Because Keynote (and by extension all of iWork) lacks any kind of text manipulation akin to PowerPoint’s WordArt, we’ve had to rely on external programs like WordArt and Comic Life to fulfill the need for dynamic text where required. Today, plasq introduces a fantastic new upgrade to Comic Life called Comic Life Magiq. It’s a complete rewrite including a brand new UI that breaks away from the look of the old version. While its new face strikes a more serious tone due to its new gray suit (like that of Apple’s Aperture), it just allows the colors of your images and text to pop out more than before. This new version also adds a whole new kind of fun with user interfaces that pop out and reminds me of Kai’s tools for Photoshop from awhile ago. With this cool new way of playing you can crop, cut, color, warp, and even greenscreen your images within Comic Life (like a twist on iWork’s Alpha Mask). The part that will make the WordArt replacement people happy is the fact that now you can use images for text fills AND you can flex text from all four sides now. You’ll have to try it out at their booth (or wait for the Demo) get a feel for it, but the interface choices they’ve made makes it easy to do.

It’ll be available in the First Quarter of 2008 and it requires Mac OS X 10.5. For now, you can check out plasq’s Preview page until more info is posted. If you have any questions about the app, post in the comments and I’ll try to get answers for you.

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