The Extensis Photoshop plugin called PhotoGraphics allows the Photoshop user to create shapes and position text on a path directly from Photoshop without having to exit or switch programs. These vector shapes and text strings can be re-edited even after they have been rasterized by re-accessing the plug-in.

The program provides:

1 - Drawing tools

2 - Advanced text formatting and layout including use of multiple independent text blocks, character style sheets, horizontal and vertical scaling, etc.

3 - Editability even in format changes such as psd's to jpeg , tiffs, eps, pdf, and others

4 - Object level opacity at the object level and not necessarily at the layer level

5 - Object level anti-aliasing

6 - layer use within the plug-in

The system requirements for a window's OS are as follows: Photoshop 4 or 5, Windows 95, 98, NT and a Pentium. For a Mac, the OS must be 7.5 or higher; the Machine must be a PowerPC; and the Photoshop version must be 4 or higher. The cost of this program is $149.00.

PhotoGraphics's interface follows that of Adobe products such as Illustrator and Photoshop. Some of the tools are the: move tool, text tool, line and pen tools, polygon tool, scale and rotating tools similar to Photoshop's free transform, hand and zoom tools, and the eyedropper tool. In addition, there are palettes for filling and stroking color. These tools and functions all have shortcuts, as well.

The following examples show an illustration done in Adobe Illustrator 8 and the same illustration created in Photoshop 5 but with Extensis PhotoGraphic. Another illustration shows the original illustration created in Photoshop with Extensis PhotoGraphics and then the creation of a circle, done again, in PhotoGraphics. The red circle was saved on a new layer while in PhotoGraphics. Once saved to Photoshop, the red circle can be moved to any position on its new layer. Also, any work created through the PhotoGraphics plug-in can be edited by accessing the plug-in again. Also within PhotoGraphics, different images can be created and positioned on different layers.

For more information, contact Extensis at http://www.extensis.com. Most of their programs can be downloaded and tried out in demo mode. In addition, Extensis puts most of its programs on a single CD-ROM disc. This programs can be run in demo mode or personalized for full useability.

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