New app: MonoPhix for Mac – Vintage meets technology.

Note: MonoPhix for Mac is 50% off today for launch day and is only 1.99$! Get it now.

We are proud to release our most powerful app ever written for an Apple device, MonoPhix for Mac. The big brother of the popular MonoPhix for iPhone and MonoPhix HD for iPad and the most powerful dedicated black and white photography app for any platform.

MonoPhix is an advanced photo editor, but this one is special, it is built to turn pictures into monochrome masterpieces and to give you full control of the outcome. You can easily control the intensity for each channel and each shade separately and you can add grain, blurs, highly adjustable vignetting and focus, color filters, colors blends and you can even use our experimental selective color feature to give some objects color while leaving the rest of the picture black and white.

Filters
You can apply one of the many presets or effects on your picture. Which allow you to get one click satisfying results which you can later customize using the adjustment panels.

Freestyle editing
MonoPhix has 10 tools to control the overal look of your monochrome picture. You can control the shadow and light tones separately or you can also control the color channels separately. MonoPhix contains 6 color filters to make some colors stand out. You can bring back some color by adjusting the transparency of the monochrome layer, you can add noise, overall blur, increase the contrast, brightness and exposure and posterize your picture.

Vignetting and Focus
With MonoPhix you can control every aspect of a picture’s vignetting. You can control the intensity, the roughness of the edges and shift the vignetting. You can also put a focus on certain objects by using the focus options similar to the vignetting controls.

Colors
You can give a custom color to your picture or control the blending mode which is used to mix the color with your black and white picture.

Selective color
With this experimental feature you can make objects pop out by keeping their color and removing all other colors.

Sharing 
MonoPhix has Phix Cloud integration which allows you to upload your pictures including metadata and a recipe of your changes and filters to our online service to show off to your friends or post on your Twitter or Facebook.

Device requirements
MonoPhix for Mac should run on any Mac built after 2008 running Mac OSX 10.6 or higher. MonoPhix is tested on Mountain Lion and is also optimized for it. The executable is only about 4Mb in size. An internet connection is also required for the sharing options.

Pricing and Availability
MonoPhix for Mac 1.0 is normally priced at $3.99 (USD) and available exclusively through the Mac App Store in the Photography or Graphics categories. Interested writers, reviewers and editors of recognized sites can always request a promo code to check it out for themselves.

Download link : https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/monophix/id571800015?l=nl&ls=1&mt=12

Screenshots

Promo: MonoPhix, MonoPhix HD free, iPhix for Mac -50%.

NOTE: This promo is over but all apps are still available at their normal prices.

To apologize for the downtime our apps suffered as a result of the iOS 6 release we are putting up a temporary promo. At the moment we’re only going to make it last a day, but if enough people tweet about and share it we might think of making the promo last a day longer.

• MonoPhix for iPhone is now free. You save 0.99$.
  -MonoPhix for iPhone turns your pictures into stunning black and white masterpieces. It provides the most customizable result of any app.
• MonoPhix HD for iPad is now free. You save 1.99$.
  -MonoPhix for iPad is the big brother of MonoPhix for iPhone, it has more features and is optimized for the iPad’s larger screen.
• iPhix for Mac is now 1.99$. You save 2.00$.
  -iPhix for Mac is an app which allows you to edit pictures, apply filters and create custom filters. You can also upload pictures and filters to a social network.

Update: MonoPhix HD 1.2.1 and MonoPhix Lite 3.1, maintenance updates.

Many photo apps have been hit by an iOS6 flaw causing them to crash and malfunction and this was no different for MonoPhix, MonoPhix HD for iPad and MonoPhix Lite for iPhone. The first one already received an update to fix the crashes, but MonoPhix HD and MonoPhix Lite were still offline. With these two updates the entire line of Phix apps returns to the app store and the existing userbase will have a working app once again.

The MonoPhix HD update only fixes the crash issue and MonoPhix Lite received a fix for the crash and a fix for a bug affecting the image picker.

You can download MonoPhix HD 1.2.1 here and MonoPhix Lite 3.1 here.

Update: MonoPhix 3.3 – The most powerful black & white app, fixed.

Our line of Phix apps for iOS has been offline for a few days now because iOS6 caused all of them to crash upon opening an image. (Not our fault, Apple screwed up more things than just the maps app) But we are happy to announce that at least one of them, MonoPhix has returned to the App Store with a fix for the crash and some other improvements.

MonoPhix 3.3 has a slightly altered interface to host more sharing options (coming in the future) and to reduce the amount of clutter in the task bar. We’ve also already added one sharing option, share to Muzy, but it seems to be malfunctioning at the moment. This could be because the sharing API isn’t yet activated at Muzy’s end. And of course the crash has been fixed along with some memory usage tweaks.

We updated and submitted MonoPhix HD a few days ago and MonoPhix Lite for iPhone today. We are also working to bring FlashPhix and FlashPhix lite to version 3.0 with a new interface. This will fix the iOS6 crash on these apps and will bring them back to the App Store as well.

We apologize for the trouble and hope you enjoy MonoPhix 3.3 and all other apps. MonoPhix is available for download at http://itunes.apple.com/be/app/monophix-zwart-wit-filter/id333643515?l=nl&mt=8

WARNING: iOS6 compatibility issues with MonoPhix (HD) and FlashPhix.

Tomorrow iOS 6 will be released and a lot of iPhone 5 devices with the new iOS version are already shipping. This isn’t a blessing for everyone. Due to some unannounced changes Apple decided to make to certain components of iOS, some of our apps will crash after opening an image from the camera roll or taking a new one. We addressed this issue a while ago in a bug report sent to Apple and tried to get help from the iOS support engineers, but they weren’t willing to help because the issue was caused by at the time prerelease software, so we had to search for a fix ourselves.

We managed to fix this issue and we will take MonoPhix, MonoPhix HD, FlashPhix and GrayPhix out of the App Store starting tomorrow until a fix is released. Everyone affected will get an update within a few weeks after Apple decides to approve our fix.

We apologize for any inconvenience and advise everyone not to update to iOS6 just yet as it’s still in a state which we can only describe as buggy.

Official launch: Phix – Photo and filter sharing service.

Today we are pleased to announce the official launch of our Phix photo and filter sharing service. Phix has been online for quite a bit longer and iPhix for Mac users could enjoy it during that time, but today we feel it’s mature enough to launch officially. Especially since the redesigned homepage went online yesterday. At the moment only two apps support Phix, iPhix for Mac and MonoPhix HD for iPad, but the iPhone version of MonoPhix and others will follow very soon. It’s not out of beta yet, but that’s just because we are still improving the service every day.

What does Phix do that other photo sharing apps don’t?

Phix is not only a photo sharing app, but also allows people to share their complete history of changes they made to the original opened image in a “recipe”. In this way you can show people how you got the result you uploaded and how they can get the same result on their pictures. The online photo viewer automatically detects which app is used and shows the right recipe for your picture. Additionally you can also decide to display EXIF and location data. (Only supported by some apps) But the biggest strength of Phix is that it allows you to upload images without hassle and that you don’t need log in information and that it doesn’t ask for Twitter or Facebook credentials. It just “Share” > Add description > “Upload”. Phix will then return a short link to share back to the app.

How will people find the picture I upload to Phix?

Very simple, you get a shortlink to the viewer page of your picture which you can share on various social networks like Twitter or Facebook. Phix keeps track of all views your picture has and displays them at the bottom of the info box. Additionally, if your picture is nice or artistic enough it can be featured on the homepage mosaic where people can click on your picture and are redirected to the viewer page.

What improvements will be made in the future?

In the future people will be able to leave comments on your pictures and you will be able to create an account on the site where you can add the apps you are sharing pictures from. You will also be able to download recipes straight to your apps and they will automatically be applied. Of course there will also be a greater number of apps you can use to upload pictures.

If you want to try Phix for yourself, head over to the homepage and download one of the supported apps or you can check what other people uploaded.

Black Friday sale on all iOS apps. 100% off MonoPhix, MonoPhix HD, FlashPhix, Lingi, iDuelpro!

All our apps are currently free for Black Friday, so enjoy. The sale will automatically end November 26th.

Here’s a list of all apps with download links:

Photography Apps

• MonoPhix (0.99$->0$) – The most powerful black & white app out there.
• MonoPhix HD (1.99$ -> 0$) - The most powerful black & white app out there. (for iPad)
• FlashPhix (0.99$ -> 0$) – Cross processing, automatic correction and lighting control in one easy app.

(There’s one app missing here, “iPhix” but the app has to be updated pretty badly and I highly discourage anyone downloading it)

Games and gaming aids:

• Lingi (0.99$->0$) – A language game for young and old to easily learn Dutch, French or English.
• iDuelpro (0.99$->0$) – The most popular Yu-gi-oh! TCG scorekeeper in the world.

So go and get your future favorite app for free while you can!

Update: MonoPhix – Vintage Meets Technology v3.2

Yet another MonoPhix update has hit the App Store. This time it’s quite a major update for people who had issues with the vignetting and of course also for people who like some extra features.

The new update basically has 3 new features.

Completely rebuilt vignetting system

We were tired of constantly having to fix vignetting issues and patching stuff so we threw out the old vignetting engine and equipped MonoPhix 3.2 with a new one. Because the vignetting glitch in version 3.0 and 3.1 is actually caused by an iOS quirk it’s very hard to get rid of the glitch completely, but this update comes pretty close. So from now on vignetting should work flawlessly on all standard format pictures and on many cropped pictures or those generated by apps. This also cleared the need for the correction slider introduced in version 3.1. The general vignetting update also makes way for more advanced vignetting effects and the ability to control the vignetting with multiple parameters (eg. radius, hardness, shape, …).

In-app camera access

Now you can shoot pictures directly from within MonoPhix. When we questioned some users this wasn’t directly a killer feature, but apparently people have been switching apps from MonoPhix to others because they could shoot pictures directly from within the app. So now this issue is gone as well and you can easily tap the camera button in the upper left corner, shoot a picture and the default settings will automatically be applied to it.

Gestures

Last but not least is the addition of gestures to swipe between tools. Now for those who question the direction of the swipe, if you swipe to the right the tooltab to the right will open, if you swipe to the left the tooltab on the left will open. See the bottom toolbar as an indicator. There might be an option added to the settings to change this in future versions. All and all, this will be a great way to help you speed up your editing.

This isn’t a particularly bulky update but it adds some important features and hopefully fixes the vignetting woes for many users.

You can download MonoPhix 3.2 here or just press the update button in the App Store.

Update: MonoPhix 3.1.1 – Fixes glitch, improves vignetting and adds one new feature.

About a week ago we released MonoPhix 3.1, but as every major update MonoPhix 3.1 had a few things that needed to be resolved. With MonoPhix 3.1.1 these issues have been washed away and we took the courtesy to add a user requested feature.

The opening screen glitch, the biggest reason to get this update pushed out is now resolved.

The vignetting system now has 2 parameters to control the vignetting and these are controlled by one slider. This might seem as quite a pointless change, but the vignetting system is now controlled in an exponential manner. By default it’s much lighter and when you slide the slider tot the far right, the strength and radius parameters are maxed out to give an even stronger vignetting effect. In MonoPhix 3.2 the sliders will be separated to give even more control.

Together with the changes to the intensity of the vignetting, a lot of issues which caused the venetian blind effect on some resolutions were fixed.

At user request we also added the ability to underexpose pictures or fix overexposed pictures. This functionality was added to the Exposure slider in the “processing”-tab.

So version 3.1.1 is a worthy update to version 3.1 and solidifies the features of this major version even adding a new one.

You can find it in the App Store. -> http://hur.lu/ktfs

Update: MonoPhix – Vintage Meets Technology v3.1

NOTE: The newest update contains a bug caused by an incorrect project setting which causes the opening screen to look all buggy and  glitchy. This issue will be fixed ASAP in a 3.1.1 update. It’s sad that these things always happen and simply cannot be caught during testing but they are a result of Apple’s lack of documentation regarding design for Retina Displays. The fix will be submitted tomorrow and will hopefully fix this annoying problem. I apologize sincerely for the mistake.

Today we are pleased to announce the newest version of the most feature rich black and white photo editor for iPhone, MonoPhix. Version 3.1 brings with it a number of fixes for annoying issues as well as stability and performance improvements but also a completely new often requested feature.

Filters

From now on you’ll be able to select a filter for your monochrome conversions. The preset filters are:
-”-” (default)
-Red
-Green
-Blue
-Cyan
-Magenta
-Yellow

Each filter will act like a filter on a camera and filter out light in that specific color. This can be used to enhance the intensity of grass or to accentuate the sky. All these preset filters are available with one tap from within the “Adjust” tab.

Example of the new filter function with the red filter enabled.

 Vignetting improvements

Something which has been bothering users was the quirk in the preview when vignetting was enabled which caused the vignetting to look like venetian blinds. In version 3.1 this is resolved further by adding a few new common picture resolutions to the exception list. If this glitch would still occur users are now able to adjust the preview offset by themselves with an extra slider in the vignetting tab. The vignetting is now also less intense by default and has a higher range.

The new vignetting tab in MonoPhix 3.1

Other fixes

Along with these major improvements came some minor fixes which you will probably not even notice. These include added reliability on iOS 4.3 and up and small performance improvements which speed up the processing slightly. Also there’s now a tooltip at the top of each tab when you next open MonoPhix which will display instructions on hiding a tab overlay and displaying the image unobstructed. These will disappear automatically when the user uses this feature for the first time.

Release cycle changes

We can also announce that MonoPhix will get a shorter release cycle which brings updates and improvements at a faster pace. We are already outlining the the featureset of MonoPhix 3.2 which will bring some more interesting features. MonoPhix normally gets only one major update a year and a few small bug fixing releases but from now one this will change to one major update a year (with UI changes) and about 4 significant minor updates which add extra features and improve existing ones.

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MonoPhix 3.1 is now available in the iTunes App Store and can be downloaded here.

Here’s the full feature list as seen in the App Store for reference:

• Color filters for Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and of course default (average blending) easily accessible with one tap
• Added a small tooltip to show people how they can hide the tool overlay (this will disappear automatically after being used)
• Vignetting is now lighter by default and has a higher range
• A slider was added to the vignetting tab to allow users to correct the vignetting on the preview in case of glitches
• Fixed vignetting preview glitch on some landscape images (1936×2691)
• Fixed a few minor issues to improve reliability on iOS 4.3 and up
• Small performance adjustments to make the filters run more smoothly