11 Dec 2020

PhotoDemon Offers Powerful Features But No Documentation

The first thing you'll notice about PhotoDemon might be that you don't have to install it. Just download a zip file, unpack the executable file, and run the file. Normally photo editors are highly complex applications that install a lot of files, but not PhotoDemon. Not even a help file, and that may be what you notice next.

After running PhotoDemon the first time, you'll find that the 7MB executable file has become more than 52MB with over 1000 files in 165 folders. So clearly this is a somewhat unusual application.

It's been around for a while, though. The current version is 8.4. It's a free, open-source photo editor. The developer describes it as a comprehensive selection of photo editing tools in a small download. PhotoDemon runs on any Windows computer than runs XP or a later version.

The application is able to open many proprietary raw file formats. As with other applications, it doesn't write changes to raw files. If you open a raw file, make changes, and save it, PhotoDemon will create a file with a PDI extension and save it in the same directory as the raw file. The PDI file seems to be considerably larger than the raw file, approximately double the size of the raw file in many cases.

 Click any of the small images for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.

When I had PhotoDemon open a digital negative file from a Sony camera, it insisted on color mapping what it believed was a 32-bit high-dynamic-range (HDR) photo.

The 8.0 release was the product of more than two years of work and the subsequent point releases fixed bugs. Tanner Helland is the guy behind the screen. Just one person, not the dozens or hundreds of developers that typically work on applications like this. Because there's just one developer and because developers should never write the documentation for their own applications might explain why there is no documentation. Helland does accept "outside contributions from coders, designers, translators, and enthusiasts."

This may account for the quirky interface. Take for example the process of adding text to an image. The text is placed on another layer so that changes made to the original image are non-destructive. But unlike every other application I can think of, PhotoDemon doesn't place a cursor on the image. Instead, it creates a text bounding box that is the size of the image. Placing the text involves changing the size of the text frame on the new layer. That part is easy and works the way most people will expect: A hand tool moves the frame around and handles can be used to change its size.

But how does the user add text? I started typing and nothing happened. There are two kinds of text layers, "Basic" and "Advanced". I tried both of them and typing after adding a layer did nothing. Eventually I tried searching for PhotoDemon instructional videos on YouTube and found one. Unfortunately, the spoken parts were in Dutch. I do not speak Dutch, but I watched carefully to see what the instructor did.

Instead of typing on the image, the user types the text in a small box at the bottom of the screen. This is not intuitive interface design, but it works once the user knows what to expect. Much of PhotoDemon suffers from similar design that works but is simply so unexpected that those who have used other photo editors will be confused.

Basic text is what Photoshop users will know as point text. Advanced text is similar to Photoshop's area text. Both of the text types have two options boxes at the bottom of the screen: An area where the user types and a section that controls common settings. (1) Basic text offers typeface, size, color, alignment, bold, italic, underline, and strike-through. It's unclear what measure is used for typeface size. I expected the usual setting for points, but to get the equivalent of approximately 72-point text, PhotoDemon listed the size as 429. (2) Advanced text adds paragraph settings such as vertical and horizontal padding, line spacing, word wrap, letter spacing, and character rotation.

Some unusual settings exist here. In addition to being able to rotate characters, adding a jitter setting randomly modifies character spacing, and the entire block of text can be mirrored vertically or horizontally.

PhotoDemon includes some surprising high-end functionality, such as the ability to wrap an image around a sphere, but seems to omit basic functions such as the ability to use an eyedropper tool to select a color. That's not to say that the eyedropper doesn't exist, but only that I've been unable to find it.

PhotoDemon accepts third-party libraries that can add functions, but how to add these libraries isn't clear, nor is how to use third-party libraries once you've added them. There also seems to be no lens correction function, and that can be a problem. Photographers who use well-made prime lenses such as Canon's 50mm f/1.4 EF lens have little need for this function, but zoom lenses often have distortion that can be remedied by the processing application. The Sony RX100 v6 point-and-shoot camera that I use frequently has severe distortion at the corners and a significant vignetting problem. Applications such as Adobe's Lightroom and Camera Raw, Exposure X6, Luminar 4, and Affinity Photo all have lens correction functions, which makes its absence in PhotoDemon even more noticeable.

 PhotoDemon may have a promising future, but it's a challenge to use at the present.

I was in San Diego more than 20 years ago and though it might be worthwhile to visit Tijuana, so I took the light rail system to San Ysidro, crossed the border, and rode a bus to downtown Tijuana. I speak no Spanish, but English is common in Tijuana, but when I wandered outside the main business district to a residential area I felt lost because everything was in a language I couldn't read. I had the same feeling wandering around inside PhotoDemon. This is an application that has both impressive capabilities and surprising shortcomings. The developer says he's about ready to start on version 9, so I'll keep an eye on it.
Additional details are available on the PhotoDemon website.
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Short Circuits

Taking A Short Stroll On The Amazon Sidewalk

If you have an Amazon smart connected device, it may soon be connecting to more than you think, and quite a few people are either infuriated, frightened, or both about it. The concept isn't new, but Amazon's involvement means that it will affect more people than ever before.

The goal is worthy: Better network connectivity, but Amazon says "When enabled, Sidewalk uses a small portion of your Internet bandwidth to provide ... services to you and your neighbors." That sounds a lot like it bypasses the security controls you have on your Wi-Fi router, doesn't it? And everyone knows how important it is to use a modern router with strong security to keep others from piggybacking on your internet connection.

That's why a lot of people feel that Amazon Sidewalk is a major over-reach by a huge corporation. One reason for this concern is that, although Amazon makes participation optional, the feature is turned on by default. If you don't want it, you have to figure out how to turn it off. That is precisely the opposite of what Amazon should have done.

But how serious is the threat? Sidewalk is intended to fill in gaps where home networks don't reach and, because Sidewalk depends on security cameras, smart doorbells, and the like to provide communications, the range is quite limited. Additionally, Amazon says the devices operate at a maximum of 80Kbps. That's about the speed of a dial-up connection. Remember those? Even if somebody parks outside your house, connects to Amazon Sidewalk, defeats three layers of security, and starts downloading porn, the connection won't last long because it's capped at 500MB per month. That's about 10 minutes worth of high-definition streaming video.

So if you don't like the idea, turn it off. You can do that, and I'll explain how in a moment, but Amazon can turn it back on later if they want to. Hint: Amazon will want to turn it back on.

I said this isn't a new concept. For years Comcast has promoted a free public Wi-Fi that takes advantage of their customers' Wi-Fi routers. Approximately one and a half million public Wi-Fi hotspots exist. Comcast customers can turn the feature off, but the company doesn't make information about how to do that easily available.

Amazon likes to use the word security, but nothing is entirely secure. A well-maintained home Wi-Fi router with a strong passphrase is sufficiently secure for most of us, and Amazon has published a white paper that offers a lot of detail about the security. But if something can go wrong, it will. And if nothing can possibly go wrong, it still will. Microsoft, MacOS, and Linux operating systems are updated repeatedly and many of the updates focus on security flaws.

We already know the security for Internet of Things (IoT) devices was poor to begin with. Although conditions have improved a lot, IoT is still the weakest of the weak connection links.

If you have an Alexa device and you don't want to participate in Sidewalk, start by updating the Alexa app to its latest version. Then sign into your Amazon account, tap More > Settings > Account Settings > Amazon Sidewalk and turn it off. Then remember to check every now and then to see whether Amazon has turned it back on.

Adobe Illustrator Goes Mobile

A year ago, Adobe created a version of Photoshop for the IPad. This year, it's Illustrator's turn on the small screen. The objective was to make it possible to use full featured applications on highly portable devices. That may be less important now that we need to avoid meetings and travel, but the expansion to other hardware also makes it possible to work with Adobe applications from an easy chair instead of from a desk.

As with the first mobile version of Photoshop, the first mobile version of Illustrator doesn't have all the features of the desktop version. But enough features are present to make the application useful and to provide some insight into where applications for graphic design are heading.

Combining an Apple Pencil, Ipad, and Illustrator makes logo, illustration, and graphic design possible wherever you are. The user interface needs to be considerably different from what's in the desktop version because of limited screen real estate and the need to interact with the hardware and software using touch. Apple offers a keyboard for the tablet, but attaching it makes the touch screen clumsy to use. Users can also connect a Bluetooth mouse, but these are generally needed only if there's a need to work with a significant amount of text. For Illustrator, it's best to limit interactions to just the screen using a finger and the pencil.

Because Illustrator connects to Creative Cloud, 18,000 typefaces can be employed whether the user is in front of a desktop computer or holding a tablet. Work created on mobile devices is synchronized in the cloud so that the user can continue working on a project from any device.

Adobe notes that the first release of Illustrator for Ipad delivers "core features", and these are identified as the pen tool, shape builder, and gradients. The list of capabilities will expand during the coming year.

Other new and improved features on the desktop are aimed primarily at professional graphic designers and involve color palettes, improved methods to modify colors in an image, precision type modifications, and better support for sharing components and documents.

Spare Parts

Still No Solution For The Digital Divide

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn't made the digital divide worse, but it has clearly shown how bad the problem is. Some students do well studying from home, but only if they have the necessary technology to participate. All too often, that's not the case.

We tend to think that everyone has internet access, but about 44 million people had no access at home as of January 2020. Mobile phone penetration is greater and most phones have internet access, but phones are insufficient for educational use. An article by Shira Ovide in the New York Times says that nearly 30% of New York City residents have no internet access and nearly 40% of residents in one part of the Bronx have no access.

Ovide says there are many reasons for this, including a lack of infrastructure, the cost of access, and the cost of hardware. The article describes a plan to create a wide area Wi-Fi system that will provide free internet access to residents near the antenna. A friend of mine lived in a rural area that had no internet service other than what he could get through dial-up on a sub-standard phone line. This is a common problem throughout much of rural America. Satellite internet is available, but only the downlink speed rarely exceeds 25Mbps and the services can easily top $100 per month.

New York City is planning to install more system like the one in the Bronx according to the article. What is being done in your area to provide service to areas that need it?

Robocalls Are Up, But Scams Are Down A Bit

Americans received just over 3.8 billion robocalls in November. That's an increase of approximately 10% over October or about 127 million calls per day. But YouMail, the developer of a robocall blocking app, says that there was a "significant decline" in scam calls.

In November, there were just over 2.3 billion scam and telemarketing calls combined, accounting for roughly 60% of the month's total robocall volume. The good news is that scam calls were down 15% in November, though this is likely due to lower scam volume during the Thanksgiving holiday week.

November was similar to October, with health-related scams, car warranty scams, and government imposter scams each reaching near or over 100 million illegal robocalls. Car warranty scams and government imposter scams decreased in volume significantly, while health-related scams increased in volume.

Twenty Years Ago: Online Business Was Down, But Not For Long

In December 2000, I wrote "It seems like only a few weeks ago that I was reporting predictions from several research firms and that those firms were predicting huge increases in on-line holiday sales. In fact, it was just a few weeks ago and those were the predictions."

Buy.com and Egghead.com are reporting that sales were down from last year's. On the other hand, on-line divisions of traditional retail stores are seeing increased sales. Target, JC Penney, Best Buy, and Blue Light (Kmart) are all seeing increased sales. (Twenty years later, we all know what happened to Penny and Kmart.)

Today's smartest retailers understand that physical stores and online are both needed. Consider, for example, the way grocery stores have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic.