Cheaper Software

Pattern Maker for cross stitch is a Windows® program that allows you to create and edit cross-stitch patterns. With this program you can see your patterns come to life on the computer screen before you make the first real stitch. At any time you can print the pattern using any of several formats including a symbolic view which can be used as a stitching guide. Basic Features: Stitch types include: full, half, quarter, petite, back/straight, over 50 different specialty stitches, French Knots, and beads. Up to 240 floss colors can be used per design from brands such as DMC® and Anchor. Designs can have up to 999x999 full stitches. Complete printing support including print preview, color printing, and options for controlling the content and size of the printout. Four ways to view a pattern including: Stitch - each stitch is drawn similar to how it actually appears. Symbolic - each stitch is replaced with a symbol with color optionally behind the symbol. Solid - each stitch is replaced with a filled block. Information - pattern information is show including the floss list. Drawing and editing via the mouse simply by pointing and clicking. Create a design by: Drawing it using the various stitch tools. Importing a scanned photographic or other graphics image. Using clipart designs (100 included) and the text entry tool to 'build' a design. Additional clipart designs are also available. Image Importing: The Image Importing feature of Pattern Maker is used to convert a scanned photograph or other graphics image into a new cross-stitch design. This feature automatically selects colors and uses full stitches to represent the scanned photo or image. Once imported, the new design can then be manually edited and enhanced as desired.

The world's most popular Quechua language learning CD-ROM for beginners, used every day by people all over the globe. Its ideal for travellers, business people, students and families. Anyone over 13 years of age will find the disc indispensable for boosting listening, understanding and verbal language skills. The software is such that users have fun while they learn.

Develop the skills in Spanish you need to make your way across the Spanish-speaking world!

Countertop's Art for the Ages takes advantage of the flexibility of the CD-ROM medium to build an art museum inside your computer. By integrating audio clips, interactive links, historical text, time lines, and a zoom function with reproductions of the works themselves, this program emulates the experience of seeing these works in person with a knowledgeable tour guide. It might stand to reason that if the makers of this program bothered to use technology creatively to present a virtual museum, they would then strive to make the content of Art for the Ages innovative as well--but sadly, it's not so.

The objective of this program is clear and admirable: to take works from around the world spanning eight centuries and present them in an interesting, coherent, and educational format. On many fronts, Countertop accomplishes this goal. Art for the Ages is attractively designed and relatively user-friendly. This program, however, is fundamentally flawed, not for what it includes, but for what it omits, namely, women. The only prominent woman in this four CD-ROM set is the Virgin Mary, and even the commentary on her is largely devoted to what she is wearing.<p> Art for the Ages covers a time span (ending in 1914) that drops off before many renowned female artists escaped the periphery of art history, but that does not excuse the blatant disregard for the importance of women in art as subjects (even objects) or as audience. Even the "in-depth" analysis of male artists' pieces neglects the relationships that artists such as Gauguin, Rodin, and van Gogh had with women, relationships that may have highly influenced their works. The capabilities of the CD-ROM format could have incorporated women and other members of society on the margin into this retelling of art history without usurping the importance of white male artists. What Art for the Ages accomplishes, on the other hand, is that it presents hackneyed perspectives in a post-modern package. --Cintra Pollack

You'd like to learn but don't have the time or motivation for an evening class? This is the course for you! Fun to use software together with an Audio CD and a book make it one of the best courses for learning Irish on the market. Within 2 months a typical user can pick up enough language skills to participate in conversation and read simple books in Irish.

Art aficionados will love exploring the artists and works of art that pack this interactive software title. Van Gogh, Dali, Monet, da Vinci, Pollock, Michelangelo, and Gauguin are just a few of the artists featured. Explore Romanticism, Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Classicism, Cubism, Surrealism, Beaux Arts, Impressionism, Illusionism, and Realism. Learn about the art created during the eras of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Modern Era, and the Twentieth Century. Explore in-depth great works of art including; the Bayeux Tapestry, which explains the events leading up to the 1066 Norman invasion of England as well as the events of the invasion itself; Goya’s The Third of May, showing an extraordinarily powerful and expressive use of color; Guernica, Picasso’s monumental painting; the Chartres Cathedral built by an unknown architect; the Arena Chapel, which contains a fresco cycle by Giotto; and the Merode Altarpiece, the three-panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Robert Campin. This stunning software include hours of interactive experiences with thousands of high quality images of art and history throughout the ages, hundreds of celebrated, and also some lesser known, artists, as well as more than eight hours of audio books. It also features a scrolling Art Screen Saver with more than 100 remarkable images, and content for your iPod so you can have your art references with you where ever you may find yourself! All ages.

For Artists, Designers, Teachers, Animators - Artists have used freeze-frame photographs to help them paint and draw the human figure for decades. This interactive CD features an easy-to-use interface to quickly locate any of over 300 actions and step through it frame by frame. An ideal resource for artists, designers, animators and teachers. The Action of Muscles - By combining video and computer technologies and using live models, the action of muscles and the effects of light and shadow on them are delineated in a way virtually impossible for computer-generated and animated figures. Frame by Frame - The Human Figure in Motion presents literally thousands of possibilities with every second of its more than 300 live-action videos available as 30 high-resolution frames a total of more than 20,000 individual images. An easy-to-use interface allows the user to quickly locate the particular action and step through it frame by frame.

See and feel the emotions of art and the famous (and not so famous) artists who created it all. Expand your knowledge of art, understand the language of paintings and get truly prepared for your next visit to the art museum!

The world's most popular Korean language learning CD-ROM for beginners, used every day by people all over the globe. Its ideal for travellers, business people, students and families. Anyone over 13 years of age will find the disc indispensable for boosting listening, understanding and verbal language skills. The software is such that users have fun while they learn.