Smoothie is a powerful graphics application that allows you to smooth away the jagged edges of pictures youΓÇÖve created in a variety of drawing and presentation applications.
Smoothie is not designed to smooth pure bitmapped pictures like those produced by scanners and paint programs (see the ΓÇ£Advanced TechniquesΓÇ¥ chapter of this userΓÇÖs guide for some important exceptions to this rule). Smoothie smooths object-oriented pictures where each element making up the picture is a line, a curve, text, and so on. This type of picture is produced by drawing, presentation, and other applications.
How does Smoothie work?
Smoothie uses a technique called anti-aliasing. Aliasing is the stair-step jagged edges effect you see on many pictures shown on your computer monitor. Anti-aliasing removes or greatly diminishes this effect.
The amount of aliasing you see is dependent on the resolution of the display device you use. The standard Macintosh screen resolution is 72 dots per inch (dpi). This resolution is about as good as you can get using reasonably priced video monitors, but it does produce a perceivable amount of aliasing.
There are two common approaches used to reduce aliasing. One involves hardware, the other software. You can buy expensive high resolution monitors to increase the dpi of your display. Printers use higher resolutions, typically 300 dpi or more, for excellent results. The other approach is to use software to fill in the jagged edges with intermediate color values ΓÇô software anti-aliasing.
Smoothie uses a powerful type of software anti-aliasing called sub-pixel anti-aliasing. This technique takes advantage of the scaling ability of graphic elements such as fonts, lines, and curves that are produced by drawing and presentation applications. Smoothie draws your pictures many times larger than normal, then scales them back to normal size, averaging the color values of many pixels into a single pixel. This produces superior anti-aliasing with most pictures.
Registering Smoothie
Smoothie is provided as shareware from Peirce Software, Inc. This means that you can try out Smoothie for a limited amount of time. If you find it useful, we ask that you register your copy for $24.95 US. Once you have registered, we will send you a registration number that will allow you to turn off the registration reminder.
To register, just print out the registration form from the Smoothie splash screen and send or fax it, along with your check or credit card information (including expiration date) to:
Peirce Software, Inc.
1417 Selborn Place
San Jose, CA 95126
Fax: +1 (408) 295-9433
internet: smoothie@peircesw.com
Hardware Requirements
ΓÇó A color capable Macintosh computer
ΓÇó A hard disk is highly recommended
ΓÇó A color or gray scale monitor for viewing the results is highly recommended
Software Requirements
ΓÇó System 7.0 or later
ΓÇó QuickTime is required to use the QuickTime related features
ΓÇó Smoothie SlideShows require System 6.02 or later
ΓÇó Smoothie SlideShows require Color QuickDraw
Other products from Peirce Software
Peirce Print Tools - the premier collection of QuickDraw GX printing extensions. Included are nine tools: Watermark, Border, Pamphlet. PaperSaver, InkSaver, DoubleSider, BackToFront, and Log. It works with any application - even ones that donΓÇÖt yet support the new GX printing dialogs.
DeskPicture - (shareware) lets you replace your desktop pattern with up to 16 different pictures per monitor. It can change between different pictures at random or at certain time intervals.
AppSizer - (shareware) lets you control the memory size of an application as you launch it. Just hold down the command key as you launch an application and a dialog comes up that lets you control the memory usage of that application. If you sometimes want an app to use lots of memory and other times want it to use a little memory, AppSizer is for you.
ShareDraw ΓÇô (shareware) is a powerful, full-featured drawing application. It includes such features as text on a curve, text flowed into shapes, gradients, object blending, and many more!
If you have any further questions you can reach Peirce Software at +1 (408) 244-6554 during business hours (9am-5pm Pacific Time). Peirce Software can also be reached at the following electronic addresses:
