This second edition is greatly improved. It is being distributed with a CD-ROM rather than the 1.44 MB floppy disk included in the first edition [1].

The hardware requirements for the system have changed. Originally, Image Lab required an 80286 PC with a hard drive and 2 MB of memory. Now, the hardware requirements are an 80386 with a hard drive and 4 MB of memory. The software enclosed with the book was tested on an 80386 PC with 8 MB of memory, no math coprocessor (one is recommended for some of the software), and a Trident 8900 1MB video display card.

The most noticeable improvement was the ease of installation. I installed all of the software with few problems. All of the core software (Alchemy, Fractint, Improces, Piclab, and Povray) has been upgraded since the first edition.

Several new software programs are included on the CD-ROM. The new software includes Polyray, Dave’s TARGA Animator, and several utilities that have replaced CSHOW.

As in the first edition, Piclab continues to be the best general-purpose program for modifying images. It has a command-line interface, and you do not need a high-resolution monitor to view your changes.

Improces has been updated and is much easier to install. This program is a point-and-click approach to some of the same ideas used in Piclab.

Fractint is now included with the book. The narrative describing the software has been expanded to explain new features. For example, Wegner discusses deep zooming and three-dimensional rendering of fractals. Fractint is now able to create random-dot stereograms. Wegner devotes chapter 11 to the creation and manipulation of these stereograms.

New to this edition is a discussion of animation. Animation is restricted to fractal images produced by Fractint or Fractal Animator.

Wegner ends the book with a discussion of image rendering via Povray and Polyray. With the second edition, all of the needed software is included with the book, and his discussion is fairly straightforward, linking the software with included examples that are also distributed on the CD-ROM.

Overall, this book provides a good basis for demonstrating the potential of setting up a “digital darkroom” on a computer. Changes in the microcomputer industry, the popularity of inexpensive CD-ROM readers, and 80486 PCs with large hard drives and several megabytes of memory allow this book to serve as an excellent tutorial for an introduction to imaging.