Although its many features offer a lot of image-editing flexibility, an off-beat interface may throw off people familiar with other graphics-editing tools. GrafxShop handles photos and illustrations equally well, with a full complement of drawing tools and filters. All the tools are easily accessible from tabs on the left side of the interface, although the way the palettes are organized doesn’t always make a lot of sense. For example, brushes can be found under two tabs, Paint and Extra Palette. Interface buttons have a bright and friendly look, and the program comes with a number of skins. It includes slide-show, multiple-undo, and vector features. You can save in TIFF, JPEG, and PNG formats, as well as Windows cursor and icon formats; GrafxShop can open more than 20 formats. The application now includes a simple SlideShow tool and can help make Web authoring and site maintenance easier with its WYSIWYG editor and page-publishing tool. During testing we got some error messages, although the program didn’t crash and our work was unaffected. Despite its high learning curve and potential stability issues, GrafxShop makes a good creative tool for those willing to take some time with it.
