Product Reviews

Mention the Page Curl filter to any seasoned Photoshop user and they'll think of the old one-shot Kai's Power Tool effect that imposed its signature on so many illustrations in the mid-1990s. This new take couldn't be more different. With its slick, clean user interface and wealth of features, Page Curl performs a specific task to perfection.

Curling the corner of a page is defined by several parameters. The Angle wheel selects the basic direction of the curl, while four more sliders - Level, Radius, Obliquity and Torsion - determine the extent and shape of the curled region. Real-time previews show exactly how the effect will appear, and make it easy to adjust and tweak the amount of curl required.

As well as being able to choose between a smooth curl and a simple fold, you can also determine whether the paper curls towards

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you or away from you, and set the amount of shading on both the back of the curl and beneath the curled edge. You can even display a high-quality preview within the large preview window, to check the final effect.

But the most impressive feature is the ability to set the image on the reverse side of the curl. This can be the same image as on the front, flipped horizontally so that what was on the left of the page now appears on the right (so it makes sense when it's curled over). Or you can choose any layer within the current document, making it a snap to show the next page in a document duly curled over on top of the current page. If the layer you want to use isn't the right size it can be automatically trimmed and scaled to fit; you can also choose any colour or file to apply to both the front and back of the page. If the dimensions of the file you choose don't match the selected page area, you can once again choose whether to scale to fit or tile it.

Page Curl is awash with such attention to detail. An option to swap front and back content - to show the reverse side of the curled page - also automatically swaps the direction of the curl, so that if on the front side the paper is curling up towards you, when you view the back it will be curling away.

Curling pages may not be not an effect you'd want to use every day, but if you do ever need it there's literally no other way of achieving these results.