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KNOCKOUT 1.5
Review by Colin Smith

As you well know, since Photoshop version 5.5 a new tool has been included, called the extract tool. I was curious if this new tool marked the death of 3rd party masking tools: Extensis Mask Pro and Corel KnockOut. I mean if Photoshop can do it all, why shell out 200 bucks for another program?

Corel Knockout:
Corel has been busy lately, acquiring some of the most respected graphics products in the industry. Last year MetaCreations in a surprise change of direction sold off their entire range of Award winning products. Corel was lucky to snag the following products and their families of products: Painter, Bryce, KPT and KPT Vector Effects.

Knockout was no exception. Formally owned by the studio blue screen company Ultimatte, Knockout 1.5 is the latest offering from the Canadian company, Corel.

Knockout used to retail for around $500USD, now Corel has made it within the reach of the ordinary designer, by reducing the price to approx. $249. Not only that but they have included both Mac and PC versions in the same box. If that wasn't enough, they also included 2 full color printed manuals, 1 for each platform!

Getting started:
The program was a breeze to install on my system. A quick reboot and I was ready to go.
I soon discovered that it pays to read the manual to use this program. Fortunately the manual is only 32 pages and written in real English. I was really impressed to find a 20 minute QuickTime tutorial on the CD which walks you through from the basics to cutting out transparent objects. After the tutorial I was able to perform most tasks with ease.

The result in Photoshop

How it works:
You define the foreground area and the background areas. The transition area is where all the magic happens. Using the different tools you tell Knockout what to do in the transition area. There is a choice of 4 different levels for processing your image. If you are not happy with one, you can try another. You can even tweak the results and reprocess as many times as you wish.

Usability test:
I found out that Knockout does exactly what is says it does, and does it well!
It is an excellent program for masking an object and removing it from its background. It is a stand alone product, meaning that you perform all your cutting out in the program and then export it to Photoshop as a native .psd file. It also allows you to save the following formats: Corel Photo-Paint, jpg, bmp, tif, Corel Knockout and Ultimatte knockout.

In Photoshop, open the file and select the alpha channel and either put the image on a new layer or drag and drop to a new document. I did find, with some images on dark backgrounds there was a little bit of Matting. But this was easily fixed by using the defringe filter in Photoshop.

A transparent object

Pro's:
There was a lot to like about Corel KnockOut, especially since I remember having to cut out masses of images with the pen tool.

KnockOut was simple to use and the results definitely save a lot of time. I was amazed at the ability to lift transparent objects and even drop shadows from their backgrounds. Some of the results would be virtually impossible to get in Photoshop by itself.

You have the ability to view the object on different color backgrounds and you can even test it with picture backgrounds before you commit to a knockout.

A good set of robust tools, make it possible to get some accurate results. It even has a feature to automatically draw an inside or outside selection based on the previous selection. Excellent documentation and learning resources and with the inclusion of the quicktime movie, I would have to say this is the best packaged software I have seen.

Con's:
Just a couple of minor things:
The undo tool is limited in its functionality and no multiple undo's are available.
I would like to see a path tool similar Photoshop. The drawing tool is similar to the lasso tool, meaning as soon as you let go of your mouse the selection is drawn. (However, you can easily add or subtract from selections).
A bit of a memory hog on the Mac platform.

An object lifted off it's background with shadow intact

Conclusion:
The question is, "Do I need a 3rd party program now that Photoshop has the extract tool?"
A definite yes! The results in Knockout are superior to the Extract tool. I highly recommend Knockout for all Photoshop Professionals! This program will pay for itself in no time at all. Its a great time saver and time is money.

I give KnockOut 1.5 a 4.5 out of 5.

With so many products in the Corel Family, I asked the question that is on everyone's lips: "Are you going to continue to develop Knockout? Will there be upgrades?"

A representative from Corel answered:

"We are in the development stage of the next version of Corel KnockOut. It will
be available later this year. We are currently evaluating the feature set for
version 2. There are many professional precision tools under evaluation."

Lets hope we see a stronger undo feature, which would give Knockout a solid 5.

visit the Knockout page

Buy it now for only $189!

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RATING SYSTEM
1 cup  - bad
2 cups - not bad
3 cups - good
4 cups - excellent
5 cups - a must have

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