Corel Painter 1

Five Apps

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1. Corel Painter

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CorelrnPainter is a relatively high end graphics editor. Even so, it isrnsurprisingly intuitive. Anyone who has a minimal amount of experience withrngraphics editors should have little trouble using this utility. Even so, therernare plenty of advanced features thrown in for good measure. Some of the morernadvanced features include layering, effects, and the ability to creaternanimations.

rnrnCorel Painter sells forrn$429, but a 30-day trial is available for download.

rnrnCredit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

Corel Painter 2

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Corel Painter 3

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Corel Painter 4

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Corel Painter 5

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Actual Drawing 1

2. Actual Drawing

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ActualrnDrawing isn’t what you would normally think of as an application forrncreating business graphics, but in the interest of variety I wanted to talkrnabout it any way.

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Actual Drawing is a Web development utility. The reason whyrnI chose to include it is because often smaller organizations struggle to creaternvisually appealing Web content. Actual Drawing allows you to build Web sitesrnwithout writing any code. Of course there are plenty of tools that do that. Whatrnmakes Actual Drawing unique is that it places a very heavy emphasis onrngraphics. The application has its own graphics editor that even offers featuresrnsuch as effects and layering.

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Actual Drawing sells for $59.00, but a free trial version isrnavailable for download.

rnrnCredit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

Actual Drawing 2

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Actual Drawing 3

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Actual Drawing 4

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Actual Drawing 5

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Scanahand 1

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Scanahand 2

3. Scanahand

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Scanahandrnis a utility that can be used to create custom fonts. Sometimes a graphic justrnisn’t complete without just the right font to go along with it. When you can’trnfind the font that you need, you can use Scanahand to create it. The softwarernworks by providing you with an empty template. You can print out the templaternand then draw the letters for your font. As an alternative, you could use arngraphics editor to create the letters. Once the template is completed, you canrnscan it and then create a font.

rnrnScanahand sells for $59.00,rnbut a free trial version is available for download.

rnrnCredit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

Scanahand 3

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Scanahand 4

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Scanahand 5

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Chasys Draw IES 1

4. Chasys Draw IES

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ChasysrnDraw IES is a free tool that rivals commercial tools. Although it isrnprimarily a graphics editor, Chasys Draw IE5 can also be used to creaternprojects such as animated cursors, videos, and screencasts.

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As a drawing or photo editing tool, Chasys Draw IE5 willrnlikely be suitable for all but the most demanding applications. The applicationrnis extremely feature rich and can be extended through the use of plugins. Thosernwishing to use Chasys Draw IE5 for marketing purposes will be happy to knowrnthat it is capable of producing print quality CMYK images.

rnrnCredit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

Chasys Draw IES 2

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Chasys Draw IES 3

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Chasys Draw IES 4

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Chasys Draw IES 5

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Photo to Cartoon 1

5. Photo to Cartoon

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Photornto Cartoon is a utility that can convert a photograph into a cartoon. Thisrntype of application makes it easy to create graphics even if you have nornartistic talent.

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The interface is simple. You merely load a photo and thenrnuse slide bars to control the complexity of the outline and the number ofrncolors. You can also add a speech bubble or edit the image.

rnrnPhoto to Cartoon sells forrn$25.00, but a free ten use trial is available for download.

rnrnCredit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic

Photo to Cartoon 2

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Photo to Cartoon 3

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Photo to Cartoon 4

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Photo to Cartoon 5

Disclaimer: CBS Interactive Inc. isrnnot responsible for the content of the publisher’s descriptions or user reviewsrnon this site. We do not encourage or condone the use of any software inrnviolation of applicable laws. CBS Interactive Inc. does not sell, resell, orrnlicense any of the products listed on the site. We cannot be held liable forrnissues that arise from the download or use of these products.

rnrnCredit: Images by Brien Posey for TechRepublic