By Graham K. Rogers

One of the more interesting, and useful, features of the iPhone has been not just the camera that is integral to its construction, but the apps that take advantage of images to create output of such variety that it has an unusually wide range of uses. There are so many apps, most of which are extremely well made. To rise above the average, an app needs something unusual.

Overview

Typic is a little different. It is a free app and it simplifies the whole process from input to output especially easy to use text addition.

The app first opens with a screen displaying a developer icon, then moves the user quickly to the process of image input with a camera icon in the middle of the lower third of the screen. A developer image is used initially. User images are used afterwards in the main, with the occasional appearance of an image included with the app. Pressing the icon reveals options for access to camera or Photo Library.

Typic

When an image is selected for processing, the top two-thirds of the screen is used to display the picture with controls at the bottom. The options are kept simple, which means finishing an image can be done quickly.

Initially 6 filter options are displayed (5 plus No Filter). These are JMS, Vanilla, Children, Saturn and B+W. I did not find these completely to my tastes so kept to No Filter and B+W which nonetheless gave me pleasing results.

When any effect is applied, rather than waiting for processing to take place, the screen is simply scrolled to the next set of options. If wanted, at any stage, the editing options were just as easily scrolled back, so effects could be retried and mixed.

The second screen is for the addition of text. There are three options: Write the caption; choose a font (from 7) and adjust text size up or down. It does not matter which order these are done in. Text is automatically centred, but this does not suit all cases. The text can be dragged with a single finger anywhere on the screen. As soon as it is moved away from the centre-point, an icon is available (top left) to re-centre it.

Text can only be entered in a single line (spaces can be used): the keyboards available have no Return keys. As well as Roman characters (English), other languages can be used. I had a friend enter a simple message in Thai.

A third options panel allows the image and text to have some adjustment. There are two sliders: Text Opacity and Frame (which adjusts curved corners). Once or twice I found that unless I was accurate in placing my finger, instead of an adjustment, I could start scrolling to the next panel. In addition there are plus or minus icons for Lens Blur and a selector for black or white frame color.

Export Options

The email option game me several export sizes from small (165KB), Medium (535 KB), Large (1.6 MB) and Actual Size of 2.6 MB, with an image size of 1280 x 1280: smaller than those saved in the Library, but with a much larger file size. Final sizes were slightly different depending on the original image and effects applied and were sent by email as PNG images.

When two larger images (2.76 MB and 1.94 MB) were exported from Aperture as 8-bit TIFF images they both appeared on the desktop with a size of 4.9 MB. Image sizes when opened in Graphic Converter were 17.778" x 17.778" - respectably large enough.

Notes

I did install Typic on the iPad as well. It works well enough, but is not optimised for the device and displays in the X1 or X2 windows.

This is a simple app with a deliberately limited set of options that does just the job it claims. The developers highlight the sharing aspects and so this may appeal to those who gravitate to social networking.

As a free app, the decision here is a no-brainer. I hope Hi Mom produce more apps like this but with some in-app purchasing options for those who might want to increase the ways this can be used.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.