Version 2.3.1 (current latest) of ImageFramer seems to have an issue in Snow Leopard where the color effects (Hue, Saturation, Brightess and Colorize) will create a chopped looking frame, unsuitable for export. See screenshot below:

Be assured, we’re working on fixing this issue. Look forward to ImageFramer 2.3.2 update soon.

Jacob.

Update: Version 2.3 was replaced by 2.3.1 due to a critical bug.

ImageFramer release 2.3 has the following new features:

• 12 new frames in Real collection. All frames were contributed by existing users
• If shadows are enabled ImageFramer will now export images with the falling (outside the frame) shadow on a transparent background (In JPG on white background).
• Fixed export size for setting ‘As viewed’ in export dialog. Now takes zoom into account.
• License keys were updated and will regenerated for ImageFramer 2.3
• License dialog will now show your license type (Personal, Family or Commercial).

From now on the development will focus heavily on ImageFramer 3, which will be a major update with lots of new features and GUI updates.

We’re glad to announce the immediate release of ImageFramer 2.2.2. The main change is the addition of 20 high-quality frames. These were kindly contributed by one of our dedicated customers. The frames are mostly in wooden set, but also in metal-like, in golden and in Real/Artistic set.

Another small fix fixes behavior when removing an existing variation form the list.

The size of the DMG file also grew to 34MB because of the added graphics. Everyone, update your copy. If you enable automatic updates, you’ll receive this automatically and in a smaller file.

This is a bug fix and behaviour fix release. Mainly, two things were fixed:

1. Made “Controls” button only open/close controls window and not Colors panel as well.
2. Fixes crash when selecting a frame, then closing window with red button.

Both issues were reported to me by Kosta, my recently joined partner.

I’m glad to tell that I am going to the European Mac developers conference in Hatfield, UK on April 16-17. I hope to meet great people there and learn more about different aspects of Cocoa programming. I will also use this opportunity to travel in UK a bit, since I’ve never been there.

To learn more about the conference visit: http://www.nsconference.com

Jacob.

The research below was done by Kosta, who recently joined Apparent Software to lead business development.

Having recently entered the world of MicroISV for Mac, one of the first things I wanted to know was what are the characteristics and types of ISV, what are the main groups that they fall in etc. Basically, I wanted a market research. To my surprise, I found nothing satisfactory of that kind.

As a good catchphrase goes – you want to get something done, you’d better do it yourself – and so I did ☺

This is summary of my analysis based on randomly-selected several dozens of MicroISV developing software for Mac OS X platform. I apologize in advance if I offend anyone but I focused on regular Mac applications and excluded plug-in developers and game developers from this research. Both of these constitute different groups and deserve another detailed research that can be hopefully done by another volunteer ☺.

In order to cluster the ISVs, I collected several parameters for each examined ISV:

• What kind of applications does it develop?
  • Specialized / specific applications that would interest only a small niche (for example, applications that add a watermark to images or print  invoices )
  • Generic applications, designed for the general public (like productivity applications, generic image-editing applications etc)
  • Both specific and generic applications
• Applications quantity – how many applications did each ISV develop
• Application categories quantity. All applications can be usually divided into well-known categories: personal productivity, utilities, imaging, internet applications etc. I checked for each ISV how many of these categories does it span.
• Application price

Having collected all this data, I was ready to cluster the ISVs – create meaningful homogeneous groups having similar characteristics. Having these groups will help us better understand what kind of ISVs are there and what the differences between different types are.

But before presenting the clusters, let me first build some suspense by listing several generic conclusions based on the research:

1. Most ISVs create generic products or both generic and specific products. Only 21% of the ISV develop only specific products.
2. About half of the ISVs develop applications in 1 category only. That includes ISVs who develop specific products (the 21% shown above) and ISVs who have 1-3 generic applications.
3. In terms of application quantity – there is almost no middle-ground: either you develop 1-3 applications, or you are in 6 to 9 applications league.
4. Price wasn’t determined by the ISV type, but by application type. Only one exception to his rule – the only ISVs providing ALL applications for free have 2-3 applications in 1 category only.

And now – for the winners!

What are final conclusions of the research?
What are the clusters that MicroISVs can be broken into?

Necessary disclaimer for these of you less familiar with marketing or descriptive statistics: there are always border-line or unique cases not falling into any cluster – but these are the exceptions that only underline the general rule.

• Small fry (49%): Most of MicroISVs fall into this category. They have several generic or both generic and specialized applications, belonging to 1-2 categories. They probably lack the resources or the will to grow and become a Generizer or a Micro-monster, but they may still become one.
• Generizers (16%): These ISV have larger amount of applications (5-6), all of them generic. All applications are usually in 1-2 categories, like utilities, web or productivity. These ISV may still grow to become Micro-Monsters.
• Micro-Monsters (16%): The last stage of Micro-ISV development – these companies have it all. They have many (8-9) applications spanning several categories, some specific and some generic.
• Specializers (15%): ISVs that have few specific applications, all of them usually in one category. This is usually the case of 1-man show that has a personal interest in that particular category, and doesn’t want to expand beyond this category. This ISV will rarely turn into another category, and will expand by slowly creating additional specific applications in the same category.

MicroISV clusters

MicroISV growth

Concluding thoughts

How can your ISV benefit from the analysis you’ve just read?

My take is that each ISV owner should ask himself the following questions:

1. What group does his ISV fall in?
2. Are you satisfied with belonging to that group?

If the answer to the previous question was “No”, ask yourself

• Who do you want to be when you grow up?
• What is stopping you from getting there?

And make a long-range plan how and when DO you get there!

UPDATE: Ralph’s website was taken down. The links in the article no longer live.

Ralph, power user of ImageFramer posted a review, tutorial on how to create custom frames in Photoshop and several frames of his own design, which are wonderful. Actually, ImageFramer 2.2 includes several frames done by Ralph but these are new and not included, for various reasons. Ralph gives you these frames for free, in the hope that more people will contribute their designs.

You can read Ralph’s review of ImageFramer at http://mac.coquinadaily.com/.

The tutorial is at: http://mac.coquinadaily.com/imageframer.shtml (also available in PDF format from the website).

His frames are available for preview and download at: http://mac.coquinadaily.com/imageframerframes.shtml

Some examples of Ralph’s frames images can be seen at http://mac.coquinadaily.com/imageframerexamples.shtml.

My deepest gratitude to Ralph for his contribution and comprehensive tutorial.

Ralph and myself call you to make your own frames and share them with the users. The Apparent Software forum is a good place to start and Ralph has already started a thread on the custom frames of his own design.

ImageFramer 2.2 Release notes:

• Over 30 new frames. Most frames were contributed by existing users.
• A new “Manufacturers” collection, which includes real frames from several manufacturers.
• Resizing frames and mats can now be performed right on the preview screen. For example to resize the frame:
  1. Click somewhere on the frame. The cursor will change to a resize cursor.
  2. Hold mouse pressed and move the mouse towards the center to increase width or outwards to make the frame thinner.
• The same applies to mats. Click and drag on any mat directly on screen.
• ImageFramer now automatically rotates images on load, based on their EXIF orientation tag.

I’ve added a lost license form, with a link from the support page.

Now, by giving the email address you used to register ImageFramer, you’ll receive your code and a receipt to it.

The receipt might not be correct if you haven’t bought through PayPal store but at Kagi or some other promotion, since then the data is not full.

But the license codes will be correct.

New since 2.1:

• Fixed the loading of designs by double clicking a .framing file in Finder to start ImageFramer.
• Added option to save a design, if it was changed, before quitting ImageFramer. A panel will pop-up asking what to do when quitting an unsaved design.
• Color panel now doesn’t pop up just by selecting another tab in control panel, which nagged some users.
• Frame, image and mat setting can now be selected correctly by clicking in the main window at the relevant area. Frame by clicking on frame, image/background by clicking on image or background, A specific mat can be selected by clicking directly on the mat.
• Disabled opening an Open Image dialog by double clicking on the image in main window.