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GraphicConverter 3.9.1 ($35 Shareware) It has been said that standards are great...there are so many of them. If you deal with graphic files at all, you've no doubt run into a strange format that your usual graphic program doesn't know how to deal with. Or, you may have to deal with different platforms, and need to convert files from one format to another. Although there are heavyweight programs like Photoshop that can perform conversions, it may be a bit pricey if all you want to do is open and convert files. Then there's GraphicConverter... GraphicConverter, as the name implies, is a program that can be used to open and convert graphic files. The package boasts the ability to import about 130 different graphic file formats, and can also export about 40 different formats. This feature in itself is pretty impressive, and can alone justify the cost of the package. But GraphicConverter is not simply a conversion package. It offers the ability to manipulate your graphics in several ways, rivaling the features found in more expensive packages.
A Sample of the Many Export Formats Some of the basic manipulation features include the ability to change the size, resolution, brightness and contrast, as well as being able to invert, rotate or mirror the image. But there are also more sophisticated effects that you can apply to an image. This includes gamma correction and sharpening. Of course you can display all sorts of details about a specific graphic, such as size, resolution, colors, compression ratio, and so on. For digital camera owners, there's an extra treat, since some cameras will store additional information that GraphicConverter can display. This can include useful info such as exposure time, flash status, F stop value and the like. Rounding things out are a handy slide show feature, so you can display your works, a Browse folder feature where you can see previews of all the contents of a specific folder, and the ability to acquire an image if you are connected to a TWAIN compliant image scanner. If you do any amount of work with graphics files, you may find that GraphicConverter is the only tool you'll need. Have any other Mac OS graphic Gadgets you'd like us to look at? Let John know via e-mail, or share it with the rest of us in the Mac Gadget Forum. |
