You know the things I see when I come here really tick me off. This web site wants us to believe how much they just love all of us. However when you try to download the free software you are absolutely required to naviagate the false software tricks they try to snare you into. Way to the right in small letters is the free software while there is a big blue button saying "download" trying to trick people into clicking onto it. When will this web site stop acting like a scamm theif? You offer a good service. Allow that to get you business not these slimmy sneaky back stabbing tricks you try to pull on everyone that enters into this page.

subsequent to my comment #50
tried again using giveawayoftheday.com as my email and it registered.

A little less disappointed

The product is Great .Special feature is that Spot remover in you don't have to click again and again to remove Sot just double click where you want to remove Spot and after that holding right click just rollover to photo that's it....

Let's see - do i have any 'no'-flags for today?

Ok.. let's get some:

@32 TK has a legitimate Q re today's offering... (so far he's not down-flagged) @37 mikemtn55 has a LEGITIMATE answer - at this point he's THREE flags down. What is you guy's major malfunction? ?? Look i can understand burying all these poor slobs that ask noobie questions - i mean they certainly deserve it and we need to drive the rift-raft away. (Some of you may need to be told that i'm being sarcastic... i'm being SARCASTIC!!!)

@44 (name withheld in case children are lurking) made me laugh for the first time today AND you guy's burn him/her?

i mean it looks like some of you get some kind of perverse pleasure from clicking 'no'... or attacking us that transgress... whatever bo... Now i realize, and APPRECIATE, that there are a good handfull
of 'techies' (or whatever they're called - eg: Ashraf, Goiv, and mike (yes! great comment today) to name a few. But i also appreciate comments from Stortch... need i say more...

Regards (to some);


works quite well, was able to make jodi arias look hot.

Comment by bad mofo — March 4th, 2013 at 12:35 pm Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-5)

Awesome software. The Sketch presets work well. Other editing options seem to be good so far as well.

I am very satisfied with all the tasks that Photo Retoucher provides. It allows me to do all the tasks that my other program does not provides and it is easy to use.

@46 and 48: Thanks, Tom and ketrout! Might install it now.


@45: Jeff (JWS), I agree that Mike's comments are consistently the most valuable. It's just a pity they're not so frequent these days.Much as I appreciate Giovanni, and am pleased that Ashraf is back, Fubar and Mike do give more advanced analyses. There's room for everyone!

#18 and it costs a whole lot of money.

I have used PhotoRetoucher before. It is a very good program to enhance the quality of a photo. I downloaded it to see if there is any improvement.

in response to #38`s reply. can anyone suggest a program, for free, that does the same thing as today`s GOTD?

Like #46 #5, I too received the activation code error and then I check the "About" and found that sketch drawer was still the registered version and did not receive any other error message. Just wanted to pass this on.

hello ## 41 ,, please read post no 29 there are better there id you have prob, have a fun....

I'm using sketch drawer 1.1 fix edition got it from email I think from the company after gotd.
I can confirm first time run and click about info, prompt activation error once. After that, no more error and didnt notice any clash between photo retoucher 1.3 and sketch drawer 1.1

Hi Mike:

I value your comments more than anyone else's on this blog.

Thanks for your comments on this offering of Photo-Retoucher.

What is your final decision. Is it worthwhile to install it?

Jeff

works quite well, was able to make jodi arias look hot.

#4, Zig, re: .org domain

I also held that mistaken assumption. Until I went looking for a fart ring tone, that is. Yep, that's a .org domain.

If you Google on seam carving, image retargeting, inpainting, &/or liquid resizing [to name a few], you'll find info on software methods to analyze & alter an image, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seam_carving . From a quick look that doesn't seem to be what Photo Retoucher uses or does at all, at least compared to apps like Inpaint, so that sort of comparison doesn't really work. Seam carving etc. is not ideal for everything, so not having it is not necessarily bad. Here's what it does so you can decide for yourself whether you might find any of Photo Retoucher's features useful...

Import or open an image file in Photo Retoucher & you can adjust basic contrast, brightness, saturation, along with rotate & crop to selection. The Concealer brush is a very basic air brush tool -- it's called Concealer I imagine because you can set it to any color in the image by right-clicking with the cursor over the part you want to sample [in most image editors you'd use the Eye Dropper tool to set the foreground &/or fill color, & then use whatever brush you desired]. The Undo Brush is likewise a very basic air brush allowing you to paint with the original image. The Scratch Remover is standard fare, but again pretty basic in that you can set the size of same-color blocks you want to get rid of, but not strength or tolerance -- OTOH it selects what it detects as scratches 1st, actually fixing anything is a 2nd step, so you have the opportunity to de-select whatever before clicking the Remove button. The Spot and Noise Remover is again very basic compared to the usual, & accompanied by an equally basic Smudge Brush. Sketch is simply an overall effect you apply to the entire image -- you have 15 presets but rather than being live, the preview just shows you what will happen using a built-in image. The Remove tool seems to be clone the area surrounding a selection in all directions -- the only control you have over what's cloned is the Fill texture size in the Tools menu -> Options dialog. The selection tools are again pretty basic -- there's a Free-Form Select but it only works by click-dragging rather than the sort of connect the dot process that's both more common & more usable. The rectangle select does not seem to include an option to do squares [usually a hot-key], nor is there an option for circles/ellipses, while the Selection Marker simply lets you set the brush radius to paint on your mask. There are no feathering or transparency settings available for any of the mask tools, nor can you add/subtract from masks or save them.

How do I register this product - please help!

Win XP SP3

Unable to register program. "Error connecting activation server" (Although the actual message reads "Error conntecting activation server").
Trying to contact Soft Orbits for two hours resulted in being unable to send emails until I deleted the screenshots I was sending of the problem.
Program tried to open Microsoft outlook when trying to send email from within program.
Altogether an unprofessional package.

#31 Wes Chambers--No, I dont think so.

@ #32 : Yes, they did honor the full license with future updates offer in exchange for a web review for me. Note that they must be informed within 7 days of the original giveaway.

"Limited time offer!
SoftOrbits are willing to give each user a FULL official personal license (with future updates) for Photo Retoucher for placing a link and a short review (even 10-15 words) anywhere on the web. This can be your home page, a site, forum, etc.”" …

Installed no problem. registered and activated no problem. That's where the good points end! It claims to remove even the smallest object without leaving a trace!!!! That they have to work on, big time. I used it three times trying to remove an object and after that there were still LARGE traces left! Way too slow and I mean SLOOOOOOW! It looks as if it could be a good addition to one's toolbox but they have to do better than this. I'll stick to InPaint and other object removers! Uninstalled, ready to try tomorrows offering from GAOTD.

Its ok if you don't have anything else , I prefer Corel Paintshop to any other including Photoshop. But that is just personal preference.

WindowsXP SP3. Had three problems with a 28 meg jpg: Got an out of memory message but had over 1gig available; crashed another time; termination error another time. Tried a smaller file and it was ok.

Used spot remover and got faint circles the size of the brush. Tried the same thing with Inpaint and results where perfect.

Automatic Find Scratch function did not work on an old slide. It made smudged the entire picture. After that Undo did not work and Add File did not work. I existed and reloaded and tried manually marking scratches which did work.

Used Freeform Select and then Remove. Almost nothing was removed. It was a difficult area of the photo but again I tried Inpaint and it worked.

My opinion is either I'm doing something wrong or Retouch 1.3 needs a lot of work.

Where do I register? No luck finding on two download attempts. Blech feeling so far......

if i get today`s giveawayoftheday, can i move it to another computer at a later date? i am currently away on holiday, and really want today`s giveaway, but if i don`t get it now, i`ll lose it, forewver.

@25-Jeramey: I can try to forget, but my wife doesn't. I'm not sure she will agree with all of this.

Works pretty well even though I prefer INPAINT and RETOUCH PILOT, given away here a few weeks ago!!

As for FREE alternative, besides IRFANVIEW, GIMP and FAST STONE EDITOR, I recommend the following FREE apps:

* (Portable) Hornil StylePix (==> COOL lightweight app and my personal first choice)
This is a freaking awesome professional image editing program with an impressive number of advanced features enabling you to draw pictures, edit photos and more. In short it can resize & rotate your photos, perform color correction & synthesis photos, type text on the photo, cut, copy & paste photos, sharpen/blur photos, remove red-eye & dust etc... and much more.
It works great on Net-books and laptops or virtual machines (vmware, virtual box, virtual pc and etc.) since it comes with a very low RAM & CPU usage. The bottom line is that similar advanced features can only be found in professional and damn expensive apps such as Photoshop!!

http://hornil.com/en/products/stylepix/Features.html

* (Portable) Phoxo
http://www.phoxo.com/en

* Portable RealWorld Paint 2011.1
Very handy and reliable FREE app which makes image editing a breeze. The editor supports Photoshop, GIMP, Paint.net files and animated GIFs. It's not only able to remove objects, red eyes and blemishes from your photos with its clone tool, but it can also make animations (flashing buttons, animated forum avatars, filmstrips etc…), create professional logos, buttons and/or web icons, as well as change shapes of your pics with the Shapeshifter tool (Liquify in Photoshop’s terms).

http://www.rw-designer.com/image-editor

* Paint.NET
http://www.getpaint.net

* Cosmetic Guide
http://tintguide.com/cosmetic.html

* ImageJ (advanced users only)
http://rsb.info.nih.gov/ij/features.html

See also:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Graphic-Editors/Free-Clone-Stamp-Tool.shtml
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Graphic/Graphic-Editors/Free-Photo-Blemish-Remover.shtml

I recommend installing this.
But be warned, it works differently from the other such that have been offered here.
I almost passed on this because I couldn't get it to work no matter what I did. The help files didn't help.
Forget the way you are used to doing it, and play with it a while.
Keep it, you'll be glad you did.

"5. Attention: License activation of today’s Giveaway “Photo Retoucher” might harm (invalidate) your license of “Sketch Drawer 1.0″ (same companies GAOTD of 2013, Jan. 28).

Anyone else noticed this same very surprising effect?
Comment by Berlin-Fun*54"

Confirmations required, and fix, if this is true and affecting everyone.

"Latest technology", uh? Rather the last time the software was compiled, lol.

#15: "What’s the deal with the .org domain for this product?"

The store's name is photoretoucher.org. You push the door of a commercial shop, not the one of a non-profit organization.
It's like the Findus story: selling horse meat under the name of beef.

@18 Adobe Photoshop CS6 is only as good as the person using it allows it to be.

InPaint is better and easier and now there's a web-based version of it (WebInPaint.com) that works on PC/Mac/Linux

Pretty good program for taking out watermarks, scratches, or even taking people out of a photo. Thanks GOTD and SoftOrbits

@18 is that free as well?

#16 Rob, STOP using the word “robust”. That word is SO overworked, overused, and overdone, that it is nauseating.

I love how it can figure out edges and lines much more effectively than in the past.... But it desperately needs to have an option to select a source area within the image - I was amazed at one of my building pictures... But you just can't get that final pass perfect.

Manual has the Topic: Remoing Objects

Nice simple gui,seems to work ok-depending on the complexity of the original pic.Not an all-in-one tool but a good tool to add to your graphics tool box.I suggest you add it to your tools as no tool does all picture repairs so use this in combination with others to increase your odds of a successful repair.

Adobe CS6 is better

This is an updated version of Photostamp Remover 4.2 given away in November 2011
They added a few tools eg scratch remover etc

#13 - Content Aware Fill is only available in CS5 or better, and for some things this tool works better.

They should combine this tool with their other tools, and build a single robust digital image editing program. It would still not rival Photoshop, but I'd buy it and use it right along side PS. I'm not a programmer, but I'm guessing they have thought of this and it would take a lot of development funds to bash it all together.

#3 - you already said exactly what I was thinking.

It's a good product, but their claim reminds me of those TV shows where they take a grainy and blurry video and magically process it through special federal law enforcement computers, and a grainy distorted face comes out detailed and clear. But then again, l;ook at what Photoshop named their tool...


#6 - you can add this to your arsenal. The newer versions of Photoshop has both the fill tool like this (Content-Aware fill), and a clone tool. But their fill tool is somewhat different. Like an artist with many brushes, I think this program has it's place.

When using Photoshop, you can manipulate the source areas differently
http://digital-photography-school.com/smarter-content-aware-fill-in-photoshop
I also use the clone and paint tools in Photoshop to do touch up combinations. Having it all together in Photoshop is definitely an advantage.



I strongly disagree with Ashraf and others about the performance of this program. I use the fill tool in Photoshop ("content-aware"), the clone tool, InPaint, and this. I have plenty of experince fixing and manipulating images, and I see this product as slowly evolving - as expected. This tool does try to intuitively recognize transitions, textures, lines, and patterns - and it works pretty dang good. I haven't experienced any buggyness yet, but I've only just started using this version.


What's the deal with the .org domain for this product?

@ Zig, #4
@ froment, #8
.....And is cheaper(for 10 years domain plans)and more good looking.....from, .info etc.....

@6 if you have photoshop, then you don't need this. You have the real thing to edit your photos. I have everything in photoshop that's been put out so far, so these programs that say "I can do that" most the time don't work.

One item that is worrying, is that if you decide the software is not what you need and uninstall it, you get taken to their support page which my AV blocked due to infection by Malware.

downloaded fast, installed fast on my pentium dual core e5400 desktop computer, 2x2gb ddr2-800 ram, 51mb ddr3 nvidia g210 video card, windows 7 home premium sp1 x64 OS.

i have the previous gotd/soft orbits giveaway, sketch drawer v1.1.
installation of today's giveaway does not invalidate the product key of the previous offering.

as far as i can tell, today's offering has additional buttons on its gui:
free-form select, select, selection marker; remove, (sketch); spot remover, scratch remover, undo brush, concealer brush, image correction.

this is a plus for soft orbits for offering this free image-manipulation product.

Bear in my when you install the giveaway of Softorbit ALWAYS turn off the automatic updates or else you will lose the giveaway software. They are clever.

Loaded one picture, did pretty good removing objects I chose. Works well from what I can tell. Little slow depending how many objects you choose at one time. Will keep and do few more pics later on, but so far not to bad a program.

@ Zig, #4, what does you comment mean? Is there any clause that prohibits commercial company from registering .org domain?

Yes, in the dawn of internet, .org was choice for non-profit organizations, as a rule of thumb only, but nowadays anyone can register whatever he likes, or whatever is free - if .com and .net have already been taken, .org is logical and good alternative.

Please do not bother!!!

Very slow and produces aweful results.

Get yourself a Copy Inpaint, does what itsays on the Box