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ImageForge (Freeware) from CursorArts Company
By admin | May 22, 2007
This is a freeware paint and image editing tool. It features soft brushes, scanner support, crop, resize, rotate, special effects filters, gradients, patterns, and much more. The company provides for two version of the product - freeware and commercial (ImageForge Pro). Downloading of the freeware version of the product is available through links at the address http://graphicssoft.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?zi=1/XJ&sdn=graphicssoft&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cursorarts.com%2Fca_imw_d.html
You can download either a self-extracting installer or a .ZIP file, containing installation files.
The Main menu of the application has eight options: File, Edit, Options, Picture, Effects, Tools, Window and Help.
The option File opens a File Dialog. The File Dialog may be conducted in two styles: so-called Standard Windows and Enhanced. The selection of the File Dialog style is done by the option File Selector (pop-up menu) in the pop-up menu File Dailog. Both styles of the File Dialog support an image preview option. The File Dialog popup has also the option of acquiring images via a TWAIN device (Acquire from TWAIN device). There is also the option Print allowing you either to print the selected image on paper or export it to another image format (image converting). Image converting is available by the option Save As of the File Dialog popup. The File Dialog also has the option Exit to cancel program execution and contains a list of recently opened files.
The option Edit of the Main menu opens the Edit Dialog which contains standard editing options (Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Select All), options of undoing previous actions and redoing them (Undo and Redo), the option Show Clipboard, and specific option Use paper color as transparent color which can be checked or unchecked. This option is checked if you want to set all colors which match the Paper Color to transparent when using the Paste as New Selection (Transparent) option under the Edit menu.
The option Options initiates the Options Dialog popup which contains the following options:
- Button Bar (Small, Large)
- Toolbar (Left, Right
- Auto Hide Tool Bar
- Snap Cursor to Drawing Grid
- Set Drawing Grid
- Show Magnification Grid
- Undo On
- Set Selection Tools to Auto Crop
- Anti-Alias Image Rotation
- Draw From Centre
- Set Preferences
Defines the size of buttons in the Main window taskbar.
Defines the arrangement of the editor toolbar: on the right or on the left in the Main Window
This option can be checked or unchecked. Check this option if you want more editing room and would like the Tool Bar to be hidden when not being used. The Tool Bar activates again when you allow the cursor to hover at the edge of the frame.
This option is checkable, too. If checked this option causes objects and tools to align with invisible grid points established with the Set Grid function. Useful to precise positioning lines and objects.
Initiates Set Grid function and the Set Grid window, accordingly, allowing you to set the size of the grid cells.
This option is checkable. If enabled this option places a grid over the image while it is magnified. This can make it easier to identify individual pixels in the picture.
This checkable option enables Undo feature.
Objects (circles or rectangles) are usually drawn by clicking on the upper corner and dragging down and to the left or right. Checking this option allows to draw objects by clicking at the centre of the area in which to place the object and dragging outward in any direction.
Opens Set Preferences window in which one can set preferences of the program interface, saving, palette, etc.
The option Picture calls the Picture popup allowing various actions with the selected image, namely:
- Crop
- Enlarge Canvas
- Resize
- Resample
- Duplicate
- Set palete…
- Change Color Depth (the number of colors)
- Dithering Options
- Flip Horizontal
- Flip Vertical
- Rotate
- Rotate by Degree
- Invert
- Clear
- Skew/Shear
The popup Picture has also options Info (which initiates the info-window about current selected image - dimensions, number of colors, bits per pixel, size, compression, as well as file date/time and name including directory) and Preview initiating the Preview window.
The option Effects calls the Effects popup allowing various special effects with the selected image, as to: changing colors of the image by different ways and changing outlines in the picture.
The Tools calls the Tools popup containing only one option in the freeware version of the product: Create Album Or Slide Show.
The option Window calls the Window popup containing standard Windows options of arranging windows: cascading, tiling, etc.
The option Help calls the Help popup, containing options of on-line Help of the application (in the Microsoft Windows Help format), web-links of the creator, the option About (calling the About window of the application - info about the creator) and useful option Restore Default Registry Settings. With this option you can always restore default ImageForge settings if experience some problem. Sometimes it helps 
In the Main window of the application there are also the Taskbar containing buttons for the most often usable actions and the Toolbar containing various editing instruments.
The current positioning of the cursor in pixels in the image is indicated in the left lower corner of the window.
To summarize, this image editor is very refined for a freeware tool :).
Topics: Computers & Software |