I was looking for tools on OS X to help me prepare images for my blog and I came across ImageWell and LiveQuartz, both of which are closed-source but free.
ImageWell is a quick image retouching/resizing tool that has a great workflow optimized for bloggers. You simply drag an image onto its canvas (for example, from iPhoto) and you can quickly resize it, add some effects (like callouts, etc.) and FTP it to your server. It can even copy an HTML Image tag with the correct URL for your image to the clipboard to help you quickly insert the image into your blog. The one thing it doesn't do is give you a Photoshop-like multi-layer environment for compositing multiple images. This is where LiveQuartz comes in.
LiveQuartz is a free image composition application that will be instantly familiar for Photoshop users. It has layers and allows you to create composite images.
Of course, neither is an alternative for Photoshop but until the universal binary for Photoshop comes out, they're going to save me from having to copy my images over to my Windows machine under Parallels to edit with Photoshop.
The ImageWell and LiveQuartz article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.
ImageWell is excellent for simple edits. You can edit the image and upload it to your server in the time it would take Photoshop to open
Exactly, Paulo — it’s refreshing to see a simple application that is optimized for a single workflow. It’s a must-have tool for bloggers.
Photoshop doesn’t work well with Rosetta ?
I tend to enjoy using Automator scripts for scaling photo’s, and uploading to FTP, but it would be nice to do some quick visual compositing and color processing. THX aral!
Sweet.
I haven’t tried Photoshop under Rosetta but I’ve heard that it isn’t the snappiest puppy on the block under it. Does anyone have any experience on how it runs?
Check this new microsoft tool.
http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/
Looks like a scaled down version of iWeb
I love photoshop and all, but its really expensive. And i use Windows
but even though i dont use LiveQuarts, i think its pretty fair its free unlike Photoshop who sells it for 600 dollars just for digital retouching! They should sell it for only 100 or something!