This is part of a series of articles showcasing great software applications that have received less than their fair share of media coverage. Everyone knows that Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fireworks are the big names in graphics and the swiss army knives of image editing. But, for Mac users, a lesser-known application called Acorn is truly awesome and is a fraction of the cost.

Introducing… Acorn

Acorn is called “the image editor for humans” by its publisher Flying Meat, Inc. As of this date, Acorn 1.52 is the most current version of the application. So, what kind of functionality can you get for a measly $49.95? Actually, perhaps everything that 80% of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fireworks users typically need. And compared to Adobe Photoshop Elements, I would have to say that Acorn is simply superior if you are a graphics professional.

Acorn provides layers, custom brushes with pressure sensitivity for graphics tablet users, filters, special effects, text, and much more.

The beauty of Acorn lies in its simplicity. It fades into the background and your content becomes the focal point of your workflow. Obviously a believer in “one window to rule them all,” Acorn’s interface is the least cluttered of any advanced image editor on the market. Period. Just about every tool and setting is available from a single floating “Tools” window (see screen shot below). Compared to the learning curve of Photoshop, Acorn is a breath of fresh air. There is very little to learn and the interface could not be more obvious. If you already understand the concept of layers and layer blending modes, everything else should be self-evident.

Acorn is a fully native Mac application. Unlike Photoshop’s large codebase (which allows aspects of its development to be cross-platform compatible with Windows and Mac), Acorn takes advantages of OS X’s core graphics and display functionality. So, the same engine that drives the OS X interface literally drives Acorn. Acorn’s core functionality, including printing and a number of effects, are rock solid and zippy because of its tight integration with OS X.

Acorn makes a great replacement for Adobe Fireworks as opposed to Pixelmator (another great application to be reviewed) because it provides the full suite of tools needed to very quickly cut, crop, resize, and prepare graphics for the web, including real-time readouts of image size and selection size that are critical for web developers.

Acorn provides a very powerful plugin architecture. Unfortunately, the number of available plugins is limited at this time. However, if Acorn garners some more users and catches the eyes of plugin developers, there’s really no stopping this application.

With a free trial and a $49.95 purchase price, it doesn’t get much better for quality professional software.

You can find Acorn here: http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/

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