Monday, March 8, 2010

TOS Review Crew - Graphics Toolbox


Graphics Toolbox is a program that allow you to manipulate drawings, clipart and pictures from the Internet and photos you take yourself , add cool elements from their toolbox and make them into incredible projects. Graphics Toolbox works differently than other photo editing programs. Instead of layers there is a desktop, like a table and you define the area to work in and then the rest of the desk top is your work area. Like bringing in glue, stickers, glitter and putting them on your desk with your pictures and then you cut and paste and decorate and place them in the work area.

I am not going to try and describe all the features this program has you can look at some of them on the Features page. Some of the other pages on the site give you the FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) about this product, some tips for how to use this product in the Education of your child/children whether you homeschool or not, and even how to use this product for Fashion.

Some of the ladies of our group had the opportunity to participate in some online training sessions which are now available at the Graphics-Toolbox website. I wish I could have fit that into my schedule. With my health issues because of my teeth I lost two weeks. The tutorials help greatly in figuring out the program. Seeing someone use the features is much easier than reading about it. There is a detailed pdf included with the download that gives you step by step detailed explanations of all the features. You can reference this from the program and keep both the pdf and the program open so you can try out the feature while you learn about it or you can access it anytime you need a review of how to do something.
 

How I used Graphic Toolbox:
I watched one of the tutorials all the way through with my son. Then, while watching the project part of a second tutorial that had a project like I wanted to do, I went step by step with her and I made my first project. I chose a picture that we used this year for school. Then I chose a picture of my son Nathan and used a tool to draw around him and separate him from the background. After resizing him to fit in the picture I pasted him on and then used the watercolor tool to blend the edges so it looked like he belonged there. I also watched a part of the 4th tutorial to see how to add a ribbon border. You can pick a ribbon, then choose a color from the picture you are using or colors from the color pallet, and it lets you preview it before you change it. I think it turned out cool for a first project. What do you think?
My first project

Nathan in a Casper David Friedrich Painting - Evening 1820

I thought this would be a fun first project and it was.

This page of the website is where you can Download Graphics Toolbox. It cost $149 for 1 User License (Discount for 2+ users) or you can try it for a 30 day free trial. The trial gives you a fully functioning program, the exact same as the one for purchase. Try it out and see if you think it could be helpful in your school, home, and/or business.

Out of
 five stars I give the Graphics Toolbox


Because of the price, I have to give this product my break the bank icon. It may be worth $150 for all that the program does but if I had not gotten this product for review I never would have purchased it. A graphic program was not one of the things I felt I needed. If you are in the market for a great program to use with your photos you should give this a try. It is really cool and I almost gave it 5 stars. As I said above, because of the free trial you can each try it out first, for yourself.

 Check out my Crew Mates reviews at the TOS Homeschool Crew Review Blog and see what they thought and some of the projects they made.

Keep an eye on my blog too because I want to make some more projects with this program from time to time and I will post them when I do. I want to try digital scrapbooking with it, for instance, after they put the tutorial for that up on the blog.


***Great Software Tools provided me with the Graphics Toolbox so that I could do my review. Though I received this product for free I have given an honest review of it here in this post.

Debbie

1 comment:

Sheri said...

Yah that is cool. We did a boy and his dad touring George Washington's place with George..same techniques-she's gonna put it on their site too. I have to get this review done-good thing I got an extension (had puter issues) but I too am the same-glad I got it to review but would not have looked to buy it cuz it is one of those "would love to have but..." items. :0(

Good review!

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