#41 Um... go back and read the *context* of #2's original message! It's not "wrecking havoc" it's "wreaking havoc". #38 got the spelling right.

nice program. i just used it to touch up my banner at http://www.themeparkcodes.com

After using select all, then control v, I was able to paste the serial no. in the box and just delete the rest.
Yep there are were some java exceptions, but I think it has something to do with the sequence of selection. I think the application does not allow for the invariable errant nature of a human operator. So it has a few bugs~heh heh, lets play. Oh and there is an undo~its called "discard".
I will keep this and have fun experimenting! I'll make great use of this one, I alway do.
Thank you Giveaway of the Day and the creators of Citra FX!

This caused me all kind of problems on Vista with the Java. It still did even after downloading the lastest Java update.

Looks ok...but a real nightmare for my PC. Thank God i set a restore point.

I agree , Photofiltre is good . Have been using the free version for years. There is also an upgrade paid version, but there is sufficient options in the free. (Ps i have downloaded the paid version and transferred some of the additional files to the Free version, dont tell anyone about this)

#38 Um, buy a dictionary. Or better yet, www.google.com, define: wrecking...then define: wreaking.

this program is fairly lame... sorry guys...
I installed it, and it looks like a bad clone of JASC paintshop pro from like 10 years ago.

I was also not impressed with the "no thumbnails" view available when parsing through my picture directories...


on a scale of 1 to 10 I rate this program a ZERO

try again.

thanks for the offer though,
I do appreciate GOTD

but this particular offering completely BLOWS

This stayed on my computer for about 15 minutes before I uninstalled it in disgust. I can understand offers of software that is of no use to me when others can use it. Or software with a bug or two from a developer who seems to be really trying.
But this is pure crap. I hate when a developer throws together, seemingly overnight, a program that does less than many freeware alternatives, and does it half-assed.
Only the most cloying of the GOTD Pep Squad will cheer this anemic, Java-based joke. And charging $30 it for is an insult. Do not insult me, do you hear? DO NOT INSULT ME!!!

#2 = 'wreaking'

Sorry, but I will not install java for any app!

I read comment #3 about this being more basic than MS Paint and was sceptical that this was true so went to review it myself. I work a lot with image editing programs as I build websites and use the software for the layout and graphics of them.

After taking literally over 7 minutes to start (although I was able to copy and paste the registration code), the first thing I noticed about Citra FX was that when opening a picture it does not go to "My Pictures" or anywhere else image related - you go to the root folder of the present User which means you have to navigate manually to your images' folder. You also do not get thumbnails of the image - you only see their names. This is such a small thing but is SO cumbersome - to have to remember the name of every image you want to open is time-consuming and irritating, especially when working with a large amount of images simultaneously.

After opening a random image I clicked on the "Filter" button to begin the effects - I was surprised that there were only 4 options, (albeit with multiple choices per option) - Blur, Color, Distort and Stylize. So I clicked on Blur and chose part of my image to add the effect to - nb this is NOT something that all image editors allow so is a good feature - you can add efects to any part of the image you like by drawing a box, circle, freehand shape or, uniquely, a heart around the area to which you want to add the effect.

I was then very surprised that pressing Ctrl and Z did not put the image back to how it was - in fact, there is NO facility to Undo any changes, you can only change them back by manually doing so (that is to pull the sliders back to the start so that no blur effect is there).

Although not as basic as MS Paint (which I also do use almost daily due to some facilities it has that even professional image editors do not) it is in no way comparable to other programs that are either free or of very little cost - "The Gimp" http://www.gimp.org/ is one such program (totally FREE) although I highly recommend Microsoft Image Composer - this is now seemingly practically obselete but is fabulous, it can be bought very cheaply on eBay as it comes with FrontPage 98, I picked up a copy for £5. Click here to get FrontPage 98 on eBay.

I do think that Citra FX is a program with some good points, I like the way you can apply effects to specific areas and I also like the way the developer strongly encourages communication between users and themselves, I have seen them ask for feedback a few times in the 3 times I have tried the program. Perhaps the developer will indeed look to increasing the amount of features in future editions and hopefully will change the default directory when opening an image and include thumbnails instead of image names only when browsing. But overall it is certainly not a stand-alone program that could be used by anyone editing graphics regularly, there would always be the need for other programs as well which is unfortunate.

this is nothing compared to gimp, although unless your running linux you need to install the runtime environment, but its not terribly challenging. You can find it

Paint.net is a superior program in every way...PWNED

A very elementary program with a major drawback of the lack of a thumbnail selection when opening a graphic. I had to use another program to decide which picture to use to try this out, which is ridiculous.

The interface is not intuitive, but the Effects are fine within their limitations. However, the Tools are weird in that once you use a tool, you cannot "discard" it. If I tried to use another tool, more often than not, I got a java exception. I finally found that if I select the Rectangular Selection tool and clicked just outside the picture, it would clear the previous tool without causing a java exception {at least on my XP Pro MCE SP2 computer}. That's unnecessarily awkward.

For those who don't know the purpose of the tools, they are to limit the area for the effects to the area defined by a tool, such as the heart shape, instead of applying the effects to the entire picture. However, discarding an effect within a shape sometimes caused a java exception.

I had to use the rotate tool on the star shape since the star was always at an angle. It was impossible to place it straight when first using it. In my opinion, the star should automatically be placed straight (like the heart) and then the user can use the Rotate tool, if desired, to change the angle.

Between the lack of thumbnails when selecting a picture, the problem with the Tools and all the java exceptions (I have the latest java), this program needs a lot more work before it's ready to compete in this market.

#15: PNG is NOT lossy or old school. PNG uses lossless compression, supports up to 48-bit color or 16-bit grayscale, supports alpha channel transparency, etc.

GIF's compression is also lossless (LZW). You may consider it lossy as it only supports 8-bit color, but the data compression is lossless.

does not have a undo button...i have to start all over if i dont like something....

Unable to save.

Just a slight correction to Hempman:
PNG isn't lossy. It, like FLAC (audio), uses lossless compression, thus why it is usually so much larger than JPG (and yet smaller than BMP).
If any programs you use creates PNGs that lose color information, either you've chosen a particular PNG size/color mode (PNG can be both RGB (i.e. like BMP) or indexed (i.e. like GIF)) or that program just plain has issues.

Cannot get to any of the sub-pages on the vendors website. Getting: Error 504 'www.kiyut.com' Gateway Timeout. Can get to home page however.

Does it offer something more than Helicon Filter Pro I own? I doubt, comparing the prices of the full products and space consumption.. So, I'll pass...thanks anyway, keep it up

This is an exceptionally simple editor. Suitable for a child perhaps, but it has nothing to offer except a few common filters. I definitely would not buy this, and even for free I will not keep it.

My personal favorite freeware photo editor is Paint.NET. The same filters are included and much, much more. IrfanView is excellent, too, and is probably the best out there, but I just don’t like the ugly red icon marking all my files.

#17: I hate to burst your bubble, but this is absolutely no comparison to Photo Story. Photo Story is a photo slideshow creator. This is a photo touch-up tool. Completely different.

For something far better, just download the free open source GIMP available at http://www.gimp.org

give me prevx

With so many tools for pictures that the team has offered, will there be one that allow me to add my own recording to each picture? It would be great to create a slide show of my family pictures with my own comment on each picture as we show them rather than just a song or music.

#18, change your properties in Infraview to get a different pic.

Lacking basic editing, it seems more like a photoshop plugin trying to pass as a full program. Irfan veiw is great freeware. I still like photoshop elements, I just wait untill the price drops an upgrade. Although still using PS-3 as most of the newer versions were not much of an inprovement.

I used it to create ripple effects and got a severe headache. Uninstalled.

Seems very poor and limited next to Photofiltre, recommended at the top.

It works with my Vista! That's cool. I like editing photo and add special effect to photo, compare with the photo story platinum giveaway run a few days ago. I'd prefer using photo story platinum, it's much more poweful, you can make slideshow with it and burn to DVDs, awesome :)

C programming should have been used to create this. Java blows. Too slow.

Naw thanks.

Be careful when entering the registration number. I thought I was having registration problems. But, then I discovered a blank space had inadvertently gotten entered as the first character.

System requirements lists one of the requirements as 16 bit color. Anyone doing serious photo editing uses 32 bit color mode. I'll get back to this.

The first thing that stood out is that when one goes to load a photo for enhancement is that the load dialog only offers the view options LIST and DETAILS. There are no thumbnail previews, which would help in selecting pictures. None of the usually available windows dialog options are available. Clicking the colemn heads in detail view does not resort on that column, for instance.

One can also only load .jpg, .jpeg (really the same as .jpg), .png, and .gif. All are very lossy, old school picture formats. It would be better if Citra FX Photo Filter also offered at least .BMP and particularly RAW formats as preset, as well.

I tried All Files and I was still able to load those formats, so I can't understand why they are not on the list. The filter also seems to work well in 32 bit color mode. At least, it loaded such an image.

It takes a long time to load an image. And, every time one performs an action that requires the image to be redrawn, from loading a new image to simply rezizing the program's window, all other processes stop and are unavailable for a few seconds. Weird.

The interface is inconsistent, and a little disconcerting. The toolbox, for instance, lists four selection presents, box area selection, oval, heart shapped, and freehand. Then one has three tools to modify the selection, move rotate and pan. Howevern, the only other selection modifier, invert selection, is available ONLY on the icon toolbar at the top of the window.

One can modify what goes on the icon toolbar. In addition to apply, discard and invert selection, also preset is open and save. One can add any other available command. One can also create a new toolbar with any available command.

It is disconcerting that while apply is straigtforward, discard actually means undo. More disconcerting is the pauses, like stuttering, when any operation is performed on the image. Again, everything comes to a stop. Makes for an unpleasant feel.

There is no effect browser, no effect preview. What the effects will do is also far from intuitive. A circle actually prduces something that looks like a cylinder. Marble loks more like brush strokes.

Even in full screen, part of the function of some tools goes of the bottome of the window. Resizing the window does not make the items available. Even just scrolling down the list of filter modifiers causes that weird loss of control over anything.

Despite being able to open pretty much any picture format, it only saves png and jpg formats. both are very lossy.

Even the update and "module manager" are far from intuitive.

While there are some interesting effect, there is really nothing spectacular or even unusual about the effect. Most photo or picture editing programs offer more effects, and most do it better.

While Citra FX Photo Filter does what it says, the effects are mostly primitive.

Little more than a toy. I guess it could be useful if you want a fast way to apply primitive effects to picures. It does work, although with annoyances and limitations. It seems stable enough; I had no problems with stability.

It adds nothing to my toolbox, so I will be uninstalling it.

Seeing no comments I decided I would quickly review this prog. I thought the description a bit basic so hoped there was more to it so D/L'd it OK.

Likewise #7 re:lack of Copy /Paste function.

Got past that and loaded piccy int prog. O.k. Dragged a heart shape over pic(?). What next? No instructions.

There is no right click menu. No 'Back' or 'UNDO' buttons. Very few commands or filters.

This would have been exciting in 1980, running an Atari 800 or Spectrum but NOT today, surely. ANY photo editing software is an improvement on this. Many of them freebies.

Quickly uninstalled and doubt that I shall ever regret it but then I do have Photo Impact on my system so perhaps I'm spoilt.

So, Not for me, thanks 'Guru's Among Other Tame Downloaders'

It works with Vista home basic! And it is fun to play with.

This is good programm that using photo efect like as photoshop efect :-)

reg. code was not accepted. still in test-tryout mode ?

The interface is relatively simple to understand, but the effects are limited, and the instant feedback is a relively good feature. There are limited filters that would be of use to any professional

The fact that is Java based is a bit off putting, and to be honest, not worth the price. I'll trot out the old image manipuation freeware favourite, Irfanview, as an alternative to anyone who wants one

i think irfan wiev is better and is free
http://www.irfanview.com/
but thanks GAOD for the effort

Can't hardly believe it, almost 2 1/2 hrs in to the free download and
no one has verbally beeched about it yet. This is a first LOL

Installed with some confusion because of "Copy" and "Paste" functions inaccessibility in my case. I had to write the serial code by hand. Nevertheless, it's an attractive program. I like when there are serial number and user name. This allows me sometimes to install and register the program unlimited times. I like the graphical effects of Citra FX. I think it's a software created with a good taste. No doubts it's an useful tool.
Thanks for today's GAOTD!

NB: installation: 1. setup.jar, 2. setup.exe, 3. activate.exe

Finally, something artistic. Thank you very much. I will try this one out.

Nice photo editor, I love it. Download OK, install OK, activate OK, but it's not cool that you need to install Java VM (JRE) 1.5 or above. I still love my favorite photo editor Movavi, it embeds many professional filters that can help you fix the general video problem, you don't have to install Java VM. Here is a tutorial about it http://www.top5soft.com/tutorial/how-to-correct-specific-video-problems-and-applying-special-effects-to-your-video.html

the program is a juvenile photo editor you could do more in ms paint I would not recommend this one, there are much better editors out there for free. very basic

Installed fine on XP with updated Java. Once I started using it, I got Java exceptions every time I tried to undo a filter. Looks great, but I''m concerned that it's wrecking havoc with my machine. Uninstalled.

Nice !

If you want more :

http://photofiltre.free.fr/

Free, powerfull, cool :p