Product information

The Bestseller for the Amiga

ArtEffect is the first art program that gives the Amiga artists the power they need to do their ArtWork.

ArtEffect unites painting and image processing under a particularly productive user interface. We emphasise on productive functions which are quick and simple to use in your daily work. However not only beginners will like it but also the professionals who are looking for high quality and who want to get the job done quickly and efficiently.

ArtEffect is not "just another" graphics program for the Amiga. ArtEffect is not oriented towards the current "standard" programs on the Amiga, but rather to the classic programs for professional image processing such as Photoshop (TM) and for creative painting like Fractal Painter (TM).

Proven concepts and ideas of these classic products were merged with the uncontested advantages of the Amiga. You see the result before you. Naturally these are only advertising statements if they are not supported by facts. Here then is the demo version of ArtEffect, which giving you an opportunity to convince yourself of the advantages.

This picture shows ArtEffect's tidy User Interface with the Toolbar (left side), another view of the picture (left side) and one filter window. The lower area shows the brush manager, the context sensitive options requester and the colour manager.

Professional Image Processing with ArtEffect
Processing scanned images and graphics of all kind has been the Amiga's domain ever since the machine appeared. Nevertheless the products available for the Amiga have not been widely recognised by the graphics world during recent years. ArtEffect is the first program to provide productive image processing functions under a uniform and effective user interface in the typical Amiga style.

Selection Functions
Particularly important are the functions to select certain areas of an image for processing. Of course some filters are often applied to the entire image, but when dealing with image errors it is necessary to select a particular area. So one can retouch a scanned photo in a narrow area without influencing the quality of the rest of the picture.

ArtEffect offers a wide range of selection functions (they are also known as mask functions) such as: rectangle, circle, freehand and specialities like colour selection, running masks and "Magic Wand" (selection of connected areas with similar colour). With this all cases of selections of certain areas can be done quickly and easily.

More than 30 Effects
ArtEffect offers more than 30 different effects with countless options. All effects are used the same way and they all have the same user interface. Each effect has e.g. a Preview in which the effect is applied to an image section. The range can be zoomed in and out. A progress bar shows the progress of the operation. The options are very extensive so every effect can be adapted to your personal wishes.

List of all effects

Colour Filters

Antique
Dynamic Range
Colour Correction
Colour Space Process
Histogram Equalisation
Negative
Posterise
Solarise
Threshold

Blur Filters

Gaussian
Strong Gaussian
Blur
Strong Blur
Smooth

Sharpen Filters

Sharpen Fine
Sharpen Coarse

Stylise Filters

Displace Pixels
Edge Find
Laplace
Oil Paint
Relief
Wax Paint

Distortion Filtrs

Caricature
Twirl
Curl

Pixelate Filters

Median
Mosaic
Polar Mosaic
Segmentate Picture

Special Filters

BumpMap
Convolution
Mirror Picture
Shift Picture

Natural Painting with ArtEffect
While most of the paint programs will only be able to paint in full colour with full intensity and density, "natural painting" means to simulate natural drawing tools like paintbrush, crayon, airbrush, chalk, coal, oil colour.

Coal, chalk, paintbrush, crayon, oil colour
To do a good job on simulating all these drawing tools ArtEffect offers many controls for mode, opacity, intensity, density, roughness, form etc. All values are freely adjustable. With it the transparent colour of a water colour brush looks very realistic and also harsh chalk can be simulated excellently.

Painting on different materials
ArtEffect still goes one step further and even offers simulation of different materials. You can paint on canvas, wood, stone, marble etc.

Attributes of Painting Tools
The properties of the three basic tools stencil, brush, airbrush can be redefined completely. Form, intensity, density, roughness, transparency, opacity, pressure sensitivity (only on graphic trays) and Fade Out can be adjusted freely. With all these properties, natural drawing tools can be simulated very well and without any fringes.

The properties of the tools are stored in the brush manager. Image sections (brushes) which are needed more often may be stored here as well.

Strong Effects of ArtEffect: Perfect Retouch of Images
Scanned pictures often have scratches, specks of dust or similar distorsions. With Median filter one can remove these automatically, but the image will however loose its sharpness. It is better to retouch only the respective area. The tools "Smear" and "Smooth", but also "Lighten" and "Darken" are used often and with pleasure. These tools only work in the area coverd by their tip and so they can be used with great precision.

Other effects like "hue", "saturation" and "luminance" may also be used this way.

Endless Possibilities with Masks

Masks are one of the most productive functions of ArtEffect. Therefore we have provided several possibilities of defining them. Thus masks are also selections and masking is the same as selecting.

  • Rectangle Masking: The fastest masking function is the masking of rectangles.
  • "Magic Wand": This is certainly the most powerful function for masking. One click with the Magic Wand will select/mask all connected pixels of the same colour.
  • Colour Selection: With it all pixels of the same colour anywhere in the whole picture are selected.
  • Stencil Masking: The stencil option also has a mask mode, allowing you to work with very fine details.
A very special thing are running masks. These are masks that get increasingly permeable (oblique). It can be used for sophisticated effects.

The many Extras of ArtEffect

  • ArtEffect is a pure 24-bit art package. All operations and manipulations will always be carried out in the highest possible quality.
  • All functions of ArtEffect are very fast. Some time-critical filters are even optimised for higher processors.
  • ArtEffect can display multiple Views of the same picture.
  • A special light table allows pictures to be overlayed.
  • A special perspective tool supports the creation of perspective drawings.
  • The pantograph lets you copy one part of a picture to another place of the same one or to another picture. Many effects can be used by this operation.
  • Further important features are: Zoom, Pipette (for colour selection), lasso (for freeform selections), colour interpolator, undo function.
  • ArtEffect offers many loaders/savers (IFF, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, BMP) but also the Amiga datatypes and the new 24-Bit datatype.
  • ArtEffect offers an efficient 24-bit printer driver that uses the standard Workbench drivers. There is additional support for the printer enhancers TurboPrint and Studio.
  • ArtEffect supports the graphic tray Wacom ArtPad II (a special driver is needed!). With the graphic tray all drawing modes become pressure sensitive. This is very important for natural drawing.
  • ArtEffect can be extended externally by a flexible Plug-In interface. With it 3rd party companies can offer new functions. There is also a special GUI for these Plug-Ins, so programming them is very easy.

ArtEffect's GUI

Operation of ArtEffect is very intuitive. This was a primary design goal for this product. The GUI is a very important part, because if it is not good, you will not be able to use the full power of the program.

ArtEffect uses a unique GUI for all its parts. Different managers help you to control the different options. They can stay open so they show you the tool's current status.

Because of the well thought-out user interface most of the functions of ArtEffect can be used without having to look into the manual. The positions of all windows and managers are stored and show up next time you start the program.

ArtEffect is delivered on CD with a printed manual in a box and costs just 14,95 Euro. Order it at once from our OnlineShop.

Feature list:

  • Layers
  • Virtuel Memory
  • Multiple Undo/Redo
  • PlugIn Interface
  • HAM8 Mode
  • ARexx Interface
  • Selection Functions
  • More than 30 Effects
  • Natural Painting: Coal, chalk, paintbrush, crayon, oil colour
  • Painting on different materials
  • multiple alpha channels
  • effect layers
  • text layer
  • gradient manager
  • available in 10 languages: english, german, italian, francais, spanish, portuguese, swedish,norwegian, polish and czech
  • and much more ...

You need:

Software:

  • AmigaOS3.0 or higher

Hardware:

  • any Amiga model
  • ECS or AGA system or CyberGraphX software
  • a minimum of 2 MB RAM (with limitations), 4-8 MB RAM are recommended.
  • Hard disk

ArtEffect Plugins Collection

The ArtEffect Plugins Collection offers a comprehensive collection of sensational effects and post-processing filters for the bestseller, ArtEffect. The collection will be supplied with ArtEffect 2, so that you can start using it immediately.

Highlights of the effects are Glow and DarkGlow (which lets objects glow), solar, neon and alien (which alienate images), classics like PageCurl, (which curls a corner of an image), as well as OilPainting, which transforms every picture or scan into a perfect oil painting. Thanks to the many user-definable settings, the effects offer countless combinations.

For post-processing scanned images and pictures, there are fast, high-quality filters, such as SmartMedian, which removes distortions within pictures without making the image unsharp, as well as many blurs such as Average Blur, Gaussian Blur, Smart Blur and Softener. Of special interest is the highly optimised version of the "Unsharp Mask", a sharpening technique which leaves nothing left to be desired.

The PostScript PlugIn offers complete PostScript-output, which is very well suited for direct printing to a PostScript-Level-2 printer. In addition, EPS-files can be created, which are well suited for use in other programs such as PageStream.

A new novel feature is the frames-effects, which can give all images a picture frame. Dull images are now a thing of the past, because with these effects anyone can make a real piece of art from any picture.

System requirements: Requires ArtEffect 2, 3 or 4 (does not run with 1.5 or the SE-version)

Price: ArtEffect Plugins Collection: 14,95 Euro

List of effects

Special Effects

  • Shine
  • Glow
  • DarkGlow
  • Psycho
  • Neon
  • Solar
  • Highpass
  • Alien
  • Border Effects
  • Lightchange
  • Object Warp
  • Oilpainting
  • Pagecurl
  • Polar
  • Prisma
  • Shift
  • Wabble
  • Warp
  • Wave
  • Engrave

Post Processing

  • AutoLevel
  • Gaussian Blur
  • Average Blur
  • Unsharp Mask
  • Smart Blur
  • Smear Blur
  • Smart Median
  • Softener
  • Threshold+
  • Rankorder
  • Color to Gray

Helpers

  • Autocrop
  • Eraser
  • SuperView

PostScript

  • PostScript Print

Filter Filter
Original flower picture Original test picture
Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter
Alien Average Color to Grey Dark Glow Gaussian Blur Glow
Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter
Hightpass Lightchange Neon Oilpainting Pagecurl Polar
Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter
Prisma Psycho Rankorder Shift Shine Smart Blur
Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter Filter
SmartMedian Softener Solar Threshold Wabble Warp
ArtEffect v4:
UK Amiga Active #11:
"Easy to use, powerful and a good price."

Amiga Plus 11/2000:
"ArtEffect in its current version is still the mighty 24bit paint- and effect program as it has been before."

ArtEffect v3:
Amiga Magazin 4/99:
"Many improvements in details, better performance, web-support", "ArtEffect ... proves to be a powerful combination of paint program and imageprocessor.", "A lot has changed in the performance - contrary to its precessors, version 3 is a lot faster", rating: "Very good"

Screenshots

ArtEffect 4
ArtEffect 4
ArtEffect 4
ArtEffect 4
ArtEffect 4
ArtEffect 4
ArtEffect 4
ArtEffect 4
ArtEffect 4
ArtEffect 4

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