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Kai's Power Tools 2.0
by Mark Davis
Many people (even today) still believe that Macintosh computers are inherently superior to IBM compatibles when it comes to creating art, high-quality graphics, and desktop publishing. For many years, this was quite true. Compared to early PC's, Macs were far superior, both in hardware terms and when it came to the software they could run. The old 16 and 256 color video cards and software on PC's just couldn't compete with what the Mac could do.
Today, of course, things are different. With the advent of Windows and fast, affordable 24-bit video cards, it was just a matter of time before software packages originally designed for Macs were ported to the PC platform. Some noteworthy examples include Adobe Photoshop, Aldus Intellidraw, and Quark XPress. Another good example is Kai's Power Tools, sold by HSC Software. Now in its 2nd version for Windows, it was originally developed as an add-in for Photoshop, but has now branched out, and can be used with a number of different programs. Its high-quality filters and special effects can help anyone (even novices) create artwork and other images that simply couldn't be done (or even imagined!) just a few years ago.
Kai is an unusual program in that it can be only run from within a program that supports the Adobe Photoshop extensions; it cannot be run as a stand-alone program. Some examples of programs that support these extensions include Adobe Photoshop (of course), Aldus PhotoStyler, and Fauve Matisse. One nice extra included with Kai is a copy of Aldus PhotoStyler SE on CD-ROM. This allows users to run the program, even if they don't have an image-editing program that Kai supports. While the SE version of PhotoStyler doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the full-blown product, the combination of it and Kai provides most of the features that an average user would need.
I tested Kai using a copy of Fauve Matisse. Kai itself is a very easy program to install. It comes on 3 1.44 Meg disks, and takes up about 12 Megs of hard drive space for a full install. All the install program seems to do is copy the program files to the hard drive. It also scans your hard drive to see what programs are compatible with it; it easily found Fauve. I guess the scan is just to let you know what it can work with; it didn't set up Fauve to work with Kai (I had to do that manually by editing Fauve's .INI file).
To use Kai, you start the host program you wish to use it with, then access it from a couple of menu choices, which are added to the host program's native menus. Kai provides a total of 33 different filters and extensions. These features fall into two categories: one-step filters and User Interface Filters. The one-step filters are simple menu choices that let the user apply a special effect to their artwork, and are very similar to the ones that are built into products of this type. I tried a number of them on some sample artwork included with Fauve. They all worked very well, and in many cases, seemed to work faster than the ones already built into Fauve (one of the claims HSC makes is that Kai's filters are very fast).
The User Interface Filters, on the other hand, are different beasts entirely. There are four in all: the Gradient Designer, the Texture Explorer, the Fractal Explorer, and Gradients on a Path. Each of these modules uses a very unusual interface, which is quite unlike a normal Windows interface. There are no menu bars or toolbars. The interface is controlled by buttons and slider bars, which are placed in various positions onscreen (the picture gives you a better idea of what I'm talking about). Each of these modules allow you to experiment with different textures and patterns, which you can modify to your heart's content, then apply to your image. While HSC claims that Kai's interface is intuitive and easy to learn, I had problems getting used to it (for example, the buttons are very dimly labeled, and I had a hard time at first getting used to how the controls worked). The modules are extremely powerful, however, and let you create just about any effect you can imagine, given enough time and practice. I found the performance of these modules to be very good also, even on my PC (a 486SX/25 with 8 Megs of RAM).
Kai's documentation is very good, consisting of a single 106 page spiral-bound manual. While the manual looks somewhat undersized in comparison to what the program can do, it's quite well done. It describes each of the extensions and filters in good detail, and provides numerous pictures of the interface, as well as examples of what the filters can do. I've seen much larger manuals on some products that didn't do nearly as good a job of helping the new user learn the product!
In conclusion, I found Kai to be a very powerful tool for anyone needing effects beyond those found in conventional image editing programs. While the interface takes some getting used to, it's well worth the effort, and will greatly reward the serious user. Kai is a great product, and well worth its moderate price tag!
