Software : Akvis ArtWork 7 introduces new painting features

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• Akvis ArtWork 7 introduces new painting features
• Adobe Camera Raw update expands camera support
• Google buys Quickoffice to help overthrow Microsoft Office

Akvis ArtWork 7 introduces new painting features Posted: Digital photography brings out the artist in many of us, and software such as Photoshop and Lightroom add a little extra sparkle to our images. However, sometimes an atmospheric image can be improved further with a push towards the art world, using specialist painting software. Akvis ArtWork 7 claims to turn your photos into impressive works of art that, in some instances, can turn a mediocre shot into an atmospheric image that's worth framing and sticking on the wall. This latest upgrade introduces Gouche - a versatile painting technique that uses dense and intensive colours. Its characteristics are brilliance and opacity. Akvis ArtWork's opacity feature and covering power will, the developer claims, enable you to create outstanding effects that can't be achieved with watercolour paints. Gouache technique is widely used in decorative painting and when creating colour sketches and drawings. Akvis ArtWork 7 is available for both PC and Mac platforms, or you can use it as a plug-in for Photoshop. The basic idea is to turn a photo into a painting. The program goes a stage further than the Artistic filters built in to Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, which haven't been updated or extended for many years. Other effects on offer from ArtWork include Oil, Watercolor, Comics, Pen & Ink, Linocut and Pastel. There are even some extra arty touches such as canvas textures and stylised signatures to add a little flourish to your masterpiece. Of course, software to turn photos into art is nothing new. Corel Painter has been around for years, but at £279/$429 and with a fairly steep learning curve, it isn't for everyone. Akvis ArtWork 7 sells for £93/$99 and the latest version includes a Preview feature so you can tweak and assess your opus magnum before printing it out. Version 7 sounds like it could be a fairly essential upgrade, and should have you on your way to the Royal Academy in no time at all.

Adobe Camera Raw update expands camera support Posted: It's that time again when Adobe announces yet another update to its Camera Raw software plug-in so that the increasing number of photographers shooting in raw can squeeze every last drop of image quality from their shots before editing in Photoshop or Lightroom. Each release of ACR includes compatibility of the very latest slew of digital cameras, including the Canon EOS 5D Mark III, Sony Alpha 37 and Pentax K-01. This latest update will only install if you have Adobe Photoshop CS6 already running on your PC or Mac. This restricted update policy, whereby users of previous versions of Photoshop are shut out of updates, has been a constant source of irritation to many Photoshop users who may not feel they need a costly upgrade in order to access raw file compatibility with newer cameras. Version 7.1 of ACR offers compatibility with a host of new cameras including the stunning Fuji X-Pro1 compact, so it's probably fair to say that the money to upgrade Photoshop is unlikely to be a significant hurdle for anyone who can already afford to spend £1,500/$1,700 on the X-Pro1 body alone. Because the Fuji X-Pro1 uses a non-Bayer type of colour array filter in front of its full-frame sensor, its raw files require more sophisticated decoding of the information compared with more conventional digital cameras. Excellent extraction The new plug-in promises to extract all the quality stored in those raw X-Pro1 image files, and for that reason it's an essential upgrade for all those who've taken the plunge and invested in Fuji's latest 'old-school' digital compact camera. As well as offering compatibility with the latest cameras, ACR 7.1 also incorporates the advanced defringing tools that were first seen in the Release Candidate version of the software. The defringing feature helps reduce chromatic aberration, the purple and red fringe that can sometimes appear at the edge of digital images, particularly those shot with wide-angle lenses. Announced alongside ACR 7.1 is the latest version of Lightroom 4. This incremental update to 4.1 offers some stability features and compatibility with certain Nik plug-ins that refused to work with the original Lightroom release. And if you're not planning on upgrading to Photoshop CS6, do remember that Lightroom 4 is a far cheaper way of getting your hands on Adobe's Camera Raw plug-in.

Google buys Quickoffice to help overthrow Microsoft Office Posted: Google purchased the mobile productivity suite Quickoffice in what many see as a bid to aid Google in overthrowing Microsoft Office. Quickoffice is an iOS and Android app that allows mobile users to work on popular file types like those used by Microsoft Office from their smartphones and tablets. Google will likely use Quickoffice's well-established platform to further enhance Google Docs, which has quickly become a popular alternative to Microsoft Office. "Quickoffice has an established track record of enabling seamless interoperability with popular file formats, and we'll be working on bringing their powerful technology to our Apps product suite," Google Engineering Director Alan Warren wrote on the company's blog. "Quickoffice has a strong base of users, and we look forward to supporting them while we work on an even more seamless, intuitive and integrated experience." Can Microsoft Office stay on top? Google may look to topple Microsoft from the productivity throne, but Microsoft appears to have some plans of their own. Rumors popped up last month of Microsoft Office heading to iOS and Android devices, with an app for iPads and Android tablets being released as soon as November. But that leaves Google plenty of breathing room to get a new Quickoffice-enhanced version of Google Docs up and running, and with full compatibility with Microsoft's popular file formats, the battle may already be won by that point. "We worked very hard to build Quickoffice as a user friendly, seamless and yet powerful way to view, edit, sync and share documents anywhere, anytime," Quickoffice co-founder and CEO Alan Masarek wrote on the company's website. "By combining the magic of Google's intuitive solutions with Quickoffice's powerful products, our shared vision for anytime, anywhere productivity can only grow."

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