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OfficeSuite Pro, PhotoSuite Pro, Photo Studio Pro mini-reviews

May 16, 2015 — BarryK
Photo Studio Pro
I recently installed Photo Studio Pro. As I am writing reviews, I am purchasing the paid versions of apps, to unlock their full potential. There is also a Photo Studio free version. I paid AU$5.09 from the Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kvadgroup.photostudio_pro&hl=en

I bought it after reading lots of reviews, however, what I found is that it is somewhat lacking in "core functionality". That is, it is less of a paint editor, more of a photo editor.

I like to do low-level stuff, like convert between RGB and indexed colours, and posterizing to reduce the number of colours (and hence file size).
To my surprise, it doesn't even offer posterizing. Heaps of special effects, that might be interesting for those who want to post-process photos in a manner that I consider "superficial".

I am sure it is a great app for many people. But, I am still searching...

OfficeSuite 8 Pro
I came across what looks like an excellent paint/photo editor, named PhotoSuite 4, by MobiSystems. Then I noticed that they also offer an office suite, OfficeSuite 8. The docs on the free version state that if you purchase the pro version, you also get PhotoSuite. Quoting:

ALSO AVAILABLE AS PART OF OFFICESUITE PREMIUM:
 • Security features - work with password protected files
 • Convert PDF to Word, Excel, or ePub
 • Track changes with multiple author support
 • QuickPDF Scanner - easily scan documents and images with your camera
 • PhotoSuite Professional - MobiSystems' powerful photo editing app
 • QuickWrite predictive keyboard - quicken your typing based on usage patterns
 • Microsoft Compatibility Font Pack - view documents the way they're meant to be seen with officially licensed office fonts
 • Spell check - make sure your important documents are error free.


Well, there is no "premium" for sale, only "pro", so I bought that, for AU$12.56. Immediately after installing, it popped up a window saying that the Microsoft Compatibility Font Pack should be installed to get proper compatibility with Microsoft Office, so I went along with that, costing me an extra AU$12.58.

You can guess what is coming next -- PhotoSuite is not included. So, I bought it, despite beginning to think these people are rip-off artists. It cost AU$6.40:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kvadgroup.photostudio_pro&hl=en

So misleading, downright sneaky I reckon.

Regarding OfficeSuite Pro, I experimented with editing a .docx file. Yeah, it works, however the UI is the typical clumsy thing I have come to expect with most Android apps.

There are some things that make it just plain frustrating to use, such as the lack of precise control over zoom factor -- you have to fiddle about with finger-pinching to try and get it right.

There is not HTML WYSIWYG, which rules it out for me. Yes, you can open a HTML file, but it just opens as a text file.

Softmaker Textmaker HD does support HTML WYSIWYG. Also, the UI is nowhere near the usability of Softmaker Office (and Textmaker) HD.

PhotoSuite 4 Pro
This app is quite good. Apart from the feeling that I wanted to stay away from MobiSystems, I found myself liking PhotoSuite 4 Pro.



Ah, it has "posterize", and it works very well. I cropped an image, posterized it, and was able to select percentage of colour reduction, I chose 50%, and saved it. That's nice, it actually has "Save as..." -- an obvious thing that apps should have, sadly lacking in so many Android apps.

Anyone know of another Android paint editor that does posterize? I have not yet found one that will convert RGB to indexed colours (which is another technique for reducing file size).

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