BlackMagic

BlackMagic is a photo coloring software for PC Windows, released as shareware; it is used to colorize Black & White, Sepia, or IR (infrared) photos, or to color-correct ones with faded or inappropriate colors. Being extremely simple to use, its a software that transcends age and professional  boundaries, providing an immense sense of achievement, pride and satisfaction for kids and adults alike. The resulting colorized photos have optimally saturated and consistent, correct hues - giving the appearance as if the photo had originally been 'shot' in color! BlackMagic delivers such professional grade results with the minimum of fuss, and just a few minutes worth of effort.

BlackMagic incorporates "TimeBrush™ RLC [Real-Life-colour]™" standard. The TimeBrush RLC technology was specifically created for colorizing black & white motion pictures of the Hollywood fame. This feature provides BlackMagic the ability to render superb, rich, vibrant looking colors, that are not under/ over saturated, yet look completely natural.

Colorizing Photos - the ISSUES

Colorizing black & white photos can get quite involving, depending upon the quality and sophistication of the results desired. The process involved can be very tedious and challenging, taking a day [often several] to completely colorize a single black & white photograph to professional grade quality. The typical 'paint' computer programs usually require the operator to select individual hue [color], opacity [transparency], etc., for coloring a specific portion of the photo. This is further compounded by the need to 'guess' the right hue/ saturation values to color a certain object, which can take several hit-and-trial iterations, with no guarantee of a 'best' match.

The whole process may need to be repeated hundreds of times over to finish a single photograph...even then, the results often leave much to be desired, and rarely resemble the 'real life colors' that we are used to seeing in color photographs Even with all the professional care and sophistication, it is common to get results depicting improper color matches, over saturated colors, dull/ faded colors, or over-emphasized/ blurred edges.

The BlackMagic Difference

BlackMagic resolves all of the above problems associated with colorizing black & white photos, and more. The system uses state-of-the-art Neural Net algorithms to provide dynamic parameterisation. This means that the user is not required to pick specific color hues or the associated values/ parameters - she/ he works by simply identifying the 'type of object' to be colored. BlackMagic then automatically performs the needed calculations to continuously vary all required parameters, based on the content of the photograph/ region being colorized - all done in the background transparent to the user. This process ensures consistent as well as optimal selection of hue, brightness, saturation, opacity, etc. for colorizing any object/ region of the image, without the guess work that would otherwise have been required.

BlackMagic provides several tools, to most expeditiously apply RealLifecolor palettes to a monochromatic image. It is available in several versions, to suit every budget and need.

BlackMagic is available in following flavors to suit different requirements:

HE [Home Edition] is a low priced consumer version suited for home PC users, this edition of BlackMagic provides a fun way for Mums/ Dads, and the kids alike, to have fun colorizing Black & White photos from the family album, or to re-color the ones that did not come out quite right. BlackMagic HE supports a maximum processing resolution of one million pixels, suited for printing at A4/ Letter sizes (similar in size to 8" X 10" photo prints) on most consumer-end color printers (such as color photo ink-jet printers). This edition makes a unique gift for any occasion, or an invaluable addition to your or your kids' personal software library. Photos colorized using BlackMagic HE are indeed masterpieces that you or your kids create; the results are sure to provide a tremendous sense of achievement, pride, and satisfaction, besides delivering professionally restored family heirlooms to be admired by generations to come.

BE [Business Edition] is primarily aimed at small, individually owned/ run photo restoration services, this edition of BlackMagic allows for processing at up to 4M-pixel image resolutions for higher resolution prints. The Business Edition also offers additional functionality, tools, and palettes over the HE version.

PE [Professional Edition] is the ultimate photo-colorization tool, and offers a rich set of tools and palettes for an unprecedented level of productivity in colorization projects. The PE version supports processing at any resolution [virtually, limited only by the computer's resources]. It offers additional features and functionality over Home or Business Editions, and will suit large photo processing/ restoration studios, or photo artists.

BlackMagic offer a vary attractive ROI, considering that getting a single Black & White photo colorized from a photo-studio may cost between US$ 50 - 500.

All BlackMagic Editions come with full on-line help/ tutorial, web/ e-mail support, and free product updates within the same major release.

Features

BlackMagic FAQ 

General [last update - 25 October 2003] 

Why is there only one trial version, while BlackMagic is available in three flavors? Which program edition does the trial download relate to?

The BlackMagic free trial download is common to all the BlackMagic editions. The trial lets a user test most of the Professional Edition functionality - which automatically includes all features and functions of the Business and Home editions of the program.

If I previously trial'ed BlackMagic and ran out the entire trial period, can I re-trial a newer program version?

Most newer program versions (updates) re-set the trial; so the answer is yes - we would definitely like you to try any new features/ improvements. The only exception is if an update release does not introduce much over and above the previous release.

How do I un-install BlackMagic

Unlike some other programs, BlackMagic does not install files all over your computer, or in your system folders. Hence there is no need for special un-installer. To un-install, simply delete the folder where you installed BlackMagic (first making sure to backup any personal files/ data you may have in there), then delete the corresponding program group. Future releases may include an un-install program that does this automatically.

Minimum system requirements to run BlackMagic on a Windows PC:

• Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP (or later) equipped PC w/ Keyboard, and hard-disk with minimum 5 MB free space for the program.

• High resolution pointing device such as a mouse, pen/ tablet, etc.

• Color Monitor + Graphics card capable of minimum 800 X 600 display at 16 bit [for BE/ PE a fast Graphics sub-system capable of 1024 x 768 upwards resolution at 32/24 bit color depth, and min. 32MB Video RAM is recommended].

• Minimum 24MB memory [128MB+ recommended for BE, or 500MB+ for PE] [actual memory required will also depend upon the size of the image]

• Hi Resolution Scanner [OPTIONAL] to scan images

• Printer [OPTIONAL] capable of color photographic quality output.

* Please note: Though any Edition of BlackMagic can be run on the minimal system specifications, more system resources may be required to handle larger graphics, especially with the Professional Edition. Our tests indicate that to process photos at around 14 Mega Pixel resolution, a Pentium IV or equivalent system running Windows 2000 or higher at 1.5GHz+ with 500+ MB system memory, and a fast Graphics sub-system capable of minimum 1024 x 768 screen resolution at 32-bit color-depth w/ 64MB+ video RAM, should be considered desirable for a fair response time.

** Though BlackMagic is technically supported on PC Windows, some users have reported using it on Mac OS using a bridging software to emulate Windows. If you wish to use BlackMagic on a Mac, the prudent thing to do is to try the free shareware version and see if it works under your emulation environment; if it does, then you can purchase a license.

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