 | |
| Developer(s) | Barco Graphics |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 7.2 / 1999; 26 years ago (1999)? |
| Operating system | Silicon GraphicsIRIX |
| Type | Graphics editor |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | Archived December 6, 1998, at theWayback Machine |
Barco Creator was an image manipulation program targeted at the repro and print shop markets. It was developed byBarco Creative Systems a division of theBarco Group and first shown as a prototype at Parigraph in April 1988, then later at Ipex 88[1]).Barco Creative Systems together withD.I.S.C. andAesthedes merged intoBarco Graphics. It ran on several generations ofSilicon Graphics computers till the late 1990s. Barco Graphics (laterEsko)ColorTone forWindows NT is considered its successor.
Until the late 1980s, digitalretouching required specialized hardware such as theQuantelPaintbox. Barco Creator was one of the first products to run on off-the-shelf SGI workstations instead.[citation needed] Originally targeted at the "high end", Creator evolved into a slightly more mid-market program with the "personal"-edition running on the Indy. Still the price was in the $10k to $100k range depending on options, and additional hardware was sometimes needed to speed up specific operations. While Creator could rely on superior features and performance to justify its price through the mid-1990s, as time progressed each newPhotoshop version made the Barco package harder to sell. After the release of version 7.1 in late 1997 there were few new sales.[1] In the end Creator was abandoned, like many of its contemporaries;Dalim Tango,Linotype-Hell DaVinci andAlias Eclipse. Its lineal successor, known as EskoColorTone was discontinued in 2013.
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Creator was set up to be a modular system, tailored to the specific needs of each "shop" or user. The base for version 7.0 was the"CT-Brix"software library (colour selection, basiccompositing, selection, transformation,shapes, basiccolour correction,densitometer, layers etc.), also featured in otherBarco Graphics CT (continuous tone) products, e.g. ColorTone. On top of this Creator added the"Creative functions" libraries (special effect filters;mosaic,emboss, b/w, warp etc.),"basic brush" module (size, thickness, shapes, styles, pressure sensitivity),"advanced brush" module (brush profiles,textures),"basic colour correction" module (gradation correction, pick mixer, plane mixer, colour mixer),"advanced colour correction" module (chain all of the basic correction tools, batch corrections, instant preview) and finally the"auto mask" module.
Optional software modules included"PrintView" (preview a givenCMYKprinting process),"BlackSmith" (modify CMYK files to reduce ink usage, better print quality) and"InkSwitch" (convert CMYK into special ink separations forpackaging printing).
Barco ColorTone adds an"Image quality estimator" module (evaluate if an image is printable according to certain quality parameters), but lacks several of the other Creator modules.
Using the"Brix Organizer" software it was possible to group CT-Brix modules into "sessions" customised for the current workflow. One could for example disable both colour correction and the creative functions/filters, giving the operator an interface more focused on painting.
As of Barco Creator 7 support for foreign (non-Barco)file formats depended on a dedicatedsoftware "interface". Interfaces for Creator CVW files,TIFF, PSD (no layers) andEPS/DCS were standard. Optionally one could order interfaces for Hell and Scitex and Scitex online file formats.
For the earlier versions, at least, the primary output wereCTRGB (Scitex CT to be exposed onfilm recorders as LVT and Fire 1000) andCMYK formats (toScitex,Hell, andIT8). One must keep in mind that the internet was just coming of age, and the whole prepress/magazine industry was almost exclusively based on film photographers and a film workflow.
Creator originally ran on Silicon GraphicsPower Series computers with one or more processors. By 1993 "Personal Creator" was available for theIndigo, while the "full" Power Creator ran on aCrimson. Later releases were available for theIndy,Indigo2,02 andOctane computers. It is unknown if Creator will run on the laterOctane2,Fuel andTezro workstations with VPro graphics.
Due to itshigh end focus Barco developed several dedicated hardware options to speed up Creator.
For the Power Series and Crimson Barco originally supplied a "Colcom/VME" colour computer board, a fast multi-dimensional interpolator.[2] This was replaced in early 1993 with the more powerful "Chameleon" board, integrating the discrete logic of the Colcom board in a customASIC. Its main purpose was displayingCMYK colours on the (RGB) monitor quickly. After version 7.0 the Chameleon was also used for accelerating certain colour correction operations.
For the release of Creator 6 Barco also added a Brush-accelerator board that maderetouching with large brushes on files of several hundred megabytes possible.
Turnkeyworkstations were additionally supplied with aWACOMtablet, a Barco Reference Calibrator self-calibrating or Personal Calibrator monitor andSCSIRAID storage, though stripped down versions were also available.
Input was usually from high-end scanners: Linotype-Hell,Crosfield Electronics,Dainippon Screen, or ICG (Itek Color Graphics). From the Indigo/Crimson versions theHowtekD4000 (4000dpi)drum scanner was usually offered as an option. Version 7 supported both theD4000 and theD7500 (5000dpi) scanner.
The feature set was basically frozen after Creator 7 (June 1996). The most apt comparison to the final release, featurewise, would be Adobe Photoshop 4 (November 1996).
| Version | Hardware | O/S | Release date | Price | Significant changes (selected) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Creator 1.0 Prototype[1] |
| IRIX 3.X | Fall 1988 | ? |
|
| Creator CD, SP, SPX and MP | IRIX 3.X | 1990 | ? |
| |
| Repro Creator | Power Series, later Crimson | IRIX 4.X? | 1992 | $155,000 incl Crimson |
|
| Personal Creator | (BG-510) Indigo, 32-96MB RAM, 1.2GB HD | IRIX 5.X? | 1993 | $25,000 |
|
| Power Creator | (replaced BG-540) Crimson, 128MB RAM | IRIX 5.X? | 1993 | ? |
|
| Personal Creator 5.0 | Indy R4000 100mhz (61 SPECfp92, 57 SPECint92 - compare Intel P66; 55 fp, int 64) | ? | 1993 | £38,000 (incl. Indy). | ? |
| Creator 5.2 | ? | ? | 1994 | $17,000 | ? |
| Creator 6.0 | ? | IRIX 5.X? | January 1995 | $17,000 |
|
| Creator 7.0 | Indy and Indigo2, except R8000 | IRIX 5.3 | 28/06/96 (CD1375C), 09/07/96 (CD1377C) | $30,000[1] |
|
| Creator 7.1 | Indigo2 R10000, O2, Octane | IRIX 5.3, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4 | 15/12/97 (CD1488C) | $30,000[1] |
|
| Creator 7.2 | O2, Octane | IRIX 6.5 | 08/04/99 (CD1546C) | $30,000[1] |
|
Barco Creator was discontinued in the late 1990s, and was not picked up byPurup-Eskofot after it purchased the Graphics division of Barco. Neither Barco nor Esko have the ability to issue newlicenses anymore. As Creator was only available in single nodelocked licenses, one would need to buy an original system with the license included to have a "full legal version".
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