Secondly, though very many of us are skeptical of the Metro overlay on Windows 8 for the desktop, it almost goes without saying that Windows 8 and Metro on a tablet are a juggernaut that will either wipe out old paradigms or introduce new ones that will, over time, supercede the old. First, because users of this sort of tool are primarily mobile users (already addressed by XnView Retro on Android).Also, this app would be very successful if integrated with XnView MP as plugin, or as a dedicated "Retro" image tab, or as a "mode" for a standard image tab.īut beyond those two valid justifications, I tend to question the reason for it, at least in the Windows ecology. Unfortunately, the Picasa plugin does not navigate to the album/image in the web browser after upload.Īs a "stand-alone" app, I can see that XnView Retro serves a useful purpose as a test bed for the features it offers. The ImageShack upload is very convenient and fast, opening the image in the web browser after completion. I tested email, ImageShack, and Picasa successfully. The social media combo in the toolbar works well.Some means to adjust the width of the frame in proportion to the image would be welcome. There is a small amount of emulsion "bleed". For the matte-like frames, a shadow treatment (on the edge of the image) with light coming from the upper left would add realism, either for recessing the image behind the matte or placing it above ( on) the matte.įor the "bordered print"-like frames, some control to blur the image edges would help: look at an old polaroid some time to see what I mean.This may not be visible on the "small" screen of a tablet or phone, but on my 1920 x 1200 display the results are glaringly unrealistic. Currently the borders between the images and the frames are much too "razor" sharp (frame 13, for instance). For those, some sort of 3D edge treatment of the image itself would make the result look more realistic. Many of the "frames" are more like mattes than photographic borders.For instance, as if an old faded photo had subsequently suffered water damage or burn damage that effected both the image and the frame equally. Perhaps this means that there should be two levels of effects: those that effect the photographic characteristics of the image (vignetting, emulsion deterioration, etc.) and additional effects (on the frames page) to then "age" (or whatever) the entire thing: frame + image.This leads to glaring inconsistency between the image (meant to look old, perhaps, or mishandled) and the style of many frames, which look "squeaky" clean and new. For instance: there is no tool to "age" the frames themselves. Exposure sliders should effect the image and the frames differently.A method to name/save combinations of adjustments/effects/frames and add them to a "user" thumb panel would be very useful.Perhaps the user could choose between larger/smaller or more/less thumbs when repositioning the divider. A moveable splitter between thumbs and image would be welcome.The effects and frames are very similar (identical?) to the ones available on my Android version of this app, that is to say: very good! It is fast on my old XP machine, is stable, and has a very focused "chrome-less" UI (which begs to be themed like MP). I downloaded XnView Retro for Win32 and used it for a while.
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