                        GRAPHICS TOOLS - WINDOWS
                      Reviewed by Wayne A. MacLeod

    Graphics Tools from Delta Point is a powerful and easy to use suite
of five integrated utilities designed for the heavy graphics user.
Requirements as tested are:  386 or higher IBM PC or compatible, DOS
4.01 or higher, MS Windows 3.1 or higher, 4 MB of free disk space, Win
compatible pointing device, 2 MB of RAM (4 MB recommended) and at least
an EGA monitor, though a VGA is strongly recommended.
    Installation is straight forward and does not presume to make any
major modifications to any of your primary configuration files. It makes
only a small entry in your WIN.INI file and notifies you of this during
the install. The program offers a selective install allowing you to
install the basic operational files or a complete install that adds
sample images and import/export translation files. The full install
takes nearly 11 MB, but the program can be installed in as little as 4
MB.
    The five integrated utilities consist of the Media Manager, Image
Tools, Image Processor, Convert and Capture. By default, install creates
icons for media Manager and Capture, but each individual utility can be
assigned an icon if so desired. Each application has a Tool Bar that
allows easy access to the other applications.
    Media Manager is used to create and manage "collections" of various
media. These collections are represented in Media Manager by thumbnail
views of the graphic, object or linked application files. Pointers to
the original files are also maintained and double clicking on the thumb
nail will load the image, object or linked file into the appropriate
application. For example, double clicking an image file will load it
into the Image Processor module, while double clicking on a linked
ProComm Plus Aspec t will load ProComm Plus and run that script.
Creating, deleting and modifying collections is a simple process. The
number of files that can be cataloged is limited only to the amount of
memory you have available. Clicking on a thumb nail representation
allows you to view, index or print the graphics file directly from media
manager. Media Manager supports "drag-and-drop" and OLE.
    Image Processor allows you to manipulate the graphic images you have
in your collection. You can enhance, retouch, crop, color correct,
utilize custom color palettes and various special effects to get the
image you want. You can create new original imaged utilizing the tools
provided. The special effects include inversion, emboss, sharpen,
pixelize, sculpt, blur, posterize and more. There is an "optimize"
feature that calculates the best values for brightness, contrast and
gamma and auto adjusts for ossible picture. All the tools are there for
the experienced user to work their magic, but also for the newer user to
accomplish simple and not so simple graphic editing functions without
much difficulty. The Image Processor provides support for TWAIN
compatible scanners and allows scanning directly into the  processor.
The manual gives some excellent step by step instructions in usage of
the Image processor
    Image Tools is the image processors little brother. It is used to
perform viewing, tracing and basic editing of any vector or bitmap
image. A really neat feature of Image tools is AutoTrace. This tool is
used to trace all or part of a bitmap image and convert the image to a
vector drawing file. Outline, solid fill and zig zag vector files are
supported. You can also rasterize vector images to convert them to
bitmap. You can perform basic color control, image rotation and
cropping. Image tool is MDI comp nt allowing opening of multiple
documents  for image editing.
    The Convert module is a batch file conversion utility capable of
using scripting to convert different file formats  within the same
batch. You can convert between DOS, Windows, OS/2, SUN and MAC bitmap,
vector and fax graphics formats from hundreds of applications.
Conversion can be performed in the background. Includes 20 bitmap
formats, 15 vector, nine fax and PCD and JPEG formats. Convert does not
handle conversion of bitmap to vector formats, but the tracing feature
of Image Tools does allow this co rsion.
    The screen Capture utility is one of the most powerful and flexible
that I have seen. It allows numerous types of captures; Freehand, Area,
Window, Icon, List Box, Full Screen and coordinate Area. It allows
saving the capture to over 20 graphics formats. Supports 16, 256,
16-bit, 24-bit color and monochrome screens.
    DeltaPoint's' Graphics Tools is an excellent package. It may be more
than the casual user needs right now, but it also handles the basics
very well and the power is there if and when you need it. The program
comes with a bonus CD that includes over 700 pieces of clip art, image
libraries and DeltaPoint demos programs.

                            DeltaPoint Inc.
                             2 Harris Court
                               Suite B-1
                           Monterey, CA 93940
                             (408) 375-4700

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