Edit digital photographs or draw your own masterpiece with the Photogenics drawing and photo editing application.
Idruna Software’s Photogenics brings the kind of image manipulation features once reserved for large and expensive workstations to the Pocket PC.
Device Requirements
· 1.5MB storage space for installation · 2MB free program memory · 7MB available program memory per 1 mega-pixel of image
What’s Hot
· Many powerful drawing and image editing tools. Listing all of Photogenics' features would exceed the maximum word count for this article! · Excellent online tutorials as well as three introductory online videos · Manual provided (download) in HTML Help version for the desktop PC. This lets you learn by going through the manual on your desktop or notebook PC while trying out Photogenics on the Pocket PC.
Gotchas
· Loading 519KB 2 mega-pixel resolution digital photograph on a Pocket PC with 32MB RAM generated an Out of Memory message. However, Photogenics provided an opportunity to reduce the image by 12.5, 25, or 50% to let me work with the image. Idruna recommends 7MB free per mega-pixel of image. If you have a 64MB Pocket PC, you should be able to edit larger (higher resolution) digital photographs than I was able to deal with on a 32MB system.
Languages Supported
British English (commands/features spelling)
Where to Buy
Microsoft Pocket PC Store Provided by Handango
Features, Features, Features…
Idruna Photogenics gives the Pocket PC user the kind of image manipulation power that once required a high end workstation with special graphics hardware. Its features can be grouped into the categories below:
· Drawing and painting media: Airbrush, Pencil, and much more · 60 image processing filters that can be applied globally or spot drawing/aiming · Dedicated photo enhancing filters including Auto Contrast and Remove Red Eye · Conventional blurring and sharpening filters · Artistic filters including Fire Blur, Emboss, and Honeycomb · Special effects such as lens flares and explosion effects · Layer, multiple channels, and transparency features · Built-in time-delay screen capture feature
Figure 1: Media tool set. One of many available tools.
Drawing and Photo Editing
Photogenics lets an amateur doodler like me quickly explore different ways of seeing even simple drawings like the one in Figure 2. I started with a simple drawing using the paint brush (top). Then, I added a few sketched in details (middle). Finally, I reversed the colors to give it a very different look.
Figure 2: Three different looks for one simple doodle
If drawing or doodling is not interesting, you may find Photogenics’ rich image editing tools useful for working with your digital photographs (Figure 3). I used AutoEnhance and AutoContrast to clean up one of my photos. Finally, I picked a blue shade from the color palette and used AddColour to give the photo a deep blue tint.
Figure 3: An attempt to make a photograph more interesting
Conclusion
Photogenics can be used by everyone from a doodle sketcher like me to an accomplished artist. Its control logic and philosophy was quite a bit different from what I am familiar with in the desktop PC drawing and photo editing application I use. However, it was not difficult to adjust to these differences. The excellent document and tutorials (detailed step-by-step as well as three introductory videos) helped with adjusting to the user interface.
Photogenics provides a tool that provides powerful image manipulation features on a Pocket PC. If you would like to work with image files on your Pocket PC, you should evaluate this product. Idruna provides a 30-day trial version for evaluation.
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