Our Verdict
After decennium of Photoshop ’s mastery of the image editing market , it ’s been surprising to see that , over the last twosome of eld , a lot of diminished companies have settle to make image redaction program — and have done a amazingly proficient job ! Joining affordable image editing software likePixelmator , Flare , and Adobe ’s own Photoshop Elements 9 , is Flying Meat Software’sAcorn , which just received an update to version 3.0 .
price at $ 50 ( or a $ 20 rise for Acorn 2 users ) , Acorn 3 is a full featured mental image editor with a lot of eminent - goal features , including in the buff spiritual rebirth , multiple layer , transmitter graphics . What ’s not entirely clear is who it ’s aim at .
My, what a big tool palette you have
Acorn offers an user interface that is very flowing , particularly when compared to Photoshop and Photoshop Element ’s big assortment of palettes and toolbars . In Acorn , your papers appears in one window , and your instrument appear in a pallet . All your tools . One palette . While , conceptually , this is a nice idea — you always know where to find a tool — it have for a rather ineffective use of covert outer space . The tool palette is very wide and kind of squat .
In that tool pallet you ’ll find navigation dick , a harvest pecker , a text edition puppet , drawing , slope , paint bucket , embodiment dick , a ringer tool , and a color picker . When you chatter on a tool , the veracious one-half of the toolbox make full with parameters , and shaft variants . Basically , it ’s Photoshop ’s dick pallet and control bar combined into one box .
At the bottom of the tool pallette sit layer controls . Acorn offers fairly advanced layering controls , with the ability to well duplicate layers , and deepen their blending modal value and opacity .
honest compositing requires good extract tool . The usual lasso , marquise and charming verge tools are provided and , as in most image editors , these are for the most part useless for make the types of elusive , swimmingly fuse masks that you demand for advanced photo compositing . Fortunately , the program now offers a QuickMask feature , which lets you delineate a pick by painting .
you could make Layer Masks in the Layers palette , for more sophisticated , non - destructive compositing cognitive operation . Be cognizant , though , that some all-important commands — such as Add Layer Mask — are only available from a pop - up menu in the Layers palette , not from the Layers menu .
Special effects and new features
Acorn let in a huge miscellanea of image edit effect filter . Everything from distortions to color and timber alteration to stylise effects such as comic book - similar edge and kaleidoscopical impression . unexampled to version 3 is the ability to assign many of these to a layer as a Layer Style . What ’s nice about Layer Styles is that they ’re non - destructive — they can be alter or removed later , and controlled with a Layer Mask .
Other new feature include more advanced gradients , the ability to rotate text and shape objects ; and the ability to convince shapes to Bezier objects , with all the redaction abilities you anticipate from a full - fledged transmitter illustration course of study .
Photoshop support has been improved , and superimposed files are supported , though I find that importing a complex layered Photoshop document did n’t always work decent , with the result image being puddle and garbled .
Raw files are supported , and Acorn offers a very introductory assortment of bleak conversion control condition . However , the program bog down down if you pass it a very great image . Trying to play with images from my Canon 5D Mark II on my 2.1 gigacycle per second MacBook Air was an exercise in frustration , as every click take to some quality time with a spinning rainbow cursor .
Macworld buying advice
It ’s an extremely gist - heavy program — Acorn provides well over a hundred Filter core . So , on the one helping hand , the broadcast has a very simple curing of redaction tools , on the other hand it provide filter for such matter as rotary and lozenge - shaped distortions , halftone result , and Sixfold Rotated Tiling . Whether any of these are utile or not is up to your particular needs and tastes . Similarly , it offers multiple layers , with blending modes , but lacks a Curves tool or Fill Light .
I would imagine that the user who ’s shopping for a $ 50 image editor is not out to create an effect - laden masterpiece , they plausibly just desire to improve their pic , and in that esteem , Acorn offers about the same level of power as iPhoto . You get levels , and filters for picture , da Gamma , saturation , brightness , contrast , and bloodless detail . There are no control for brightening and darken only shadows .
The cost is impressive , but for only $ 25 more you could get Photoshop Elements 9 , and have a more streamlined interface , far more powerful raw conversion and image redaction , and good performance , or for $ 10 more , plunk upPixelmator , and get a speedier applications programme . But , for the substance abuser who wants quick and easy access to the types of effects Acorn provides , or for mask and compositing with the QuickMask feature , it ’s backbreaking to beat the price .
Acorn 3 body of work on Macs run OS XTC 10.6.6 or eminent . It is usable through theMac App Storeor directly from theFlying nub site . Acorn 2 user who wish to upgrade for $ 20 can not go through the Mac App Store . To upgrade , open Acorn 2 and go to Acorn - > cheque for Upgrades .
[ Macworld senior contributor Ben Long is the author ofComplete Digital Photography , sixth edition ( Cengage , 2011 ) . ]
