Macromedia xRes

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xRes is capable of assuming three personalities with ease, as an image editing program, a full-featured painting package, and an image compositor. It has the image editing power of Photoshop in numerous areas (and in some cases more), the task oriented capacity to composit large images like Live Picture, and can compete effectively in many ways with Fractal’s Painter. A Swap Disk, an area on a targeted hard disk, is an essential part of the way that xRes works, so it is vital that you have enough space set aside for the Swap Disk (the documentation guides you through the process). There are multiple undo levels possible in xRes, but each undo level has an impact on the Swap Disk space that is necessary.

Image Editing: xRes contains all of the standard image editing tools, and also a special menu dedicated to “objects” targeted imported images. xRes Objects may be moved, rotated, resized and repositioned according to the layer they rest on (front to back). xRes object tools are somewhat like vector drawing object tools, although xRes is strictly a bitmap program. An Object layer module in the Object/Channel/path dialog allows you to see the objects in an xRes document. Double clicking on their respective icons allows them to be renamed and numerically repositioned. Their icons contain a reduced visual image of the object’s shape and color. A handy opacity slider at the top allows you to set the transparency of any targeted object in the stack. Moving members of the stack, either on screen or in the dialog, relocates them front to back. Any selected member may also be targeted for an applied effect. Any member can be cut, pasted, rotated, resized, skewed and duplicated. The result of all of this can be a complex composite graphic accomplished in a short amount of time.

Internal Effects: xRes has a list of its own effects, in addition to being open to all Photoshop plugins. Although many of its native filters are comparable to those offered as standard features in other image editing software, xRes adds the possibility of previewing either the whole selection or a movable boxscreens current resolution. Because xRes mode performs operations on the actual pixel data, it is not considered a proxy system.

xRes mode takes advantage of two of the addressed file formats, MMI and LRG. MMI files save all of the objects as separate reference data so that they can be manipulated after being loaded in again. LRG files are xRes mode files that automatically put the program in xRes mode when loaded in. Maximum brush sizes in xRes mode are 100 x the zoom level, so that at a zoom of 1/8, the maximum brush size will be 800 x 800 pixels! This accelerates image effects processing and painting. Files are automatically rendered as standard graphics when saved to non-LRG formats. Features now available in xRes mode include the Magic Wand Tool, Bucket Tool, Drop Object and Drop Selection commands, and Indexed 256 Color mode.

Digital Painting: xRes has painting tools far beyond those found in Photoshop, and rivaling many of the functions in Fractal’s Painter software. It includes three sets of brushes (Media, Effects, and Styles) and an associated Shape Inspector dialog that allows you to alter the brush parameters.

Texture Painting in xRes: xRes features the most intuitive and easy-to- apply texture brush painting of any graphics software on the market. Any image area may be saved to the already full texture library.

xRes also lists some unique effects filters, among which are:

  • Luminosity can be targeted for sharpening, separated out from the other channels.
  • Distort/Whirlpool, which adds more appeal to the standard twist option.
  • Stylize/Glowing Edge, a new filter that adds stark glows to the selection.

xRes Image Compositing File Management: Macromedia’s xRes uses its own method for working with large image files for compositing operations.

xRes graphics can be worked on in Direct Mode (standard mode comparable to all other editing software) or in the proprietary xRes mode. xRes mode is much faster as far as all graphics operations are concerned, usually by 1000% and more. xRes mode is made for working on image sizes 10MB and up, and those that may contain at least a dozen separate objects. Changes are applied only to the current image area visible on the screen, and not to the whole selection (unless you can see it), and only at the foreground/background colors). Very large textures can be created and saved. Airbrush and Charcoal brushes have options that apply the texture to the image area. Textures are tiled to repeat. Airbrushed applications are especially effective because you can manually control the fades.

File Load/Save Conventions: Aside from the MMI and LRG formats already discussed, xRes allows you to save the following formats (xRes files are saved as MMI): Targa, TIFF, PICT, Photoshop 3, JPEG and JPEG Progressive, EPS, Scitex CT, BMP, GIF, and PNG (a favorite of Web page designers because of its small file size and lossless compression). It loads the same parameter files. File imports are treated as “Objects” and can be repositioned and manipulated as indicated previously.

LRG files are rendered on-screen if they need to be viewed in new resolutions. It can open (Load) BMP, GIF, JPEG, LRG, MMI, PhotoCD, Photoshop 3, PICT, PNG, Scitex CT, Targa and TIFF.

See Also