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Pictographics Releases iCorrect EditLab Color Editing Software
By Mike Pasini, The Imaging Resource
(Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 14:28 EST)

Photoshop plug-in intelligently enhances brightness and color and provides mask-free hue editing...

Pictographics has improved on its indispensable iCorrect color correction plug-in with a greatly enhanced four-panel plug-in that provides intelligent, automatic global color correction while providing for manual mask-free color correction.

Before and After

The new Photoshop color editing filter plug-in [MW] makes global color corrections based on:

a) Automatic image analysis

b) Memory colors you identify

c) Interactive settings and

d) Photoshop's color management setup.

OUR TESTS

We've had a chance to use the plug-in for a couple of weeks and threw a difficult subject at it. Our shot of Rodin's Thinker was taken from a low angle against a cloudy but blue sky. The deep patina of the bronze statue fought the bright blue.

Without iCorrect EditLab, we masked the statue and separately brightened the sky and tweaked the detail in the statue. But because the statue reflected a bit of the sky, the mask wasn't easy to build (nor perfect).

Then we asked iCorrect EditLab to correct the original image and our preferred tweaks were done instantly and automatically with no masking. We didn't even bother to refine what the plug-in had done, it was that good.

HUE CORRECTIONS

But if you choose to refine the results, iCorrect EditLab makes it easy, stepping you gradually up from simple global brightness corrections (which are often enough) to selective hue corrections.

The selective hue control is particularly welcome. Merely click on a color and adjust the color using EditLab's tools. No masking required.

Turtle EditLab

The illustration above shows the plug-in's fourth panel hard at work getting some reluctant color to poke its head out. You can see memory color buttons for skin, foliage and sky to the right of the color wheel.

SATURATION

We tried it on another nasty image, a color negative we'd shot with our digicam and converted to positive using a general all-purpose curve we came up with some time ago. Our curve intentionally leaves the image flat (not knowing where the important information is to be found).

Rather than revisit Curves or pull up Levels to improve the image, we just asked iCorrect EditLab to do it. Even with the default saturation setting, it did a better job than two competing products we're testing. Very impressive.

But these guys weren't satisfied. They modified the tool so you can edit the saturation level, too.

INTELLIGENCE

There's a lot of intelligence built into the product, but the nice thing about iCorrect EditLab is that it welcomes your own. With iCorrect you did it by associating memory colors to parts of your image. iCorrect EditLab adds even more ways for you to get what you want from your images with manual control of its automatic functions.

We also like its plug-in architecture. Which means we can take it with us from image editor to image editor.

DISCOUNT

Pictographics provides a couple of ways to help evaluate iCorrect EditLab:



iCorrect EditLab is available at a special introductory 20 percent discount off the retail price of $99 through Feb. 28. Use the special promotional code INTRODUCTION.

Original Source Press Release:

Pictographics Releases iCorrect EditLab Color Editing Software

New Technology Offers Powerful, Intuitive Approach to Color Editing

PMA, Orlando, FL -- February 24, 2002 -- Pictographics International Corporation, a leading developer of digital color technology products, has released iCorrect EditLab, a color correction and color editing plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Jasc Paint Shop Pro.

"With iCorrect EditLab, Pictographics has taken the break through technology of its award-winning iCorrect Professional to a whole new level. iCorrect EditLab begins by making the color right, and ends with making the color even better," according to Wayne Huelskoetter, president. iCorrect EditLab brings very sophisticated color editing tools to digital imaging enthusiasts of all levels. Because it treats color in more familiar terms such as hue, saturation, brightness and contrast, iCorrect EditLab is very intuitive and easy-to-use. Working in Auto mode, iCorrect EditLab automatically analyzes an image and sequentially sets each of its four color control areas to an optimum starting point. All that's left is the much simpler job of making small refinements.

The four control areas include: gray balance; white/black point; brightness/contrast/saturation; and hue selective editing. The hue selective editing function enables users to modify specific hues without masks. These tools are designed to have minimal impact on each other. For example, adjusting a skin tone will not affect the gray balance or tonal range of the image, thus eliminating the common "chasing your tail" syndrome common with other color editing tools like curves, sliders, and variations.

iCorrect EditLab also includes Pictographics' patent pending memory color algorithms introduced in iCorrect Professional. These algorithms allow for very quick and easy correction of several special colors including sky blue, foliage green, and skin tones. Pictographics' unique race-independent skin tone memory color has found special favor in portrait and school photography markets. By eliminating frustrating trial and error methods and complex masks, iCorrect EditLab will save photographers an enormous amount of time and reduce their frustration as they realize their creative vision of how an image should look.

In addition, the color transform created with iCorrect EditLab is linked to Photoshop's RGB working color space. Therefore, the correction is made within a profiled, device-independent, reference color space. The final image is then ready for use in a color-managed workflow.

Pictographics has provided two ways to help evaluate iCorrect EditLab.

o A Guided Tour. The tour (http://www.picto.com/editlabtour/index.html) introduces the product's major features.

o Demo Software. A fully-functional demo (http://www.picto.com/support/downloads.htm) is also available.

iCorrect EditLab Plug-in for Macintosh and Windows is the newest addition to Pictographics' family of easy to use color correction and color enhancement products. Other products include:

o iCorrect stand-alone application for Windows;

o iCorrect Plug-in for Macintosh and Windows;

o iCorrect Professional Plug-in for Macintosh and Windows; and

o inCamera Professional digital camera profiling application for Macintosh and Windows.

iCorrect EditLab is available for $99.00 at www.picto.com. A free demonstration version is also available at www.picto.com.

Pictographics International Corporation is a leading provider of digital color technology and advanced imaging applications. Through technology license partners and end user products, CandelaColor(r) Digital Color Technology by Pictographics is used to "Make the Color Right"(tm) on digital images that are seen by hundreds of thousands of people every day as they read their newspapers, page through a catalog, see a billboard or a magazine ad, or watch an animated movie. Pictographics is located at 2216 East 117th Street, Burnsville, MN 55337, USA. TEL 952-894-6247, FAX 952-894-0784. www.picto.com, e-mail: picto@picto.com.

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