December, 2006
By: Carol Mary Miller
 There are few graphic, layout, or art tools that I don’t
have or haven’t used on my Mac. Yes, I’m that old.
Do you remember TypeStyler?
It manipulated text in Mac Classic using Postscript fonts. It was cool. Art Text is even better.
I loved TypeStyler. It was the only way to really manipulate text as if it was a graphic
element. Nothing else compared, and it’s sorely missed on Mac OS X.
In fact, the TypeStyler web site has been saying, ”Coming Soon! TypeStyler for
OS X” for what seems like four or five years. Stop waiting.
The folks at BeLight Software have introduced Art Text which does what the old TypeStyler used to do on Mac Classic.
Buying TypeStyler for Mac Classic is $120 for a download vs. $29 for Art Text. I played
around with the Art Text download demo for about an hour and then coughed up my $29.
Art Text makes high quality text as art objects— headings, logos, icons, buttons,
banners— all text and with more manipulation tools than you can imagine.
Fancy graphics with text and vector shapes is done with simple point and click accuracy
and the result is stunning— and stunningly simple.
Use whatever fonts are installed on your Mac and use the 300 plus pictograms included in
Art Text.
Export finished art work as TIFF, JPEG, PDF, PNG, transparency included.
BeLight Software is one of our favorite Mac developers because they just “get
it” and publish excellent applications. Art Text is just another winner.
Open Art Text, enter text in the box, adjust kerning and line spacing, set alignment,
change the font, use a slider bar to change the size— small to huge.
Fill the text with color, gradients, textures. Change the stroke by color and size. Add
shadows and glows, blur and change width. Need a background color instead of transparency? No problem.
Point and click.
Just as it was with the original TypeStyle, Art Text gives you dozens of pre-built text
and graphic starter options, standard Line and Fill, and Shadered.
The tools are typically Mac intuitive, though with a unique revolving door twist. Click
on the corner of a toolset, and more tools and options pop up.
Art Text is remarkably simple to use, yet hides all the behind-the-scenes complexity
that’s going on in Mac OS X Tiger.
If you do graphics on a Mac and use Photoshop and other tools to manipulate text into graphic
elements, you will positively, absolutely love Art Text.
Take a look at the Sample Tour on
the BeLight site and tell me that all the samples look similar to the output from the old TypeStyler.
To be fair, there are differences. TypeStyler did layering right inside the application,
whereas, Art Text creates each element singularly. Still, the quality and ease of use is just remarkable
for a new application.
If headings, logos, banners, icons, and text manipulation as graphic elements is what
you’re after, try Art Text. Tell me what
you think and share your experience with other Mac360 readers in the Comments section below.
If you have another Mac application that does the same thing, share that information as well.
See other reviews
|
