Update: Please check the end of the article for answers to all the questions posted so far.
Update 2: I posted another entry on iPhoto import, and a small look inside the file.
Well, here’s a quick take on Aperture. There will be far more eloquent reviews than this, but I had someone actually leave a comment saying they were looking forward to the screen shots.. that got me off my butt to try it out.
Note in all of these screens that the toolbar at the top of the window is showing text. It defaulted to a clean, no text look, but I flipped it to icon and text to learn the buttons faster.
After installing Aperture, and launch, there is a splash screen, then you are greeted with this screen:
The main working screen looks like this (click for a large version):
Note that there is two views for showing your pictures – icon view as above, and a listing view shown below:
Adjusting pictures badges them (notice the icon in the lower right corner).
All of the editing modules have an undo button on them, it is the little arrow on the top right of this picture:
Web Galleries are pretty cool, far more professional looking than the iPhoto themes. Here is the editor for them:
Aperture currently comes with a few nice gallery designs:
Those themes seem to have settings for the different items about a picture you can show:
Finally, I leave you with a link to the output of the web gallery function in Aperture. These are some pictures of a snow storm we had in the portland area in 2004.
Ok.. that’s it for now. If you’d like to see a screenshot of something else, please leave a comment.
My thoughts for tonight on Aperture: it’s a solid piece of work. No crashes, no issues, the app runs smoothly and pretty quickly on my work dual 2Gh G5 with 2 gigs of RAM. It has all the nice touches that Apple apps are know for, things fade in and out, slide around on the window, and move up and down.
I would compare it to the iPhoto I’ve always wanted and been willing to pay for. My only problem right now, for me and for Jennifer is that it won’t install on any of our personal machines (a 12″ PowerBook, about a year and 1/2 old, and an original 20″ iMac). I am tempted to try to copy it over to the iMac manually to see if it will launch once it’s there.
Dang, I wish Apple had intel dual core PowerBooks out already. 
Questions Answered
Ok, here we go, with some questions answered:
Justin wrote “Did it import your iPhoto Library?”. Yes, it did today. I let it go in the background while working, and imported my 8233 photos in about 2 1/2 hours. (Firewire target mode on the 12″ PowerBook and importing them that way). I will work on another weblog entry tonight that describes that.
Jonathan asked about my attempt at installing it on my 12″ PowerBook. Yes, I tried, but the installer said I had an unsupported configuration. I believe it said the same thing as the compatibility checker app, that I don’t have 1 GB of memory, and my video card isn’t supported.
Van Mardian asked a question on the jpeg level for the web gallery, and if those are changeable on a picture by picture basis.From what I’ve seen no, but a picture is worth a thousand words:
“munky” asked twice if it is a universal binary. Nope, PowerPC only. That being said, I would have been shocked if it was a universal binary, and that would have lead me to believe that pro machines were going Intel in January. There is no reason for Apple to spend any resources right now getting a 1.0 universal, given there are no pro, customer available machines released yet.
That being said, from my snooping around in the App package, it looks like it would be pretty easy to get it to be a universal binary. The application itself looks to be writing in Cocoa. (No surprise there I expect).
Erik and Ian comment that the web gallery XHMTL doesn’t validate (121 and 131 errors).. I suppose this is bad, but when you are pushing to get a product out, this is one of those bugs that you can very easily say “hey, let’s defer this until another time”. The themes are in the application package, so it should be easily updated or fixed.
Fraser Speirs asks if there is any evidence that it has a plug-in architecture for exporting. None as far as I can tell. I’ve poked around inside the app package, and there is a “PlugIns” directory that has some AppleScripts for emailing photos, and a WebPlugin.viewer directory. But it seems too small to do anything like the web export stuff I talked about earlier.
I would expect this application though to, at some point, get similar treatment to Apple’s other pro apps, and some sort of API made available, or the file format documented.
Stevve asked if keywords set in iPhoto are retained after the import. Yes they are. It seems like it read everything from iPhoto, keywords, ratings, the multiple copies of the pictures if you’ve edited them.
That’s it for now. Please check back maybe tonight, but most likely tomorrow for a new post on the iPhoto import, which went really really well. Aperture was still really fast in loading and showing all 8233 photos. Far superior to iPhoto.
Thank you for visiting and leaving your comments. I normally get about 200 visitors a day, today I have had almost 10,000. Crazy. Thanks again.
Did it import your iPhoto library?
I will give that a try tomorrow, and post another entry. Good question.
just making sure of something, you tried installing it on the 12″ powerbook and it wont let you, correct? did it say the usual apple stuff about upgrading your hardware? or something else
Ya… when I tried to run it on this PowerBook, the installer said it was an unsupported configuration, and threw up a dialog with a close button.
More answers tomorrow, I’ve got to go to sleep, otherwise Jennifer will kill me.
Aperature Quick Review
Quick review of Apple’s Aperature with some sexy screenshots from this very cool looking application. Overall, appears to be a positive review albeit short. Will be interesting to see what he has to say once he has used Aperature for a longer…
Thanks for posting your screenshots and comments!
The pictures in the web gallery look great. Judging by the file size and lack of jpeg artifacts, it seems as if its saving them using level 11 or 12. Can this be chnaged and if so can it be changed on a per-picture basis (I find pictures with dark gradients need higher a quality level to prevent artifacts).
Also, I noticed that the pictures are sharpened. Is this done during export to web and if so can you control the amount of sharpening?
Nice review. I just wish it would work on my Mac mini… no core image
is it a universal binary?
I downloaded some Aperture system config tester on my Mac mini and it threw up because of my video card. Aperture probably uses Core Image and my 9200 just won’t cut it…I suspect it’s the same on your PowerBook and iMac.
Ouch. I was hoping for the galleries to validate, but despite efforts from Apple to keep it XHTML strict it failed miserably. 131 errors
Looks like there will be an Aperture 1.0.1 shortly.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jennandlucien.net%2Flucien%2Fimages%2Faperture_gallery%2Findex.html
Damn, that’s some ugly XHTML on the gallery web-page. It generates 121 validation errors, and has some really basic schoolboy mistakes in it (like uppercase tags in XHTML!)
Cool looking app though, I just wish I had a Mac that’d run it.
Is there any evidence that Aperture has a plug-in architecture for exporting?
Duh. Looking at your screenshots with fresh eyes this morning there is an option to import from iPhoto right there in the first screenshot.
No more asking questions right before going to bed at 3am.
You’ve been picked up by Mac1.no – Norways largest Mac-portal, as well as TUAW
Get ready for some hits.
http://mac1.no/node/2302
http://www.tuaw.com/2005/11/29/first-review-of-aperture/
Screenshots of Aperture, Apple’s software for for professional photographers
Interest for Aperture is very high and although we’ve seen several reviews in the past, however this is one that has a myriad of screenshots. Don’t expect in-depth analysis but rather an article that will give you a visual…
When you try an iPhoto import, does it retain keywords set from iPhoto?
Thank you for this mini review.
Aperture Mini Review
Aperture Mini Review With Screenshots “I would compare it to the iPhoto I’ve always wanted and been willing to pay for.” [with thanks to Mark for spotting the review] Also: Ted Leung points out that Apple have posted some…
dude.. i’d really love to know… is it intel/powerpc universal? or just ppc for now? please check it out (Get Info, More Info)
Well this is an interesting article on Aperture. I am hoping my copy ships tomorrow so I can test it out on a G5 Quad. I think that the gallery option is a cleaner looking one than currently done by iPhoto. I look forward to more comments you can discuss on it, as long as Jennifer will allow you to post…
Nice first review! Thank you for all these screenshots.
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How Aperture is looking a great piece of software! If only I had the good mac for it : I have a Mini and an iBook G4. Their ATI 9200 doesn’t support Core Image
I hope iPhoto 06 will offer some nice features of Aperture.
Does anyone know how well it works on the current round of powerbooks? They’re a supported configuration, but support doesn’t always mean “usable”.
Aperture
I was forwarded an Apple Aperture mini review today, and this app looks like it’s set to square off with Fotostation – I’ll be interested to hear what some of the Fotostation heads I know have to say about this one, although the hardware r…
In regard to the inability to install it on your PowerBook, You can try installing it with Pacifist (available from version tracker.) It will open the installer package and install the files as they would generally be installed but without all the compatibility checking.
I’d love to here how that goes if you give it a try.
Apple Aperture Mini Review With Screenshots By Jennand Lucien
Apple Aperture Mini Review With Screenshots By Jennand Lucien
Apple’s Aperture is Going to Change Everything
Yesterday I attended a seminar on Apple’s new photo workflow application, Aperture, hosted by Square Group at London’s Design Museum. I’ve been eyeing this software since it was first announced in October of last year. Besides the fac…