In ancient times, the elite read their sacred writings, histories, philosophical musings and more on materials such as clay tablets, papyrus leaves and vellum scrolls. Somewhere around the first century, the paper-and-ink book appeared, and the invention of the mechanical printing press in the 15th century brought the printed word to the masses. Now, for the first time in centuries, how we read is undergoing a revolutionary transformation.
Screen captures -- pictures of what's shown on your computer monitor -- are extremely useful. You can use them to help you explain to your associates, clients, IT, or tech support what you are seeing, or how to interact with a particular program. They're great for presentations, or to insert into larger documents. And, for us as reviewers, it makes it possible for us to illustrate our articles, so that you can see what we're writing about. But, with the right screen capture utility, you can do so much more. A case in point is Ashampoo Snap 3 (US$20, 10-day free trial), which allows you to easily capture or create video as well as still images.
Adobe has released an early public beta for its Photoshop Lightroom 3 in order to solicit "concise, constructive criticism" from its users. Lightroom is a workflow program in which you can sort, organize, develop, and publish your photos, or hand them off to Photoshop for finishing. With version 3, Adobe has improved the image quality of RAW processing and streamlined some workflow situations.
