Tera’s Caption Contest With Portraits n Prints.

More details on my impromptu contest a little later. Read on for the why.

Mac users are having all the fun these days because applications are pouring out of the developer community every day. And they’re good, fun to use, affordable, and, like the Mac, just seem to fit.

Case in point: Portraits and Prints from Econ Technologies. I bought the first version because it filled a void left by iPhoto and the last version of Photoshop Elements. Printing.

Yes, both iPhoto and PE print photos. But not like Portraits and Prints, not as many choices or features, and, well, just not as nifty. This is a very cool, feature-laden Mac-like application that you’ll fall in love with. Portraits and Prints is not without a blemish or two, but it’s an excellent addition to your Mac.

First, you get more choices for printing photos (portrait and landscape) than any other application I know of. Dozens. 2 up, 4 up, 12 up. Mix up the photos within a print. Add balloon captions to prints (that’s where my contest comes in). Email select photos from a catalog—in multiples. That’s handy.

You’ll get more tools for dressing up your photos than iPhoto (but Portraits and Prints doesn’t replace iPhoto). Brightness, contrast, sharpness, saturation (I love that control), crop, rotate, export and more. They’re all there, simple to use, easy to find—with undo.

Portraits and Prints says you can print your photos a gazillion ways. I didn’t count, but I didn’t find a way to print that Portraits and Prints couldn’t handle—after an email to their support folks (responded same day).

Drag and drop photos on to the shelf or Photo Area. A dozen tools are in the toolbar, a dozen more in the customize toolbar pane. Click Layout to change the printing template—select from 30 to start, dozens more available online with the Template Manager and more on the way—or build your own.

Print to printer? Yes. New in 2.0 is Print to Disk and Print to Email. Whatever creation you make can be saved to disk (keeping the original photo untouched) or emailed to friends and family. Imagine the fun with balloon captions.

Like all good Mac utilities, Portraits and Prints is free to try before you buy. Click Here for the downloads page, and Click Here for the features overview page.

If you want, Portraits and Prints can be set up to download your photos direct from your camera (similar to what iPhoto does) and into a PnP “catalog.“ You can store photos in the catalogs, keep the original photo (without changes, enhancements, or captions).

$30 for the standard edition. Much less than Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Now let’s have some fun with Tera’s very own, first time ever, never to be repeated (until next time) Photo Caption Contest.

One of the features of Portraits and Prints that I really like is the simple, intuitive yet classy looking balloon captions. Really, just click on the toolbar tool, drag, position, double-click to type in text, reposition, click, and you’re done.

Here’s my example of a caption I added to a photograph of a North Shore beach.

Copyright © 2004 - Mac360. All rights reserved.

Got the idea? OK, on Page 2, I’m going to give you a blank photograph, describe the scene, and lay out a few rules for Tera’s First Ever, Never To Be Repeated (until next time) Photo Caption Contest.

What’ll you win? Click Here for Page 2, the captionless entry photo, and all the details.

Off Topic Note: I’ve updated the Mac360 Store with over 100 new categories—More Macs, more iPods, more Mac books, more software. Click Here and select any category for more detail, or use the handy search function. Whenever you buy from Amazon through the Mac360 Store you help support Mac360. Finally, what is it about her Mac that caught Kate MacKenzie’s hair on fire? Somehow or another she fell out of love with her Mac and rushed into the arms of Windows Vista. Read the details about her American Tragedy.