Mac

Windows

Shareware – latest version

Advanced JPEG Compressor is a powerful, comprehensive utility for compressing images in JPEG format. While still retaining high image quality, you can greatly reduce the file size of your images – get better results from scanners etc., and improve download speeds of your Web pages.

This version adds batch image processing, support for over 20 image formats, enhanced Open/Save Image dialog, enhanced compression profiles, system shell integration, and more. The unregistered version is save-disabled.

Web link: www.winsoftmagic.com

Shareware

This little program creates both static and animated Web buttons. With the ability to create animated GIFs, you have flexibility to create great active buttons and banners. Just Buttons also creates Plasma buttons.

This unregistered version places watermarks on any documents you create with it.

Web link: www.lincolnbeach.com

Evaluation version

AllThumbsPro is designed for anyone with a digital camera who wants to create an HTML photo book to share with friends and family. AllThumbsPro accepts any standard image type and will create a thumbnail index page of the images for fast viewing. Each thumbnail (which can be any resolution and size) has a link to the full-size image. Options include custom backgrounds, resizing, scaling, captions and multiple photo book appearances.

The only restriction in this evaluation version is that no more than five photos can be included in an HTML photo album.

Web link: www.allthumbspro.com

30-day trial

This is an image browser utility that allows you to download and view thousands of pictures from the Web easily and automatically. Express WebPictures takes a lot of the bother out of saving, sorting and viewing the countless images available. Download entire Web galleries in one easy action and then use the program to organise and view them offline.

Web link: www.express-soft.com

Anniversary Edition – 30-day trial

To celebrate the tenth anniversary of their highly popular digital imaging application, Jasc Software have released a special edition of Paint Shop Pro packed with even more free extras.

Paint Shop Pro keeps getting better – it's a long way from its origins as a fine, cheap and cheerful shareware package, but is still relatively inexpensive and certainly great value for money. PSP includes most of the features of Adobe's Photoshop and now also includes more Web orientated graphics functions. It's a great all-round graphics application offering fantastic image creation, editing and manipulation possibilities. Now you also get Animation Shop v3.04, a great tool for creating and editing animations, particularly for use on your Web sites.

This latest update includes many fixes and performance enhancements as well as loads of new tools and resources.

Web link: www.jasc.com

Latest 15-day trial version

WebStyle is a template-based package that can be used to create top quality, fully customised Web graphics. Simply select the type of graphic required from the hundreds of WebStyle templates designed by professional artists. Aimed at novice designers wanting to get a job done quickly, WebStyle is great value for money.

Use WebStyle to create navigation bars (it automatically creates the necessary HTML and JavaScript), animated banner ads, buttons and more.

Web link: www.xara.com

Mac OS

NOTE: The Mac programs on this CD are mostly in archived 'HQX' (BinHex) files – they can be extracted with several applications, including Stuffit Expander (which is on the CD...). Clicking on the links below should set the process in motion. You may receive a message that the file cannot be loaded into Simple Text — if so, start Stuffit and then open the HQX file you want from within Stuffit.

Free

With ConvertImages you can convert files from common formats to JPEG with the ability to add prefixes and suffixes to names, make the name uppercase or lowercase, and set resolutions as needed. Rotate images, preview files, add text or Filenames to images, and much more all by simply dragging files or folders onto the main window.

Web link: www.ingconti.com

GraphicConverter
v4.2
(PPC)
Shareware – latest version

GraphicConverter is an essential Web tool and indispensable in any other situation where you might be handling lots of graphics files. It will open and convert most file types. The program imports about 145 and exports about 45 graphic file formats.

GraphicConverter offers batch conversion with additional actions; slide shows; easy creation of optimised images for the Internet; image manipulation; and more. This version includes numerous bug fixes (some that might have caused crashes) and various minor enhancements.

Web link: www.graphicconverter.net

Shareware

If you want to speed up your site you should take SuperGif for a spin. This essential utility does one thing – optimises GIF images with no loss of quality. A simple dialog lets you select a file or directory to scan. SuperGif then goes into action, using an LZW interframe optimisation and a smart re-dithering algorithm to optimise your GIFs. A backup is made of each successfully optimised image and a results log is available for information. SuperGIF claims the potential to deliver over 50% size reduction, and does even better with GIF animations, with possible animation savings of over 80%.

This unregistered version is limited to optimising single files at a time.

Includes 'Carbon' version for best performance under OS X.

Web link: www.boxtopsoft.com

Latest 30-day trial

ProJPEG is a great plug-in tool for Adobe Photoshop, providing intuitive control and superb file size savings to improve the speed of Web page delivery. This new version has improved memory handling to allow ProJPEG to work for Web graphics or hi-res JPEG images, and advanced Photoshop actions support for batch processing and work flow. The zoomable and resizeable image preview allows you to contrast the original image to the compressed image simultaneously, and examine JPEG 'artifacts' at magnification – 'Smoothing' allows you to remove such noise.

There's a facility for variable compression so you can create smaller files that look better by compressing background areas of images more and the important foreground areas less. You can also reuse preset optimisation settings.

Web link: www.boxtopsoft.com