Pixel Fonts

Designers use pixel fonts when they need a good font that looks good when the text is really small. Usually this for text on photos or for navigation buttons.

There are two-pixel font families that are in just about every Macintosh font library - Mini7 and Tenacity. These aren't there by default, you'll have to download them.

Pixel fonts work best in bitmap programs such as Photoshop, Pixelmator. Turn off any anti-alias.

Mini 7

Mini 7 looks great at 7 points, making it one of the smallest font types available. Mini 7 is only available as an uppercase font style. You can't get any fancy character types too. Sorry names with accents but it won't work with Mini 7.

Despite the limitations, Mini7 is one of the most popular pixel base fonts on the Internet.

Mini 7 is available in Condensed, Condensed-Bold, Extended, Extended-Bold, Tight, Extras and Bold

Tenacity

Tenacity is a more developed font and looks good at 10 or 20 points.

Tenacity also comes with additional styles such as Caps, Condensed, Condensed-Bold, Extended, Extended-Bold, Extras and Bold.

Which is the Better Font?

A few years ago, I did a quick page (before blogs was a thing) on the best caption font. Here's a reprint of my findings.

Using Fonts in Photo Captions

The following are examples of several Macintosh font types being used as captions.

Recomended Fonts

• Alegreya Sans SC
• Geneva
• Tenacity
• Mini 7
• Helvetica
• VT100
• Verdana

I believe that Verdana 10 Point and Tenacity Condensed 10 Point are the best choices for using as caption fonts.

Download a larger high quality compairson: Full Caption Stack (675k)

Which font do you think is the best Pixel based font?

Panoramic Photo Challenge

Taking Panorama photos is a good way to get a landscape view of any environment.

iPhone Camera Panoramic

Apple includes a Pano mode in the camera app, but it takes some skill to hold the camera right. Also, the lighting doesn't mix well.

In my tests, the pictures that I take in Panoramic mode tends to have weird lighting and be very flat. That is, you can't raise the camera up if you want to include a full view of a tree or Building.

Software Stitching

Stitching a bunch of photos post-production is a good way to create a more effective panoramic photo. You can then crop the photo to your needs.

Using the stiching method, I was able to create this cool focus effect. Notice how the picture is focus in a couple areas. You can’t do this in Apple’s Pano.

I have been using Affinity Photo for my stitching, and it has been working well. I recently heard about DoubleTtake and thought it would be interesting to see which app gives you more control.

The Challenge

I took seven pictures of the Back Bay T Station in Boston, Massachusetts. I then ran it through DoubleTake, and Affinity Photo's Panoramic functionality. The only modification that was made was to crop out the excess picture.

Here is the result of the Challenge:

Click on image for a larger version.

DoubleTake

DoubleTake does a fairly good job of setting up the Panoramic shot. You do have to move pictures around to fix the alignment. There are lots of adjustment capabilities within the software. You can move handles to fix to make the photo transitions smooth.

DoubleTake focuses more on getting the largest possible view. In my test, the final crop image was 6718 x 2549.

Affinity Photo

Affinity Photo does a great job of putting the picture together. Basically, I accepted the Panoramic shot, and then crop to opaque. There was no adjustment needed.

Affinity Photo seems to focus more on getting the best picture. In my test, the image was 6187 x 2051.

Granted I have used Affinity Photo for a while, but it was so much easier to use.

Smart Converter

Shedworx's Smart Converter 2 tool is a great way to convert a media file from one format to another. It's a great quick media converter that just works well.

There are two Smart Converter versions, here's the key difference between the free version and the paid version:

In the Smart Converter Pro 2 version:

• Search Meta-Data files
• Automatically adds meta-data for searching
• Subtitle support
• Supports Multiple audio tracks
• Define a different output location (You can avoid iTunes!)
• Disable the ability to add media files to iTunes
• Surround Sound support
• Folder Monitoring (Have Smart Converter run everytime a file is placed in a folder.)

Product Description

Quick and Easy

I like Smart Converter because It can easily convert classic media files - such as Real Media files to MP4. It's a quick way to once again access old media files. (Without Smart Converter I would have to wait for Quicktime to convert old Sorxxx codec videos)

I also use Smart Converter to extract audio from MOV files. Useful when I just want the soundtrack and not have to watch the movie.

Haven't upgrade to the Pro version because I don't have the need for all the features of going pro. If you have a lot of files that need converting, then going pro is the way to go.

My Tips and Tricks

Some video screen capture files done in Snagit will not convert well. Apparently, there's a lot of masking between shots This means that you'll see some strange views in your final output.. (Not Smart Converter problem as Quicktime will have this same issue.) I have found ElMedia Player as a good converter in these cases.

Keep in mind that the final conversation is only as good as the source. Smart Converter can't make a video compress with Sorenson Codec look better in MP4.

Some mp4 files will not convert to audio-only. Haven't figured out why this is the case. ) I use Fission to extract the audio.

If you're not able to find your audio clip in iTunes it's because iTunes thinks it's a movie file.

Supports Converting 177 Media Types!

Here are all the file formats extensions supported by either version of Smart Converter:

avi, mp4, mkv, mts, m2ts, m4v, mp3, m4a, mov, flv, mpa, wmv, wma, wav, 3gp, 3g2, 3gp, 4xm, IFF, ISS, MTV, RoQ, aac, ac3, adts, aea, aiff, alaw, amr, anm, apc, ape, asf, asf_stream, ass, au, avi, avm2, avs, bethsoftvid, bfi, bink, c93, caf, cavsvideo, cdg, crc, daud, dirac, dnxhd, dsicin, dts, dv, dvd, dxa, ea, ea_cdata, eac3, f32be, f32le, f64be, f64le, ffm, film_cpk, filmstrip, flac, flic, flv, framecrc, gif, gsm, gxf, h261, h263, h264, idcin, image2, image2pipe, ingenient, ipmovie, ipod, iv8, lmlm4, m4v, mkv, matroska, mjpeg, mlp, mm, mmf, mov, mov, mp4, m4a, 3gp, 3g2, mj2, mp2, mp3, mp4, mpc, mpc8, mpeg, mpeg1video, mpeg2video, mpegts, mpegtsraw, mpegvideo, mpjpeg, msnwctcp, mulaw, mvi, mxf, mxf_d10, nc, nsv, null, nut, nuv, ogg, oma, psp, psxstr, pva, qcp, r3d, rawvideo, rcv, rl2, rm, rpl, rtp, rtsp, s16be, s16le, s24be, s24le, s32be, s32le, s8, sdp, shn, siff, smk, sol, sox, spdif, svcd, swf, thp, tiertexseq, tmv, truehd, tta, txd, u16be, u16le, u24be, u24le, u32be, u32le, u8, vc1, vc1test, vcd, vmd, voc, vqf, w64, wav, wc3movie, webm, wsaud, wsvqa, wv, xa, yop,

Getting Smart Converter

You can get the free version on the Apple Store or from ShedWorx Website.

ParticleShop

ParticleShop is a unique brush effect tool, it makes the brush come alive and adds all sorts of special effects. Basically, the brush comes alive as you apply it to the image. Based on the color/size and brush you get all sorts of unique special effects.

This is not your standard brush tool. It's a way to paint effect to your photos, such as fire, smoke and bubbles.

I originally purchased ParticleShop as part of the "Create Your 12 App MEGA Mac Bundle" from Bundle Hunt. I saw the description and thought it would be worth trying out. (It was priced at $49.99) I got the 12-App bundle for $19.99.

Description from the 'About ParticleShop' menu

Demo of ParticleShop

Not a great artist, but I added a couple of effects to an image.

Cool Tool

ParticleShop is a cool tool, it comes with 11 brushes in the Core Pack. However, once you start playing around with it you quickly feel that 11 brushes aren't enough and you could do so much more with more brushes. In order to get new ones you have to purchase them on Painter's online store.

The prices for extra packs range from $29 to $79 - you can get the entire collection for $95. I think it's pretty expensive for my budget, but I guess if you're into brush touch up then it would be a reasonable amount of the creative brush effects that you get.

At the End of the Day

I don't think I'll be using ParticleShop too much, it's a cool tool for people that spend a lot of time touching up photos and graphics files. Looks like having a pressure sensitive Wacom tablet would be practical to get the most out of the tool.

ParticleShop is a Photoshop Plug-in and does not work with Affinity Photo. Since I don't use Photoshop Elements 13 that much, I don't think that I'll be using ParticleShop.

Quadro Sync

Quadro Sync is a cool way to control your computer from your Smart Phone. You have the ability to assign specific functions so that when you open up the application your smartphone screen changes to display buttons of tasks to perform.

You can customize the button assignments and button designs. Giving you full control over how Quadro Sync works.

Quadro is an excellent application to help with common tasks that you encounter every day. If you been thinking about getting an external controller pad, consider trying Quadro first.

This is a two-bit application; there's the desktop app that is always listening! and interacting with iOS! and there's an iOS app that has to be running. After a few minutes of inactivity, the iOS app will go to sleep -saving your screen and device power.

If you're just going to charge your phone at your desk, why not put it to great use?

Description from Quadro Website

Here's a description from Quadro.me website:

BBEdit Screen Example

I spent a lot of time in BBEdit for PHP development and text cleanup. I spent some time thinking about what tools would make sense to make a Quadro action:

• Zap Gremlins - Clean up the selected text.
• Paragraph - Create HTML Paragraph from selection
• Backup to Evernote - Quick way to backup my document to Evernote.
• Process Lines Containing - Quick Filter
• Find - Open up the Find/Replace dialog box
• Remove Line Breaks - Clean up the selected text.
• Add Hyperlink - Open the Hyperlink dialog to add a link to the selected text.

Obviously all of these commands can be performed by keyboard shortcuts. Making them as action buttons in Quadro makes it quicker to apply these actions.

For example, I am opting to backup my documents to Evernote more often because the big green button is there to remind me.

Which Devices can You Install Quadro Sync?

If you have any old devices that are just sitting in storage, you may want to dust it off and make it your new Quadro pad.

The Quadro iOS App will work on any devices that can run iOS 8.0 or newer, according to Apple these are the devices that will run on iOS 8:

The iPhone 4S The iPhone 5 The iPhone 5C The iPhone 5S The iPod Touch fifth generation	The iPad 2 The iPad with Retina Display The iPad Air The iPad Mini The iPad Mini with Retina Display

Getting the Application

To get started, visit the Quadro website and download the application.

PhotoBulk

PhotoBulk is a neat little application where you can apply four different tasks to an unlimited set of images.

This past summer, I got the application as part of the The Next Web software package deal. In September, they came out with an update - my purchase wasn't eligible for the free upgrade. However, they will offer a 50% discount on previous purchases, which is very good.

The screen difference between the old view and the new view.

Watermark

There are four different watermarks that you can apply to each image:

• Text - Simple text, (i.e. Copyright Info) with the ability to select different font sizes and color. You can also change the opacity. You can change the angle or location of the text.
• Image - Place any image logo in simi
• Script - Repeat a text watermark on your image.
• Datestamp - Add a timestamp to your image. You have the same capabilities as the text

Resize

This is useful if you want to transform a bunch of images to a similar size. You can change By Width, By Height, Percentage, By Max file size, Free Size.

Optimize

You can reduce the size of images (JPG and PNG) files. The only bad part is that you can’t tell if the compression will cause a serious quality problem with the images.

In my test, it actually did a pretty good job optimizing. I used the mid-point, called ‘opt’ and checked the files and they looked fine, I couldn’t tell any visual difference.

Note: There is no preview functionality in the September update

Rename

Rename a the drop images. This is useful when you want to rename a bunch of common photos. Such as vacation photos.

Performing Action

When you start the action, the tasks will always create a new folder and put the new images in the folder. You don't have to worry about the original file.

Overall View

There are some useful functionality however, I think your better off using functiionality in GraphicConverter or PhotoScape X. These applications offer a lot more features. At the end of the day, you get more bang for your buck.

The watermark feature in PhotoBulk is nice, but not something that I would be using frequently.

PhotoScape X December Update

On December 20th, 2017, Photoscape X was updated with nine new features an unspecified number of bug fixes. The application is shaping up to be a very useful tool, and I certainly would recommend it as a compliment to Affinity Photo or Pixelmator.

Here's a breakdown of the new Features released in the December update:

Menus Options of the new features

Draw Brushes

There are now 11 new Draw Brushes. These brushes are useful to add additional effects to the images. There's a lot more capabilities in Affinity Photo and Pixelmator, including the ability to create your own brush.

I played around with this and can see this would be a good way to quickly enhance images, especially using the Blend Mode.

Scatter Brushes

Nice to see scatter brushes back! This is a favorite paint feature that I am glad to see back on the Mac! I first encountered scattered brush in SuperPaint. Scatter brush is a way to display some brush strokes randomly. Usually done with a special shape brush such as Heart, Confetti, Snowflakes, Dog Prints and more.

Photoscape X includes 11 brushes in this release. I am sure they will release some new ones in future updates. Very cool feature to use to add effects to images, such as snowflakes or adding Bokeh effects.

Paint Bucket Tool

The Paint Bucket tool will change a specific pixel to any color that you wish. I can see this would be useful if you have a solid color background and wanted to change it to some other color.

I played around with this feature for a bit and don't see it very useful for photos. I think it will be good to touch up graphics files.

Magic Color Filter

The Magic Color filter is a quick way to brighten up your images. Now you don't have to play around with various Clarity and Brighten settings. Simply click on the "Magic Color" checkbox and instantly see the image improve.

You can adjust the setting to better improve the image.

I tested this feature with several images and it works very well. The images are nice and bright! A quick way to touch up an image if you don't have time to do it! This is a great tool to have and I certainly see this being used all the time.

Touch-up Compairson

In the above example, I ran the same photo through each application and selected the Auto Color Adjustment once. I didn't make any special changes to the image. I think Photoscape did a great job with bringing out the blue in the snow.

Best Macintosh Blog Posting of 2017

This year I found some great Macintosh software - Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Keyboard Maestro. They all played into helping make 2017 a very productive year.

Many of this year's post were around those applications. Next year might see a shift to more developer and video applications.

Top Seven Macintosh Post of 2017

In no particular order..

• imageSnap - Creative way to take camera snapshots.
• EUASOO Mouse Mice Z-7900 on MacOS - Great practical mouse! It feels comfortable using it all day.
• Launchbar Clipboard History - I had no idea how useful this would be.
• Using Microsoft Shapes and Smart Art in Affinity Designer - Great knowing there's a lot of Infographic type shapes at my disposal. Kudos to Microsoft for making these smart art available.
• Save-As Dialog Boxes - Great tip on navigating everyday dialog boxes.
• PhotoScape X - Great graphic application that packed with a lot of tools. Highly recommend playing around with it to understand the capabilities.
• Keynote Slides for iMovie - Expand the text capabilities of iMovie with this Keynote tip.

You can find all the Macintosh post over on the Macintosh Blog Listing page.

Lots of exciting Macintosh post are planned for 2018. If you have any tips/tricks that you would like to share, please let me know.

GraphSketcher

Have you ever needed to make a simple line chart in Affinity Designer? Wish there was a simple way to create a vector base graph?

Thankfully there is an app for that and it's free!

GraphSketcher is a simple, elegant tool for quickly sketching graphs and plotting data -- but you don't even need data to get started. It's perfect for reports, presentations, and problem sets where you need to produce sharp-looking graphs on the fly.

It's really easy to create charts for whatever data point that you want. Anytime you want a quick line graph, GraphSketcher is perfect.

Integrates Smoothly with Affinity Designer

What's nice about GraphSketcher is that you can copy the Graph in GraphSketcher and then paste it in Affinity Designer. All the objects are put in their own layers and in their respective types. So you can still change the text and points on the chart!

This is really cool when you want to put together a quick chart and use the power of Affinity Designer to touch it up.

GraphSketcher History

The application was created by Robin Stewart in 2007 and refined by the folks at Omni Group. In 2014, the application was retired from the product line and the code was put into open-source.

There's only been one update since the code was put into open-source. That was to fix a bug with comma separated values.

Getting GraphSketcher

Download the Binary file from GitHub and place the file into the Application folder. Double click to open and start creating charts.

Check out all the Inspector settings and see the capabilities of the application.

Once your done, click on the 'Copy as Image' and then paste it into your Affinity Designer document. Now you can do additional modifications to make the chart look better. (Try putting the chart on a chalkboard for a unique look!)

Pro-Tip

After you paste in the chart, I would recommend grouping the objects together (Command-G). That will make it easier to manage all the objects. So after you, Command-C, do a Command-G.

Dealing with the Grayed out song Listing in iTunes

Do you manually move music to your iPhone or iPod? Have you ever encountered an issue where a song didn't get copied and you end up with something like this:

This has happened to me a lot and after playing around with the iTunes and the phone, I figured out why it's been happening.

Here's the possibilities:

iCloud song already there

Apple doesn't want you to copy a song that you already have available in the iCloud. So the grayed out song means that the song already exists in the Cloud or you downloaded to the phone. You don't see it on iTunes because iTunes is only showing downloaded music.

You Copied a Set of Song/Playlist and a Song Existed

When you copy a playlist and a song exists in the cloud it will stop all the other songs that were to be copied over. You may see the grayed out song in the Playlist and not in the regular Song grid.

Quick Solution

I usually encounter this when I copy a playlist to my iPhone and not all the songs got copied over.

The solution that I found to work: delete the grayed out song and try copying the other songs. For example, I would select the next four songs that didn't work or at least one at a time.

If the grayed out song is something that I downloaded from someplace else, I found that renaming it also worked.

Macintosh Cyber Deals Watch

Last year I had my list of software that I was going to watch for, so I thought I repeat the "Watch List" for this busy shopping season.

My budget is pretty tight this year. Chances are that I won't be making any big purchases on "Black Friday" or on "Cyber Monday." Here are the software and services that I'll be checking out this year:

Software Watching

• Belight Software - Art Text and Swift Publisher are pretty cool. Currently Belight Software has 30-70% off sale in the Mac App Store. The sale doesn't cover Art Text or Swift Publisher. I have seen Art Text in some recently announced bundle packages, but they are more than what Art Board sells.
• PhotoStyler - Great for presenting photos online, Social Media and Blogs. (Single User license is $29.99)
• Art Board - Didn't upgrade to 2.0, wonder if they will have a special deals. (Single License is $39.99)
• Movavi - I think 2018 will be the year of multimedia. I am always looking for a different solution to compliment iMovie.

Services Watching

• Creative Market - Love all the package deals. Certainly expect to see a good teaser for this year.
• DropBox - Great service. Currently at 60% at 6.2 GB
• StoryBlocks - Usually have a $99 year membership sale, this time of year they discount to nearly $45.
• Font Awesome 5 - Wonder if they will have one last sale before they go live.
• UDemy - there are a few courses that I want to watch but they are outrageously expense. I'll be checking frequently to see if they are discounted. They currently have a 55,000+ online courses at $10 for a limited time!
• Go Daddy - perhaps they will have discount domain name or hosting plans.

Hardware

Not watching any hardware deals this year. At the moment, I have enough disk space and don't really need a new Flash storage devices or cables.

It will be interesting to see what Apple deals are announced. I suspect that they include iTunes gift card with some purchases of MacBooks and iPads.

Page Curl in Graphic Converter

I wasn't able to find any information about Graphic Converter Page Curl Effect, so I thought I write a blog post on how to use the functionality.

Core Image Filters

The 'Core Image Filters' actually filter that is provided in Apple Swift 3. They are available for any Developer to use. The Core Image Filter Reference has information for developers. This is not really useful for consumers since the functionality can change per app.

Apple description:

Graphic Converter Implementation

You can find the Core Image as the first pullout menu item under the Filter menu. Graphic Converter includes all the effects in the Apple's Core Image library- which is very cool.

You can apply the effect to the whole image, or use the Selection Tool to pick an area on the image that you want to transform.

Simply start with one effect and the Core Image dialog box opens. Now you can easily move to a different one. It's kind of neat to see how each effect transforms your image.

Check out all the Tile effects that can be made out of your image. This is a creative way to come up with some background ideas. The Distortion Effects are pretty cool too.

Nothing gets applied until you click on the 'Apply' button.

Using the Page Curl Effect

In the Transition section is the Page Curl effect, which is a pretty cool tool. It does take a bit of understanding.

To make the Target Image and Backside Image to work you need to "Drag and Drop" an image to the icon below the text. (It took me a long time to figure out how this worked!)

Simply find an image and then drag it to the preview box under the text.

Other Tips:

• Target Image is the image that you see on the other side of the Curl. (Think of Page 3 in a book)
• The Backside image is the backside of the main image. Usually, it would be the same existing image, but you can change it up to create a cool effect. (This would be page 2 in a book)
• To be effective, both the Target Image and Backside image should be the same dimension as the front image. If it's too small then you will see a checkerboard to indicate areas where it will be transparent.
• There is no way to alter or align the images. That is you can't adjust the position of the Target or Backside image. Your best bet is to do that in another GraphicConverter window. Save then 'Drag Drop' to refresh the results.
• Time is how much of a page curl that you want to apply
• Angle is which corner that you want to apply. First set the time, then move the angle to where you want to corner to appear. For the top right, it should be '-2.57' for the top left the value should be around '-0.69'
• I haven't played with the ShadowSize and Shadow Amount values much just kept the default values.

AirPort Express 802.11g

I currently have an Apple Airport Express (MB321LL/A) sitting in my desk drawer in my office. I was thinking that there must be something that I can use the device for. So I decided to investigate the capabilities of the original Airport Express.

Features of the AirPort Express 802.11g (1st Generation)

• 10/100 Ethernet WAN or LAN port
• Analog/digital audio output jack
• USB Printer Port

Ethernet WAN

By default the AirPort Express Ethernet port acts as a WAN port. This simply means that you plug in a cable from a DSL Router and then you can broadcast a wireless signal. This would be good if you wanted a special wireless for visitors.

You can set the AirPort Express Ethernet port acts as a LAN port. You need to set up the “Extend a Wireless Network.” Then simply connect any Ethernet device to the Airport Express. This would be useful if you have an old computer/Game Console that doesn’t have WiFi access. Simply connect a regular Ethernet Cable to the computer and the Airport Express.

Wireless Music Device

If your wireless can reach outside your house, you can play music using the Airport Express and some cheap outdoor speakers.

Plug in the Airport Express in the opposite wall of the office and make your computer sounds be in stereo mode.

The Operating Temperature is 32 F to 95 F (So there's no chance of putting this outside to play Christmas Music.)

USB Port Ideas

Most modern printers have built-in wireless capabilities. I am guessing it would be useful for an old printer. There's nothing really

Resources

If you have AirPort Express 802.11g (1st Generation) download Apple's Setup Guide to get you up and running.

PhotoScape X

PhotoScape X is a great photo utility to process images. Its really handy to have when you want to make a quick image change.

It also packs a lot of neat graphics enhancements that I haven't seen any place else. Things like 3D Objects, Kaleidoscope, Tiny Planet and Scissors.

I have Affinity Photo and Pixelmator and both are excellent programs. I find that PhotoScape X comes in handy when I need a quick fix, for example if I just want crop or add an effect to an image.

Eight Major Categories

Viewer	View images in any directory
Editor	Make changes to your image. This is where I spend 90% of my time in the application.
Batch	Make batch mode changes, useful if you want to add a signature to your images.
Collage	Easy way to make any type of collage with text overlay and enhance images. You have more flexibility than Turbo Collage.(There's 350+ Collage Templates)
Combine	Combine screenshots to show Production/Development side-by-side comparison.
Create GIF	create a GIF from several images.
Print	create thumbnail galleries.
Tools	Screenshot, Color Picker and Rename. Nice to have but I rarely use any of these.
Store	Buy additional add ons. The Pro version is a good investment. Once you get the Pro package you can skip the entire store. I occasionally check to see if there's anything new.

Editor Tools

There are lots of cool tools to the Editor. I recommend loading up an image and spend a few minutes clicking around all the different Effects and Transformations. Along with the standard Resize, Crop, Miniature, Bloom, HDR, and Dehaze there are:

• 32 Adjustment Options
• 26 Effects Option
• 11 Transformations Options

Check out all the different Frames effects too. You don't have as much flexibility as Frame apps like LightFrame and ImageFrame, but it's certainly good enough for a quick touch up. I like the Film and Notebook frames, they add a neat touch up. There are 170+ Frame designs to select from in PhotoScape X.

Lots of tools to inspire your creativity.

Quick Combine Image Trick

I like to combine multiple screenshots into one image. This is super simple to do in PhotoScape X - simply select the images and then the margin and spacing all done in about 5-4 mouse clicks.

Here's a neat trick after you combine the image in PhotoScape X:

Video Tutorials

Check out the 28 videos on PhotoScape X website. You don't need to purchase the software to watch them. It's a great way to learn how to use the tool. In particular pay attention to how quickly things can get done.

Cool Tool for Your Dock

Affinity Photo is still a very powerful image tool, and I use it when I need more control. For basic edits, PhotoScape X seems to be my new go-to tool. I believe that in the long run the $29.99 for the Pro Version is worth the cost.

Currently 105 people have given it 5 Star rating in the App Store.

You can learn a lot about the applications by just spending some time and seeing all the capabilities, perhaps the app will inspire you to do something different with your images.

Photo Size Optimizer

Effect Matrix's Photo Size Optimizer for Mac is a powerful image compression application.

I found about the application because it was one of the applications that I picked in this summer's BundleHunt.

Description from Effect Matrix's site:

Sample Application Screenshot

Nine Things I Learned About Photo Size Optimizer

• There's no documentation or help files with the application, you basically have to play around with the application to understand how to use it. Fortunately, most of it is straight forward.
• You have no control over the compression. Basically you accept the savings that the application suggest.
• There's two functionalities, Resize & Squeezer and Lossless Photo Squeezer.
• Resize & Squeezer - will resize a bunch of images and resize them to a 10 different options. You can also add a custom option. Note: The resize option is for all the images that you dragged and drop, you can't set different demensions per image.
• Lossless Photo Squeezer - Use this when you only want to shrink the file size and not the dimensions.
• I found that Affinity Photo, GraphicConverter OmniGraffle offered better compression.
• OmniGraffle and Graphic Converter offer previews to see how stronger compression may not impact the image. I was able to get better compression using other applications.
• Some people may have problems installing the application because the application isn't registered. When I tried to open it I got a warning: "Photo Size Optimizer.app" can't be opened because it is from an unidentified developer.
• You can't compress animated GIF files with Photo Size Optimizer.

Overall Feeling

It's really hard to justify paying $29.99 for this application. You'll get better compress and more features in other applications. The application is useful when I want to quickly shrink a file and not have to play around with different settings - basically: "Set it and forget it."

In the long run, your better off buying and using GraphicConverter for $10 more.

Try Yourself

Effect Matrix offers a 10 days Free Trial with Full Features if you download it from their website.

The full version is $29.99.