| ColorWorks 2.0 and Impos/2 2.0 | - by Chris Wenham

  ince OS/2 e-Zine! has reviewed both ColorWorks V2 and Impos/2 v2.0 in the past we have included links to their respective reviews here along with a few short 'second thoughts' on each.

  ### ColorWorks 2.0 by SPG, Inc.

  Review published in Vol. 1, No. 7

  ColorWorks V2 is still the most powerful of all OS/2 bitmap-graphics applications I've tested, although the gap is being rapidly shortened by the other applications covered in this round up. It's still the only one with Dynamic In-Memory Image Compression for editing large images on low-memory machines, and it's still the only one with a plug-in developers kit and a number of third-party plug-ins available. The major problem now, of course, is that the OS/2 version is no longer under development. Copies of both versions 1+ (which is the same code as V2 with a few features -- such as gradients and effects plug-in support -- disabled) and V2 can still be purchased at various retailers for bargain-bin prices.

  Is it worth picking up one of these copies? Well, if US$30 or so isn't such a big deal to you, then yes. Both versions are still very capable pieces of software and support can still be obtained from SPG. You might also get the chance to pick up a copy of 2.0 with its mammoth-sized, coffee-table glossy hardcover manual. It'll probably end up being a collectors item, as you'll never see anything like it produced again for a software program.

  All in all, ColorWorks is an advanced tool that I keep going back to, simply because it's fast and it does many things no other native OS/2 software can do yet. But the learning curve is steeper than most programs and its user interface is spartan.

  Related articles:
  ColorWorks 1.0 by SPG - Vol. 1, No. 1.
  STI Twain Plug-in for ColorWorks - Vol. 1, No. 14.
  MD+F Special Effects Plug-ins for ColorWorks 2.0 - Vol. 2, No. 1.
  MD+F Renders Plug-ins for ColorWorks 2.0 - Vol. 2, No. 4.

  ### Impos/2 by Compart

  Review published in OS/2 e-Zine! Christmas '96 Special

  Perhaps the most embarrassing mistake I made in the original review of Impos/2 by Compart Systems was not emphasizing the REXX scripting power enough. With Impos/2, the image processing program acts more like a feature of REXX than REXX being a feature of Impos/2. It loads just like a third-party REXX library, complete with a RxFuncAdd call that starts Impos/2 (if it's not already running). From that point on, a script can control almost all painting, image processing and file operations of the program.

  Because Impos/2 scripts can be started on the command line (rather than picking a menu option, like you do in Photo>Graphics) you can easily pass arguments and incorporate them in other scripts or batch files. Imagine running an automated process every night that updates your web page!

  Another aspect of the user-interface that I missed last time was the ability to move floated sections around on the canvas a pixel at a time using the keyboard arrow keys. This kind of fine-control is extremely useful when you want to position things precisely, and it is a feature that is high on my wish list for other graphics software too.

  Impos/2 is easy enough to master since it acts like most typical paint programs do. It still serves well for general graphics work and some of the plug-ins that come with the program perform some great effects. Best of all, it has a decent Gaussian Blur.

  Chris Wenham is a freelance web designer, writer and Englishman who now lives in Endicott, NY. In the past he has written comedy, sci-fi, Pascal, REXX, HTML and Gibberish. He has been using OS/2 exclusively for the past 2 years.

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