Paper Camera
Filter tips
Android App of the Week I’m not a big enthusiast of mobile phone photography. As long as the end result is in focus and the lighting doesn’t make it look like it was taken on the surface of some distant planet orbiting a green sun, I’m happy. If I want better, I use a real camera.
But if your photographic emphasis is more on fun than verisimilitude, JFDP Labs new Paper Camera app is worth its asking price. In a nutshell, it takes pictures and converts them into graphic art right there on your handset.
The sketchy UI
All told there are 11 filters but it’s the first two in the cycle - Comic Boom and Sketch Up - that will get the most use, I suspect. The first makes your picture look like a comic book illustration and the second like a pencil sketch.
Comic Boom
Other filters have less obvious names, such as Neon Cola and Gotham Noir, making this an app that rewards some time spent experimenting. Said experimentation is no chore because effects are applied locally so you can see how your pictures will look in the viewfinder before you take your shot.
Sketch Up
The app takes around four seconds to launch but once up and running works fast. It’s possible to take pictures in very quick succession thanks to the app not pausing to ask what you want to do with each image after you have taken it. The speed and flexibility come at a price, through: the final images are only 640 x 480.
Granny's Paper
The on-screen interface takes the form of a scrap of paper with the controls - filter type, contrast, brightness, line density and shutter activation - scribbled on it in pen. Some may think that’s taking things too far, but it works well and shows that some thought has gone into the design.
Pastel
The app can’t alter images already on your handset nor can it use use front-facing cameras for self-portraits but the developer is working on both features for future versions along with a facility for phones with more hirsute-chested GPUs to handle higher resolution images. ®
Size 2.2MB
App2SD No
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COMMENTS
No App2SD
If it doesn't have App2SD and consumes more than 700kB it had better make a damn good dry martini as well.
2.2MB without App2SD means it won't even get tried out in my world.
Apologies in advance for the technical jargon
but ever since these "sketch" and "cartoon" filters were introduced in PC/Mac editing software in the 1990s they have suffered from the same basic problem: the results are complete shit.
..pity
no App2SD support - otherwise it'd be an instant purchase
PS don't care if its available for other platforms. you'd have to be a
bit of a twit to switch phone platform just for one nice little App - after all,
such an App could exist as a Cloud-based web application that you
simply e.g. tweet your photos to.
Absolutely
I also feel that a developer can't be worth much if they don't take the time to learn the platform well enough to implement App2SD support. If they can't even get that right, why am I supposed to expect they get more difficult things like battery usage right?
Another commentard said this was originally an IOS app. Half-assed port perhaps? It would explain the lack of support for Android-specific features like App2SD.
Unfortunately on Android we're getting more and more half-assed IOS ports (*cough*linkedin*cough*)...
I bet
That it tastes almost, but not entirely, different from chicken!
Mine´s the one... sorry, it´s a towel.
