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Nuggets: Creative tools and PC-less printing

Nuggets is a daily update on the latest software and hardware releases provided by our very own gadget man, Mr Justin Pearse. At the end of the month we will provide a roundup of our favourites which you could win in our monthly Nuggets competition.
Written by Justin Pearse, Contributor

Nuggets is a daily update on the latest software and hardware releases provided by our very own gadget man, Mr Justin Pearse. At the end of the month we will provide a roundup of our favourites which you could win in our monthly Nuggets competition.

Heard a rumour about a plan for a new gadget or software? Seen a device on your travels you'd like to know more about? Tell 'Nuggets' and we'll get you the facts.

PhotoGraphics: A designer's dream

If you're one of those creative sorts who spend a lot of time in Photoshop, you've probably become a bit sick of having to jump back and forth to illustration software just to create basic vector shapes or text on a path.

PhotoGraphics 1.0 from Extensis should make your life a bit easier, as it places these tools within Photoshop. A complete range of editable vector shapes is provided, which can be filled and stroked with a set of drawing tools.

PhotoGraphics also lets you create multiple text blocks on a path, with text formatting options not available in PhotoShop, including invaluable character style sheets.

PhotoGraphics is available now for £127.95.

Snappy photo print technology

Lexmark are launching what they reckon is the first non-proprietary photo printer for digital cameras, the 5770 Inkjet Photo Printer. This aims to avoid the usual hassle in digital photography of having to connect the camera to a PC, to print via a connected printer.

Prints are generated directly from the camera's memory card, or can be stored on a Zip drive and printed from there. The printer offers a perfectly reasonable resolution of 1200 x 1200 dpi, works with Windows 95/98 and is meant to be compatible with 90 % of digital cameras. You can also connect the printer to a PC if you want to fiddle around with your images.

Available now for £350.

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