There’s an expanding market for entry-level photo editing tools such as Connectix PhotoMate (see Reviews, Jun/97, p72) and Adobe PhotoDeluxe. Most try to look like baby brothers of Adobe’s main man, Photoshop. Not Kai’s Photo Soap.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. On launch, Soap takes over the whole screen (and MetaCreations recommends that you quit all other applications), but it’s to provide a new metaphor of multiple rooms rather than one desktop. There’s a specific workflow: Go from the In Room (where you sort and file photos) to the Prep Room (crop, rotate, and enhance) to the Tone Room (adjust brightness, tone, and contrast) to the Color Room (check hue, saturation, and brightness) to the Detail Room (smooth, sharpen, and fix red eye) to the Finish Room (add backgrounds, edges, and objects). This structure gives the hand-holding that a beginner may need but can frustrate the more experienced user who wants to mix functions of various rooms.
You use most of Soap’s tools as you would a brush or pencil tool — in fact, you use them by “drawing” a tool on your photo with a virtual pencil or brush. There are also erasers in various sizes, in case you’ve been too zealous. The Heal tool is a standout: It’s basically a smudge, but MetaCreations tweaked it so that one swipe takes care of cracks on old scanned photos or facial blemishes. Also, the Red Eye tool does a great job of getting rid of flash-induced red pupils just by wiping it over the subject’s eyes.
Soap, however, feels sluggish, even on a Power Mac. Also, the Finish Room, though full of stock backgrounds, offers no way to mask parts of your photo, and text handling is primitive. Still, it can be a fun trip, and if you’re a photo novice who wants access to a few powerful tools, Soap can make your photos squeaky clean.
Turner, D. D. (November 1997). Kai's Photo Soap. MacAddict. (pg. 73).
Kai Krause
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
15 / 
2020-09-15 / 
99e72cf8a78120781a10bb4d79f61be431965b16 / 
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PhotoSoap.zip
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
SheepShaver
