Saving Images for Use on the Web | Seashore | iPhoto | Photoshop

Posted • May 8, 2007 • Comments Off

Mac OS X has iPhoto and it works OK for basic editing of photos. I am not very happy with the way it handles saving the photos for use on the web.

I have been looking for an easy to use inexpensive graphic program for my clients to do basic photo editing and produce good looking images small enough to use on the web. I have played around with this program a little bit and it seems to work quite well. The results are quite acceptable. Seashore just might be the answer.

I heard about Seashore this morning in an email from Mug InfoManager. Seashore is an open source image editor for Mac OS X.

Seashore’s features include gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. It also supports multiple layers and alpha channel editing. It uses the same native file format as GIMP.

Seashore is for basic image editing needs of most computer users. It is not intended to provide a replacement for professional image editing products like Photoshop.

Seashore was created by Mark Pazolli with the help of a handful of other developers and helpful users, he still develops it to this day.

Seashore’s features include:

• Full support for the GIMP’s native XCF file format
• Read and write support for the TIFF, PNG, JPEG, JP2000 and GIF file formats
• Read-only support for the BMP, PICT, PDF and XBM file formats
• Layers with over 20 merging effects
• Ability to edit just the primary or alpha channels
• Thorough transparency effects including semi-transparent gradients
• Arbitrary selection regions
• Anti-aliased brush strokes
• 6 basic gradient effects with 16 variations
• Tablet support
• ColorSync support (including embedded profiles in TIFFs and CMYK previewing)
• Plug-in filters

Most features work on Mac OS 10.3 and later, with the exception of JP2000 support for which Mac OS 10.4 is required.

Seashore is an open source program so you can count on the development being continued. It is suggested you use Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.

late,
Gary

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