Seashore is a free pixel-based image editor for Mac OS X designed to offer features for image adjustments and a number of painting tools. The feature set isn't as powerful as GIMP, which is also available for OS X, though running through X11, but it will offer more than enough power for many users and can also use GIMP brushes and textures.
An advantage of Seashore is that it is a native OS X application and as such has a coherent interface that integrates neatly with the operating system. Personally, I'd choose GIMP, but I'm sure many users will prefer Seashore.
The User Interface
Pros
- Extremely intuitive interface with simple and clear presentation
- Keyboard shortcuts for most tools and many menu items
Cons
- Tool option pop-overs have to be closed with the 'Done' button
- No feature within the interface to manage brushes and textures
As a native Mac application, Seashore offers a clear and stylish interface that will seem very familiar to OS X users. There really isn't much to complain about.
Everything is kept very simple with the main tools lined up across the top bar of the application keeping them in easy reach at all times. The icons on the tool buttons are generally easily recognizable and while the interface layout doesn't pay homage to any of the better known image editors, most users will be able to leap straight in without any difficulty or confusion.
Users working on smaller screens may find the layout with the layers palette fixed to the left of the window compromises space more than a floating palette that can be moved and closed, but the use of pop-over palettes for most of the other tool options dialogs works very well. On the down side, once you've finished with a pop-over you have to click the Done button to close it, rather than it closing automatically when you click on another control. Also, the pop-overs for image adjustment features become semi-transparent when a setting is changed to allow more of the image to be viewed and while this seems like a clever idea, in practice I found it didn't really bring anything to the party.
While Seashore allows the installation and use of GIMP brushes and textures, there is no facility within the user interface to manage this content, so it has to be carried out through the Finder. Because many application files are hidden in the Finder, this may be an unfamiliar process for many potential users.
Enhancing Images
Pros
- Good range of image adjustment tools
- Dedicated Sepia and Monochrome conversion tools
Cons
- No adjustment layers for non-destructive editing
- No Dodge and Burn tools
The feature set for image adjustments is found under the Selection menu, but if there is no active selection, these features apply to the whole active layer. The developers behind Seashore have gone their own way with the image adjustment tools, meaning that while there is sufficient range of tools for handling all aspects of adjustments, GIMP and Adobe Photoshop users may be thrown by the absence of Levels and Curves, among others. Anyone who is more experienced with adjusting images will probably quickly find suitable tools to use as alternatives, but for beginners, the Seashore Help PDF, accessed through the Help menu, will offer assistance in this regard.
Unfortunately none of these of these image adjustments can be applied in a non-destructive way using adjustment layers, but in fairness that is about par for the course with free image editors.
For users looking for simple monotone effects, there are Sepia and Monochrome tools in the Selection menu which makes this very straightforward. However, personally, I found the Monochrome tended to result in too dark an image when applied at full setting, though the effects at lower levels could be quite interesting. For conversion to black and white, I found reducing the Saturation to zero in Hue, Saturation and Value offered more pleasing results.
With so many free pixel-based image editors now offering red-eye reduction tools, the absence of such a feature in Seashore is a minor disappointment, though it is a relatively easy fix using the available image adjustment tools, such as Hue, Saturation and Value.
Digital photographers may miss the inclusion of Dodge and Burn tools, though it is possible to replicate the effects using layers and erasing parts of the layer.
More of a problem is the apparent lack of control over the opacity of the Clone tool which does rather compromise the tool and make it very difficult to blend cloned areas into an image. A possible work around may be to use GIMP brushes with different alpha transparency, but this could become quite a cumbersome solution requiring a wide range of brushes of different sizes and transparencies to be installed.