14 DAY TRIAL // Image editing has advanced to impressive levels in the last years with plenty of software programs being available for non-professionals to rely on in order to come up with amazing results.
Filters, layers and brush strokes that an image editing professional combines to reach stunning effects, are now present in standalone tools that mimic the same result in a matter of seconds.
As its name suggests, Grungetastic is a nifty application that aims at applying the tears, creases and scratches specific to grunge design to an otherwise ordinary photo. The grunge effect aims at providing an artistic touch that makes the image look closer to a real object that has the marks of passage of time.
The program is not free of charge and can be purchased for $7.99 / €6,10; however, before placing an order, you can take it for a spin, free of charge, with almost all options enabled. The only restriction imposed by the developer is to saving the modified picture to disk.
It has a standard installation procedure that takes you through the regular screens, such as defining the application folder and creating a desktop icon. At the end of the process, you are offered to launch Grungetastic automatically.
The interface is as simple as possible, showing the developer’s clear focus on delivering the product to beginner users that don’t need to be tinkering with settings or dialogs that increase functionality.
Grungetastic’s straightforward and intuitive layout does not require any knowledge to get started. A “drag image here” tip is present in the middle of the application window and once you load the picture, the next steps are just a matter of picking the right effects and adjusting a few thresholds.
In some cases, additional tinkering with the image may not even be necessary. Nevertheless, the developer offers the possibility to tweak colors, modify thresholds, textures as well as edge strength.
There are multiple grunge effects available in the application, all of them providing no less than 20 variations that can be further customized by the user. At the bottom of the application window, there are categories such as Pop Grunge, Bleached, Grunge, Distressed, Gritty, Worn and Worn Pop.
Unfortunately, the variations are numbered and this makes them harder to remember; allowing the user to rename them would increase usability.
If you are not content with the default outcome, there are 141 textures to test in combination with just about any blee you can blend in the color palette. To this, you can add custom levels for tone, black threshold, grit, contrast, paper tint and strength, worn tint or color detail. All these settings are contextual and differ according to the selected grunge category.
Tinkering with these options can be eliminated by letting the application randomize the adjustments until you are pleased with the result.
Grungetastic does not come with preview options because all changes are applied on the spot, with the possibility to undo the last edit. Although applying modifications immediately has an impact on the CPU, the toll is within acceptable limits, even on a lower specced computer.
A button in the top part of the application window allows you to view the original picture in order to check the alteration degree reached.
The lack of tools in the application is explained by the fact that operations are carried out mostly automatically, based on presets. However, crop tool is a basic option in all image editors and manipulators and it is also present in Grungetastic.
In order to make the application as user friendly as possible, the developer added explanatory notes for each of the settings available in the right part of the screen. On the downside, during our testing on Windows 8, we noticed that the text is not fully visible.
Running the application on Windows 7 did not show this anomaly, though.
Also adding to increased usability of the program is the auto-closing of texture and paper choices as soon as you click outside their panel.
On the same note, if you find a combination of settings you would like to use on other pictures as well, you can do it by saving them as a personal preset.
The Good
There is a wide number of textures; presets are also quite numerous, with the possibility to increase them by adding custom combination of settings.
The Bad
A wider pool of settings would eliminate the need for more picky users to add finishing touches in an image editor.
The Truth
But despite being this simple and easy to handle, it has its shortcomings that affect working with the variations in the grunge categories.
