Product Reviews

Where many Photoshop filters aim to improve poor or damaged images, Permanent Press does just the opposite: it makes images look like aged four-colour commercial printed material that has been hanging around in a dusty attic for decades. The filter can simulate both halftone prints and solid-colour lithographs, complete with user-definable offsets to give the impression of out-of-register printing.

From the Basic pane, you can choose from one of the many presets, which include Vintage CMYK, Comic Book, Decal, Washed Out, Rubber Stamp, Pizza Box, Pop Art, Letter Press and many more. Clicking on each one will instantly show the results in the small preview window, so it's easy to flip between them for the right initial effect. These presets are just starting points, though, using various combinations of halftones, offsets, posterising and colour changing to produce the end result. Once you've chosen an effect, you can go on to modify it using the multiple panes that make up the interface.

You can stick with the standard CMYK halftone colours, or limit the range of inks to posterised versions of those found in

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the original image. You can also set the amount of detail in the final image, using a slider.

The Ink pane allows you to set the colours of each of the inks for custom posterisation, which are initially drawn from the image itself. You can also set the 'viscosity' of each ink, which determines how blobby the end result is, and have the ability to set both the scale and intensity, as well as the choice of setting them for each ink or globally.

The Plates pane sets the horizontal and vertical offset for each colour, as well as trapping and rotation: this is where the misregistration comes in, making an image look as if it was printed on elderly equipment. In the Halftone pane, you can set the dot shape, halftone amount and scaling, and angle for each ink. Finally, the Press Effects pane sets the pressure, roughness and thickness of the virtual press itself, producing further degradation. With inks multiplying where they overprint, you get a true impression of out-of-register commercial and lithographic printing.

The result is a filter that's hugely enjoyable to use, turning any base artwork into a stylised image that's deeply evocative of times gone by. There are one or two niggles - the preview window is really too small, and there's no way to increase the size of the interface. This is a problem because you need to be zoomed in to 100% see the halftone effect clearly, so a lot of panning around the image is required in order to see its effect in different regions.

Overall, Permanent Press is a steady, solid plug-in that provides a unique effect with a high degree of customisability. It's the kind of plug-in you'd buy for a single job, and then find yourself using again and again.