Mac OS X Tools

The Mac has a reputation for being favored by designers and creative types, and the platform makes many tools available to the budding artist. However, they usually come at a price, and often that price is higher than those of the Windows equivalents! So, what free software can we use on the Mac, assuming that we want something more permanent than a 30-day trial version of Photoshop or Fireworks?

GraphicConverter

GraphicConverter has much greater capabilities than its name suggests. It's bundled with most newer Macs, and is also available for download [17] (you'll be encouraged to pay a modest registration fee for the software, but you can try it out for free). Sure, this is primarily a tool for converting graphic files, but it can also be used for simple editing tasks. Using GraphicConverter, which is illustrated in Figure 1.10, you'll be able to crop, resize, rotate, and add text to any image.

Figure 1.10. GraphicConverter does a lot more than simply convert graphics!

iPhoto

Also included with Mac OS X is a program that probably needs no introduction to the experienced Mac user: iPhoto. This excellent program is not intended as a fully-featured image editor; it's really designed for managing and viewing large numbers of photos stored on a computer. It's great for organizing photo albums, but with recent updates, iPhoto has been given some editing facilities that have promoted it beyond a mere cataloguing tool. Unfortunately, the latest version of iPhoto is not available as a free download, and must be purchased as part of Apple's iLife suite of programs.

iPhoto, pictured in Figure 1.11 can be found in the Applications folder, or in the dock.

Figure 1.11. The iPhoto 5 image adjustment tools

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