14 DAY TRIAL // In most command line interfaces, the cursor is a blinking underscore or solid rectangle, indicating where text will be placed when entered. The command line interface isn't used often by today's average computer users, and many of them don't use it at all.
Graphical user interfaces usually have an arrow-like pointer to show the mouse position, and a solid line as a text insertion point. Since these interfaces are used by almost everybody and also taking into account that where we find many users, we find a lot of different tastes and the need to customize everything, cursors couldn't escape.
RealWorld Cursor Editor is a program that can create and edit static and animated Windows cursors. It can create cursors from scratch or by converting an image.
The setup package of this program is almost 4MB in size and the installation process goes on fast, without any problem. Once the download and installation are complete, let's go to the interface and features.
This program's interface has three layouts: the Raster Image Editor, the Cursor Editor and the Animated Cursor Editor. You can also create new layouts to get best interface for your needs.
When the program starts you will face the startup screen which lets you create new projects, open files from the disk or from the recent files list and check the available online resources.
I will only inform you on the main features of this program and leave their discovery to you, since some of them are available only in certain layouts (of course you will be able to add or remove tools as you need them, inside your custom interface layouts).
There are three main tool categories that we should take care of: drawing tools, image adjustments and effects.
RealWorld Cursor Editor allows you to draw lines, curves, use the pencil or the text tool, fill areas with color using the well-known bucket tool or add projected shadows to your images. You can even activate antialiasing to get rid of the jagged edges that may appear when drawing diagonal lines.
The raster image functions are the basic set of useful tools used in raster graphics, such as resample, flip, mirror, rotations and brightness, contrast and gamma adjustment.
At last, the effects available in RealWorld Cursor Editor start with colorize, shift hue and transparency adjustment, continue with smooth or gaussian blur and end with custom effects that can be created by the user using a scripting language similar to C programming language.
Even though this program can't use layers, you can paint over, under or replace the color of the foreground object (area). For example, you draw a filled rectangle, adjust its transparency to 50% and then draw another one under it. Do this for yourselves; it's going to be fun!
RealWorld Cursor Editor can save standard Windows cursor files and can export images as BMP, JPEG, PNG and RealWorld Raster Image files.
This program looks under heavy development, and I think the future will give us much more if they continue on the right path. It's free, it works, and it's pretty good, so get it!
The Good
The first good thing about free programs is their price, but RealWorld Cursor Editor comes with something more. It's easy to use, has a good interface and, with a little work, it can deliver professional results. It can be enjoyed by beginners and experts alike.
The Bad
Unfortunately, this program can only save cursor files and, like most icon and cursor editors that I've seen so far, it doesn't give you the ability to use layers in your projects. Also, I noticed that the Gaussian Blur and Sharpen menu items lead to the same effect and that is the blur. The Help file covers only basic topics and it's not too well structured.
The Truth
This should have been a Beta release, in my opinion, because there are some things that haven't been finished yet, but since it gets the job done, RealWorld Cursor Editor is a program worth trying!
Here are some snapshots of the application in action:
