Graphics app Insignia is back online as a free download from riscos.de albeit with a new name. Putting the X in text effects, the application is now known as TextEffX.The software, originally developed by John Whitington and published by Cerilica, was uploaded as freeware by German dealer a4com, but taken down within hours of our earlier news story about it going live.
It later emerged that John said he did not give his blessing for his program to be re-released entirely for free, but decided to allow it anyway once it had gone online. The 32bit-compatible software was quickly torn down from the Internet as a4com raced to rename the program and redesign a new logo because John did not 'own' the Insignia brand name and icon - that was provided by Cerilica.
John said: "I didn't mean for Insignia to be released for free. I told the a4com bloke he could send a copy free to one of his customers who asked to buy it, and he stuck it on the web. I asked him to take it down and change the name - I don't own the Insignia name - before putting it back up."
A4com's Detlef Thielsch said: "It is back under the new name of TextEffX now. A manual might follow in due course."
The software allows users to produce graphics out of text: fonts can be selected and warped appropriately, drop shadows and textures added, lens flares placed, and many other effects can be applied - although the trick is not to over do it. Version 1.50 includes support for manipulating drawfiles as well as text, new 'after effects', GIF export, and a German translation by a4com.
Links
Download TextEffX here
Example Insignia images
The article's image and the previous article's image were created with Insignia/TextEffX. Click on it for a larger version.