Filed under: Macworld, Software
Iris: One window image editing for Leopard

What separates Iris from the competition is the single-screen user interface that dispenses with a lot of the traditional floating palettes that clutter screens with other applications. While it's a 1.0 release, a quick tour of the trial download shows that Iris is a surprisingly full-featured image editor supporting most major file formats, advanced compositing tools, and color correction machinery that lets you fix or enhance your favorite photos.
Iris requires Leopard, and can be purchased from Nolobe for $79. If you'd like to take Iris for a spin, download the free trial.


![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
outlyer said 2:08PM on 6-17-2008
$79? That's a little steep. If this was more reasonably priced, I might buy it for the quick edits that make loading Photoshop unwieldy, but not at this price.
Reply
Erik said 2:20PM on 6-17-2008
Confusing. I already have a webcam tool called Iris
Reply
Erik said 2:28PM on 6-17-2008
link:
http://www.mildmanneredindustries.com/iris/
Reply
Ian said 2:32PM on 6-17-2008
Thank goodness someone is bucking the floating tool pallets arms race. If this app is any good at all, I'll buy it just to show my appreciation.
Reply
Dan said 3:00PM on 6-17-2008
Oh yeah, the MDI standard is so much better. /puke
babyfett said 3:07PM on 6-17-2008
Doesn't seem nearly as comprehensive (at least from the limited specs on their website) as Pixelmator and Pixelmator costs $20 less.
Reply
Max said 3:22PM on 6-17-2008
Another anemic image editor. $79 for this? You're joking. I'd rather use Pixelmator or GIMP.
Reply
JimD said 11:45PM on 6-17-2008
My review here. In short, stick with Acorn or Pixelmator. This thing is a dog.
Reply
Donald said 4:13PM on 6-17-2008
So what is so special about this? It looks just like photoshop elements 6 which forces you to use a fullscreen (apart from the dock) window.
Reply
Joshua Ochs said 4:58PM on 6-17-2008
The overall look may be slick, but the functionality is sorely lacking. MDI is a wretched paradigm and extremely un-Mac-like, and will keep me away from this for sure. Meanwhile, this has no features I can see that Pixelmator doesn't, and it's exceptionally feature-poor compared to Adobe Photoshop Elements. Like all of these pretenders to the throne, I can't even constrain a selection to a size or aspect ratio.
Reply
riouxr said 4:22PM on 6-17-2008
Hummm... powerful layer compositing... can't event change anything on the layers! No masks. Doesn't support Wacom tablet... large brushes have serious banding issues with soft edges... Refresh problems when you change the order of the layers, checker for transparency doesn't refresh properly when you zoom in... Shall I continue? Too bad because it looks very nice and I would love to use it but right now it's more of a beta then a final product.
Reply
jsbpepe said 6:14PM on 6-17-2008
Thank you for the informed comment.
Angel said 12:57AM on 6-18-2008
Now, I hope Pixelmator turns into a 1-window app!!
Reply
Spinfusor said 1:30AM on 6-18-2008
In Photoshop there is a one-window screen mode...
(press F)
Reply