14 DAY TRIAL // Lately, I've been hearing all the time people ranting about Photoshop and its powers. It is funny how long it took the application to reach such popularity. Personally, I am a fan since version 6.0 and I have actively witnessed all the changes since then. Unfortunately, I'm not too much of an artist as my talents stop helping me as soon as I try an elaborate editing. But, for the easy stuff I get along quite well with the software.
All the peeps I heard referring to Photoshop talk about it like something serious that leaves no room for fun and joy. It is true that Adobe's most famous software is generally used to create artistic pictures and that its users have a talent of some sort.
Despite the fact that the Photoshop users generally do not tend to play pranks by editing images of friends or relatives (the price gets too much respect for the software to be employed this way) it can be used to squeeze a few laughs.
Alternatives to having fun with pictures at much lower prices are all over the Internet. Of course, the result will not be as professional as in Photoshop but the laughs will roll.
Photo Grafitti is a nifty and easy to use image editor especially designed to combine reality with cartoon world in order to get some laughs. The price tag reads $19.95 but you'll get a chance to a "testdrive" for as long as you want (there is no trial period) as long as you are cool with the watermark applied to the saved JPEG images and the limited number of cliparts to play with.
The interface is as simple as can be and I am sure that it'll pose no problem to any type of user. You have the editing tools in the left hand side of the application window and the picture on the right. All the rest is clipart and fun.
You can create your comics either from scratch and work only with the cliparts or you can start the real fun and combine the comic ready-made art with stills from real life. Images and text balloons can be combined so as to give a hilarious result (take a look at the pictures below).
To proceed to the fun session just take all the clipars out of the hat in the top left hand part of the application window and choose from the listed categories. These comprise Hats, Head, Face and Body elements as well as cartoons for styling up a party, marking a celebration or a holiday (only Easter and Christmas are present) or to spice up a day at the beach.
Unfortunately, out of the myriad of alternatives only three for each category are available. What is most nagging is that you don't even get to see what would be available if you buy the license for the full version. Only a small hint like their names is revealed and these are some of the most appealing. In Head category you get to place all sorts of toupees on your subject's head (or wherever you want), moose horns, samurai, ear hair, alien etc.
Face section covers some of the most interesting elements allowing you to apply mustaches, bad teeth, noses, make your subject look like a pirate, equip him/her with a nasty looking tongue etc. I can only imagine what these look like based on the unlocked stuff in the demo version.
All the elements can be combined in layers. There is nothing complicated about this task as only two choices are available: place the element above another one or behind it. This can come in handy when you want to place a creepy hand behind a Halloween pumpkin or something else.
As I mentioned before, Photo Graffiti gives you the chance to add text balloons to your comics. For this section, only one element is unlocked (the regular speaking balloon). But at least this time you can get a visual at the options to be available in the full version of the application. No matter how appealing this may sound, there are mischiefs in the software and one of them refers tot the inability to write the text in lower case letters and formatting it at least in the simplest way possible. This will result in the software splitting up the word at the end of the line without the basic respect for grammar rules.
Editing tools running down in the left side of the window permit you to modify the cliparts inserted in the pictures. Thus you can enlarge or size them smaller in order to fit the "character", make them wider or narrower, elongate or compress them, vertical or horizontal flip them and rotate them left or right. I agree that there aren't too many options available, but these will have to do for version 1.0.
The Good
Extremely easy to use, Photo Graffiti will help you give a comic touch to all the seriousness in the family album.
The list of clipart is impressive, although the demo version will let you take a look only at a very small amount of them (but you can see some of them in the screenshots on the publisher's website). The layering option is great for pimping more elaborate pictures.
You can save the image in the proprietary PGI format, which preserves all the elements the way you saved them and allows you to start working from where you left.
The Bad
The number of options is quite limited and what you see in the main application window is all you get.
The software proved to be pretty un-flexible and does not allow the user to import or export cliparts. This may be because there aren't any places on which to download more cliparts to enrich the list.
The Truth
Kids will have fun retouching the family members in a comic, child-like manner. Imagine grandma with a gun, a policeman hat and a banjo. Now that's an image. For $19.95 you can have lots of fun and you can even create nice-looking greeting cards or invitations for less formal parties.
However, the limitations of the demo version will refrain the "artist" in you from showing off all the creative talent.
Check out my talent:
