AKVIS Frame Suite 2.5

Reviewed by Geetesh Bajaj, September 19th 2007

Introduction

AKVIS Frame Suite 2.5 is a Photoshop compatible plug-in that provides umpteen frames, edge effects, and textures. All these can be customized -- and you can then create your own presets and libraries.

AKVIS Frame Suite 2.5 is a new version of the same plug-in that we reviewed in the past -- the updated version has several new and improved features.

The new features are:

• The new Texture effect: Allows emulating the effect of an image drawn on different surfaces, for example canvas, brick wall, corrugated paper, etc. 
• The Texture Library has new patterns.
• Works fast on both PowerPC and Intel Macs (also works on Windows).
• The program is available in two versions  as an standalone program
  and as a plug-in to a photo editor.
  

Frame Suite is from AKVIS, a company based in Russia that specializes in graphics programs. Apart from Frame Suite, AKVIS also creates other Photoshop compatible plug-ins like Retoucher, Chameleon, Stamp, Sketch, Enhancer, Decorator and Coloriage.

You can download a free 10 day trial version of Frame Suite from the AKVIS site...

My contact at AKVIS for this review was Kat Kharina, thank you Kat.

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How To Use

Here’s how you can use the new Texture feature in Frame Suite 2.5 on a image.

1. Open any image in an image editor such as Adobe Photoshop.
   
   
2. Choose Filter | AKVIS | Frame Suite, as shown in Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: AKVIS Frame Suite
   
   
3. This will open the Frame Suite 2.2 interface that you can see in the Figure 2 below.
   
   
   Figure 2 : AKVIS Frame Suite Interface
   
   
4. The interface is divided into two parts: the left side is the preview window where you can see the picture and the changes made, the right side of the interface has the list of frames and the settings.
   
   
5. Select the frame list provided as show in Figure 3 and choose the Texture option.
   
   
   Figure 3 : Frames
   
   
6. Once texture is selected you'll be able to tweak the properties for the chosen texture, as shown in Figure 4.
   
   
   Figure 4: Texture properties
   
   If you want to use another texture, double click on the thumbnail to open the texture library, as shown in Figure 5.
   
   
   Figure 5: Texture library
   
   
7. After selecting the texture, click the Run icon (see icon below).
   
   
   
   
8. This applies and creates a preview of the image. If you want to make more changes, you can select another texture as required. You can preview the changed image in the After tab, as shown in Figure 6.
   
   
   Figure 5: The Before and After tabs
   
   
9. Once you’re done with the applying the texture, apply the result to the image by pressing the Apply icon (see icon below) to return to the image editor.
   
   
   

Note: Although the instructions above showed how you can use AKVIS Frame Suite as a Photoshop plug-in, the product also works in the same way in standalone mode -- just launch the application through its icon in the AKVIS Frame Suite group in your Windows Start Menu.

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Specifications

Photoshop Versions:	5+
Platforms:	Windows, Mac
Site:	AKVIS
Price:	US$49 and above
Trial Version:	10 days

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