Graphics+Activity

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This table shows the two programs that were reviewed. Original and edited pictures are displayed below.


 * Criteria || Picnik || Fotoflexer ||
 * Tool Selection || Tool selection was good but of course I saw several tools that could be added to add greater utility. Most of the tools were very standard such as:cropping, contrast shaping, rotate, resize and sharpen. Zooming was fast and accurate and a red-eye removal tool was pretty good. || The tool selection in this program was much more sophisticated than Picnik. The program included all typical basic tools, but also had several that added really nice function such as: smoothing, smart cut-out and a very nice layering operation. Smart scissors and morph were also in their tool chest ||
 * Interface || Interface worked well and seemed to be fairly easy to understand and navigate. It took me several visits to each tab to see how the programmers sectioned each topic for use. The program does a good job of historical recall for picture information and export. || Interface layout was very good and tab descriptions were very helpful. Zoom feature worked well and interface icons were helpful in locating desired functions. Saving and exporting was a little slow, but functioned well ||
 * Speed || The speed of updates and effects was average. It did not slow my progress on editing any of the graphics. || The speed of the program was good even in updates. The only speed issue encountered was in saving and exporting files. ||
 * Export || Export was straight-forward and easy to understand. All major social networks are supported as well as the host computer || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Although easy to do, the export function was rather slow. All major social networks are supported for import and export. ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Flash/HTML || Flash || HTML ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maximum File Size || 13 megabytes || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Unknown: I could not find any file size limitation but the help function did not indicate if there was a size limit. ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Maximum Resolution || 3600 x 3600 || Unknown ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cost || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The version I tried is free and a more advanced version called Premium Picnik is available for a monthly fee structure beginning with $4.95 a month and an annual fee of $24.95. || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The version I tried was free and I did not see any upgrade path for a more advanced version. ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Layers || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The layers feature was somewhat misleading in that you could not overlap a layer with another but only add onto an existing layer creating what they called a collage. They had several templates for this function but no way to customize. || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The program had a very nice layers section. It allowed for multiple pictures to be composited and cut-outs were permitted. Overlays of other images was easy and the work path was intuitive. ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Effects || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The effects in the free version were very basic which would appeal to those wanting simple editing to improve and do effortless changes in typical graphics programs. You would need to upgrade to the Premium to use the advanced features which did offer several interesting functions. || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Effects were easy to understand and use in the program and had good integration with other effects. Special effects was speedy and cycling through them was effortless. I especially liked the icons that helped recognition of specific effects. I also liked the approach of using sliders for the changes. The effects flowed very well to make for a good editing experience. ||
 * <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Killer feature || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In the "create" tab a frames function was very clever which allowed the user to pick from a variety of picnik created frames that give your pictures a very unique look. Reflection was my favorite. || <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The feature I thought to be very well done was the "smart cutout" function. This allowed for some very accurate cutouts which could be composited very easily. ||









As you can see both programs offer editing in a basic fashion and also some very sophisticated undertakings. The Picnik program is easy to manipulate but lacks the more complex utility functions. I was able to create some mildly elaborate effects such as cutouts and composite them together using Fotoflexer. I definitely liked Fotoflexer better than Picnik mostly because it has more flexibility and useful functions. Picnik seemed to me to be more of a program that has playful effects versus ones that actually serve specific functions for improving and creating productive graphics. The last statement I would make concerning these programs would be this. They are simple, they work and for basic editing operations they are the right price. . . free.