Imaging SoftwareImage manipulation has been one of the key uses of the computer. Over the time a number of imaging software solutions have been introduced in the market. Some of them have been able to make their mark. Here is a look at imaging software solutions for various platforms available in the market To begin with there is Adobe Photoshop. This is the name that is synonymous with digital image manipulation. In fact the term photoshop is used as a verb for the act of making changes to any digital image file. The solution was developed for Apple Macintosh platform and became its killer app. Adobe Photoshop gained most of its popularity on the Microsoft Windows platform however. This is primarily because of the fact that Windows itself is a very popular platform. As of now, Adobe Photoshop is the king of the hill. Despite being heavily priced, Photoshop is market leader because it provides path breaking features and offers superb value for money. In case you are not ready to shell out the high price and do not need the carload of features either, you can opt for Adobe Photoshop Elements which is a feature compacted version of the software. On the Macintosh platform, Apple's own Aperture, has also become a top of the end imaging software. Although the interface of Aperture is geared towards photographers, it is a really good image processing solution. The number of features in this software is very high and the image processing engine used by Aperture is at par with that of Adobe Photoshop. Compared to Adobe Photoshop, Aperture has also become way more affordable. Being a Macintosh only platform has been both an advantage and disadvantage to this solution. Whereas being Mac only severely restricts its market by alienating the above 90% market holding Windows users, it also means that Aperture gets legendary integration with Mac OS X. The users of GNU Linux platform have been relying on GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). This is primarily because neither Aperture nor Adobe Photoshop are available for Linux platform. The main thing is that GIMP is free software. It is not only free of cost, you can also modify the program code to suit your requirements. There is a big catch though. Whereas GIMP has a superb image processing engine, its interface is completely stone age. The only drawback of GIMP has been its interface. In fact while the GIMP is available for all the three platforms its interface has been responsible for shoddy adoption rates of this program. Imaging software solutions have become far more powerful and their capabilities are improving every day. With better human computer interface tools like touch screen and direct manipulation imaging software is only expected to grow better. |