Jason Dunn
03-08-2004, 04:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=jasondunn-20&path=search-handle-url/store-name%3Dsoftware%26index%3Dsoftware%26search-type%3Dss%26field-manufacturer%3DHemera%2520Technologies' target='_blank'>http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=jasondunn-20&path=search-handle-url/store-name%3Dsoftware%26index%3Dsoftware%26search-type%3Dss%26field-manufacturer%3DHemera%2520Technologies</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/hemera50k.gif" /><br /><br />You know those little featured review graphics I make every couple of days? Quite often, I can't find an appropriate product image to use in the graphic, so I turn to a very useful tool that I wanted to tell everyone about: Hemera Photo Objects. If you have any sort of Web site, make any sort of printed newsletter, design anything in HTML, or do PowerPoint presentations on a regular basis, this tool will be very useful to you. Photo objects are objects that can be placed seamlessly on any type of background and look perfect. They are pre-masked, which means they are "cut out" and can be dropped into any image and look like they belong. Excellent! Keep reading to learn more about this handy tool.<!><br /><br />Hemera has released their third collection of 50,000 images, so with all three I have a massive collection of 150,000 images to search through. I can normally find what I need from that collection, but if I can't, their desktop software search tool can tap into several online collections to further broaden your results.<br /><br />I've been using Hemera Photo Objects for several years now, and I can honestly say (with no amount of exeggeration) that next to <a href="http://www.ulead.com/pi/runme.htm">Ulead PhotoImpact</a>, this is the most vital tool I have in creating Web graphics. Years ago, I used to buy clipart collections, photo collections, and any other sort of graphics resource I could find, just in case one day I needed a certain image. The problem was, I never used them - the search tools were atrocious on every product I tried. What's the point of having 1 milllion clipart images if you can't quickly find what you need and export it? The Hemera search tool is amazing - you simply start typing the keyword you want to search for, and it brings up the image thumbnails immdiately. I typed in "cell phone" and within seconds had 1490 different images of cell phones, people holding cell phones, etc.<br /><br />If I had any criticism of the Hemera packages in general, it would be that they don't bundle a DVD version in the box: you have to wait 6+ months (usually) for them to release the DVD version. Swapping seven CDs is no fun - DVDs were designed for this type of use. I'd be a happy guy if they'd just include a DVD version in the box - I doubt it would cost them more than an extra 50 cents anyway. Also, the three collections don't really play well together - I once received some very complicated instructions on how to get them to all see each other, but I wasn't able to make it all work together. I wish it was as easy as installing the browser client and then importing all the data. Yes, I'd be willing to set aside 10 GB just for these photo objects!<br /><br />All in all, I'm always excited whenever I see a new collection being released, and I highly recommend this product to anyone that needs to create graphics on a regular basis and requires a pool of images to draw from. If you're interested in purchasing any of the Hemera collections, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=jasondunn-20&path=search-handle-url/store-name%3Dsoftware%26index%3Dsoftware%26search-type%3Dss%26field-manufacturer%3DHemera%2520Technologies">Amazon.com sells them all online</a> but I've also seen them at many local computer stores. [Affiliate]