Monochromatic joins the ranks of the many Windows Phone photo editors and hopes to garner some attention with its simple layout and core editing features. Editing tools include cropping, exposure controls, vignette application and a few tonal filters. You also have an in-house camera app just in case you need to snap a quick shot while in the editor.
Monochromatic is not a feature rich editor such as Photoshop Express but the Windows Phone photo editor does come across a nice option when you need to do a quick, simple edit of your images.
Simple Layout, Decent Editing Tools
Monochromatic has somewhat of an uncomplicated layout. The main menu has options to launch what appears to be a cut-down version of the Windows Phone to capture a new photo to edit or pull up an image from your Pictures Hub to edit.
You also have options to view the About Screen and rate the app in the Windows Phone Store.
Regardless of the method, once you choose your photo to edit Monochromatic jumps over to the editing screen. Your photo editing sets are displayed across the top of the screen that includes the following.
- Basic: Crop, Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Hue and Sharpness
- Black and White: A collection of various black and white filters
- Tone: Another collection of filters but this time they cover tonal filters of various temperatures and tints
- Vignette: Several styles of vignette effects, both dark and light edges
Some editing tools can be adjusted as to how it impacts the photos but most of the filters and vignette effects are set in stone. Confirmation, cancel and undo commands will be displayed at the bottom of the editing screen.
Images can be zoomed by touch with the Basic set of editing tools but lacks this ability with the other editing sets. Once you have all your edits in place, a save button awaits your command at the very bottom of the screen.
Images cannot be shared from within Monochromatic, which means you will need to visit your Pictures Hub to share any edited images.
Overall Impression
Let me say from the get go that Monochromatic is not in the same league as Fhotoroom, Photoshop Express or any of the other heavy weight editors. Monochromatic is a nice, lite photo editor for when you need to do very basic edits to fine-tune your images or give them a little pop with the filters collection.
The layout is simple and easy to navigate around and while images are re-sized when saved, it isn't too drastic. An original image sized at 2000 x 3552 pixels will be resized to 1126 x 2000 pixels.
I would like to see an adjustment control with the filters to regulate the impact of the filter or effect you are using. In-app sharing capability wouldn't be a bad touch either. But overall, Monochromatic does a nice job of the basic editing functions.
If you are looking for a lite photo editor to supplement your main workhorse or prefer the simpler side of things, Monochromatic is worth a try. While we know of at least one Windows Phone user who gives it a 5 Star rating, we'll dial it down a bit and see Monochromatic more suited for the 4 Star range.
- Monochromatic - Windows Phone 8.x - 3MB - Free - Store Link
