Power Macintosh 7200/90 running OS 8 32 Mb RAM, UMAX S-12 Vista flatbed scanner
Power Macintosh G3 running OS 8.1, 300 MHz, 160 Mb RAM

Overview

Microfrontier's ColorIt! is designed to be a professional-level, 32-bit, feature-filled image editing and drawing program. ColorIt! competes well with other, more expensive programs such as Adobe PhotoShop and Canvas, and is available for an economical price. While not specifically designed for biomedical research needs, a number of ColorIt!'s features make it an ideal imaging tool for the laboratory. It can be used in combination with the popular public domain imaging program NIH Image to facilitate making composite images. Another extremely handy feature for researchers involved in microscope imaging is the ability to make catalogs of images in thumbnail form to facilitate sorting through large quantities of images quickly. Using plug-ins supplied with scanners or digital cameras, ColorIt! can acquire images directly. It is easy to use and thoughtfully designed. It includes a wide array of specialized editing tools and extended file formats. The ability to create animated and non-animated graphics, and to edit Web image maps, adds to ColorIt!'s versatility.

Program Features

Acquiring, Saving, and Annotating Images

To acquire images, ColorIt! utilizes plug-ins supplied with scanners and digital cameras. To be recognized, plug-ins should be placed into the Plug-ins folder within ColorIt!'s program folder. The File menu contains the Scan/Import function for acquiring images through the desired plug-in. Files may be saved in many commonly used formats. ColorIt! supports TIFF, PICT, JPEG, PostScript, Paint, GIF, PhotoShop 2.0 and 2.5, StartupScreen, Photone Prepress, Scitex CT, QuickTime, and PNG. Many of these file formats have extended features for saving. For example, JPEG format options include low, medium, high, and very high quality, as well as a choice of either baseline or progressive.

Figure 1

The Get Info feature, found in the Images menu, is a convenient way to annotate important information about an image and store that information along with that image. This can include information about the scanner used, or details about the image or the person who created it (see figure 1).

Editing Tools and Basic Image Manipulation

Figure 2

The editing tools included with ColorIt! are quite impressive. There are four different tool palettes from which to choose for basic image manipulation, depending upon whether you are editing an existing image or creating a drawing (see figure 2). Two additional tool palettes exist for animation and cataloging images and can be accessed from the Tools menu. The default tool palette has a mix of commonly used selection, editing, and drawing tools. For added convenience, users may also create their own customized tool palettes containing frequently used tools or tools used for specific imaging tasks.

Cataloging Images

Figure 3

Keeping track of large numbers of images, such as those captured from digital cameras attached to microscopes, can be arduous. Making a catalog of images is amazingly easy using ColorIt!'s catalog palettes. To create a new catalog from the Tools menu, choose Catalogs and then New (figure 3).

Figure 4

Once an empty catalog has been created, an entire folder of images can be added simply by choosing the Action button on the active catalog palette and choosing "Add folder of images . . ." Thumbnail pictures of each image within the folder will be cataloged automatically (figure 4).

Figure 5

Catalogs can contain up to 200 thumbnails. Additionally, catalogs may be created automatically during image acquisition from scanners or digital cameras, if the Acquire/Import auto-save box is checked in the Preferences window under Edit/Preferences/General (figure 5).

Making Animated Web Graphics

Figure 6

Animated graphics can be created quickly in ColorIt! by using the Animation palette found in the Tools menu. Once the Animation Palette is available, users may choose the New Animation option, create the new image size and then begin to create frames for the animation (figure 6). Once the images are positioned within each frame, the animation may be previewed by using the RUN command on the Animation Palette.

Figure 7

The image loop may be set to run forever, or to stop after a specified number of times. The animation may be saved as a GIF for use, for instance, on a Web page (figure 7).

Image Cropping for Composite Image Assembly Also Using NIH Image

Figure 8

ColorIt! can be used as a companion program to NIH Image to crop images to a specific size for creating composite images.

Figure 9

In the Tools menu under Custom Selection (figure 8), users can specify and fix the selection size so all selected images will be that size. Returning to the image, the Selection tool can be chosen from the Default Tools palette (figure 9) and then applied.

Figure 10

The selected image can be cropped to the selection size, or copied and pasted into a new file by using the Fill with Active Selection choice in the File menu, and saved (figure 10). The customized size will be the default size, so one may go from image to image easily and know that the image sizes are the same. In ColorIt!, images should be saved in PICT format, as opposed to TIFF format, because NIH Image opens ColorIt!'s TIFF files into separated layers designated as "Indexed Color" and "untitled <red>," whereas PICT images are opened as a single image.

Figure 11

Once images are saved, images can be opened in NIH Image, put into a stack with the Windows to Stack command, and assembled into a composite with the Montage command (figure 11). For a more detailed description of NIH Image and montage assembly, refer to the HMS Beagle's previous review of that application.

Other Features

ColorIt! has many other features that make it a program well worth having around. In addition to the features already mentioned, it is ideal for photographic retouching and contains an automatic Remove Red Eye function, and a Remove Scratches filter. It has some image distorting capabilities, as well as full control over image rotation. ColorIt! is fully capable of producing four-color-separated (CMYK) images with registration marks. Always a bonus in any program, ColorIt! includes 16 levels of undo.

Any Complaints?

While ColorIt! is in general a well-executed program, for those used to using other commercial packages, it may take a bit of time to get used to the less refined way in which image selections are handled. Instead of easily being able to move a box around to adjust the area selected, it was an all-or-none venture; this was at times frustrating. This was, however, when I truly appreciated availability of 16 levels of multiple undo.

Documentation and Online Support

The manual, available as a downloadable PDF file from Microfrontier's Web site, is well written and provides excellent point-by-point examples of how to make the most of ColorIt!'s features. In addition, for those not comfortable with such topics as the relationship between image resolution and memory requirements for scanning, the differences between various types of saved file formats, file compression, and printing specifications, the manual provides excellent guidelines for making the best choices. An appendix documents error messages that users may encounter while using ColorIt!, and it supplies solutions.

The Bottom Line

ColorIt! is a versatile, value-packed imaging program that competes well with more expensive packages, which makes it a powerful yet affordable alternative for students and research labs. Many features fit well with day-to-day imaging needs in the laboratory. A notable feature of ColorIt!, especially handy for microscopy labs, is the image cataloging capability. Up to 200 images may be cataloged quickly and easily, and saved in a single file.

System Requirements

ColorIt! requires a color-capable Macintosh with a 68020 or greater processor running System 7.0 or greater with at least 6 Mb of RAM, a hard drive with a minimum of 10 Mb free disk space, and a monitor that supports 256 shades of gray or color.

Purchasing Information

ColorIt! 4.0 can be purchased for $49.95 + S/H for CD delivery or by direct on-line delivery with a free updated maintenance release of 4.01, which fixes some minor problems with the original release. MicroFrontier may be contacted by mail at P.O. Box 71190, Des Moines, Iowa, or by phone at (515) 225-9088, by fax at (515) 225-9887, or by visiting their Web site, where Free updates are available to registered users. For those who own other MicroFrontier products or previous versions of ColorIt!, an upgrade to ColorIt! 4.0 is available for $29.95.