Acorn offers a very simple, uncluttered interface that lets you focus on the image.

 

iPhoto comes with some decent tools to tweak an image, and even add basic effects. However, if you want to design a montage, add text, or create artwork from scratch, you’re out of luck. You could resort to Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, but both are giant leaps on the learning curve, especially for anyone used to iPhoto. This is where Acorn comes in—it’s not only a good value, but also easy to use.

 

Launch Acorn and you’re presented with a small Tool palette divided into sections. At the top-left is the list of tools available to you: Move, Select, Draw, Erase, Flood Fill, Gradient, Text, and Shape. Click one of them, and the top-right section changes to offer you all of that tool’s available parameters. You aren’t confronted with dozens of options, making Acorn less intimidating for nonprofessional users. But more experienced designer types aren’t forgotten—the keyboard shortcuts, for example, are almost identical to Photoshop’s.

 

Acorn’s Font windows and Color palette are the same as those Apple uses for its own apps, and the available filters are provided courtesy of Apple’s Core Image technology. This means that Acorn is a lean application (it’s only 14MB) but is still capable of producing results that rival more expensive alternatives.

 

Other nice touches include the ability to grab a picture straight from your iSight camera, as well as to take a screenshot of your Mac’s screen for immediate editing. Acorn also works well with a graphics tablet, though it doesn’t interact with scanners.

 

Acorn offers around 150 filters, ranging from color correction to blurs, distortions, and tile effects, among many others. And the good news is that you can add more than one filter to a layer. The Apply Filters window works in a very similar way to Automator: Filters are stacked one on top of the other in the window. You can modify their parameters or reorder the filters until you get the effect you want. However, once you click Apply you can’t go back and reedit your effect. You would have to undo it and start from scratch.

 

One major limitation: You can only work in RGB color space. CMYK images are converted to RGB when you open them.

 

The bottom line. Acorn suits the needs of the casual user without significant compromises. It lacks some advanced features, but
since it’s a consumer-focused app, we’re forgiving.

 

COMPANY: Flying Meat

CONTACT: www..flyingmeat.com

PRICE: $39.95

REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.4.9 or later

Uncluttered, easy-to-use interface. Numerous keyboard shortcuts. Excellent value for money. Universal binary.

Sparse manual. No scanner support.