Kai's Power Tools
| Company type | Software plugins |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software, Graphics software |
| Founded | 1992 |
| Founder | Kai Krause |
| Products | Image editing plugins (KPT 3, 5, 6, X) |
| Parent | Corel (since 2000) |
Kai's Power Tools (KPT) constitute a collection of API plugins developed by German computer scientist Kai Krause in 1992, specifically for use with Adobe Photoshop and Corel Photo-Paint. After the dissolution of MetaCreations, ownership of KPT transferred to Corel in 2000.
Different editions, such as KPT 3, 5, 6, and X, include various filter sets. The user interface incorporates a reward mechanism that unlocks additional tools when advanced features are explored.
Filters
The KPT Convolver filter is based on mathematical algorithms, enabling users to fine-tune parameters like colour, tint, hue, saturation, contrast, brightness, luminosity, and posterize through precise numerical inputs.
With KPT Projector, users gain the ability to apply interactive perspective distortions using draggable handles to warp images. Unlike Adobe Photoshop’s Free Transform, this tool supports three-dimensional rotation and bitmap tiling. It also allows animation of distortions through keyframes, offers real-time previews, and exports animations in avi or mov formats. This filter pairs well with KPT Turbulence, which creates fluid-like distortion effects complete with live animation previews.
The KPT Goo filter produces organic liquid distortions by smearing, twirling, pinching, and smudging bitmap images. Available in KPT 6 and as a standalone product, it is frequently employed to transform portraits into exaggerated caricature forms.
KPT Materializer crafts sophisticated surface textures derived from bump maps generated either from external images or selected image channels such as hue, saturation, luminance, red, green, or blue. It provides options for offsetting, scaling, rotating textures, adjusting lighting conditions, and blending reflection maps—ideal for creating effects ranging from oil painting textures to enhancing perceived depth.
The KPT Gel filter simulates realistic three-dimensional materials including metals, liquids, and plastics by using paint tools that accumulate brush strokes and refract underlying imagery. Users can manipulate the 3D paint effects with tools that twirl, pinch, and carve.
The Equalizer filter delivers sharpening through three distinct modes: Equalizer, which adjusts pixel contrast across nine frequency bands; Contrast Sharpen, enhancing light-to-dark contrast; and Bounded Sharpen, which sharpens without introducing halos or excessive sharpening—particularly useful for recovering detail after image resizing.
KPT SceneBuilder enables the creation of photorealistic 3D scenes by importing and rendering 3DS files. It supports editing in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional views along with texture configuration. Recognized as a powerful tool, it grants control over transparency, reflection, refraction, bump mapping, multiple light sources, among other features—although it does not support object creation or modification.
Lastly, KPT SkyEffects simulates sunlight or moonlight interacting with up to six atmospheric layers including haze, fog, and clouds. Its interface allows users to generate authentic sunsets and moonlit skies by dragging the sun’s position toward the horizon.
Other Effects
Kai's Power Tools 6 features a lens flare tool that allows detailed adjustment of glow, halos, streaks, and reflective elements. Users can choose from a collection of preset flare effects and interactively place them within the image preview window.
Additionally, KPT 6 introduces the KPT Reaction system, which creates patterns that tile seamlessly by applying a reaction diffusion algorithm to a seed input. This seed can be generated from random noise, uniform dots, reticulated voronoi configurations, or bitmap images.
Corel has announced no intentions to release further updates.
See also
External links
- Kai's Power Tips & Tricks for Adobe Photoshop
- MetaFriends - links to Kai and his team
- SwiftGoo open source version of Goo for iOS written in Swift