The program contains a set of text filters that simplifies and speeds the extraction of names, phone numbers, URLs, and e-mail, Web and IP addresses. Users can quickly strip HTML coding and remove carriage returns and blank spaces from text passages. Customized searches can be launched to grab text containing specific content, such as numbers or dollar signs.

CanOpener 1.0 for Windows is $39; CanOpener 5.0 for Mac OSX is $65.

Among the significant features of the program are: producing a bootable Mac OSX boot disk from the original; automounting volumes; scheduling sessions using the timer list; executing multiple synchronizations/back-ups in a single session; copying invisible files and folders; and much more. $20

The workflow has been reduced to three easy steps. First the user imports their images. Second they edit them, fixing images if necessary, and adding transitions, zooms, music, and text. Third they burn them to media.

Images in need of correction can be salvaged using the Optimization Feature which can remove "red eye," adjust color and exposure, set white balance, restore image, and more. The Automatic Warning System helps to ensure that blurred photos are not used. In addition to committing images to CD/DVD, the user can upload slideshows to the free MAGIX Online Photo Album, directly from the software. Online slideshows can be viewed in fullscreen with music. Viewers have the option of ordering photo imprinted items, such as t-shirts, calendars, and mugs, from the website, and users can order them directly from within the software.

Other unique features include: Automatic Effects produced using the Task Assistant; creation of panoramas using drag and drop; scratch, crack, and blotch removal; artistic effects (pencil sketch, caricatures, oil paintings, etc.); output to VHS tape; support for narration; virtual camera pans; title generator with 30 templates; support for double-layer DVD; and more. $39.99

ADS Tech Mini Drive Kit (MAC/WIN)
The ADS Tech Mini Drive Kit is a compact, stylish enclosure that enables a computer user to convert an IDE Ultra DMA 33/66 or ATA-100/133 hard drive into a portable external USB 2.0 drive (which is also USB 1.1 compatible). The drive is especially designed to be compatible with the Macintosh Mini having the same form factor and size (6.5 inches square and 2 inches high); small, low-profile, stackable and composed of sturdy aluminum. The case includes a micro-slot for security, which is compatible with Kensington and Anchor Pad locks.

Installation takes just minutes, and consists of removing four screws from the bottom of the case, setting the jumpers on the user-supplied drive to "slave," plugging in the controller ribbon cable, plugging in the power connector, securing the drive with four screws, then reassembling the two parts of the case. The drive is now ready to connect to a USB 2.0 port. The total operation took us about ten minutes.

Digital publishers will appreciate this storage option for several reasons. First, it is ultra compact, barely larger than the drive it encloses. Second, it is portable, easily moved between systems or packed for transport to a remote site. Third, it is a very affordable solution for taking advantage of the falling prices of internal hard drives, which have dropped to less than fifty cents per gigabyte. Fourth, it provides an easy-to-use backup solution, which every publisher must have. Fifth, it is trim and attractive.

The drive kit includes InTech Utilities for Mac and PC. The software supports ADS Tech's Simple Touch Backup Button, which is located on the back of the drive housing. The Backup procedure supports automatic or manual backups of individual files or entire folders. $59.99

The program can display any font, whether it is installed or not. Uninstalled fonts can be viewed by dragging a single font, or a folder of fonts onto Typeset.

Font searching is very fast, and targeted fonts can simply be dragged out of the Typeset window and onto the Finder desktop. The Font Identifier window enables users to paste in a sample of font characters and immediately identify the name of the font. $12.95

TopXNotes provides a floating palette (QuickNotes) that offers direct access to the user's top ten stored notes. The notes interface is easy to use and provides a window in which notes can be quickly generated as well as displayed. The NoteOrganizer is a master table of the contents of all notes that can be displayed by name or category. Notes can be displayed in multiple views, with independent scrolling. Notes can be defined as Templates, composed of predefined elements, with structured text, and composed with text and note color, font, etc. The supplied set of ten templates support Financial Accounts, Web Accounts, Serial Numbers, etc.

Of special interest to digital publishers is the fact that notes can be exported either as plain ASCII text or RTF, retaining formatting. In addition, FTP, Web, and e-mail links are recognized automatically, and can be clicked to access the target. Finally, notes can be protected through encryption, protecting sensitive information. $24.95

Contact: Tropical Software, 462 Sturdivant Ave., Atlantic Beach, FL 32233, 904 249-4292, http://www.tropic4.com, fax: 904 249-4420.

The program supports multi-tracks, enabling the user to layer stereo sound, in 24-bit/96 kHz sample quality, (in either stereo or mono). The user can set Cue Points with text labels, and accurately apply time units for video and film. Among the effects that are provided are: Dynamics (Compressor, Expander, and Noise Gate); Equalization (Graphic EQ, Low Pass Filter, and High Pass Filter); Delay (Chorus, Flanger, Echo, and Reverb); Volume (Amplify, Fade In/Out/Special, and Normalize); Repair (Interpolate, Silence, DC Offset, and Swap Channels); and many more. The interface is easy to use, and the results are professional. $79.95

Part of the beauty of the software is its simplicity. The user types in their script in the Text Area, which is the largest portion of the screen. The text serves as a natural timeline for the placement of digital assets, such as movies, still images, and music, which will appear, or be heard, as the text scrolls by. The text serves as a teleprompter when the production is executed, and as it is read, the assets associated with the text position will be activated, and appear as composed. The user can control the font and font size of the scrolling text for ease of reading.

The user assembles the component parts of the presentation in the Media List window, adding or removing assets by using the plus and minus buttons below it, or dragging and dropping them directly from the Finder.

The user selects a camera, having chosen it as a Configured Device from the Edit Menu. The program supports multiple cameras, so that one can be aimed at the presenter, and another at an object or other view. The camera appears as an object in the Media List, and when it is dragged to the Storyboard, which has up to three tracks to the right of the Text Area, the camera will display its image in the Preview Window. Multiple cameras are represented by multiple objects, which can be composed in the Storyboard.

The Storyboard tracks consist of three layers: Title, Foreground, and Normal. The layers stack from left to right, with the leftmost track at the top. Through the use of the layers the user can set the camera as the rightmost, an image to appear resized or reoriented picture-in-picture, in the middle layer; and a title to display across the bottom of the screen, positioned on the left track. As the teleprompter moves past the layers it displays them, and keeps them displayed until it encounters other assets to replace them. An asset can be cancelled by inserting a Blank media asset, which is a default asset type that appears in the Media List.

The user can Edit assets, scaling or rotating, setting their opacity, setting the volume level (if the asset is a movie or audio clip), and applying a matte (heart-shaped, star-shaped, cloud-shaped, etc.). Any image that has an alpha channel (transparency) can be used as a matte.

Transitions between assets are handled very simply. The user clicks on the asset, and selects a transition from the Transition dialog. Transitions usually work between adjacent assets, however a transition can fade out by adding a Blank asset after it.

When the default transition of Smooth is used, the user can control the Motion of how the media asset enters and leaves the presentation. This is set in the Motion dialog box and has options for the screen location where the asset enters and departs, and the manner in which it does so (fade in/out, scale in/out, spin in/out, and decelerate in/accelerate out).

The user can rehearse their presentation by pressing the play arrow beneath the Preview Window. The teleprompter highlights the text that the user reads and simultaneously the appropriate assets are displayed on screen, or if they are audio only, they are played. The speed of the teleprompter can be adjusted using the Speed control located under the Preview Window. The user can stop the rehearsal at any time by pressing the Stop button, or can stop the teleprompter by pressing the spacebar. By so doing the user can ad-lib or go "off script" while continuing with the presentation. When the presentation is ready, the user presses the Record button. When recording is complete the Publish dialog is presented, and the user determines how and where to save the movie. The program provides options for setting Encoder Presets for video and audio.

The text that has been composed in the Text Area, and which is read by the presenter, is embedded as a secondary track in the QuickTime movie, and can be toggled on or off. This is especially useful for viewers who are hearing impaired, or who have difficulty understanding the speech of the presenter.

The program has many sophisticated features that provide the presentation producer with considerable flexibility and options for creativity. Among them are Chroma Key (Green/Blue Screen), which allows the user to select a background color to remove and substitute an image, in the same way that a TV weather forecaster is able to appear in front of a weather map. $89.99

Perhaps the plug-in's most remarkable control is its handling of grain. Unlike most programs which add grain as overall harsh image noise, Exposure provides the user with precise controls to set the size, shape, and color of film grain, applying it independently to shadows, mid-tones, and highlights. The software engineers at Alien Skin Software took microphotographs of many grain types and wrote algorithms that reflect their behaviors.

Digital photographers will experience improved workflows, extending the warming/cooling, curve editing, sharpening and toning controls provided in the host program. They will gain increased control over their images by applying tools that reflect the ways in which film responds to light.

Film stock settings were determined by actually shooting test images both with a wide variety of films and with a Canon 20D digital camera. A variety of image types, such as test targets, and scenes with flesh tones and colorful natural objects, were captured. Differences between the images were analyzed, and settings were calculated to accurately simulate the film characteristics. Discontinued film types, such as GAF 500 and Ektachrome EES, were profiled by using archival photos and carefully determining appropriate Exposure settings. The application of the settings can be quite stunning, and are likely to impress serious photographers who will relish the opportunity to experiment with the settings and express their own creativity.

The color-to-black-and-white conversion in Exposure is based upon settings taken directly from film manufacturers' data sheets. Exposure uses a channel mixer to make the conversion from color to grayscale, using controls to simulate the application of a color filter. The channel mixer includes a check box to Equalize Channels so that the channel sliders always add up to 100%, maintaining the brightness of the original.

Professional photographers will delight in the Special Effects Settings which mimic cross processing (processing slide film as negative film or negative film as slide film), push processing (over-developing intentionally underexposed film to sacrifice detail for increased contrast and more noticeable grain), and lomo effects (based on the cheap Russian Lomo Kompakt Automat camera).

The user interface provides a helpful split screen preview that lets the user select a portion of the image and then have the preview divided with half the original image and half the filtered image. The split can be applied horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. $199

It takes a book of this size to adequately cover the broad range of capabilities found in Adobe's Creative Suite 2 (Adobe Bridge, Photoshop CS2, Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2, GoLive CS2, Acrobat Professional 7, and Version Cue CS2).

The book does not deal with each application individually, rather it provides an integrated approach, dealing with groups of capabilities that are common to two or more applications, such as the use of type, and the editing of objects. A workflow scheme, which is how production workers apply the software, is very much in evidence.

The book includes several chapters on the distribution of files, documents, and publications that have been produced using CS2. It is an excellent reference book, one that digital publishers will want to have within easy reach.

The Kleper Report on Digital Publishing is (c)opyright 2006, Graphic Dimensions, Rochester, NY, all rights reserved. You may distribute portions of this document, up to 200 words in length, unmodified, provided that you also include this copyright notice and subscription information.

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