Apple has been saving most of its surprises for the consumer end of its business, but just before the holidays the company rolled out Aperture as a gift for its dedicated professional customer base. The new photo-management and image-processing tool is a gorgeous complement to Apple's Cinema displays—which are making their way to being affordable—and the new Quad G5 computers, the last of the Power PC Apples.

Figure 1. The Loupe in action with Apple's Aperture Layout feature. (Source: Apple)

Aperture represents an archetypal Apple approach to design. The new software for photo post-processing does not do much that a myriad of similar products do, but it does have the expected Apple panache and flare. It also hones in on the specific needs of professional photographers and attempts to satisfy them.

It seems obvious that any photographer who sees Aperture will want Aperture, and in fact, there may even be a few Windows-based photographers who go out and buy an Apple system because of this program. At $499, it's not inexpensive, but it is a tool that is tailored to the way professionals work as they capture, organize, edit, and print pictures.

Recognizing the trend for professional photographers to move to RAW data, Aperture supports all RAW camera formats including Adobe DNG, Canon, and Nikon as well as other commonly used formats such as JPEG and TIFF. RAW assures photographers of getting their images exactly as captured by the sensors with no compression or processing. What's nice about being able to work directly with RAW images means that photographers don't have to apply post-processing to the images in order to open them.

The key features of Aperture are Organization, Layout, and Print.

Photographers who take pictures in bursts easily wind up with hundreds even thousands of pictures. Photographers can then organize their stacks putting their favorite picture on top, or perhaps grouping themes, etc. The program lets users easily compare photos and add metadata. Keywords are provided and users can add their own.

At the heart of the Aperture system is the concept of non-destructive manipulation of photos. The program includes general editing features—users can crop photos, and even spawn different versions of an image to try out the look of different filters, for instance. But no matter what is done to images the untouched original, the "master," is always preserved. The file size does not blow up with spawned pictures, for example, because Aperture saves information about the changes, not the whole pictures, and at any time users can revert to the original master photo or step back to any point in the editing process.

Again, Apple is not necessarily unique in this; Google's Picasa uses a similar approach but it is possible to lose your original and Apple's program always keeps you aware that you are using a version.

As the name promises, the light table view lets users work with photos the way they used to work with light tables. Photos can be grouped and organized any way the photographer likes and groups can be printed. Apple demonstrates the light table feature with their dramatic 30-inch monitors. Users can take advantage of two monitors to scatter many photos across the full screen real estate.

And throughout all this, there is the Loupe (see Figure 1). The Loupe is the hands-down feature that will make users gasp at its usefulness. It is a magnifying window that provides a 100% view of the pixels within the window. It can be used at any time in Aperture so users can check focus using thumbnails, digital contact sheets, photos grouped in layout, or in large views.

The key to Aperture is its almost invisible interface. All features are available all the time. So, for instance, the editing basics like color balance, white balance, contrast, crop, sharpen, straighten, histogram views, and adjustments can be called up at any time and while working within any view. Edits can be applied across groups of photos, enabling photographers to quickly correct the white balance in shots taken under the same circumstances. Apple was not constrained by the need to support a legacy of longtime professional users, and as a result could create a totally new program from the ground up. As a result, it presents users with an uncluttered and customizable workspace. Editing and organizing modules are called HUDs (heads-up displays) and they appear when bidden.

With iPhoto Apple introduced the ability to order prints and to order books. With Aperture Apple has taken the same idea and has adapted it for professionals. Prints can be organized into proof books for presentation, and Apple offers appropriate templates for these tasks and higher resolutions than for the comparable iPhoto books. Photos and photo arrangements can also be output to HTML or to a .Mac account.

In keeping with Apple's integrated approach to the operating system and applications, Apple's ColorSync technology is available throughout Aperture. The program provides access to printers' ICC profiles in the print dialog. And, if the monitor has been calibrated the display will be color accurate. Just as you can print at any point using Aperture, ColorSync is always working in the program so that pictures are displayed according to the ICC profile in use.

Several technologies from Apple come into play for Aperture. The software takes advantage of Apple's Core Image introduced with OS X, which provides developers with "image units." small programs including image-processing capabilities. Core Image in turn takes advantage of OpenGL to allow hardware acceleration and the speedup is obvious.

Figure 2. Using photos from a fashion shoot by Richard Burbridge, Apple demonstrates the Compare feature, which lets users select a group of pictures to compare. (Source: Apple)

So, what does Aperture offer that the market leader Photoshop doesn't offer? Technically nothing really, and Apple is careful to position Aperture as a complementary product.

Photos can be saved to Adobe's .PSD and the program will automatically open Photoshop to let users do further work on photos. For instance, Photoshop would be used for compositing and layering. The art director will continue to rely on Photoshop but photographers may find Aperture to be all they need.

Adobe fights back with Lightroom

It hasn't taken Adobe long to answer Apple's challenge with Aperture. At Macworld Adobe showed off Lightroom, its own photo-layout program. The company is allowing new software to be downloaded and tested and, in fact, the company says the software isn't even "feature-hardened." The willingness to let users play with new software before it is ready for sale is an approach pioneered by Macromedia with their "Lab" program. In this users get to specify what features they would like to have by participating in very animated discussion groups.

Adobe insists that it has been working on this project, code-named Shadowland, for some time. AppleInsider helped break the secret on January 6. Photoshop News (www.photoshopnews.com) has followed up with more detail.

Figure 3. Adobe Lightroom user interface. (Source: Adobe)

There's no reason to review software that's still in Beta but it does promise changes in Adobe's entire line. For one thing Aperture opens up immediately—would that all professional software someday present itself so speedily. Adobe has taken advantage of Macromedia Flash to make it easy for users to create personal web pages. Like Aperture the software lets users create and work with contact sheets. Photos can be stored in different formats in different locations, and we're assuming Adobe's Bridge technology, which is used in several of its product suites, will allow users to access their images within the interface regardless of where they are stored.

Adobe took a fairly tortured approach to RAW its first time out, producing a RAW module that required extra processing and was not widely compatible. To add insult to injury, the module was an add-on to Photoshop as if you hadn't paid enough already for Photoshop. That situation has improved and will no doubt continue to improve with coming releases of Adobe products. Lightroom enables users to work interactively with RAW files in much the same way that Aperture does.

There is a significant philosophical break from Apple. While Aperture presents an all-in-one environment to the user, allowing all aspects of the program to be accessible from anywhere in the program, Adobe's Lightroom goes for a modular design, splitting the interface into Library Develop, Slideshow, and Print. We are still finding our way around these different modules.

Lightroom is getting a lot of attention in its early days out. In its first days the product was downloaded 16,000 times—the number is much higher than that now and growing. Adobe says the product will be developed throughout 2006 and it will be delivered "when it is ready."

Both Lightroom and Aperture recognize something about photographers that seems to have taken a long time in coming and that is that photographers don't want to spend a lot of time working with photos—in a sense that is not their job—their job is to deliver the right photos as quickly as possible. While digital photography has been an enormous boon in terms of enabling people to take lots of photos really fast, it has complicated the lives of photographers who have so many more photos to sort though and perhaps make basic fixes.

As we mentioned, neither Aperture nor Lightroom does anything that has not been done in software offered by Google in Picasa (except that RAW is new to Picasa) or software supplied with professional cameras like Digital Darkroom for working with RAW images. The question is, will professionals pay several hundred dollars for the slick interfaces, and color control, and the organizational abilities of products like Aperture and Lightroom? Our bet is that they will. What's a few hundred dollars if it helps you get your work done on time? And with such style?

The latest word in CorelDraw

It's been 20 years since Corel introduced CorelDraw and kicked off a revolution—several of them. One of the products for the Windows GUI, CorelDraw brought creativity to the Windows platform and helped it challenge the Macintosh. CorelDraw quickly evolved, packing a suite of capabilities into the box that made it indispensable in many offices. For example, CorelDraw's Trace feature has enabled users to create vector files from photos or scans and use them for sign-making, manufacturing, patterns, etc. Corel hopes to keep those users happy and it has enhanced the product for workers who may occasionally need tools for photo editing, drawing, file conversion, diagramming, etc.

The company has been adding tips, tools, and instructions to its side menus where users can easily toggle to the information they need. It's a perfect strategy for customers who find themselves having to perform a task every now and then but not often enough to do it by rote.

Corel says that Draw is still a relevant product for design professionals but the company is recognizing that Adobe owns the market for commercial artists. So, while not forsaking design professionals, Corel has continued to enhance Draw for people who need drawing and layout products occasionally. It plays in the same market as Microsoft's undersupported Visio, and once again Corel is packing much more in the box. The primary functions applications in CorelDraw X3 are drawing, photo editing, and layout. The main features are combined in three modules: Draw, PhotoPaint, and Trace.

Figure 4. Corel has done a good job of integrating hints into its interface—they're not obtrusive and they are really helpful. Also note that Corel has added a Star tool—a much-requested item on users' wishlists. (Source: Corel)

JPR is a good test case for Corel. We are a small publisher working primarily on Windows and we have long relied on CorelDraw to create simple drawings. We have even used the Trace feature to create signs and banners from our logo.

This latest version is so much more useful in the small office. For example, Corel has added its knockout technology to make it easier to pull an object out of a photo—something Jon just loves to do for his illustrations. Now at least we are not all watching our highly paid consultant play with images—he can do what he wants quickly. The photo software is also very fast and full-featured. And we have found the drawing tools to be stable and useful. Creating block diagrams or org charts is simple.

Corel has beefed up its text-handling capabilities, adding more character and formatting tools and putting them on docked toolbars. One of the more useful new features includes the ability to fit type to a curve. Also, Corel has added more of the basic type managemement capabilities users expect in word processing and page layout. In addition, Corel has improved features such as font-matching, which lets users replace fonts when bringing in content with fonts not installed on their computer. And it lets users save new files with the replacement font or the original. More important, Corel has enhanced its type capabilities to improve type fitting and flow, hyphenation, etc.

Corel has incorporated the capabilities of Knockout into CorelDraw. This feature lets users roughly outline complicated objects and Knockout finds the edges to create a clean cut out. In addition to being able to cut out an image element, the Knockout feature also lets users create a mask using the cutout element.

Figure 5. Cutout Lab lets users draw around an object to be cut out. Once defined, users can save the cutout as an object or create a clip mask using the cutout area. (Source: Corel)

Corel has always been strong in its ability to read and convert a variety of file formats. The company is up to 100 file formats and has added the ability to publish to PDF with protection on or off and to include transparency and spot color.

Corel's Tracing tool is one of those features that some users have found completely indispensible. Corel has taken a new look at the tool and it has enhanced the tool to make it more practical for printing and sign-making. The Trace tool lets users bring in a simple bit-map design or even a photo and trace it to create a vector-based drawing. Corel includes color tools to change to Pantone or CMYK for certain printing jobs and to reduce colors to delete color variations and simplify printing.

Speaking of printing, Corel has also improved its color management capabilities, enabling users to choose RGB or CMYK and letting users choose device profiles in order to get more accurate matches between on-screen display and printed output of CMYK colors. The company has also improved its Pantone palette and has added transparent white.

Summary

Corel addresses a different segement of the market compared to its closest rival Adobe and Photoshop. The added features in CorelDraw put it in the office where people find themselves having to perform a variety of tasks from day to day—one day they may be preparing PowePoint slides for someone in the office, the next they might be preparing art for banners. Increasingly, people don't have art departments—they have only their own ingenuity to rely on, and CorelDraw's many features make it indispensable, especially in offices where the "do-it-yourselfers" cannot be convinced to hand off tasks to professionals. (We believe this situation is growing.) At least CorelDraw's tools make those tasks easier so people do not waste time performing tasks not in their job description.

Corel's ambitions still smoulder. The company recently announced plans to go public again—with a focus this time on office productivity through its WordPerfect division. As office workers, even managers and executives, take on more administrative tasks, and hobbyists become more adept, a product like CorelDraw that is easy to use and is also very functional for a variety of tasks becomes an attractive alternative to more expensive products like Adobe's Suite or Quark.