Adobe Products(Demos) |
Note: These Adobe programs will run on PPC processors only, therefore it will not run on any of the current Macintosh emulators. I provide the links here so that those with PPC Macs can use these excellent free products and for when the PPC emulators (like iFusion) are available. Perhaps you will be done downloading these large files by the time PPC emulators are available. 8^) Download the free tryouts or beta versions of this exciting Adobe® software and see your images come to life! The products listed below are offered as tryouts, unless specified as betas. |
Animation Maker 3.2 FAT(Demo)980 K |
Animation Maker is a "more than GIF
animations" tool. It is very easy to use and quick to learn.
It offers many useful features, so it is ideal for web designers, online agencies, multimedia authors, computer game designers, teachers, pupils and anyone who likes to have fun with animated pictures. |
BigPicture 4.2(Shareware)544 K |
BigPicture is a nice graphics viewer that is
capable of viewing hundreds of images at a time of many popular formats. BigPicture is not your standard image viewer. BigPicture allows you to rotate, flip, and even make 3D animation. Well, not really 3D animation. If anybody remembers John Candy when he was on SCTV, then you must remember his character that thought he was creating 3D effects by simply stepping towards the camera, then gliding back away from the camera. That is the 3D that BigPicture provides. It simply moves the image towards you, making it larger, then moves it back to its original size and position. I laughed loudly when I clicked the 3D button. BigPicture has buttons on a toolbar located to the bottom right of the image. All menu commands, sans "Save as GIF" and "Make Portfolio," can be executed in the toolbar. BigPicture allows you to make a portfolio of your images as well. By saving your images in a portfolio, you can save space if you check the "save minimal information" checkbox. You do not need to keep the original file on your hard drive once you place it in portfolio. When you open a portfolio, you are given the same options and commands that BigPicture allows you to execute when viewing a stand-alone image. Overall, I would say that Big Picture is one of the best shareware image viewers available. GraphicConverter would be the best shareware image editor. |
GIFBuilder(Freeware)283 K |
GifBuilder lets you create animations for
your Web pages without requiring any fancy plug-ins, Java applets, or
server-pushes. After you've created a multi-frame animation in an
authoring app, drag-and-drop the frames into GifBuilder. It will convert
them into a special kind of GIF file, one which supports multiple frames.
Browsers that don't support GIF animation will still display the first
frame of the file as if it were a regular GIF. But animated GIF-savvy
browsers, including Netscape Navigator 2.0 and higher, will play all the
frames of your animation, giving you an easy, low-tech method of sprucing
up your pages. In addition to being drag-and-drop savvy, GifBuilder is also AppleScriptable, making it easy to automate the creation of animated GIFs. |
GIFConverter 68k 2.4.1(Shareware)917 K |
View GIF, TIFF, RIFF, JPEG, RLE, PICT, startup screen, Paint or Thunderscan docs on any Macintosh! GIFConverter also lets you save to any of these formats, plus EPS, or print them to any Macintosh printer. The author conscientiously updates this fine program to keep it compatible with all the latest Macs and software. It may be the only graphics conversion program you'll ever need. |
GifDANCER 1.0(Shareware)3,520 K |
With GifDANCER you can create professional-looking text and graphics animations for the web without any animation experience. Take control of animation and file-optimization settings, including looping, and customized color palettes. GifDANCER let's you create precision animations of text and graphics. |
GraphicConverter 3.8.1(Shareware)3,162 K |
GraphicConverter is a first-class graphics conversion program that will do just about
anything you could possibly want with graphics you have. It supports all of the popular
graphics formats. It not only can import just about anything that you come across, it can
also export to most common formats, including startup screen format as well as QuickTime. Documentation and support is superb for this program, and although the price is a bit above normal shareware prices, you won't be disappointed with this flexible, high-powered graphics program. Very good replacement for Adobe Photoshop. If you don't have a Macintosh picture viewer/editor, you need this program. The shareware version has a 5 second delay when launching, but otherwise is the same as the full product. Download it! 8^) |
ImageViewer 68k(Demo)2,127 K |
The graphic arts world is full of image
cataloging systems, ranging in price up to hundreds of dollars.
ImageViewer is an excellent image browser that comes in under the price
bar, at $25, and offers most functions that casual users need. Indeed, the
only significant thing missing from ImageViewer is a wider range of file
types: it only reads PICT, GIF, JPEG and TIFF images. Other than that, however, it's remarkably feature-complete. images can appear in four formats: one at a time in full size; as small or large thumbnails in a gallery; and as a text list of file names. Additional palettes display information such as color tables, file size, and user-created comments and search keywords. (You can't search by comments or keywords within the program, however.) A few automated services add value, such as a slide show and batch processor. One small quibble: it's a bit too easy to end up with dozens of open windows and palettes cluttering your screen, and it can be easy to get lost among several gallery windows and image previews. But that's a minor point, and ImageViewer overall performs functions found in utilities several times its price. Requires System 7.5 and up. |
JPEG Convert 68k(Freeware)204 K |
Based on software from the Independent JPEG Group, this competent freebie encodes and decodes JPEG files without muss or fuss. Drag and drop a picture on the program, quantize to any number of colors, and output to GIF, RLE, PPM, Targa, or JPEG. Customize compression levels to optimize quality vs. size. Advanced users can suppress dithering, perform cross-block smoothing to correct some low-quality images, and even set the file type/creator codes so the resulting files will launch a favorite viewer. Note that JPEG Convert has no preview and you will still need a viewer to check your output. |
JPEGView 3.3.1(Postcardware)790 K |
JPEGView is a fast, flexible JPEG, PICT and
GIF viewer, and it also converts between PICT and JPEG (JFIF) formats. In
this latest version, JPEGView now has the ability to open JPEG files
without the QuickTime extension. Features of JPEGView include full AppleScript support, high-quality dithering routines, and a slide show. Author Aaron Giles was a winner of one of Apple's 1994 Cool Tool Internet Awards for his work on JPEGView. Although this software is Postcardware (send a postcard to the author), there is an option to register ($20) for a bound manual and bonus software. |
Painting 1.6.4(Shareware)992 K |
Painting is a graphics application that is
useful for creating and editing graphics such as snapshots and
icons.
Painting has many features, including flood fill and lasso tools, cut-and-paste commands for making new documents from the Clipboard, and customizable color sets. Version 1.6.4 adds the ability to intelligently create document preview icons (including 32-bit icons), adds useful Balloon Help support, and includes new editing and customization features. |
PictFlipper(Freeware)9 K |
Recipe for personalizing your Mac: take one
appropriately formatted file; name it 'StartupScreen' and drop it into
your System Folder. 'Welcome to Macintosh' is forever banished, replaced
by whatever lurks within your StartupScreen. The 'appropriately formatted file' is not
as simple to cook up however. Although StartupScreens are PICT images,
saving your--correctly named--ClarisWorks masterpiece as a PICT isn't
enough. A PICT file keeps picture information in its data fork; a
StartupScreen stores this information in the resource fork--as a PICT
resource with ID = 0. Moreover, while PICT files have a type code of PICT,
StartupScreens are (mostly) SCRN files. You can use an application like
PhotoShop or GraphicConverter to cook up a StartupScreen but, like the
proverbial jackhammer and nut, they are significant overkill.
Enter Jon Pugh's PictFlipper, a kitchen-sized utility which turns PICT files into StartupScreens and vice versa. It supports drag and drop under System 7.x but also runs under System 6.0.x. PictFlipper works by copying the PICT information from the data fork to the resource fork, giving said resource an appropriate type and ID and changing the file type to SCRN. When converting a StartupScreen it works in reverse. Aside from a file to work on, PictFlipper's only other requirement is enough RAM to store the entire PICT before copying. |
PICTshow 2.2(Freeware)53 K |
PICTshow is a small slideshow program for
viewing PICT and GIF files, listening to sounds and viewing QuickTime
movies on a color-capable Macintosh. Version 2.2 features an individual delay option for each item, faster QuickTime playback, improved display speed of cached previews, a new option to Begin Show on launch, export GIFs and PICTs to a QuickTime movie, and Drag Manager support for dragging files into the PICTshow dialog. |
Web Painter 3.0(Demo)8,576K |
Web Painter 3.0 is the award-winning web
graphics editor that makes creating web graphics (from simple gifs to
complex animations) easy and painless.
Awarded "Best of MacWorld '98, New York," Web Painter is the premier web animation and graphics tool for creating professional content for personal or corporate Web sites. It allows users to produce high impact Web animation in seconds with easy-to-use sophisticated transitions and special effects. Combine vector and bitmap images using flexible cel layers to create Web ready images and animation, and export and preview them before outputting highly-optimized Web ready content in a variety of popular Web formats. Its Web color reduction and compression features are unsurpassed. This fully functional, trial version adds watermarks to exported files until you use the special registration software to fully unlock the software. |