Powerful, but quirky

LiveQuartz is the kind of app that would never be created by a corporation -- it has all of the hallmarks of the one-man app. It is succinct and powerful, but also quirky and often counter-intuitive.

Once you "get" the premise of the filter interface, it is possible to do things with this app that are otherwise only possible in far more complex and/or expensive apps. If you are willing to invest the time to learn how to use it, it is a very powerful tool.

"Quartz", by the way, is the name of the core imaging layer in OS-X -- and what "LiveQuartz" does is "put knobs on" the filter functionality of that imaging layer. If you dont know this technoid jargon, the app name makes no sense at all -- one of those "one-man-app" flags.

"LiveImageEffects" would likely be a more descriptive name, for most users.

5 starts for cost/power ratio, minus one star for the opaque reverse-Polish user interface design.

Kirkkerekes about LiveQuartz