Image Composer - Rediscovering the joys of MIC. YES! [long post, absolutely no apologies for this]

Author

Rediscovering the joys of MIC. YES! [long post, absolutely no apologies for this]

PDF

2004-05-13, 5:31 pm

Not long ago, before the Internet and when most graphic designers used
Macintosh to run Illustrator, Photoshop, Freehand, Dimensions and Pagemaker,
I simply got the work done, in no time at all, leaving me the option to
either experiment (and get more creative), or simply down tools and see what
else life had to offer. Come five O'clock we'd all go home, a liitle tired
perhaps, but not stressed out and without feeling like we were slaves to the
High-Tech industry.

POOF! then came the Internet, email, shorter deadlines, HTML (damnabbit),
JavaScript, Flash and ActionScript. Then came more demands, even shorter
deadlines, high intake of caffeine, short-temperedness, not-enough-sleep,
and stress, stress, STRESS.

To supposed combat the stress, I've been using the standard web authoring
fair - you know what I'm talking about (Macromedia and Adobe suites) - for
nigh on 14 years. Along the way I've made clients and companies spend
absolute fortunes on software licenses (Macromedia and Adobe softwares ain't
cheap as you know). The same clients and companies have since been sucked
into the upgrade cattle market; gotta have those new features! gotta save
more time!

In 1999 I spent six happy months using MIC, loving every minute, then left
it when I moved on to bigger companies with their
Photoshop/Illustrator/you-get-my-drift/Macromedia/and-all-that-jaz
workflows.

But those new features come with a different price for the likes of
designers such as you and me a far higher price than is necessary; a never
ending learning curve, which leads to surfing the web, the forums, the
newsgroups, Googling under stress for faster tips and tricks to beat the
deadline getting out eye-catching work to impress the boss and to confirm
his belief in Photoshop.

Instead of anticipating the next round of new features, and just as I
thought I had control of the software, WHAM! Macromedia changes the
interface to their new suite; BAM! Macromedia revamps and changes the
ActionScript; KAZAM! Adobe expects me to have Photoshop, Illustrator,
LiveMotion, Acrobat, ImageReady, GoLive, and Dimensions running at the same
time, because I am, after all, a graphic designer who also develops web
sites, Flash sites, and who also produces multimedia with Acrobat. Can you
hear me panting?

However, I'm a one-man shop, not a Graphics Studio or Agency.

Something had to change. Change is good. I embrace change. I like change.
The idea of it is refreshing.

So....

A while ago I stood back from the crowd and looked for a new, cleaner,
faster, efficient RGB workflow. I was very tempted to go to the BEOS
reincarnate (its still out there, it's now called Zeta
(http://www.yellowtab.com/), but the lack of Flash, Acrobat, and Imaging
tools put me off.

Hmm. Something was wrong. Something was trying to make itself
known...remembered.....some little voice at the back of my head was
whispering something incoherent.

Meanwhile, I tried not using the dream suite
Photoshop/Imageready/Illustrator/Dimensions for a while, substituting them
for Studio MX and FreeHand 10 instead.

Not so good. I got myself immersed with the Macromedia way of
life....symbols, convert to symbol, instances, insert instance, movie clips,
buttons, scripts............arrrrrrghhhhhh leave me alone with this
nit-picking rubbish!!!!!

I JUST WANT TO GET MY WORK DONE, ON TIME, IN A CREATIVE ATMOSPHERE, AND
DELIVER IT TO MY CLIENTS IN A PROFESSIONAL MANNER WITHOUT FEELING LIKE A
SLAVE TO THE BEHEMOTH SOFTWARES THAT I ONCE LOVED AND PRAISED!

Once loved and praised? wait a minute...

WHAM-BAM-KAZAM-BOOM!

The little voice in my head was now cheering as I'd finally comprehended.
Enter - nay the flood gates were wide open - a tidal wave of fond memories
of my time spent with Microsoft Image Composer during yesteryear. The only
software that has made me smile, made me feel so good, and made me want to
say words like "Joy" and "Fun" and "Thank You" out loud and I did - quite
often - when I discovered this little gem, bundled for free with FrontPage
98.

Well folks, biting the bullet (you get to feel a little foolish about
installing ancient software on a cutting edge WinXP OS) I recently installed
the only version I have of MIC (1.5.0.2008) on XP. I thought I'd get an
error message or something when I double-clicked the MIC icon. I barely had
time to blink before MIC opened, wagging its happy tail behind it and almost
saying Hah! and you thought you couldn't teach an Old Dog new tricks, eh?
watch this space, Mate, you create it and I'll output perfectly compressed
PNGs, JPGs, and GIFs for you...come on, come ON; what on earth are you
waiting for?" I was panting again, this time with an excited creative
energy.

YEEHAH! this MIC thing with the crazy Chines/Japanese logo flies so
blisterring fast, it is faster than FAST! I have a MIC file that weighs in
at 120MB (slaps forehead) I wasn't aware of any performance issues - no
slowing down, no grinding to a halt, no hassles, just business as usual on
my Pentium 4 2.2Mhhz 512MB RAM PC. I was also running SwishMax, Internet
Explorer, and Word simultaneously. No hiccups whatsoever.

A quick look at the Windows Task Manager revealed the folowing statistics:

MIC uses 5MB of RAM during startup. This with my 120MB file open.
LiveMotion uses 55MB. This without any open files.
Photoshop 7 uses 38MB. This without any open files.
Acrobat 6 Pro uses 38MB RAM. This without any open files.
Fireworks MX uses 37MB RAM.. This without any open files.
Flash uses 29MB RAM. This without any open files.
ImageReady uses 27MB RAM. This without any open files.
Freehand 10 uses 16MB RAM. This without any open files.
SwishMax (latest April 2004 build) uses 16MB RAM. This without any open
files.
SwishLite uses 5MB RAM. This without any open files.

Using MIC together with SwishMax, SwishLite, MetaPad, Word, and PowerPoint
is a new media workflow made in heaven, full of boiling potential. This new
workflow and new set of design/development tools are sooo fast. they sooo
utilise my PC's performance capabilities (you can really feel the speed, or
atleast become aware of it, due to the no-lag time between most - but not
all - user operations) instead of taxing it.

I've reinstalled old favourite plug-ins too. Once I realised that I just
needed to use the crop tool to enlarge the bounding box of any given sprite
before applying KPT 3 or Eye Candy, well, there was no going back to
cash-cows Macromedia or Adobe. Especially now that I have discovered levels
and curves exist in MIC.

Let me ask you this: when was the last time your favourite image editor
opened in one second (other than MIC). Yup, this is the startup time of MIC
on my PC; that's 0 to 1 second, displaying a new default document with
those - Joy - wonderful fluid Composition Guides.

I've been a Microsoft basher for years. This product made me shut up real
fast. I've started to use Word and Powerpoint again too. You can copy/paste
most drawing elements from them to MIC in a jiffy; need a rounded rectangle
or a 3D cube in MIC? draw them in Word or Powerpoint and copy/paste into
MIC. Use MIC to color and manipulate at will.

MIC eats low res images for Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper, leaving it hungry
for more, more, MORE. This is one excited young puppy that never grows old
(that goes for me too...).

So. Thank you for reading this long post. Call me a lurker, call me a
has-been, call me what you will. I have saved more time the past few weeks
than at any time during the past 15 years in the design business. I don't
futz naming or creating layer after layer after layer, nesting layers and
more layers, and more layers. I don't waste my time clicking and furrowing
through myriad little GUI icons.

I simply get the work done in no time, leaving me the option to either
experiment with MIC a little more, or down tools and see what else life has
to offer.

Coffee and something to eat sounds nice....

ADDENDUM
I'd like to think that Microsoft will be including MIC elements into Avalon
and Sparkle (Longhorn release of Windows). The functionality in MIC is so
near perfect, it would be madness to not to utilise it in the next
generation of the Windows OSes.

Thanks for your time. I hope I've given some of you some food for thought,
and the balls to ditch the Adobe and Macromedia mainstream softwares. At
least for a trial run.

Cheers to any of you who are reading this and who still use MIC,

Jezza

Walter Donavan

2004-05-13, 5:31 pm

Thank you enormously for your post. I feel that way about PhotoDraw 2, which
I still use today. And I drag out IC once in a while just because it is a
glorious program with a few unique tricks.

I too despise the arbitrary bloatware and impossible interfaces of modern
gfx pgms.

I have and use Photoshop 7, but it is a love-hate relationship. There simply
is no more complex or difficult gfx pgm.

PhotoPro 2.0 is vastly easier for simple jobs like cropping and removing
blemishes. It also has an entire CD of clipart, picture frames, postcards,
etc.-and it came as part of a $20, 11-CD dtp suite.

PhotoDraw is far better at text and clipart-and it was $110 retail. I got
mine as part of O2K Premium, and the PD V2 upgrade (PD V1 was awful) was
free.

Image Optimizer runs rings around the complex PS/IR optimization
interfaces-and it was $40. It can even do files in batch-without those
$%$#@! PS Actions.

Clear Skin FX runs rings around Photoshop's touchup skills-and it was free.

Some of the more skilled among us (but not me) can do just about anything
Corel Draw or Illustrator can do using Real-Draw Pro-and it costs about $50.

Yet, sadly, there are things I can do in Photoshop that I cannot do in the
others. Wah!

Oh, well. Fortunately, I am retired, and any crap I impose on myself is
entirely my own doing. :)

Thanks again.
--
Walter Donavan
www.revelation7stages.com
www.1stbooks.com/bookview/15479

PDF

2004-05-13, 5:31 pm

Funny you should mention Clear Skin FX. I've been using MediaChance's
DCEnhancer and their screen capture utility UltraSnap - both are free. More
to the point, both are really excellent. I can only presume their Photo
Brush and Real Draw programs are also excellent. I just can't be doing with
learning two new programs.

Thanks for your encouraging words by the way. I was a little hesitant after
I posted to this group, but what the heck.

I'm really enjoying Microsoft Image Composer again. Its the perfect
companion to SwishMax and SwishLite. Designing has suddenly become fun
again!

All the best,

"Walter Donavan" <invalid@nowhere.not> wrote in message
news:eINxLbQOEHA.2780@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Thank you enormously for your post. I feel that way about PhotoDraw 2,
which
> I still use today. And I drag out IC once in a while just because it is a
> glorious program with a few unique tricks.
>
> I too despise the arbitrary bloatware and impossible interfaces of modern
> gfx pgms.
>
> I have and use Photoshop 7, but it is a love-hate relationship. There
simply
> is no more complex or difficult gfx pgm.
>
> PhotoPro 2.0 is vastly easier for simple jobs like cropping and removing
> blemishes. It also has an entire CD of clipart, picture frames, postcards,
> etc.-and it came as part of a $20, 11-CD dtp suite.
>
> PhotoDraw is far better at text and clipart-and it was $110 retail. I got
> mine as part of O2K Premium, and the PD V2 upgrade (PD V1 was awful) was
> free.
>
> Image Optimizer runs rings around the complex PS/IR optimization
> interfaces-and it was $40. It can even do files in batch-without those
> $%$#@! PS Actions.
>
> Clear Skin FX runs rings around Photoshop's touchup skills-and it was
free.
>
> Some of the more skilled among us (but not me) can do just about anything
> Corel Draw or Illustrator can do using Real-Draw Pro-and it costs about
$50.
>
> Yet, sadly, there are things I can do in Photoshop that I cannot do in the
> others. Wah!
>
> Oh, well. Fortunately, I am retired, and any crap I impose on myself is
> entirely my own doing. :)
>
> Thanks again.
> --
> Walter Donavan
> www.revelation7stages.com
> www.1stbooks.com/bookview/15479
>
>

Rich Osborne

2004-05-14, 12:09 am

Jezza -

Not long winded at all! A good read.

You've got me thinking about dusting off IC for a while. Long overdue.

Thanks,

Rich

PS .... Real-DRAW has a pretty short learning curve for IC and PD users.

--
http://www.imagedraw.com/
http://webpages.charter.net/osborne/
"PDF" <kasjez@operamail.com> wrote in message
news:uTsz3zROEHA.2996@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> Funny you should mention Clear Skin FX. I've been using MediaChance's
> DCEnhancer and their screen capture utility UltraSnap - both are free.
More
> to the point, both are really excellent. I can only presume their Photo
> Brush and Real Draw programs are also excellent. I just can't be doing
with
> learning two new programs.
>
> Thanks for your encouraging words by the way. I was a little hesitant
after
> I posted to this group, but what the heck.
>
> I'm really enjoying Microsoft Image Composer again. Its the perfect
> companion to SwishMax and SwishLite. Designing has suddenly become fun
> again!
>
> All the best,
>
>
>
> "Walter Donavan" <invalid@nowhere.not> wrote in message
> news:eINxLbQOEHA.2780@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> which
a[color=darkred]
modern[color=darkred]
> simply
postcards,[color=darkred]
got[color=darkred]
> free.
anything[color=darkred]
> $50.
the[color=darkred]
>
>

Marlies C

2004-05-22, 7:28 pm

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I really thought I was a dinosaur as all I ever use is IC. I have PSP 7,
makes it easier to save clean gifs. But IC is the program of choice. Most
people haven't even heard of IC, but for me it is so intuitive and fun to
use. The only problem I had was finding a thumbnail viewer that showed mic
files. Well, Thumbsplus 3.2 that never expires does just that. So I am a
happy camper. On top of it Thumbsplus shows fonts and all I have to do is
open the font, use it, save the mic file and then close the font. No need to
even install the font. Well, could not be easier.

I have discovered pixelpainting newsgroups and coloring bw graphics and
found that it is just so much easier in IC than in other programs. Here are
my latest creations
http://www.mcuniverse.com/Coloring_...rt.1326.0.html.

Yes, IC rocks!!!!!

Hugs,
Marlies
www.mcuniverse.com

"PDF" <kasjez@operamail.com> wrote in message
news:ecpnVHNOEHA.308@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Not long ago, before the Internet and when most graphic designers used
> Macintosh to run Illustrator, Photoshop, Freehand, Dimensions and
Pagemaker,
> I simply got the work done, in no time at all, leaving me the option to
> either experiment (and get more creative), or simply down tools and see
what
> else life had to offer. Come five O'clock we'd all go home, a liitle tired
> perhaps, but not stressed out and without feeling like we were slaves to
the
> High-Tech industry.
>
> POOF! then came the Internet, email, shorter deadlines, HTML (damnabbit),
> JavaScript, Flash and ActionScript. Then came more demands, even shorter
> deadlines, high intake of caffeine, short-temperedness, not-enough-sleep,
> and stress, stress, STRESS.
>
> To supposed combat the stress, I've been using the standard web authoring
> fair - you know what I'm talking about (Macromedia and Adobe suites) - for
> nigh on 14 years. Along the way I've made clients and companies spend
> absolute fortunes on software licenses (Macromedia and Adobe softwares
ain't
> cheap as you know). The same clients and companies have since been sucked
> into the upgrade cattle market; gotta have those new features! gotta save
> more time!
>
> In 1999 I spent six happy months using MIC, loving every minute, then left
> it when I moved on to bigger companies with their
> Photoshop/Illustrator/you-get-my-drift/Macromedia/and-all-that-jaz
> workflows.
>
> But those new features come with a different price for the likes of
> designers such as you and me a far higher price than is necessary; a never
> ending learning curve, which leads to surfing the web, the forums, the
> newsgroups, Googling under stress for faster tips and tricks to beat the
> deadline getting out eye-catching work to impress the boss and to confirm
> his belief in Photoshop.
>
> Instead of anticipating the next round of new features, and just as I
> thought I had control of the software, WHAM! Macromedia changes the
> interface to their new suite; BAM! Macromedia revamps and changes the
> ActionScript; KAZAM! Adobe expects me to have Photoshop, Illustrator,
> LiveMotion, Acrobat, ImageReady, GoLive, and Dimensions running at the
same
> time, because I am, after all, a graphic designer who also develops web
> sites, Flash sites, and who also produces multimedia with Acrobat. Can you
> hear me panting?
>
> However, I'm a one-man shop, not a Graphics Studio or Agency.
>
> Something had to change. Change is good. I embrace change. I like change.
> The idea of it is refreshing.
>
> So....
>
> A while ago I stood back from the crowd and looked for a new, cleaner,
> faster, efficient RGB workflow. I was very tempted to go to the BEOS
> reincarnate (its still out there, it's now called Zeta
> (http://www.yellowtab.com/), but the lack of Flash, Acrobat, and Imaging
> tools put me off.
>
> Hmm. Something was wrong. Something was trying to make itself
> known...remembered.....some little voice at the back of my head was
> whispering something incoherent.
>
> Meanwhile, I tried not using the dream suite
> Photoshop/Imageready/Illustrator/Dimensions for a while, substituting them
> for Studio MX and FreeHand 10 instead.
>
> Not so good. I got myself immersed with the Macromedia way of
> life....symbols, convert to symbol, instances, insert instance, movie
clips,
> buttons, scripts............arrrrrrghhhhhh leave me alone with this
> nit-picking rubbish!!!!!
>
> I JUST WANT TO GET MY WORK DONE, ON TIME, IN A CREATIVE ATMOSPHERE, AND
> DELIVER IT TO MY CLIENTS IN A PROFESSIONAL MANNER WITHOUT FEELING LIKE A
> SLAVE TO THE BEHEMOTH SOFTWARES THAT I ONCE LOVED AND PRAISED!
>
> Once loved and praised? wait a minute...
>
> WHAM-BAM-KAZAM-BOOM!
>
> The little voice in my head was now cheering as I'd finally comprehended.
> Enter - nay the flood gates were wide open - a tidal wave of fond memories
> of my time spent with Microsoft Image Composer during yesteryear. The only
> software that has made me smile, made me feel so good, and made me want to
> say words like "Joy" and "Fun" and "Thank You" out loud and I did - quite
> often - when I discovered this little gem, bundled for free with FrontPage
> 98.
>
> Well folks, biting the bullet (you get to feel a little foolish about
> installing ancient software on a cutting edge WinXP OS) I recently
installed
> the only version I have of MIC (1.5.0.2008) on XP. I thought I'd get an
> error message or something when I double-clicked the MIC icon. I barely
had
> time to blink before MIC opened, wagging its happy tail behind it and
almost
> saying Hah! and you thought you couldn't teach an Old Dog new tricks, eh?
> watch this space, Mate, you create it and I'll output perfectly compressed
> PNGs, JPGs, and GIFs for you...come on, come ON; what on earth are you
> waiting for?" I was panting again, this time with an excited creative
> energy.
>
> YEEHAH! this MIC thing with the crazy Chines/Japanese logo flies so
> blisterring fast, it is faster than FAST! I have a MIC file that weighs in
> at 120MB (slaps forehead) I wasn't aware of any performance issues - no
> slowing down, no grinding to a halt, no hassles, just business as usual on
> my Pentium 4 2.2Mhhz 512MB RAM PC. I was also running SwishMax, Internet
> Explorer, and Word simultaneously. No hiccups whatsoever.
>
> A quick look at the Windows Task Manager revealed the folowing statistics:
>
> MIC uses 5MB of RAM during startup. This with my 120MB file open.
> LiveMotion uses 55MB. This without any open files.
> Photoshop 7 uses 38MB. This without any open files.
> Acrobat 6 Pro uses 38MB RAM. This without any open files.
> Fireworks MX uses 37MB RAM.. This without any open files.
> Flash uses 29MB RAM. This without any open files.
> ImageReady uses 27MB RAM. This without any open files.
> Freehand 10 uses 16MB RAM. This without any open files.
> SwishMax (latest April 2004 build) uses 16MB RAM. This without any open
> files.
> SwishLite uses 5MB RAM. This without any open files.
>
> Using MIC together with SwishMax, SwishLite, MetaPad, Word, and PowerPoint
> is a new media workflow made in heaven, full of boiling potential. This
new
> workflow and new set of design/development tools are sooo fast. they sooo
> utilise my PC's performance capabilities (you can really feel the speed,
or
> atleast become aware of it, due to the no-lag time between most - but not
> all - user operations) instead of taxing it.
>
> I've reinstalled old favourite plug-ins too. Once I realised that I just
> needed to use the crop tool to enlarge the bounding box of any given
sprite
> before applying KPT 3 or Eye Candy, well, there was no going back to
> cash-cows Macromedia or Adobe. Especially now that I have discovered
levels
> and curves exist in MIC.
>
> Let me ask you this: when was the last time your favourite image editor
> opened in one second (other than MIC). Yup, this is the startup time of
MIC
> on my PC; that's 0 to 1 second, displaying a new default document with
> those - Joy - wonderful fluid Composition Guides.
>
> I've been a Microsoft basher for years. This product made me shut up real
> fast. I've started to use Word and Powerpoint again too. You can
copy/paste
> most drawing elements from them to MIC in a jiffy; need a rounded
rectangle
> or a 3D cube in MIC? draw them in Word or Powerpoint and copy/paste into
> MIC. Use MIC to color and manipulate at will.
>
> MIC eats low res images for Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper, leaving it
hungry
> for more, more, MORE. This is one excited young puppy that never grows old
> (that goes for me too...).
>
> So. Thank you for reading this long post. Call me a lurker, call me a
> has-been, call me what you will. I have saved more time the past few weeks
> than at any time during the past 15 years in the design business. I don't
> futz naming or creating layer after layer after layer, nesting layers and
> more layers, and more layers. I don't waste my time clicking and furrowing
> through myriad little GUI icons.
>
> I simply get the work done in no time, leaving me the option to either
> experiment with MIC a little more, or down tools and see what else life
has
> to offer.
>
> Coffee and something to eat sounds nice....
>
> ADDENDUM
> I'd like to think that Microsoft will be including MIC elements into
Avalon
> and Sparkle (Longhorn release of Windows). The functionality in MIC is so
> near perfect, it would be madness to not to utilise it in the next
> generation of the Windows OSes.
>
> Thanks for your time. I hope I've given some of you some food for thought,
> and the balls to ditch the Adobe and Macromedia mainstream softwares. At
> least for a trial run.
>
> Cheers to any of you who are reading this and who still use MIC,
>
> Jezza
>
>

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.688 / Virus Database: 449 - Release Date: 5/18/04

Walter Donavan

2004-05-22, 7:28 pm

Hi Marlies,

I checked out your URL reference and I *LOVE* your colored Chinese couple
line art. A real jewel.

While I was at it, I copped your NumTile.TTF. I can use it in my own
Bible-based numerology.

Now if I could only find a real, live copy of ThumbsPlus! 3.2. All the links
I found pointed to the 6.0 Beta release. :-(

I hope you are doing extra well.

More hugs,

Walter Donavan

"Marlies C" <mc_spam@mcuniverse.com> wrote in message
news:ekoLLuAQEHA.640@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Thank you, thank you, thank you.
>
> I really thought I was a dinosaur as all I ever use is IC. I have PSP 7,
> makes it easier to save clean gifs. But IC is the program of choice. Most
> people haven't even heard of IC, but for me it is so intuitive and fun to
> use. The only problem I had was finding a thumbnail viewer that showed mic
> files. Well, Thumbsplus 3.2 that never expires does just that. So I am a
> happy camper. On top of it Thumbsplus shows fonts and all I have to do is
> open the font, use it, save the mic file and then close the font. No need
to
> even install the font. Well, could not be easier.
>
> I have discovered pixelpainting newsgroups and coloring bw graphics and
> found that it is just so much easier in IC than in other programs. Here
are
> my latest creations
> http://www.mcuniverse.com/Coloring_...rt.1326.0.html.
>
> Yes, IC rocks!!!!!
>
> Hugs,
> Marlies
> www.mcuniverse.com

PDF

2004-05-23, 12:08 pm

Hi Marlies!

Your response to my initial posting was great; now I don't feel so alone in
the MIC world.

Your website is very inspiring - I'm looking forward to following your Da
Vinci links. It would probably help if I read the novel first...(the book is
next on my list).

BTW, if you are using Win 2000 or XP, when you choose Thumbnails from the
Explorer window, Windows displays nice clean thumbs of MIC files (the system
reads them as BMP files).

I'm teaching myself Flash ActionScript at the moment. I hope to put some MIC
stuff on my new Web site sometime in the near future. Watch this newsgroup!

And, hugs to you too!

Jez

"Marlies C" <mc_spam@mcuniverse.com> wrote in message
news:ekoLLuAQEHA.640@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Thank you, thank you, thank you.
>
> I really thought I was a dinosaur as all I ever use is IC. I have PSP 7,
> makes it easier to save clean gifs. But IC is the program of choice. Most
> people haven't even heard of IC, but for me it is so intuitive and fun to
> use. The only problem I had was finding a thumbnail viewer that showed mic
> files. Well, Thumbsplus 3.2 that never expires does just that. So I am a
> happy camper. On top of it Thumbsplus shows fonts and all I have to do is
> open the font, use it, save the mic file and then close the font. No need
to
> even install the font. Well, could not be easier.
>
> I have discovered pixelpainting newsgroups and coloring bw graphics and
> found that it is just so much easier in IC than in other programs. Here
are
> my latest creations
> http://www.mcuniverse.com/Coloring_...rt.1326.0.html.
>
> Yes, IC rocks!!!!!
>
> Hugs,
> Marlies
> www.mcuniverse.com
>
>
>
>
> "PDF" <kasjez@operamail.com> wrote in message
> news:ecpnVHNOEHA.308@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Pagemaker,
> what
tired[color=darkred]
> the
(damnabbit),[color=darkred]
not-enough-sleep,[color=darkred]
authoring[color=darkred]
for[color=darkred]
> ain't
sucked[color=darkred]
save[color=darkred]
left[color=darkred]
never[color=darkred]
confirm[color=darkred]
> same
you[color=darkred]
change.[color=darkred]
them[color=darkred]
> clips,
comprehended.[color=darkred]
memories[color=darkred]
only[color=darkred]
to[color=darkred]
quite[color=darkred]
FrontPage[color=darkred]
> installed
> had
> almost
eh?[color=darkred]
compressed[color=darkred]
in[color=darkred]
on[color=darkred]
statistics:[color=darkred]
PowerPoint[color=darkred]
> new
sooo[color=darkred]
> or
not[color=darkred]
> sprite
> levels
> MIC
real[color=darkred]
> copy/paste
> rectangle
> hungry
old[color=darkred]
weeks[color=darkred]
don't[color=darkred]
and[color=darkred]
furrowing[color=darkred]
> has
> Avalon
so[color=darkred]
thought,[color=darkred]
>
>
> ---
> Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.688 / Virus Database: 449 - Release Date: 5/18/04
>
>

PDF

2004-05-23, 12:08 pm

Hey Walter!

Apologies for not saying this earlier, your response to my initial posting
was great; now I don't feel so alone in the MIC world.

Cheers,

Jez

"Walter Donavan" <invalid@nowhere.not> wrote in message
news:eINxLbQOEHA.2780@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Thank you enormously for your post. I feel that way about PhotoDraw 2,
which
> I still use today. And I drag out IC once in a while just because it is a
> glorious program with a few unique tricks.
>
> I too despise the arbitrary bloatware and impossible interfaces of modern
> gfx pgms.
>
> I have and use Photoshop 7, but it is a love-hate relationship. There
simply
> is no more complex or difficult gfx pgm.
>
> PhotoPro 2.0 is vastly easier for simple jobs like cropping and removing
> blemishes. It also has an entire CD of clipart, picture frames, postcards,
> etc.-and it came as part of a $20, 11-CD dtp suite.
>
> PhotoDraw is far better at text and clipart-and it was $110 retail. I got
> mine as part of O2K Premium, and the PD V2 upgrade (PD V1 was awful) was
> free.
>
> Image Optimizer runs rings around the complex PS/IR optimization
> interfaces-and it was $40. It can even do files in batch-without those
> $%$#@! PS Actions.
>
> Clear Skin FX runs rings around Photoshop's touchup skills-and it was
free.
>
> Some of the more skilled among us (but not me) can do just about anything
> Corel Draw or Illustrator can do using Real-Draw Pro-and it costs about
$50.
>
> Yet, sadly, there are things I can do in Photoshop that I cannot do in the
> others. Wah!
>
> Oh, well. Fortunately, I am retired, and any crap I impose on myself is
> entirely my own doing. :)
>
> Thanks again.
> --
> Walter Donavan
> www.revelation7stages.com
> www.1stbooks.com/bookview/15479
>
>

PDF

2004-05-23, 12:08 pm

Hey Rich!

Apologies for not saying this earlier, your response to my initial posting
was inspiring.

Glad to read you dusted off IC...

Cheers,

Jez
"Rich Osborne" <osborne@HOLDITcharter.net> wrote in message
news:OxgZteTOEHA.4044@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Jezza -
>
> Not long winded at all! A good read.
>
> You've got me thinking about dusting off IC for a while. Long overdue.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Rich
>
> PS .... Real-DRAW has a pretty short learning curve for IC and PD users.
>
> --
> http://www.imagedraw.com/
> http://webpages.charter.net/osborne/
> "PDF" <kasjez@operamail.com> wrote in message
> news:uTsz3zROEHA.2996@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> More
> with
> after
is[color=darkred]
> a
> modern
removing[color=darkred]
> postcards,
> got
was[color=darkred]
> anything
about[color=darkred]
> the
is[color=darkred]
>
>

Tina Clarke

2004-05-23, 11:14 pm

>
> I have discovered pixelpainting newsgroups and coloring bw graphics and
> found that it is just so much easier in IC than in other programs. Here
are
> my latest creations
> http://www.mcuniverse.com/Coloring_...rt.1326.0.html.
>
> Yes, IC rocks!!!!!

Hi Marlies

Love your graphics ... I do what you do but I call mine stuff doodles and do
it by hand.. while I love IC, I'm not that adept at using it... I use it
mainly for graphics for tutorials and so just patch them up for my resource
web site .. I don't use it to design - much... but if I ever get my hands on
a graphic tablet I'd love to see what I can do with a doodle on the computer
using a mouse is like trying to draw with several large gloves on now a
graphic pen is another matter. I mainly just doodle away without a pic ..
but when something takes my fancy I'll trace the outline and doodle inside
and sometimes outside, I find distracting myself while I'm drawing works
best so I watch tv.. I guess that's why I don't really like messing around
on the puter with graphics ... I've nothing to distract me from what I'm
doing, I think chatting someone on IM might work though LOL. Anyway love
your colours and shades, if I can get my wonky printer to print out one of
your outlines I might print it off doodle and scan back in so you can see
what my version looks like. Here is a site where I've plonked some of them
... it's sadly in need of a complete over haul... trouble is I'm new at using
a digital and can't get the focus and sharpeness I want to achive.. plus my
son said I'd had his camera too long and could he please have it back.. lol.
Anyway see what you think. http://artdoodle.com

Tina

Tina Clarke

2004-05-23, 11:14 pm

HI Jezza

that's the problem with any program your always trying to keep up. I learnt
how to use a graphic program by using image composer with fp98 when it first
came out, though I must admit a short photoshop course at the local college
last year helped me learn more about IC ... I tend to remember how to use
features in IC and forget how in PS.. it's just too full of buttons half of
them hidden ... I like the way I've a full window in IC too not a little
section like in PS. ..

Did you know about microsoftgraphics.com ? They have a little addon that
will allow the undo button more undo's ... plus some other goodies and
tutorials.
http://microsoftgraphics.com/iczone/downloads/index.htm

I've a links page for other ic sites too.
http://accessfp.net/ic-links.htm

Congratulations on more free time ;)

Tina

PDF

2004-05-24, 7:14 am

Hey Tina,

Thanks for the URLs. I installed the multiple Undo and it works a treat.

Cheers!

Jezza

"Tina Clarke" <TinaClarke@accessfp.net> wrote in message
news:ujGMlDTQEHA.1160@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> HI Jezza
>
> that's the problem with any program your always trying to keep up. I
learnt
> how to use a graphic program by using image composer with fp98 when it
first
> came out, though I must admit a short photoshop course at the local
college
> last year helped me learn more about IC ... I tend to remember how to use
> features in IC and forget how in PS.. it's just too full of buttons half
of
> them hidden ... I like the way I've a full window in IC too not a little
> section like in PS. ..
>
> Did you know about microsoftgraphics.com ? They have a little addon that
> will allow the undo button more undo's ... plus some other goodies and
> tutorials.
> http://microsoftgraphics.com/iczone/downloads/index.htm
>
> I've a links page for other ic sites too.
> http://accessfp.net/ic-links.htm
>
> Congratulations on more free time ;)
>
> Tina
>
>

Marlies C

2004-05-28, 7:14 pm

Yes, I know I can thumbnails in W2K and XP, but I prefer to use Thumbsplus
solely for graphics and fonts, so I don't have to change the settings
constantly in the Windows Explorer.

Hugs,
Marlies
www.mcuniverse.com

"PDF" <kasjez@operamail.com> wrote in message
news:u36JSMMQEHA.2348@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hi Marlies!
>
> Your response to my initial posting was great; now I don't feel so alone
in
> the MIC world.
>
> Your website is very inspiring - I'm looking forward to following your Da
> Vinci links. It would probably help if I read the novel first...(the book
is
> next on my list).
>
> BTW, if you are using Win 2000 or XP, when you choose Thumbnails from the
> Explorer window, Windows displays nice clean thumbs of MIC files (the
system
> reads them as BMP files).
>
> I'm teaching myself Flash ActionScript at the moment. I hope to put some
MIC
> stuff on my new Web site sometime in the near future. Watch this
newsgroup!
>
> And, hugs to you too!
>
> Jez
>
>
>
>
> "Marlies C" <mc_spam@mcuniverse.com> wrote in message
> news:ekoLLuAQEHA.640@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
Most[color=darkred]
to[color=darkred]
mic[color=darkred]
is[color=darkred]
need[color=darkred]
> to
> are
to[color=darkred]
see[color=darkred]
> tired
to[color=darkred]
> (damnabbit),
shorter[color=darkred]
> not-enough-sleep,
> authoring
> for
> sucked
> save
> left
> never
the[color=darkred]
> confirm
web[color=darkred]
> you
> change.
Imaging[color=darkred]
> them
AND[color=darkred]
A[color=darkred]
> comprehended.
> memories
> only
want[color=darkred]
> to
> quite
> FrontPage
an[color=darkred]
barely[color=darkred]
> eh?
> compressed
weighs[color=darkred]
> in
no[color=darkred]
usual[color=darkred]
> on
Internet[color=darkred]
> statistics:
open[color=darkred]
> PowerPoint
This[color=darkred]
> sooo
speed,[color=darkred]
> not
just[color=darkred]
editor[color=darkred]
of[color=darkred]
> real
into[color=darkred]
> old
> weeks
> don't
> and
> furrowing
life[color=darkred]
> so
> thought,
At[color=darkred]
>
>

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.692 / Virus Database: 453 - Release Date: 5/28/04

Marlies C

2004-05-28, 7:14 pm

Thanks Tina. I once tried a tablet, but I could not get the hang of it, so I
keep on using my mouse. Drawing freehand was never my strong point so using
the computer is a definitely improvement for the finished product.

Love your work Tina, you must really love doing it.

Hugs,
Marlies
www.mcuniverse.com

"Tina Clarke" <TinaClarke@accessfp.net> wrote in message
news:uHDnn5SQEHA.904@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
> are
>
> Hi Marlies
>
> Love your graphics ... I do what you do but I call mine stuff doodles and
do
> it by hand.. while I love IC, I'm not that adept at using it... I use it
> mainly for graphics for tutorials and so just patch them up for my
resource
> web site .. I don't use it to design - much... but if I ever get my hands
on
> a graphic tablet I'd love to see what I can do with a doodle on the
computer
> using a mouse is like trying to draw with several large gloves on now a
> graphic pen is another matter. I mainly just doodle away without a pic ..
> but when something takes my fancy I'll trace the outline and doodle inside
> and sometimes outside, I find distracting myself while I'm drawing works
> best so I watch tv.. I guess that's why I don't really like messing around
> on the puter with graphics ... I've nothing to distract me from what I'm
> doing, I think chatting someone on IM might work though LOL. Anyway love
> your colours and shades, if I can get my wonky printer to print out one of
> your outlines I might print it off doodle and scan back in so you can see
> what my version looks like. Here is a site where I've plonked some of
them
> .. it's sadly in need of a complete over haul... trouble is I'm new at
using
> a digital and can't get the focus and sharpeness I want to achive.. plus
my
> son said I'd had his camera too long and could he please have it back..
lol.
> Anyway see what you think. http://artdoodle.com
>
>
> Tina
>
>

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.692 / Virus Database: 453 - Release Date: 5/28/04

Marlies C

2004-05-28, 7:14 pm

Gee, thanks for the compliment. Glad you found my numerology font helpful,
that's why I created it. It is the only font I ever made.

Here is a link to a thumbsplus 3.2 download I found. It is from Thailand. I
quickly started the download to see the file size and it seems to be
correct. http://www.geocities.com/pex08/download8.htm

Hugs,
Marlies
www.mcuniverse.com

"Walter Donavan" <invalid@nowhere.not> wrote in message
news:%23ejiHwBQEHA.2420@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Hi Marlies,
>
> I checked out your URL reference and I *LOVE* your colored Chinese couple
> line art. A real jewel.
>
> While I was at it, I copped your NumTile.TTF. I can use it in my own
> Bible-based numerology.
>
> Now if I could only find a real, live copy of ThumbsPlus! 3.2. All the
links
> I found pointed to the 6.0 Beta release. :-(
>
> I hope you are doing extra well.
>
> More hugs,
>
> Walter Donavan
>
> "Marlies C" <mc_spam@mcuniverse.com> wrote in message
> news:ekoLLuAQEHA.640@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
Most[color=darkred]
to[color=darkred]
mic[color=darkred]
is[color=darkred]
need[color=darkred]
> to
> are
>
>

---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.692 / Virus Database: 453 - Release Date: 5/28/04