A
A.A. Fussy
Here is my updated PhotoFiltre and Photo Workshop 3 comparision, based on
what I
tried out in each program:
Note: abbreviations are PWS- for Photo Workshop 3, PF- for PhotoFiltre :
General-PWS-is free for both commercial and non-commercial users, PF has a
registration screen,but is currently useless.PhotoFiltre can open images
in more file formats than Photo Workshop 2 and can export to.ico files .
No score awarded to this category, as this would not be a issue for most
users.
Interface:
PWS-Photo Workshop 3 has a MDI interface, with a Office 97 toolbar style,
and it uses two task panes-one is for tool options, the other is for
selecting colors-very useful, as you can save sets of custom colirs in .bbc
format and has a larger area for displaying the colors and allows you to
enter custom color values-eg. red-125,blue-130, green-130 . Its menu style
is similar to Office 97's menus. Via the tool settings pane-a simple option
to draw shapes is available. A handy 6 image selection clipboard is
available in the tool settings task pane.
Version 3-same interface,but uses XP controls, when used with the included
..manifest file when run on Windows XP.
PF-one shortcoming I found that the color palette is very small and built
into the toolbar, and has no area for storing custom colors or entering a
custon RGB value-you have to do that via a color dialog, I feel it should
have a separate toolbar for the color selection. It has a very nice Office
2003 style backgrounds on menus. And there's no way to draw shapes via its
toolbar.Also there is no clipboard monitor function, and it has a more
complicated interface-eg. to change a brush width, you have to access a
dialog called 'Stroke and fill', in Photo Workshop can be done without using
a dialog box, through its tool settings bar .
Score-out of ten:
Photo Workshop 2-9, because of a versatile color selection system, and a
easy to use interface, with a clipboard monitor function , and it's easy to
change tool settings
PhotoFiltre- 7, because it has a unusual tool box style, with integrated
color selector , which has very small color samples, plus some tools options
need to set via dialog boxes, eg. the paintbrush tool in the toolbox setting
area only offers different brush styles, width via a dialog box,and no
clipboard monitor.
Tools-Photo Workshop 3 has a easy to use set of tools, Photofiltre has
more, but are not as easy to set options for. Photo Workshop has 3-4 brush
stroke types-eg. a Japanese caligraphy style slanted brush , PhotoFiltre
has some advanced ones, and the caligraphy style slanted brush is in its
advanced paintbrush tool, not the standard one . Selections-Photo Workshop
actually allows you to move your selected image area around, Photofiltre
doesn't alloes this-the selected area does not move, it only selects the
area.
Also PhotoFiltre has a feature called PhotoMasque (
No score-though Photofiltre has more tools for modifying images, they both
do the same job, but Photo Workshop 3 has a better selection method.
Image operations-Resize:
PhotoFiltre and Photo Workshop have very similar resize options- both have a
retain aspect ratio option, and both are easy to use.
Again, no score as both programs have similar ways of resizing images.
Image operations-text:
PWS-you can add text via the top toolbar, and has a very simple options-font
size, font style and has preview area that shows what you have typed.
PF-to add text, it's Image-Text.... or via the toolbar, its dialog has many
more options for text-like antia-alias, drop shadows, alignment, angle, fill
patterns, but its preview has 'abyz' instead of your actual text.
Score:
PhotoFiltre:10- because it has more options for text and has great text
effects like text angles .
Photo Workshop 2:9.5-Although, its text tool is more limited, it is easier
for new users to add text to images.
Effects:
PWS-has a variety of image effects, which most are customisable, and allows
you to preview the effect . It has easy to use border/frame effects, and is
also customisable too. They are simple to set-via the Image menu. Also these
effects are quickly applied. It has frame effects-such as a 3D button frame
effect-one of 7 available , and also easy to customisable. The border effect
is very simple to add and looks neat.
Version 3 has Babya Effects FX (a separate program), with 30 additional
image effects
PhotoFiltre-At first sight, it has a impressive arrary of effects, but not
all can be customized- the effects are applied as soon as a effect is
selected. There are a small selection of customisable effects, however. Some
effects can be slow to apply or to preview, even on my Pentium 4 2.40GHz
system. Its frame effects are similar to Photo Workshop, but some of them
are not customisable, and there is no easy method for adding a border
effect to a image in PhotoFiltre .
Score:
Photo Workshop 2: 10-as it has easy to use image effects and most are easy
to customise, plus the image effects do not take a long time to be applied
to a image.
PhotoFiltre: 6-most effects are not customisable, some are slow to preview
and apply, and although its frame effects are good, some cannot be
customised, like the button frame effect- Photo Workshop's button style
effect's properties can be changed, but PhotoFiltre's are not.
Image management:
PWS- Photo Workshop 2 has a major adavantage compared to PhotoFiltre- it
has image management functions,via the free bPicture '04 image manager-
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail.php3?fid=1076838784 . You can even
access Photo Workshop 2 from it. bPicture ' 04 has a very good image sorter
and has a built-in slideshow feature, but also includes Presenter to create
image slideshows. You can access Photo Workshop 2 from bPicture.
PhotoFiltre-PhotoFiltre only has basic image managment, no slideshow output,
no image sorter.
Score:
Photo Workshop 3:10-because when used in conjuction with bPicture '04, you
will have a very good image management system.
PhotoFiltre:2-as it has very few image management options.
Other:
Plugins:
PWS-Babya Photo Workshop 3 does not support 'plugins' but does come with a
separate program 'Babya Effects FX' for more image effects .
PF- You can download some plugins for PhotoFiltre (such as:Arithmetic,
Capture and FractionnementHTML , in *.pfl file format)
Score:No score
Open/save-both can save in .bmp and .jpg formats, while PhotoFiltre has more
formats to save in. No score-both can save images easily.
Final Scores:
Photo Workshop 2-38.5 out of 40
PhotoFiltre- 25 out of 40
In conclusion-based on what I tested, both are quite capable, but I feel
PhotoFiltre is suited to more advanced users, and I can recommend my Photo
Workshop 3 for its image managment features when used with bPicture, and
slideshw output and easy to use tools and impressive image effects, when you
use the new Babya Effects FX application that comes with version 3.0.
what I
tried out in each program:
Note: abbreviations are PWS- for Photo Workshop 3, PF- for PhotoFiltre :
General-PWS-is free for both commercial and non-commercial users, PF has a
registration screen,but is currently useless.PhotoFiltre can open images
in more file formats than Photo Workshop 2 and can export to.ico files .
No score awarded to this category, as this would not be a issue for most
users.
Interface:
PWS-Photo Workshop 3 has a MDI interface, with a Office 97 toolbar style,
and it uses two task panes-one is for tool options, the other is for
selecting colors-very useful, as you can save sets of custom colirs in .bbc
format and has a larger area for displaying the colors and allows you to
enter custom color values-eg. red-125,blue-130, green-130 . Its menu style
is similar to Office 97's menus. Via the tool settings pane-a simple option
to draw shapes is available. A handy 6 image selection clipboard is
available in the tool settings task pane.
Version 3-same interface,but uses XP controls, when used with the included
..manifest file when run on Windows XP.
PF-one shortcoming I found that the color palette is very small and built
into the toolbar, and has no area for storing custom colors or entering a
custon RGB value-you have to do that via a color dialog, I feel it should
have a separate toolbar for the color selection. It has a very nice Office
2003 style backgrounds on menus. And there's no way to draw shapes via its
toolbar.Also there is no clipboard monitor function, and it has a more
complicated interface-eg. to change a brush width, you have to access a
dialog called 'Stroke and fill', in Photo Workshop can be done without using
a dialog box, through its tool settings bar .
Score-out of ten:
Photo Workshop 2-9, because of a versatile color selection system, and a
easy to use interface, with a clipboard monitor function , and it's easy to
change tool settings
PhotoFiltre- 7, because it has a unusual tool box style, with integrated
color selector , which has very small color samples, plus some tools options
need to set via dialog boxes, eg. the paintbrush tool in the toolbox setting
area only offers different brush styles, width via a dialog box,and no
clipboard monitor.
Tools-Photo Workshop 3 has a easy to use set of tools, Photofiltre has
more, but are not as easy to set options for. Photo Workshop has 3-4 brush
stroke types-eg. a Japanese caligraphy style slanted brush , PhotoFiltre
has some advanced ones, and the caligraphy style slanted brush is in its
advanced paintbrush tool, not the standard one . Selections-Photo Workshop
actually allows you to move your selected image area around, Photofiltre
doesn't alloes this-the selected area does not move, it only selects the
area.
Also PhotoFiltre has a feature called PhotoMasque (
No score-though Photofiltre has more tools for modifying images, they both
do the same job, but Photo Workshop 3 has a better selection method.
Image operations-Resize:
PhotoFiltre and Photo Workshop have very similar resize options- both have a
retain aspect ratio option, and both are easy to use.
Again, no score as both programs have similar ways of resizing images.
Image operations-text:
PWS-you can add text via the top toolbar, and has a very simple options-font
size, font style and has preview area that shows what you have typed.
PF-to add text, it's Image-Text.... or via the toolbar, its dialog has many
more options for text-like antia-alias, drop shadows, alignment, angle, fill
patterns, but its preview has 'abyz' instead of your actual text.
Score:
PhotoFiltre:10- because it has more options for text and has great text
effects like text angles .
Photo Workshop 2:9.5-Although, its text tool is more limited, it is easier
for new users to add text to images.
Effects:
PWS-has a variety of image effects, which most are customisable, and allows
you to preview the effect . It has easy to use border/frame effects, and is
also customisable too. They are simple to set-via the Image menu. Also these
effects are quickly applied. It has frame effects-such as a 3D button frame
effect-one of 7 available , and also easy to customisable. The border effect
is very simple to add and looks neat.
Version 3 has Babya Effects FX (a separate program), with 30 additional
image effects
PhotoFiltre-At first sight, it has a impressive arrary of effects, but not
all can be customized- the effects are applied as soon as a effect is
selected. There are a small selection of customisable effects, however. Some
effects can be slow to apply or to preview, even on my Pentium 4 2.40GHz
system. Its frame effects are similar to Photo Workshop, but some of them
are not customisable, and there is no easy method for adding a border
effect to a image in PhotoFiltre .
Score:
Photo Workshop 2: 10-as it has easy to use image effects and most are easy
to customise, plus the image effects do not take a long time to be applied
to a image.
PhotoFiltre: 6-most effects are not customisable, some are slow to preview
and apply, and although its frame effects are good, some cannot be
customised, like the button frame effect- Photo Workshop's button style
effect's properties can be changed, but PhotoFiltre's are not.
Image management:
PWS- Photo Workshop 2 has a major adavantage compared to PhotoFiltre- it
has image management functions,via the free bPicture '04 image manager-
http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail.php3?fid=1076838784 . You can even
access Photo Workshop 2 from it. bPicture ' 04 has a very good image sorter
and has a built-in slideshow feature, but also includes Presenter to create
image slideshows. You can access Photo Workshop 2 from bPicture.
PhotoFiltre-PhotoFiltre only has basic image managment, no slideshow output,
no image sorter.
Score:
Photo Workshop 3:10-because when used in conjuction with bPicture '04, you
will have a very good image management system.
PhotoFiltre:2-as it has very few image management options.
Other:
Plugins:
PWS-Babya Photo Workshop 3 does not support 'plugins' but does come with a
separate program 'Babya Effects FX' for more image effects .
PF- You can download some plugins for PhotoFiltre (such as:Arithmetic,
Capture and FractionnementHTML , in *.pfl file format)
Score:No score
Open/save-both can save in .bmp and .jpg formats, while PhotoFiltre has more
formats to save in. No score-both can save images easily.
Final Scores:
Photo Workshop 2-38.5 out of 40
PhotoFiltre- 25 out of 40
In conclusion-based on what I tested, both are quite capable, but I feel
PhotoFiltre is suited to more advanced users, and I can recommend my Photo
Workshop 3 for its image managment features when used with bPicture, and
slideshw output and easy to use tools and impressive image effects, when you
use the new Babya Effects FX application that comes with version 3.0.
