Digital Prints

Image Editing
Once you have the raw materials of an image in your digital workspace, you’re ready for image
processing or editing. Image editing can be as simple as taking a single image and making sure
it looks the way you want it to look, that it’s the right size, and that it has the correct file format.
But for many, that’s just the beginning. This is where many photographer-artists spend
most of their time in creating their complex imagery. Compositing, layering, montage/collage—this
is where it all happens. This is the stage on which much digital art is played out.
Image editing is a full-length subject on its own, so I’ll only concentrate on three aspects
of it: software, plug-ins, and filters, and that part of the image-editing workflow dealing
with sizing and scaling.
Image-Editing Software
Most photographers and artists use some form of image-editing software. This is not an
absolute requirement—you could print an image from a word-processing program if you
wanted, but to get the most out of your images and your printing, you’ll want to have and
use an image editor.
Which is the best image editor? There is no easy answer to that question. Besides the obvious
requirement that you be able to drive a printer from the software—or be able to place
the image into another type of program (page-layout, for example) to drive a printer, the
other requirements of an image-editing program depend on what you want to do to
process or improve your images. Minimum features to look for: layer editing, support for
Table 3.2 Image-Editing & Painting Software
Program Maker Platform Used for
Chapter 3 ■ Creating and Processing the Image 101
CorelDRAW/PhotoPaint Corel PC + Mac DRAW: page layout, illustration
Suite12 : PC only
PhotoPaint: image editing, painting
Freehand Macromedia PC + Mac vector illustrations, print and web design
GIMP (open source) PC + Mac photo retouching, image composition,
image authoring
Illustrator Adobe Systems PC + Mac vector illustrations, print and web design
NaturePainter Digital Canvas Urban Pursuit PC only painting
Photoshop Adobe Systems PC + Mac image editing, painting, web graphics
Photoshop Elements Adobe Systems PC + Mac image editing, photo retouching, web graphics
Painter Corel PC + Mac painting, photo and image editing
Paint Shop Pro Jasc Software PC only painting, photo and image editing, web graphics
Qimage Digital Domain PC only image-viewing/printing software
Studio Artist Synthetik Software Mac only painting, photo and image editing