As someone who produces Web pages regularly, I am always on the lookout for products that will make the process easier and more enjoyable. Unfortunately, many of the Web tools I have tried require too much time to learn to be worth the trouble. This was definitely not the case with Adobe ImageStyler. It is both easy to use and fun--something I rarely say about software products these days.

A few months ago, I downloaded the free trial "beta" version and used it to create several banners and buttons for the October issue of Cyberkids. I was impressed by how well the product was documented (the trial version comes with an Adobe Acrobat file containing a step-by-step tutorial) and by how easy it was to get started. Instead of causing me to spend extra time trying to figure out the product, ImageStyler was actually saving time by making it easier for me to create the graphics I wanted to make.

After using it for a few days, I recommended ImageStyler to a middle school teacher who heads a Macintosh computer lab in Marin, California. She sent me an email a few days later telling me how happy her students were to hear about it and how much they enjoyed using it too. Now that the product has shipped, I'm happy to see that version 1.0 comes with a user's manual that is well organized, indexed, and as readable as the original tutorial.

Adobe ImageStyler's tool palette will look familiar to you if you've used other graphics software. There are tools for drawing rectangles (with or without curved corners, ovals and circles, and polygons (you can set how many sides you want the polygon to have). There's also the usual paint can, eyedropper, text, and rotation tools. In my view, the best thing about ImageStyler is the variety of textures and styles you can apply to your text and images. To create a button, you draw the shape you want, and while it is selected, double-click the texture and/or style (such as a beveled edge button effect) you want to apply. It's that simple. You can apply the textures and styles just as easily to text. Another feature I liked was the ease with which you can apply a "rollover" effect to an image which occurs when a visitor to your Web site moves the mouse over a particular button or image. It's also easy to import and "place" images from other applications into ImageStyler.

If you're familiar with Photoshop, ImageStyler uses the same method for layering images, making it easier to go back and change things later as needed. One of the benefits of using ImageStyler is that you can use it to make graphical templates, thus ensuring a more uniform style to your site's pages. Later, if you change your mind about something, you do a batch replace, another time-saving feature.

Now that the product has shipped, you should be able to order it from the usual software retailers. You can also try it out for free by downloading the 30-day free-trial version from Adobe's web site. Aside from Photoshop, this is the one image editing tool for the Web that I use most--I highly recommend it both for beginning and advanced Web developers.

System Requirements:

PowerPC / Pentium
Mac 7.5.5 or later / Windows 95 or later
32 MB RAM
40 MB Hard-disk space
256-color display
CD-ROM Drive