PhotosArtist-Vertige

I have just downloaded the program Photos Artist and installed it on my MacBook Pro. The following is a list of issues I experienced. 1- The download link was sent to your email address and you got the program from there. The download did not come through Safari's regular download window. The suggestion was to download to the desktop. I selected the desktop but the program downloaded to the root directory. The download was 1.16 gig. There was a progress bar that kept you apprised of the progress. 2- After un-zipping the file I installed it. The program placed over 1.2 gig of files on the my hard drive. The menu asked for primary language and I selected English. I allowed the program to finish installing. 3- When I ran the program I was suppressed to see it take over the entire screen. I was unable to access the menu bar, the dock, the hard drive or the desk top. The other issue was the black screen that took over the desk top was in a non English language. I could not understand any of the menu and had to blindly push buttons until I could exit the program. 4- I would appreciate it if someone with better computer skills than I would take a look at this program. It is very un-Mac but may have merit that I did not see. 5- I do not make a habit of trashing others work because I am not a software designer or programer. I have great appreciation for those who make my Mac into a useful tool.

I must be a glutton for punishment since I tried this out several months ago and didn't like it then, and today I went through the no less painful experience again. My system is a Mac Mini 2.26 with 4GB SDRAM and a 120GB SSD, running 10.6.4.. Computer speed is not the greatest but usually the SSD more than makes up for that. Once again this application takes the potential user on an extremely unorthodox route to even download the installer. Once downloaded, it installs a couple of gigs of files (mostly templates and images to help you create your projects. Once installed, launching and running the application is an exercise in frustration. It takes over your whole screen. The developer uses only a few common icons (the Home, Next, and Last come to mind) but beyond that the majority are not self-evident. They are also extremely small and hard on the eyes. Hovering over the icons will bring up tooltips but the delay is intolerable, and, apparently in an attempt to demonstrate some facet of cuteness, they fade in rather than snap open like we're used to seeing. The tooltip font is also pretty small. There doesn't seem to be any way of setting preferences as none of the icons I looked at produced a prefs panel of any sort. There is a "gear"-like icon but it turns out to be the "Preview" icon. Windows switchers will be right at home as the close icon is right up there in the upper right corner, just lovely for a supposed Mac application. Finally, as in the past, quitting is not the easiest thing to do either. There is no icon that I could find to exit the application, and I resorted to the cmd-q option. While that didn't actually cause the application to quit, it did bring up a screen with a quit option (among others). Not having used Windows I have no idea if the UI and other aspects are due to a Windows influence or not, but for someone who has used a wide range of photo/image editing and workflow programs, the UI on this is horrible (unless you really really enjoy wasting time looking at eye candy). (Actually a tipoff for the eye candy aspect can be seen on the terrible design of the developer's website - a riot of colors, different colored text, wannabe avant garde graphics that no commercial artist would sign their name to, and other migraine-inducing chaos.) My advice is to not waste your time downloading/installing this beast, but spend it wisely with your significant other or a friend, preferably with a glass of fine wine.

I have just downloaded the program Photos Artist and installed it on my MacBook Pro. The following is a list of issues I experienced. 1- The download link was sent to your email address and you got the program from there. The download did not come through Safari's regular download window. The suggestion was to download to the desktop. I selected the desktop but the program downloaded to the root directory. The download was 1.16 gig. There was a progress bar that kept you apprised of the progress. 2- After un-zipping the file I installed it. The program placed over 1.2 gig of files on the my hard drive. The menu asked for primary language and I selected English. I allowed the program to finish installing. 3- When I ran the program I was suppressed to see it take over the entire screen. I was unable to access the menu bar, the dock, the hard drive or the desk top. The other issue was the black screen that took over the desk top was in a non English language. I could not understand any of the menu and had to blindly push buttons until I could exit the program. 4- I would appreciate it if someone with better computer skills than I would take a look at this program. It is very un-Mac but may have merit that I did not see. 5- I do not make a habit of trashing others work because I am not a software designer or programer. I have great appreciation for those who make my Mac into a useful tool.