Obvious Diversion

Core Image is a feature in the upcoming Mac OS 10.4 that makes it easy for developers to include image and video effects in their applications without a lot of work. It was originally demonstrated back at WWDC in June and when I watched it I was left with the following thought: couldn’t a developer roll a mini Photoshop together using the filters readily available in this API?

Here are some of the filters available in Core Image:

• Gaussian Blur
• Motion Blur
• Zoom Blur
• Unsharp Mask
• Color Controls
• Exposure Adjust
• Gamma Adjust
• White Point Adjust
• Bump Distortion
• Displacement Distortion
• Glass Distortion
• Torus Lens Distortion
• Twirl Distortion
• Vortex Distortion

This is just a sample of what’s available. Here’s a full list of Core Image filters. (Scroll to the bottom.)

Using the features provided by Core Image and a few other home-rolled basics, there would seem to be an opportunity here for developers to roll out small image editing programs. Much like Microsoft Word, most people do not use anywhere near the full feature list of Photoshop and a pared down program would clearly suit their needs just as well.

On a side note, if someone does find some fun in this idea, I would hope they explore a very different user interface than the one Photoshop currently has. Photoshop’s user interface is the result of years of not trying to break mental compatibility with past users while adding new features and, as a result, is a mess for any user being first introduced to the program. It would be great to see someone do something very different and hopefully move this software category forward in some respects.