Hi everyone!
I’m very pleased to announce that we have a very special presentation on May 5th, 2010.
Here are the logistics of the meeting:
Member demos of
Akvis graphics tools and
MacGourmet software by our own members!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.
25 West Hubbard, 2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60654
Our first trio of products all come from our friends at
Akvis. The three products we’ll see are:
Akvis SketchAKVIS Sketch converts photos into pencil sketches and watercolor paintings.
Now you do not need to handle a pencil to feel like an artist. All you need to create your original work of art is good taste and AKVIS Sketch.

Our efficient method creates realistic color and B&W drawings that imitate the technique of graphite and color pencil, charcoal and watercolor painting.
In contrast to standard filters (like the built-in filters in Photoshop or PSP) that offer an approximate sketch, AKVIS Sketch comes very close to the hand-drawn works of a human artist. Getting a similar result with the standard tools would require expertise in image editing and extensive manipulation with layers, masks, brushes and applying filters.
Our second Akvis program will be Lightshop. Here is information about the product:People by their nature are attracted by things that shine, sparkle, glow and glitter. A light effect draws attention and animates any photo.
AKVIS LightShop helps you create amazing light effects: lightning in a stormy sky, a colorful rainbow over a city, a reflection on a raindrop, the glow on smoldering wood in a fire-place, alien signs blazing in the night sky, flares on the sun, the lights of distant planets, fireworks - wherever your imagination may take you!
Light effects can brighten up any photo: make it look more natural (by adding reflections on shiny objects) or on the contrary - add a bit of magic and fantasy. Just a few clicks and the eyes of your loved one sparkle like diamonds; some simple manipulations and a moonlit road appears in night scenery.
Our third Akvis software product will be ColoriageBreathe life into your black and white photos with
AKVIS Coloriage!
AKVIS presents the cutting edge technology of automatic photo colorizing that will change your ideas about image colorization forever!
AKVIS Coloriage manipulates colors of an image: from colorizing old black and white photos from your family archive to replacing colors in your color photos.
Make a present for your grandmother by adding color to her school photo, replace the colors of your car to see how it would look in scarlet, see how you will look if you dye your hair red.
AKVIS Coloriage creates natural-looking colorization in a quick and entertaining manner. It works equally well for coloring of portraits, landscapes, fashion, and still life. The skin, sky, verdure, and tree color patterns help users to select realistic colors for their picture.
Apply your creativity and you will find a wide variety of other usages for the software. You can create colorful backgrounds out of ordinary dull pictures, you can apply AKVIS Coloriage to get rid of the red eye effect, to make selective color correction, selective desaturation and colorizing, etc.
AKVIS Coloriage is as easy to use as a coloring book. No layers manipulation, no complicated techniques, no more hours of frustration attempting to get just the look you want - everything is done with a few brush strokes. Indicate the desired colors by the stroke of the brush; the program does the rest of the work: recognizes the object's border and tailors the new color to the grayscale tones of the initial picture.
We’ll also be treated to a presentation about MacGourmet, which is software that can be used to help design meals, make nutrition plans, and much more.MacGourmet Deluxe Features

• Build, print, and share your own cookbook from your recipe collection.
• Use the Mealplan feature to plan and organize meals. Sync your plans with iCal.
• Easily calculate the nutritional content of your recipes.
• Publish your recipes to your MobileMe account or to your web site.
• Manage your wine collection by recording notes about your favorite wines.
• Import recipes from your favorite online source.
• Create shopping lists from the Weekly Meal Planner or from one or more recipes.
• Store and manage all your cooking notes.
• Organize your collection with SmartLists.
• Plan a meal using the Cupboard find or Potluck find features.
I would suggest getting there early to get the best seats! I look forward to seeing many of you at our May, 2010 meeting!
Best wishes,
Russ Conte
President, Chicago Apple User Group