MacFormat UK – September 2019

Turn your photos into art

T

here are vast

amounts of audio

and video content

available on the internet.

However, macOS is quite

fussy when it comes to file

formats that come from

non-Apple devices such as

WMV and AVI video files

from Windows PCs. And

iTunes just ignores albums

in the popular FLAC format.

There are other media

players, such as the free VLC,

that can play many of these

files. However, VLC can be

a bit intimidating for people

who aren’t already familiar

with all these different file

£4.99 FROM Electronic Team, electronic.us

NEEDS OS X 10.11 or later

£28.99 FROM Tinrocket, tinrocket.com

NEEDS macOS 10.14 or later

A great way to turn

photos into attractive

watercolours.

++++++

Stunning results

Heavy graphics

processing requirements

VERDICT

A simple, affordable

app for a wide range

of non-Apple audio

and video formats.

++++++

Plays most audio

and video files

Not free

VERDICT

formats. One alternative

that doesn’t cost too much

is JustPlay. The app plays

pretty much every file format

you’re likely to need, such as

FLACs, AVI, and other

Windows video formats.

The app is easy to use,

with a simple interface that

is very similar to Apple’s

QuickTime Player, but also

JustPlay 1.0

Play non–Apple media files

includes more advanced

features, such as an equaliser

for audio playback and colour

adjustment for video.

It’s by no means the only

media-player app available

for Macs, but JustPlay does

what it says – it easily plays

your media files, with no

need for any technical

know-how. CLIFF JOSEPH

Waterlogue

APPLE CHOICE Mac software

Control the way your picture is

painted using the editing tools.

Image credits (top to bottom): Electronic Team, Tinrocket

There’s an equalizer for audio,

and colour controls for video.

94 | MACFORMAT | SEPTEMBER 2019

our 2013 MacBook Pro while

making changes. When you

tweak a setting in a tool panel,

the app recalculates and takes

a few seconds to re-render the

image. This will be a quicker

on a higher spec machine, but

if you tweak a lot you might

have a small wait.

The editing tools are

straightforward and include

detail, pen type, brush

characteristics and paper

quality. You can create and

save your own presets, and

export in formats including

large, high-quality images

for printing. There’s even

unlimited undo and redo.

Waterlogue is niche,

perhaps, but it’s an excellent

tool for quickly creating

watercolours from photos.

HOLLIN JONES

W

aterlogue for

Mac (and iOS)

is a dedicated

app for turning a photo

image into a simulated

watercolour artwork.

Running on any Mac that

supports Metal 2 (most 2012

or later models), you simply

import one image at a time,

choose a preset, make

modifications, and save your

image out. You can also save

projects to revisit them.

The results are good.

There’s some fairly heavy

analysis and processing

going on, and it taxed the

dedicated graphics card in