Leopard editor shuns palettes

Despite its many foibles, the Windows World has one indisputable advantage over denizens of the Apple Sphere: greater software variety. That's not to say that the software available to Macintosh users isn't great, there's just more of it in the PC realm. To some extent, Apple has contributed to its software dearth by making outstanding applications and packaging them free with its hardware.

Nevertheless, from time to time, an independent developer who believes they have a better idea rolls the dice in the Apple market. One such developer is an Australian company named Nolobe, which today released a photo editor called Iris ($79). The program, which only operates under Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard), is designed to run in a single window and eschews the multiple pallette approach used by applications like Adobe Photoshop. According to Nolobe, the program has a wide assortment of fully customizable paint settings, brushes and drawing tools; a comprehensive toolset to quickly correct and enhance images; layer-based editing support; and the ability to import and export a wide range of file formats including TIFF, PNG, JPEG, GIF, PICT and BMP.

"Iris has been created for previously overlooked Mac owners who simply wanted an accessible and easy to use image program that provides professional results, without the professional price tag," Matthew Drayton, founder and CEO of Nolobe, observed in a statement.