Acorn 4 - The Image Editor for Humans 4.1
Device: Mac OS
Category: Graphics & Design
Price: $49.99, Version: 4.0.5 -> 4.1 (iTunes)
Description:Everyone needs to edit images at some point, but not everyone has the time to learn complicated super pricey image editing programs. This is why we created Acorn. Add text and shapes to your digital pictures. Combine images together to create your own. Work with layers to touch up your favorite photos or make something new from scratch. Do all this and more with Acorn.Speed: Acorn 4 is a lot faster than its predecessors. And applying filters to large images is a snap.Layer Styles and Non-Destructive Filters: Acorn has all of the filters you're looking for, and even includes a great interface to chain filters together to create unique effects. You can even save and modify your filters after you've closed and re-opened your Acorn image.Curves and Levels: Use Acorn 4's new curves window and levels sliders to quickly adjust the color balance in your images.Layers: Use layers and blending modes to make the most of photo editing by allowing easy placement of text and other objects without destroying the picture underneath. Layers allow you to try things out, and change your mind later on.Tutorials and Documentation: Acorn comes with online documentation, tutorials, and a forum, so you don't have to learn by yourself.Text: Acorn's text tools give you control over text while maintaining an easy to use interface. Everything is in the text palette from bold and italic to kern and ligature. There's even spell check. Convert your text into a Bezier Path to take it to the next level. Since Acorn's text tool uses OS X’s native text engine, you get full Unicode support.Drawing: Acorn features brushes that let you draw, scribble, and sketch right on your image. Use a track pad, mouse, or even a tablet. Create your own brushes using Acorn's built in brush designer.Erasing: Powerful eraser tools like Instant Alpha and eraser brushes make removing unwanted areas of your image both fast and fun.Layer Masks: Use layer masks in your image to block out unwanted areas or to expose layers below.Gradients: Acorn's multi-stop gradients place endless combinations of colors at your fingertips. Add and remove colors simply by dragging and dropping them in and out of the gradient preview window.Vector Shapes: Acorn makes creating shapes in your image a breeze. Vector shapes let you make squares, circles and lines, and you keep the flexibility to change things later on. Add and subtract points from Bezier paths and rotate your shapes with the flick of a wrist. And if that wasn't enough- Acorn 4 introduces intersect, union, exclusion, and difference operations on selected shapes. Screenshots: As long as Acorn is open, press the Command-Shift-6 keys while in any application. Acorn will make a screenshot of your entire screen. Your image will be brought into Acorn immediately, ready for work.Selections: Make selections, invert them, feather, and even add a corner radius. Use Quick Mask mode for intricate selections. Or, if you're looking to quickly select an entire color, try using the Magic Wand.Web Export: When you need to get that image size smaller and still looking good for the web, take a look at Web Export. Acorn provides an estimate for the export file size and lets you compare the compressed version to the original.Photoshop Files: Acorn now offers improved support for loading PSD images, and for exporting your images as layered Photoshop files.Performance: Acorn goes all the way up to 64. Bits that is. Faster performance means less time spent waiting and more time for creating.Automate and Script Acorn: Automate Acorn using Automator, AppleScript, and even JavaScript by way of JSTalk. And there are plenty of examples for you to build on. You can even write custom plugins for Acorn using the Python scripting language, JavaScript, as well as Objective-C.
What's New
New: When exporting an image as JPEG, you can now choose an option to save it as a CMYK image.New: You can now flip the canvas vertical or horizontal via the Image ▸ Flip Canvas Horizontal / Vertical menu items.New Background Blur filter which will blur the background images behind the current layer, and then mask that blur based on the contents of the current layer. Pro Tip: use white text or boxes to show the blur.New: New Mirror filter which will reflect your image in the x and y directions.New: Acorn now has a spotlight importer so you can search for acorn images by layer name, text layer contents, width, and height.New: When editing a layer name, hitting the tab button will now select the next layer for editing. To end editing, press enter.New: You can now change the location and dimensions of a crop with the keyboard. Use the arrow keys to move it around, hold down the option key to change the crop size with the canvas, and hold down the shift key to move or resize in 10 point increments.New: Support for multipage TIFF files. If you've got access to a fancy scanner that will place multiple images in a TIFF file, Acorn will now open up each of those pages as a new layer.New: If you have multiple layers selected, holding down the command key and clicking on a layer in the canvas will now select the first layer under the mouse click.New: If you are viewing your image in shape vector or shape outline only mode, you'll now get a little bit of status text at the bottom of the window letting you know this.New: The number of decimal places for the fields in the levels window has been increased for finer control over your adjustments. Plus, it's a forward looking change- we're not always going to be working on only 32 bit images!New: When you export an image, Acorn will remember what file type you used last time you exported.New: The Shape Quick Config (View ▸ Quick Config Popover) now has alignment options for the selected shapes.New: The the Shape Quick Config popover looks a lot better these days.New: If you copy a layer's filters to the clipboard and then select multiple layers, you can now paste the copied filters into all the selected layers instead of just the first one.New: You can now set the red, blue, or green biases when using the Grayscale filter.New: Shape layers now respond to the Layer ▸ Rotate and Transform ▸ Flip Layer Horizontal / Vertical menu items.Newish: Exporting as a PDF will try and make a 100% vector PDF if there are no bitmap elements or strange blend modes to get in the way.Change: When you've got one or more layer filters on a bitmap or group layer and you being moving the layer image, any filters with center parameters will be moved along with the layer, keeping the location of the filter in sync with where you originally put it.Change: The brush designer is better about interpreting values you put in the various number fields.Change: Removed the Image ▸ Invert menu item since it duplicated the Filter ▸ Color Effect ▸ Color Invert filter.Change: When using the difference boolean operation on selected shapes, contiguous paths will now be broken up into their own independent shapes.Change: Previously single clicking with a shape tool on the canvas would cause a shape with some default values to appear. In Acorn 4.1 you now need a double click to do this - single clicking will no longer create a new shape by itself.Change: When pasting shapes from a shape layer that were previously located in an area outside the current canvas, Acorn will now center them in the new canvas.Change: Now showing a warning when trying to export a file in the Acorn file format without the .acorn extension.Other bug fixes and changes as well - see our online release notes for detailed information.
Acorn 4 - The Image Editor for Humans