[Doug Nelson]

By Chris H on Monday, July 16, 2001 - 03:00 pm:

Anybody familiar with this suite of tools. Are they aimed at one particular area of manipulation or retouching?

Thanks.......

[Doug Nelson]

I assume you're talking about "Kai's Power Tools". These come in 3 non-redundant versions (ie: each is not a update, but entirely new tools).

The plugins themselves are wonderful. General opinion about their interface is split. Personally I hate it.

From a photo restoration-retouching angle, very few of the tools have any use.

There's one that can render photo-realistic skys based on your time of day and weather settings, which I've used a couple of times to replace faded backgrounds.

There's another that does unsharp masking but based on restrictions. Sounds great, but I've yet to figure out how to use it.

For other types of work, web graphics, etc., these tools are stellar.

I think information is available at corel.com

[chris h]

Doug,thanks for the information. A friend of mine has them and uses them for graphics. The interface is a total pain, it acts as a barrier between the user and the work in hand. I played with the 'Photosoap' program with similar opinions to the above.


Cheers

[thomasgeorge]

Chris h, For what it's worth( one must take into account the source!) I've tried loads of plug-ins and found only one or two which have any real value in restore/retouching, and those are not essential items. One good one was Extensis Mask Pro but the new extract routine in Photoshop 6 will do most of same stuff and there really isnt much reason, unless you are working with an earlier version of Photoshop to get that program. I like it but now it is kinda redundant. Actually most of the Plug_in tools seem more suited to graphic and web design than to restoration as most of the image editing programs out there pretty well equipped to handle that aspect. My personal opinion ogf the image enhancement plug ins is dont waste your money. I've tried several and none do as good a job as a good comprehensive Image editing program will. I am not bashing any software and perhaps I just dont know how to run the plug ins properly, but there's my feeble 1.5 cents worth. Tom