Removing
dust, scratches or skin blemishes is easy with the new Dust Brush. Just adjust
the size of the brush to a little larger than the blemish and with a click or
two (or a press of the stylus tip) the blemish disappears. This tool works great
on dust, scratches or to smooth out rough areas.
With
the new perspective feature it is quick and easy to correct or create
perspective. Just draw a 4-sided Lasso and use the Nodes tool to encompass the
area you want corrected or created and QFX does the rest. No more fiddling with
the Warp tool to do this common task. Perspective works in Draw mode on bitmap
objects as well. Just enable Perspective in the Bitmap Options dialog and drag
any corner of the image to correct or create perspective.
The
new Color Mixer sliders in the Monochrome effect dialog let you simulate placing
colored filters over the camera lens just like photographers shooting black and
white film do. In the examples at the left we use the Color Mixer sliders to
simulate a red, green and yellow filter. The red filter darkens both the lake
and the grass. The green filter makes both the lake and the grass lighter. The
yellow filter gives the most pleasing result by darkening the lake slightly but
keeping the grass looking natural. Great black and white photographers always
keep these three filters in their camera bag for getting the most dramatic
monochrome renditions of their color scenes. Now with QFX you can get the same
results as the pros but can experiment until you get just what you want. That's
something old-school film photographers cannot do (without wasting a lot of
film)!
The Thumbnail Gallery displays images, Lassos and objects in film-strip fashion across the bottom, top, left or right edge of the main program window. You can use the Thumbnail Gallery to open images, open object scenes, place Lassos or objects, paste images and add or replace bitmap objects. You can drag and drop images, object files or Lassos into any open image to make it easy to add these items without having to open a file dialog. The Gallery can dock to any program window edge or be free-floating. It is re-sizable as well. Buttons on the edge let you select from up to five different folders for display. This makes it easy to switch between different folders without having to open a dialog. The Gallery supports all the features of the original Thumbnails Browser such as image rotation, file renaming, deleting and copying as well as selection for thumbnail printing.
To
make working with digital camera images, the Thumbnails Browser, Thumbnail
Gallery and the Open Image dialogs allow you to
set the correct rotation for each image so it appears upright regardless of how
the camera was held. And the image will open automatically rotated to the
correct orientation, saving you the extra few steps of rotating it after
opening. When you print out your thumbnails the images are rotated correctly
as well. This makes creating contact sheets of images from your digital
camera even better than with a film camera since all your images will appear
upright regardless of how you shot them. Furthermore, using the Thumbnails
Browser you can select multiple images and open them all at once. The rotation
selected for each image is stored in the thumbnails catalog so the image appears
correctly rotated each time you open the Thumbnails Browser or the Open Image
dialog. There is also a Thumbnails Browser for object files as well.
For automating various tasks, QFX features
the Queue which is a scripting language that is similar in style and syntax to the familiar BASIC programming language. It is complete with variables, expressions, conditionals, branches, subroutines, forms, message boxes, error handling and more.
Included are several sample Queues including one called WebFolio (described
below) that serves as a demonstration of the power and features of the Queue scripting
language and
is fully commented to help you understand how it works. Whether you want to do
something as complex as WebFolio or just pop up a message box and get a response
before executing a command, the programming features make QFX the most flexible
and powerful image editor ever.
| Sample Queue Scripts
are available in our Tips and Tricks
section, just click one of the links below, read about what the script
does and download it:
|
WebFolio
is a Queue script that makes it easy to create a web-based portfolio or on-line catalog of images quickly and easily.
WebFolio has its own Help documentation accessed by clicking the Help button in
the WebFolio dialog. WebFolio not only generates all the images but also creates the HTML document (web page) with options for background and text
color as well as header and footer text and the layout of the thumbnail images.
You even have the option to add drop shadows to your images to enhance the look
of your page. WebFolio will also upload all the images and files to your web
site automatically. Whether you want to put some family photos on your personal
web site or create a catalog of product images for a commercial site, this
easy-to-use tool will do the job for you. And because its written in Queue
script, you can modify it to suit your taste or add more features.
You can copy the properties from
a Draw mode object or Paint mode Lasso and paste them to one or more objects or Lassos. This lets you change one or more objects or Lassos to match the properties or attributes of
another. You can paste a single property or several by selecting which
properties to paste in the Paste Properties dialog (shown at the left).
Properties include the object fill type, softness and transparency as well as
edge, shadow, text, effects, size and location properties. Use this feature to resize objects to match the size of
another.
Apply any of the effects from the Efx menu and any
of the filters from the Filters flyout menu. And, you can stack
up multiple effects on each object, like Emboss plus Glow as
shown in the example at the left. Effects and filters work on all
objects, including text and bitmap objects. Preview windows in
all the effects and filters dialogs show you exactly how each
effect and filter will appear when rendered. All effects and
filter settings are saved automatically with each object.
Lens effect objects project or focus their effects
in selected areas onto other objects, images or the background.
Selectively create highlights or glows, apply filters to sharpen
or blur images or create special effects like pixellate, motion
blur or displacement mapping. Lens effect objects can focus on
several objects or only on the objects you select. Just like all
other objects in QFX, lens effect objects can have soft edges and
variable transparency for subtle effects.
QFX supports a
wide variety of plug-in filter, format,
acquire, export, selection and color picker modules. Selection
plug-ins create masks, alpha channel or Lassos automatically,
depending on the type of plug-in. Color picker plug-ins can
replace the QFX Color Palette with a custom color picker dialog.
We have also added support for controlling scriptable plug-ins
via the Queue. Some of the plug-ins we have tested include those
from ULead (GIF, JPEG and PNG plugins), Live Picture (FlashPix),
Adobe (Gallery Effects), MetaCreations (KPT 3 and KPT 5), Chroma
Graphics (MagicMask, Chromatica), Andromeda, Alien Skin Software
and Flaming Pear.
Automatic kerning
places text characters as close together as possible, without
overlapping other characters. This improves the spacing between
character pairs like 'V' and 'a' and creates more professional
looking text automatically. Furthermore, we have added an option
to control the amount of spacing between words.
The QFX Layers
toolbox features a tree view display that shows the
complete object hierarchy, including the object type and name.
Use drag-and-drop to rearrange objects and layers, move objects
in and out of groups, and rearrange objects within groups or
composite objects. Rename individual objects as well as layers.
Select or deselect one or more objects by clicking in the Layers
toolbox. Make layers invisible or protect them from being edited
with a single mouse click.
Using the Object and Lasso properties dialogs you can set the explicit
size, scale, position, rotation and skew for Lassos and objects.
Furthermore, for all Draw mode objects you can change the fill,
edge and shadow characteristics from within the Object Properties
dialog.
QFX can export
Draw mode objects or Paint mode Lassos as Adobe Illustrator AI
format files. This makes it easy to exchange graphics created in
QFX with programs like CorelDRAW™, Adobe Illustrator, 3D
Studio MAX™ and other vector based programs.
The Align feature
lets you align Lassos or objects relative to each other or to the
overall image canvas. Options include alignment by the left,
center, right, top, middle or bottom of Lassos or objects and to
align to the selection boundary.
The Distribute
feature offers various ways of distributing or spacing Lassos or
objects. Lassos and objects can be aligned with equal spacing,
even spacing or exact spacing, set in pixels, inches, millimeters
or points.
The Objects on a
Path feature places Lassos or objects, including text, along the
path of any curve or shape that you draw. Options are included
for aligning the objects above, below or centered on the path as
well as controls for setting the spacing and offset and
maintaining the baseline of text.
Editing complex shapes is now easier than
ever because you can select and drag multiple nodes at one time.
Just hold down the SHIFT key and click several nodes or click and
drag a box around several nodes. Click on any highlighted node
and drag and all the other highlighted nodes follow along!
The patch track interface in
the Ramps Palette dialog makes it a snap to create complex linear
and circular ramps (gradients). Drag and drop color patches into
the track to add additional colors. Click and drag the patches in
the track to move the colors and change the color spread. You can
set the transparency for each patch in the track just by clicking
a patch and adjusting the slider just above the track. When you
save a palette in QFX all the ramps settings are saved also.