Adobe Flash Pro CS5 Student & Teacher Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Before using Flash I have had no exposure to animation programs. Having learned how to use flash I wish the interface was more user friendly, by that I mean I wish it was setup more like Illustrator. Fairly often I found myself wishing it would rotate something or align something like in Illustrator, there is the option of importing but I heard that takes up more memory. I read the review about crashes, on the Mac I have had zero crashes and have not had to fuss about anything like that. So in general I have read this version adds some stuff but it's all new to me, I would recommend this to anyone starting out. Though I am looking into similar programs and might consider switching.

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Adobe Flash Professional CS5 software is the industry-leading environment for interactive authoring and delivery of immersive experiences that are presented consistently across personal computers, mobile devices, and screens of virtually any size and resolution. Design expressive content with professional typography and pixel-precise drawing tools, write code precisely and efficiently with code completion and customizable code snippets, and deliver superior-quality video to audiences practically everywhere.




Create and deliver rich interactive content
New text engine Take control over your text with print-quality typography via the new Text Layout Framework. Work with columns and bidirectional text, and maintain layout and formatting with greater fidelity when importing from other Adobe products.

XML-based FLA source files Manage and modify projects using source control systems and collaborate on files more easily. An XML-based nonbinary implementation of the FLA format allows projects and associated assets to function as items in a directory or folder.

Improved Adobe Creative Suite integration Enhance your productivity and workflow when using Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Flash Builder. Leverage the FXG graphics file format and integration with Adobe Mini Bridge for digital asset management.

Code Snippets panel Reduce the ActionScript 3.0 learning curve and promote greater creativity by injecting prebuilt code into projects. Quickly include functional code for timeline navigation, actions, animation, audio and video, and event handlers.

Enhanced ActionScript editor Increase development speed with an improved ActionScript editor, including custom class code hinting and code completion. Use Adobe Flash Builder software as your primary ActionScript editor for Flash Professional projects.

Object-based animation model Use object-based animation and visually achieve granular control over motion attributes with the Motion Editor. Develop interactive content more efficiently with the Motion Preset panel, which offers prebuilt motion effects and lets you create, save, and share your own.

Inverse kinematics Take advantage of advanced motion capabilities and visually add realistic physics effects with new strength and damping settings for the Bones tool. Easily create natural, chain-like motion with a simple and familiar user interface.

Advanced native drawing tools Author expressive interactive content with easy-to-use tools. Draw stylized shapes and transform them into complex patterns and effects, and animate 2D objects through 3D space with 3D transformation tools.

Video improvements Streamline video embedding and encoding processes with on-stage video scrubbing and a new cue points property inspector. See and play back FLV components directly on the stage.

Support across devices Deliver interactive content consistently for more runtimes across personal computers, mobile devices, and screens of virtually any size and resolution, and leverage integration with Adobe Device Central for enhanced testing and debugging.

Top new features of Adobe Flash Professional CS5
New text engine Flash Professional CS5 adds support for the new Text Layout Framework built into Flash Player 10, enabling you to use print-quality typographic functionality and take the experiences you create to new heights. Support for the Text Layout Framework provides rich, multilingual typographic control that previously was not available in Flash Professional, as well as a comprehensive set of APIs to manipulate text content, layout, and markup. The new text engine in Flash Professional CS5 also maintains layout and text formatting with greater fidelity when importing content from Adobe InDesign software and other Adobe products.

Print-quality typographic control Designers have come to expect rich typographic control in applications like InDesign and Illustrator. However, it's been extremely difficult or even impossible to set professional-level typography on the web--until now. With the Text Layout Framework support in Flash Professional CS5, designers can take advantage of rich typographical controls, including:

Advanced text styling such as kerning, ligatures, tracking, leading, superscript, subscript, discretionary hyphens, margins, hypertext, baseline shift, typographic case, digit case (oldstyle/lining figures), and digit width (proportional/tabular figures).
Advanced text-layout controls including threaded text blocks; the selection, editing and flowing of text across multiple columns; linked images; text wrap; and inline images (supporting PNG, JPG, SWF, or any Flash Player DisplayObject). Tab stops and CSS anti-aliasing are also supported.

Global language support The Text Layout Framework brings advanced multilingual typographic and layout features to Flash Professional CS5. This support includes the ability to display and edit not only right-to-left scripts, but also top-to-bottom scripts, and those that often use a mixture of left-to-right and right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew.

The new text engine offers additional features for East Asian typography, including an East Asian justifier, vertical text support, and Tate-Chu-Yoko, or blocks of horizontal text embedded into vertical runs of text.

Advanced inline text editing Working with text inside of Flash Professional is now a far more efficient and productive experience. In addition to cut, copy, paste, find, replace, and spell-check functionality and standard keyboard and mouse gestures for editing (Ctrl/Command, Home/End, double-click), a new Selection mode allows text to be treated as read-only, read-select, or read-write.

Advanced rendering support While offering advanced typographic control to designers is important, you want to know that what you see on your screen matches your viewers' experience as well. The Text Layout Framework builds on the history of consistent high-quality playback and display across multiple devices in Flash Player by adding support for transparency and for device and embedded fonts (including anti-aliasing of embedded fonts). A new embedded font format (DefineFont4) provides improved typography features, international support, and reduced file sizes.

Ability to distribute content virtually anywhere Deliver consistently across screens of virtually any size and use Adobe Device Central for enhanced device testing. The Distribution service available separately through Adobe Flash Platform Services offers free and paid methods for distributing applications to social networks, mobile devices, and desktops. It also enables developers and businesses to track the distribution of and user engagement with their applications, and enables monetization of applications through ad hosting.

Deliver to mobile and consumer devices. Deliver content that plays back on millions of devices worldwide. Packager for iPhone preview, included with Flash Professional CS5, compiles ActionScript bytecode into native iPhone application code. iPhone applications are distributed as iPhone application installer (IPA) files, via the iTunes store.
Deliver to desktop computers. Take advantage of the ubiquity of Flash Player within browsers and Adobe AIR for extended support on the desktop. Content displays with a consistent look and feel across operating systems and browsers.

XML-based FLA source files Flash Professional CS5 uses an XML-based implementation of the FLA file format called XFL, offering improved cross-product integration and workflow productivity. This compact and efficient file format both accurately maintains data in a Flash document and makes the individual elements easier to manage and use.

For example, an image that is currently used in a Flash project could be checked out of a source control system, updated, and checked back in. The next time you open the FLA project file, you would instantly see the updated image without having to manually import it into the project.

With better support for multiuser environments and cross-product compatibility, the XML-based format in Flash Professional offers the following benefits:

The uncompressed format allows several users on a team to work on the same project simultaneously--no more having to split the project into multiple FLA files.
Integration with source control systems is now possible because each team member can work on separate assets in the XFL package, eliminating the need to resolve differences.
Mobile developers can work on the same files as other developers. (In the past, mobile content could not load other SWF files.)

Using XML-based FLA source files, Flash Professional CS5 provides a richer environment in which to exchange data with other key Adobe Creative Suite tools, including After Effects, InDesign, Illustrator, Adobe Encore, and Flash Catalyst.

Code Snippets panel Flash Professional CS5 provides a new way to quickly include code for things like timeline navigation, actions, animation, audio and video, and event handlers with the Code Snippets panel. By injecting prebuilt code into projects, you can work faster, freeing up more time for creativity.

For example, the sample code snippets allow you to create interactive buttons without extensive code experience. Code snippets also contain helpful comments and clear instructions right in the code and can greatly reduce the ActionScript 3.0 learning curve by helping new users learn how the ActionScript language works. In addition, because the panel is extensible, you can create and share snippets with others, helping to reduce overall production time.

Enhanced ActionScript editor Increase development speed with an improved ActionScript editor, including custom class code hinting and code completion, and reference your own code or external code libraries more efficiently. Novice developers can start projects and have code hinting assist them as they try to grasp the fundamentals of the ActionScript language. Flash Professional CS5 can automatically write the import statement for libraries, and more experienced and advanced developers can more quickly reference their own code or any external code libraries they are using.

Improved Creative Suite integration Flash Professional is an integral part of all Creative Suite 5 Premium editions. Flash Professional CS5 adds more ways to work directly with other Creative Suite 5 components for a more efficient workflow, including:

Edit bitmaps in Photoshop using the new Edit With Photoshop CS5 command
Export complex graphics via the FXG format, which you can open in Illustrator
Place finished SWF files into Flash Catalyst projects
Use Flash Builder as your ActionScript code-authoring environment
Open content from InDesign with greater text fidelity
Import FXG files from Fireworks
Open content from After Effects and retain editing flexibility

Flash Builder integration Adobe Flash Builder (formerly Adobe Flex Builder) is a professional Eclipse-based developer tool that enables intelligent coding, interactive step-through debugging, and visual design of the user interface and behavior for Flex applications. Rather than having to choose between one integrated development environment (IDE) and another, you can now write your ActionScript code in Flash Builder and then test, debug, and publish your content in Flash Professional.

Test Movie and Debug Movie. When invoked, these commands bring up Flash Professional CS5, open the FLA file that has been set in the properties of the current project, and test or debug the movie. Once the SWF window is closed (or the debug session is ended, in the case of Debug Movie), focus is returned to Flash Builder (and the FLA file remains open). You can also set breakpoints in Flash Builder that work in the Flash Professional debugger.
Publish Movie. When invoked, this command brings up Flash Professional CS5 and publishes the target FLA file. Once the export is complete, if compiler errors were found, Flash Professional is brought to the front with its Compiler Errors panel open and the errors listed. If no errors were found, a dialog box in Flash Builder indicates that the Publish request was successful.

Spring for Bones With Flash Professional CS5, Adobe integrates the power of a dynamic physics engine into the Inverse Kinematics (IK) system. This engine allows new users to create lifelike animation with ease, and gives expert users powerful functionality that is supported for both runtime and authortime. Spring gives IK animation movement that is 100% configurable, so you can now get realistic multi-object interactions that don't look robotic and rigid. Spring, a property of an IK Bone element, consists of two attributes: Strength and Damping.

Strength sets the amount of spring. When the value is greater than zero, the bone reacts with a physical movement that is proportional to the Strength value and the overall movement.
Damping adds resistance to the Strength value. This affects the rate of decay of the spring, which in turn determines the duration between the initial movement and the time when the IK Bone returns to its rest position.

Video improvements With integrated support for content created with Adobe Premiere Pro or Adobe After Effects software, it's easy to work with video content directly in Flash Professional CS5. Streamline embedding and encoding processes with on-stage video scrubbing and the ability to define cue points directly in the Properties panel. Now, when you have an FLV playback component on the stage, you can see the video on the stage, whereas previously you had to test the movie. Flash Professional CS5 also includes Adobe Media Encoder, enabling you to convert just about any file format to FLV or F4V.

New Deco drawing tools Flash Professional CS5 extends the functionality of the dynamic Deco brush tools, enabling you to easily draw shapes and add advanced animation effects. These new brushes include:

Particle System. Quickly create movement for particle phenomena like clouds or rain.
3D, Decorated, and new Grid brushes. Draw stylized lines or create patterns with multiple objects at once.
Tree, Flame, Lightning, and Building brushes. Use specialized tools to add and customize these stylized shapes.

Adobe Flash authoring tools With Creative Suite 5, Adobe delivers a variety of tools with the capability to author interactive content for the Adobe Flash Platform. Each project you work on is unique, presenting various requirements and specifications regarding design, development, and deployment. This comparison chart is a quick reference that will help you choose the best tool or tools for what you want to accomplish.

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Autodesk Mudbox 2011 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)if youre a student with a student email you could get this for free! After i bought this i was sent to the web site for auto desk student site. it's says get all auto desk for students for three years. if youre not a student i suppose it's worth it, but for me i just paid $53 for some thing i could easily have gotten for free.

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Autodesk Mudbox 2011 software helps accelerate design, sculpting, and approval phases with powerful new tools for deforming and posing models, and the new ability to help create high-quality turntables for presentations. Moreover, the texture painting toolset is significantly extended with image adjustment brushes and blend modes for paint layers, while a Vector Displacement map extraction method offers new possibilities for creating and rendering complex details. And, with single-click file transfer with Autodesk Maya 2011 software; multi-layer PSD exchange with Adobe Photoshop software; and added support for Windows 7, and Mac OS X 64-bit operating systems, Mudbox 2011 integrates more easily into existing pipelines.



Key Features and Benefits
Posing Toolset Quickly and easily deform and pose models to change their design, access occluded regions, present them for approval, or prepare them for map extraction. With tools for quickly creating and editing joints, and the ability to import weighted skeletons from Maya 2011, Autodesk 3ds Max 2011, or Autodesk Softimage 2011 software, the new toolset enables modelers to create and manipulate poses as part of the design, sculpting, painting, or approval process.
Image Adjustment Brushes Selectively edit and manipulate existing paint and photo-based layers with new image adjustment brushes: Blur, Dodge, Burn, Contrast, Sponge, Hue, Hue Shift, and Invert. These brushes enable existing image data under the brush to be altered or enhanced—for example, color-corrected, brightened, or softened.
Vector Displacements Extract maps using a new Vector Displacement method and represent displacements that do not simply follow the normal: for example, forms with appendages, undercuts, folds, and bulges, such as a human ear. Once extracted, maps can be used to help recreate detail at render time in supported renderers, or as brush stamps or stencils in Mudbox to sculpt complex detail onto meshes in a single stroke. Artists can build up a library of commonly-used forms and reuse them on models.
Paint in UV Space in the 3D View While painting in 3D space helps with precise placement of detail on the model, in some cases it is easier to paint textures in a 2D format. An innovative new feature in Mudbox unfolds a 3D model into a 2D representation, based on its UVs, but retains the benefits of working in a true 3D environment such as the ability to analyze lighting and material qualities. Beyond painting, sculpting on the unfolded mesh with tools such as Grab and Smooth enables basic editing of the 3D model's UVs.
Enhanced Interoperability with Maya, 3ds Max, and Softimage No need to navigate through multiple file browsers and remember path and filenames: now models and scene information transfer between Mudbox 2011 and Maya 2011 with a single click. In addition, Displacement and Normal maps extracted in Mudbox are now associated with models when an Autodesk FBX 2011 file is exported, helping to eliminate the need to manually reassemble the asset when brought into in another program. Meanwhile, using Mudbox in concert with a favorite content creation application is easier than ever with a choice of familiar hotkey setups for common actions.
Blend Modes for Paint Layers Control how paint layers composite together to help create a final image by selecting from one of the new blend modes: Multiply, Screen, Add, or Overlay. These non-destructive settings help artists to experiment freely when constructing complex multi-layered textures by offering the flexibility to change the blend mode.
Multi-Layer PSD File Exchange with Photoshop Import and export multiple layers in PSD files to leverage the Adobe Photoshop toolset on more demanding scenes and projects. Now artists can edit layers in the context of the final composite, helping preserve continuity in look and workflow when moving between Mudbox and Photoshop.
High-Quality Turntables Quickly and easily create high-quality 360 degree turntable movie files directly in Mudbox. Common file formats enable movies to be more easily accessed for remote review or approval via email or on a website; turntables are also useful for showcasing artists' work.
Session Recording Record a sculpting and painting session in Mudbox and export the recording to a movie. Recorded sessions can be used to share workflows, teach techniques, and showcase talent.
Superior Performance Work with assets of greater complexity through significant performance increases for scenes with multiple objects.
Enhanced Color Chooser Store and recall recently-used colors and user-defined palettes, and work in a choice of color spaces using the same new color chooser as Maya 2011.
64-bit Support for Mac OS X and Windows 7 Mudbox 2011 has new 64-bit executables on Mac OS X and Windows 7 operating systems providing more addressable memory to more easily handle the increasingly detailed models required by today's challenging productions.
Mudbox In-product Community Get more out of your Mudbox experience with online community resources accessible directly from the Mudbox application. Artists can select from hundreds of stamps, stencils, base meshes, and tutorials in the Mudbox Library, and share their work with other users for valuable peer review without ever having to leave their work environment.
Separate Normal Map ChannelView and edit Bump and Normal maps simultaneously, using the new Normal Map channel in the default material to display normal maps.
New Incandescence ChannelCreate glows and other self-lit effects with a new Incandescence channel in the default material.
Subdivision-Based Map ExtractionA new subdivision-based map extraction method helps produce higher quality maps more quickly and easily than the traditional Raycast method.
Extended SDKWrite custom brushes for painting and sculpting, with an extended SDK (software development kit) that offers additional examples.
Enhanced User Interface LookAn updated user interface features a dark-gray color scheme that helps reduce eyestrain and makes it easier to evaluate materials and lighting.
What's New in Mudbox 2011 Autodesk Mudbox 2011 digital sculpting and texture painting software includes the following new and enhanced features:
Deform and pose models quickly and easily to change their design, access occluded regions, present them for approval, or prepare them for map extraction.
Selectively edit and manipulate existing paint and photo-based layers with new image adjustment brushes.
Transfer models and scene information between Mudbox 2011 and Maya 2011with a single click.
Extract maps using a new Vector Displacement method and represent displacements that do not simply follow the normal: for example, forms with appendages, undercuts, folds and bulges.
Import and export multiple layers in PSD files to leverage the Adobe PhotoShop toolset on more demanding projects.

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ArtRage Deluxe 2.5 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)ArtRage is a natural media digital art software with several very nice features, some challenging those of Painter and Photoshop. The first thing that I liked was the software's graphic user interface or workspace. Given the number of features and the amount of controls to customize the tools, you would expect a complicated and intimidating GUI similar to that of Painter or Photoshop. Instead, you have an uncluttered workspace with only six panels bordering the edges. Also, as you are working, these few panels automatically disappear out of the way as your brush approaches and reappear again as you move your brush away. Other nice features are a rotating canvas and pen tablet support. ArtRage can import and export several image formats including JPEG, BMP, PNG and PSD.
Those artists who begin their artwork by blocking out the major shapes and colors in their painting will appreciate ArtRage's Tracing Image feature. This feature allows you to import a photo or sketch as a starting point for your painting. ArtRage projects the imported tracing image onto the canvas and you can control the scale and opacity of the image. For example, while tracing the outline of a rose with the Pencil tool, I set the opacity to around 80% which allowed me to see the details clearly. Later when I began to add color, I lowered to opacity to about 30% to create an "onion skin" of the trace image. For artists who like to paint from a reference image, ArtRage allows you to "pin" a reference image or images directly on to the canvas. Once the reference image is pinned to the workspace, you can reposition the image next to the area you are working on.
ArtRage has two ways to work with color; Trace Color and Normal Color. Trace Color is a feature which takes all the hard work out of choosing colors. As you paint with any of the tools, the software chooses the colors for you, based on the trace image. If you prefer to choose the colors, you can switch to the Normal Color mode and ArtRage has several color pickers including a Numeric Color Picker and the basic RGB and HSL color pickers.
With the Custom Color Picker feature, you can narrow your color choices in the color picker panel to a smaller group of colors such as complements, warm colors or cool colors. Finally, ArtRage comes with several preset Color Samples. You can even create and save your own custom color sets and color samples.
Now that we have our digital colors, we are ready to paint or draw. Each of the natural media art tools in ArtRage can simulate traditional art media including oil, pencil, palette knife, airbrush, chalk, glitter, paint roller, paint tube, felt pen, crayon and eraser. The realism and amount of custom control over the tool's properties such as wetness, pressure, hardness and angle, are surprising for the price. The natural media tools can also be used with the Metallic Paint option which gives a metallic characteristic to the media and to the canvas. In the Papers Settings Panel, you can choose a preset paper type and control several aspects of the canvas such as grain, roughness, color and opacity.
Another feature that one would expect in only high end software is layers. ArtRage's Layers panel rivals its competitors'. You can work on individual areas of your painting on separate layers. You can also copy, group and merge layers. Each layer has its own properties, such as opacity and blend modes, and can be moved, scaled and rotated. You can control the characteristics of the paper or canvas for each layer. ArtRage also supports transparency for layers, Photoshop's blending modes and has the ability to retain layer information when you import or export your artwork in PDS format.
The Stencil Picker is a very nice feature that can have many applications. The stencils and rulers work in three modes. In the Stencil mode, you can use the stencil or ruler as a mask to prevent paint from touching the canvas. In the Ruler mode, the stencils and rulers act as a combination straight edge and snap to function. As you move your paint brush along the edge of the stencil, your brush will automatically snap to the edge of the stencil giving you a nice clean edge. The Guide mode works like the Ruler mode but allows paint to spread under the stencil or ruler, giving a softer edge. ArtRage comes with a nice selection of preset stencils and rulers. You can also create and store you own.
Besides the built-in resources such as color samples, preset paper types, trace images, stencils and rulers, ArtRage comes with several video and pdf tutorials, sample paintings, quick start guide and a nice user manual.
I almost feel embarrassed to suggest additional features. But if I had a "wish list" for ArtRage it would include just a few things. For art media tools, I would like to see a watercolor brush and a drawing pen with a really fine point. As for new features, I would like to see selection tools and tooltips. Although ArtRage does have a multiple undo feature, it would be nice to have a history panel.

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Paint blend sketch and draw on your computer!Easy-to-use ToolsArtRage Deluxe gives you realistic art tools in a simple and stylish environment. Start creating your own works of art right away just pick up the mouse and start painting!Tutorials and MoreArtRage Deluxe includes tutorials and videos to learn from reference images for tracing and stencils for painting precise shapes. You ll have the artwork and guidance you need to create amazing art!Tools of the TradePaint and draw with oils brushes pencils rollers pens and more. Blend and smear paint on the canvas and use the bristle texture of your stroke to add depth to the image. The Metallic Paint option gives you spreadable blendable gold and silver oil paints sparkling glitter silver leaf sprays and other incredible effects!ArtRage Deluxe makes creating art easier than ever!Start creating from the moment you open ArtRage!Creating your artwork has never been easier. Start a new painting using the tracing paper function. Loading your owntracing image gives you an image to use as a reference and creates a canvas for you to work on.Customize tools and colorsPick colors zoom in and out and trace your image as loosely or tightly as you see fit. Use layers to isolate colors effects and lines. Mix them at will! Choose areas and layers of your work for a variety of color and effects line quality blending paint thinners canvas roughness paper textures and more! Draw strokes using varying pressure with a wide variety of tools.Finish your work with fine detailing airbrushing distortions or varying backgrounds. The creative possibilities are endless!System Requirements:Windows:Vista XP 2000 or Tablet PC800MHz processor or faster256MB of RAMMacintosh:OS X 10.3.9 or laterG4 processor or faster256MB of RAMFormat: WIN 2000XPVISTA/MAC 10.3.9 OR LATER Genre:ENTERTAINMENT UPC:717103856488 Manufacturer No:ARDHBX2

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Serif PagePlus X5 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This is really good desk top publishing software, It has great reviews on the internet and I really shopped around with different products before I finally bit the bullet and bought one -- this one.
As I'm on a budget I fought with Scribus first, (an Open Source DTP alternative) but decided the useability was too much of a problem. I didnt have the budget for InDesign, and wasnt interested anyway in paying so much for a set of features I will never even use anyone. I need to get up and runnign fast and not have to pay out for courses and class rooms in books because InDesigns price tag is only justified by feature bloat.
This has all of the features you need for professional publishing, at a fraction of the price of IDesign, and is great for amateurs as well as professionals. On forums I hear a lot designers say, it's not the "professional's choice" - the argument being that professionl print shops expect InDesign files and Indesign integrates well with other Adobe products. Its like saying that Adobe products are better because most peopel use Adboe. Great circular reasoning, but not an argument against this software.
This product has good tutorials, vidoes, and easy to learn common features. I learned it in one day, and could do things I'd wanted to do for ages but couldnt be bothered to read up on a manual to learn-- Its really amazing how quick you can learn it. Its obvious the developers really tested it against users.
I'm looking to use it for my marketing and communications job, as well as home use, and it has great resources, templates, for professional brochures, posters, creates pdfs, does color schemes, professional printing and is quick to understand, fast, and powerful software.
for me this is a no contest winner against InDesign. InDesign captures the premium market niche becuase, well, they're marketing is effective. But the reality is, you have all you need here for professional work, at a fraction of the cost.
About the only one drawback I've seen a reviewer say, is that there isnt a baseline for font that works across columns of text. Doesnt seem to be a handicap for me.
I'd also like to see more advanced tutorials on their web, but hey, you can get the info you need from any book.
I'm truly chuffed and pleased with this software.
Its incomparably great value, why pay so much for software you can get that has all the key features, for a fraction of the price is is even easier to use?
Sounds like a no brainer, it is. Go buy!


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Professional Desktop Publishing Made Easy
Create professional-quality advertising, sophisticated print designs and electronic documents with PagePlus X5, the best-in-class desktop publisher. From brochures to books, menus to magazines, flyers to forms and professional printing to PDF editing, PagePlus X5 does it all quickly and easily--like having a design agency at your desk.

Design Documents Fast Customizable templates and intuitive tools for fast results.

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Project Runway Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)After buying the game I started playing it and just a few hours later I was done with the season and that was the end. If you start a new one afterward it gives you the same challenges but might have a different clothes you may have to choose for the challenge.
I wished this game went on to different seasons with more challenges or something to make it more challenging for the player. It was just too easy and can be finished within a day then it gets boring after that. I say that it wasn't worth it to buy.

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Gameplay Join Heidi, Tim, Nina, and Michael as you face the fiercest challenges of your burgeoning fashion career. Project Runway lets you play through a whole season of wild and wonderful fashion challenges. From creating a look for a rock star, to designing the next high school uniform, the pressure is on to take your personal sense of style to the next level with nearly unlimited options for style, fabric, color and a multitude of choices for models, make up, and hair. Gameplay elements include:
Design Challenges - Jump into a real season of "Project Runway"and face a wide range of wild and wonderful design challenges includinghaute couture, cheerleading uniform, hip hop and punk costumes, schooluniform, newspaper dress, and more.
Garment Studio - With nearly unlimited options for creativity,imagination, and originality Project Runway's garment studiolets you create unique fashions choosing from an enormous selectionof color, fabrics, material and accessories.
Model Selection - Choose the model who perfectly reflects yoursense of design and flair. Options are available for skin tone, haircolor and length, facial features, even ethnicity.
Hair and Make-up Salon - Get your model runway-ready with theperfect hair and makeup style. Select from a wide assortment or haircolors, lengths, and textures. Then apply lipstick, blush, eyeliner,mascara and eye shadow to match.
Catwalk - With designs and models in place, it's time to showoff to the judges. Now you become the model, strutting down the runwayand working it for the judges as you walk the walk and strike your poses.
Photo Shoot - Travel to exotic international destinations andsee your model and original designs photographed in a wide range ofcities and environments.
Quick Play and Fashion Career Modes - Jump in and play anyProject Runway mini-game, whether it's creating a design, hangingout in the make-up studio or strutting down the runway. Or go rightto career mode and create a new profile, unlocking new garments, hairstyles,makeup and accessories as you go.

System Requirements Key Game Features
Star in the Bravo Network's "Project Runway," the #1 fashion design reality show.
Model your own designs on the runway using easy mouse controls to walk, strut, and pose.
Design your own fashion line or tackle unique Project Runway challenges.
Create different looks in the hair and makeup studio-from natural to futuristic.
Select the model who perfectly matches your fashion style.
Get tips from Project Runway celebrities and contestants who are your mentors and judges.

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Corel Painter 11 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Just an Update for the review:
As of January 6, 2010 - nearly a YEAR after release, Corel has released a major patch update that resolves most problems I've had with the product. I have left the review alone (besides adding updates) to show how long it takes for these things to be resolved. I still stand by the fact Painter needs to resolve GUI issues, by appearance and stability.
** A special note, is that I wish Painter would include a dynamic resizable navigational/preview window like other paint programs have. There have been suggested work-arounds but I think it's time for Corel to include a much wanted feature.
As of August 26,2009 - I included a bug that still hasn't been fixed and is disruptive for workflow
As of May 21, 2009 - Corel has released a hotfix for the intuos3 missing stroke, corrupted workspaces, and cut and paste issue. The rest of the bugs still seem to remains.
I actually have been familiar with Painter since the old school large serial tablets and it was called Fractal Design Painter.
I really really wanted to love Painter 11. It has some nice new features such as the hard/real media brushes, and re-sizable Mixer and Color wheel. There is now PNG support too, but until there is a patch, it's not worth the upgrade or purchase. It feels like this should have been partial (but not a good update to) Painter X. The last time it took it to patch was when Painter X encountered GUI glitches on release (in Feb of that year) but it wasn't until June were there fixes. It didn't receive any patches after that and we (as in other people interested in the program) were waiting for the new release to see if it would fix previous problems.
Here's a list of major problems:
** (August 26 2009) Updating a bug issue I didn't put up here. This affects about anyone with a tablet and most likely wacoms. When you chose a brush, you have it at a certain size, for example 2.0, now use the eraser side of your stylus, change the size of your eraser. Flip back your stylus. Your 2.0 size has now increased to 17. I'm told that it doesn't have to happen when changing the brush size, but it happens when you use your eraser side of your stylus.
1. It's slow. It loads fast for a few days but for whatever reason it becomes increasingly slower to load. I'm using a Core Duo with 2gb of ram and even with nothing on (as in other programs running) it's still slow. (I'm a PC user)
2. a: Intuos 3 users will be frustrated. Apparently, there is a bug in this version of Painter. It causes a missing stroke or a random brush dab (the dab issue was present in X). Yes, that's right a painting program that can't register whether or not you're placing a stroke on your tablet. Let's see if this improves with an Intuos4. I feel sorry for intuos3 users right now (and I am one!)
b: Intuos 4 users may find themselves frustrated. I've tested the software in Windows XP sp3 with an Intuos4. The touchring can be downright unresponsive when trying to change brush sizes.
3. Bugs from X are still in here. Watch out for crashes when using guides and rulers. I already mentioned the missing brush dab problem. If you change your brush selector bars to stroke view, it changes them to thumbnail view when you go back to it. Sometimes trying to fix it back to stroke view causes it to crash.
4. CPU bug. For whatever reason, Painter likes to eat about 45% of your CPU or more even when you're idle and not drawing. I don't know why it's consuming so much CPU on idle times (as in I'm not even painting!). I'm told because I'm using multiple cores it may actually be closer to 100% if I had a single core processor.
5. Color Management. It also appears that painter is assigning incorrect color management to documents from the one you specified. This means you're blacks may not look 100% black because of this issue. There's even a bug for Mac users with color management.
6. Copy and Paste bug. Some reason Painter 11 is having issues copying and pasting selections into a new layer. This is really a problem for example if I wanted instead of lifting inks to a Watercolor layer...to copy and paste it into a new layer and setting it to gel.
7. The new Transformation tool...yep that's buggy too. It crops out certain areas, and sometimes doesn't transform selections correctly. What's the point of this tool if it doesn't work properly?
8. Ugly GUI - General User Interface. While the softened colors are better, the rest of the interface is just back to windows 2000. Nothing intuitive about the placement of tools on the tools palette, too many confusing palettes that need to be stored in an intuitive manner for many users, and interface bugs.
9. This maybe should be the number one issue for Corel. Really poor customer service. If you pay for the full edition, people have been told over the phone to go to their PanterFactory forums instead of getting real customer support. That can be absolutely frustrating for someone who just called their center expecting some support with their software package. In addition, the support level on their forums is abysmal. I'm not expecting Corel to be Adobe, but I feel like I'm on a sinking ship with the level of support.
I'm told they're already working on a Painter 12 and really....they should be working on revamping their product. I feel like more of this program is dedicated to photopainting, and the illustrators are feeling more and more ignored unless they help push the product. I really love painter for the natural brush emulation but the support and bugs leaves me bittersweet.
** - Edit I'm also trying to figure out why another person directed a counterpoint to my review about saying the Tilt function was faulty in Painter when this was never once mentioned in my review? I said there was a missing stroke bug, which is a completely different issue with the intuos 3. Reading comprehension...? (I kind of believe that to be a must in a good review before arguing something I never something I never said).

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Expand your creativity with Painter 11, the most inventive digital painting software on the market. By adding Painter to your workflow, you gain a full art studio that gives you the tools to create unprecedented artwork. Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes, without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art. Support for the entire Wacom product line, including industry-leading Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos drawing tablets, gives you the most responsive digital painting experience so your hand and brush work fluidly as one. Customizable paper textures give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting or photo-painting tools can produce. Painter is changing what's possible in art. Now it's your turn.

The World's Most Powerful Natural-Media Software
Enhance the Creative Process
Enhanced Artistic Media reproduce the texture of their real-life counterparts and intensify color with each stroke
Pen and drawing tablet (recommended), combined with Painter's RealBristle brushes, recreate the natural interaction between hand and canvas
New Hard Media Controls let you create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library

Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
Improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop, and individual color profiles per document, make your colors more precise
Photo-painting tools with SmartStroke technology let you creatively transform reality
Customizable surface texturing gives your art a level of fantasy and detail that other photo and painting software can't deliver

Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Digital art tools let you experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art
New Hard Media controls give you the flexibility to play around to find the exact look you desire
Smart composition tools, such as Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths, help you visually arrange your canvas to create perfect compositions

Features
What's Included
Content Libraries of unique textures, gradients, nozzles, patterns, stock photos and brushes, including the new RealBristle dry media brush category
Documentation
Getting Started Guide
HTML User Guide and Getting Started Guide
HTML Help files

Training
Online tutorials and testimonials

Enhance the Creative Process
New--Hard Media Controls Create your own hard media variants, or choose from new hard media variants in the Brush Library, so you have more creative control over your media. Customizable profiles, dab sizes, transitions and stroke width previews let you play around to create the exact look you want.
New--RealBristle Dry Media Marker, pen, pencil and chalk media reproduce the look and feel of their real-life counterparts in a way that no other software can!
Marker--intensify color with each new marker stroke so you can color in one continuous shade or create a buildup of color
Pen--choose to create fine pen strokes, or thick strokes and ink deposits, by changing the velocity of your stroke. The faster you go, the thinner the line; the slower you go, the thicker the line
Pencil & Chalk--control shading by changing the angle of your stylus on the drawing tablet. Choose whether to draw with the tip or shade with the side of the nib-just like in real life

Enhanced--Selection Tools A new Polygonal mode for the Lasso tool, plus overall improvements to marquee tools and the Magic Wand, let you make more nimble selections the first time around.
Enhanced--Wacom Support Support for the entire Wacom product line, including Cintiq interactive pen displays and Intuos pen tablets, gives you most responsive digital painting software and the best digital art experience.
RealBristle Painting System Replicate the sensation and interaction between traditional paint and canvas with your pen and tablet. This represents a major milestone for digital painting by making brushes totally responsive to your hand and canvas, creating the most realistic painting experience.
Customizable Brushes Create your own brushes in the type, size or pattern of your choice, so you can make custom brush strokes and create artwork that is truly unique.
Go Beyond the Digital Darkroom
New--Color Management Create better color matches with new individual color profiles for every document and improved color recognition for files imported from Adobe Photoshop. This enhances your workflow because you save time by having fewer color corrections to make.
Enhanced--Adobe Photoshop Support Maintain colors and layers when transferring files between Photoshop and Painter. This saves time when importing and exporting artwork between the two programs, because corrections are less necessary.
Photo-painting Tools Transform photos into paintings by hand, or let SmartStroke brush technology in the Auto-Painting Palette paint a photo for you. It follows the lines and contours in the picture just like a real artist would. This lets you take the best of both worlds--photography and painting--to create new forms of art.
Customizable Surface Texturing Give your art added artistic undertones, plus a level of texture and detail that no other digital painting software and photo-painting tools can produce. You can choose paper textures for your canvas, or create and customize your own textures to produce really unique artwork.
Learn from Unlimited Experimentation
Enhanced--Mixer Palette & Swatches Extra mixer swatches appear when you enlarge the newly resizable Mixer Palette. Increase the size of the Palette to put more colors at your disposal and have a clearer view of your chosen color. Reduce the size when you no longer need to mix colors so the Palette takes up less space on screen.
Smart Composition Tools Divine Proportion and the Rule of Thirds and Fifths help you visually arrange your canvas before sketching or painting to create perfect compositions.
Flexible Digital Art Tools Experiment with color theory, composition and brush strokes to your heart's content, and produce exciting results-without the toxins, mess and expenses associated with traditional art.
Universal Mixer Palette For multicolor selection, this palette gives you better control over color blending between the Mixer palette and the canvas, so your colors are more precise.
Underpainting Palette This palette includes color schemes based on various artistic styles, such as Impressionist, Classical, Modern, Watercolor, Sketchbook and Chalk Drawing, so you can create art like your favorite muses. You can also match your Underpainting Palette to that of any open image for consistency.
Match Palette Effect Match the color and intensity between 2 images. Just open an image that features your desired color scheme and use the Match Palette effect to bring that color to the image you want to change.
Increase Speed & Stability
Enhanced--Performance Painter 11 is optimized to provide artists with the fastest version of Painter ever. Depending on system hardware, brushes perform up to 30% faster, creating a more true-to-life painting speed.
New--Transformation Capabilities Switch between different Transform modes from one centralized tool, and choose whether to transform the complete contents of a layer, or selected content, for greater speed, flexibility and precision.
New--Resizable Color Palette Adjust colors manually with sliders on the Color Palette. Enlarge the Color Palette up to 800 pixels for a clearer view of your selected color. You can now also fine-tune the color wheel with your arrow keys so it takes less time to find the perfect color.
New--Color Management Interface The fresh and simplified interface makes it easier to control color profiles when creating new files, or when opening Painter and other file types.
Windows Vista Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system from Microsoft.
Mac OS Support Painter 11 supports the latest operating system 10.5 from Apple.
Multiple Platform Support Painter 11 includes both Mac OS and Windows versions on the same CD.

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