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Flying Meat releases Acorn image editor

by Mat Lu Sep 10th 2007 at 9:20AM

Okay I admit it; I was fooled. Last week Gus Mueller posted an "interview" on his blog with a "fellow Pacific Northwest developer" about an exciting new app to be released today. While I had figured out it was probably an image editor, I did not figure out that Gus was talking to himself! In any case, Flying Meat software (of VoodooPad and FlySketch fame) today announced Acorn, an image editor "built for the 21st century." Much like Pixelmator (with which I expect Acorn to be compared once Pixelmator finally ships), Acorn takes advantage of your GPU to speed up its operation. It has the normal assortment of editing tools, including layers (with filters), vector tools, as well as a built-in Python and Objective-C plugin system. The latter is particularly exciting as it will allow third-party developers to extend Acorn in potentially interesting ways.

I've long thought that there was an obvious hole in the market for a reasonably priced image editor that was powerful enough for most user but much cheaper than Photoshop. Since Adobe is taking its sweet time releasing a Universal version of Photoshop Elements, it's good to see smaller developers like Gus Mueller and the guys behind Pixelmator stepping up to the plate. It'll be interesting to see how each of them make out in the long run.

Acorn is $39.95 (intro price) and a demo is available.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

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Okay I admit it; I was fooled. Last week Gus Mueller posted an "interview" on his blog with a "fellow Pacific Northwest developer" about an...
 

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gash

There may be a lack of cocoa native image editors you can get for free, but the Gimp is plenty powerful, free, and runs just fine on a Mac (with X11). If you want a power PS type menu layout, try Gimpshop. Also free.

September 19 2007 at 3:26 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Anthony

I did some stuff on it last night and while it is a little lite, i'm sure that it will only get better. What I miss off the bat is a smudge brush and a darken/lighten brush. If this app can get me away from Photoshop then I am all for it. ^_^

September 10 2007 at 3:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Catt

No thanks...I'll hold out until Pixelmator is released. The Acorn interface could use some more work big time its just plain ugly and non-interesting. Seems like they rush this out, this is more like a beta I wouldn't not plop down $10 for this let alone $40

September 10 2007 at 2:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
tripdragon

chocoflop.com Free beta but free
But what the hell is "powerful" anyway ? Photoshop is powerful but worth the money. You want that for free ?


September 10 2007 at 12:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Christina Warren

I can't say I was overly blown away with the demo. There certainly is a market for a lower-cost image editing program, a la Paint Shop Pro or something for Mac -- but at this stage, Acorn isn't it.

September 10 2007 at 12:00 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

this app is a joke. why spend 40 bucks on that crap? get graphicconverter and you get a fully equipped image editor for only $35, that in many way is better than photoshop.

September 10 2007 at 11:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike Shaffer

For a free image editor, try Seashore http://seashore.sourceforge.net/ . I started using it while waiting for Adobe to UB Photoshop and I've found that my meager needs were more than satisfied. It's not Photoshop...but it works well for light duty stuff. Give it a look. I've added it to all of our lab computers (I'm a High School teacher on the side) and we won't be renewing our Adobe licenses (too 'spensive)...

September 10 2007 at 11:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
David Chartier

@ryaninc: You can find some basic editors like ImageWell that can crop and scale images. They also offer basic drawing tools and shapes. But you aren't going to find something as powerful as Acorn or even Skitch for free. Sooner or later you have to spend some cash on quality; you get what you pay for.

September 10 2007 at 11:24 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan Joseph

I'm not really interested in an expensive image editor. What I've been looking for for quite some time now is a free image editor for Macs. Something akin to Paint.net for the PC world. I would LOVE a free, easy to use, but powerful image editor for Macs. Anyone know of anything?

September 10 2007 at 11:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Liquidmark

The filters are fine. What I have a problem with is the interface an selection tools. plus layer behavior is limited.

September 10 2007 at 9:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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