iPresentee has released Keynote Objects, a free set of images for iWork. All of the objects are TIFF’s with Alpha channels so their backgrounds are transparent. This allows you to use them over any background or as a fill for objects and charts.

You can use them at their native 300×300 resolution or you can shrink or enlarge them. Remember, since they are bitmaps, enlarging by too much will show jagged edges. You can find out more and download the images from iPresentee.com

KeynotePro’s Palo Alto receives a ground-up overhaul for Keynote 4 as Palo Alto ‘08, the print-inspired theme that now becomes easier to use and customize than the previous releases. Built entirely with native shape objects and image placeholders, you can easily change the clean white background to a color, gradient or photo. Create your own layouts and even customize the slides to better match your corporate palette.

Palo Alto ‘08 includes up to 65 Master slides (in the Pro/HD version) including more variations of the favorite layouts from the prior versions plus a range of new options designed to take advantage of the wide screen and make the theme even more flexible. This version also introduces new “Split” style photo placeholders on select slides. These are custom-shape media placeholders that selectively crop a placed image into multiple sections of the slide automatically, allowing for single drop image spanning that harkens back to the mask-based approach of the original Palo Alto release.

The Supplemental Materials file includes the default Palo Alto ‘08 color palettes, along with an expanded set of additional graphic elements, alternate quick-start color palettes for reference, and instructions for making color modifications for a single slide or the entire theme. They’ve also included a complete set of bullets to compliment each of the alternate palettes and a native-shape bullet option that you can use to color-customize bullets for your own color choice.

Registered users who purchased Palo Alto 2 on or after May 12, 2008 can update to their respective Palo Alto ‘08 Edition for free by logging into KeynotePro’s accounts site. Users of any of any prior Palo Alto theme can upgrade to ‘08 Standard, Pro, or Pro+Mobile at a reduced cost. Palo Alto ‘08 Standard (in 800×600 and 1024×768 resolutions) is available for $24.95 as a single download and $49.85 in a three theme bundle. Palo Alto ‘08 Pro (HD) (adding 1920×1080, 1280×720, and 1680×1050 resolutions) is available for $34.95 as a single download and $74.95 as a part of a 3 Pro theme bundle. Palo Alto ‘08 EP designed for iPods and the iPhone is available for $14.95 as a single theme download, and get all of the above in the Palo Alto ‘08 Pro+Mobile Edition for $49.90. See the theme and find out more at KeynotePro.com.

Apple today posted a new video seminar called iWork for business. In our opinion the “serminar” is more of a sales video, but it DOES show a lot of the capabilities of iWork. If you don’t own iWork but are thinking of getting it, or if you have it and haven’t really used much of the features, this video is worth watching. Keep in mind that the Apple employee is in full sales mode, and the other presenter is not a professional speaker, so it’s a bit rough (and badly scripted) at times, but again, there’s a lot of good demoing going on here.

Click here to register and watch the iWork for Business seminar.

Distressed is based on a smooth gray pin-striped motif. It’s subtle and downplayed feel with a splash of understated artwork on each of it’s 40 masters allow your colorful images to really pop out.

It comes with a six slide “extras” presentation which includes resizable media placeholders and custom decorative elements which allow you to create your own slide layouts. Color and texture palettes that complement the theme plus editable icon objects extend the theme’s customizability.

Distressed along with Grunge completes the Hipster theme set which can be purchased for $46.80. Distressed alone is available for $26.00. For more information, visit DivineFiat.com.

iPresentee presents 10 new Keynote themes ranging from the textured (Fabric, Stone, Leather, Wood, R&B Wall) to the abstract (Vision, Red Cloud) and rounding out with the glowing Grey, sparkling Underwater, and the peeling Painter theme. Each theme has between 14 to 20 master slides and include unique theme related bullets and some original media placeholder frames.

The themes are available for download now (requires Keynote ‘08 or later) and are priced at $25. Or, you can purchase the themes in the Show package (which bundles the latest versions of Themes, Motion Themes, Animations and 3D Stuff) for $50. Find out more and examine videos of the themes at iPresentee.com

Picturesque is an application that enables you to quickly add special effects to an image for use in your presentations. Version 2 has been completely rewritten for OS X 10.5 and uses Core Animation for effects not found in previous versions.

As before, you can add a stroke and set it’s color and apply roundend corners and set their radius. You can also add a shadow or glow effect and set the color of the background. Of particular interest to Keynote users, though, is the new perspective 3D effect in combination with the reflection effect. You can use two simple sliders to set the degree of rotation and elevation so that the angle best fits your theme. Add a fading reflection and you’ve got one more very impressive way to set your presentation apart. Then, save the image in an alpha channel capable format (TIFF or PNG) and simply drag and drop it into your presentation.

Picturesque requires OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later is available for $34.95. Registered users of Picturesque 1.0 can upgrade for $12.95. Find out more and download a free demo at Acqualia.com.

Nation Elements: Europe continues the release of supplemental Keynote artwork started with Nation Elements: Americas. As it’s name indicates, this edition contains representations of 55 countries and territories of Europe. Each country’s Nation Plate contains several elements that help your viewers to understand your slides in a national context.

Each nation is represented by high resolution “Aqua” Orbs (similar to their Super Elements package) and flags, native Keynote shapes for the country’s border, location maps, accent fills with reflective enhancement images, and national symbols where applicable. Because of the high resolution of the images, all of them can be resized to fill a slide and still maintain their sharp look. And, of course, the included artwork can also be used in other applications. When copied into Pages, Numbers, or iWeb, the ability to edit the stroke and fill of country shapes is retained. When copied into other applications, while the artwork isn’t editable (unless using an application that can edit PDF’s like Intaglio), it still delivers it’s high quality.

A 32 slide intro of tips and instructions are included to help get you started. Nations Elements: Americas and Europe are available for download and are priced at $39.95 each. See an example movie and find out more at KeynoteThemePark.com.

Introduced back at Macworld, plasq today releases Comic Life Magiq. It follows the idea of their Comic Life application which allows users to warp text and place images, word balloons and captions freely on a page to create a comic. It builds on that by using 10.5 Core technologies to improve a users ability to do sophisticated photo editing without using a separate application.

For those looking for the text altering effects (unlike Office’s WordArt, Keynote doesn’t have a way to create warped text), this version offers more control over the fill. Now, instead of only a solid color or a two color gradient, it allows you to create multi-hued gradients in both linear and radial styles, and image fills, including tinted and colorized fills. Also, since lettering objects have curves attached to all sides now, you have more options for shaping the envelope of the text. Throw in the 3D extruded effect (which can also have perspective) and you have a wide range of ways to shape your text to your presentation.

A lot of the photo magic, though, happens in Comic Life Magiq’s “Magiq” interface. Here, you’ll find something like Keynote’s Instant Alpha feature, but much better. In Keynote, Instant Alpha works great if you have a clearly defined border and a plain background. Noisier images don’t “Alpha” well. CLM’s Magiq Snips allow you to mark the area that you want to keep, mark the area that you want to discard, and it intelligently determines where to place the mask. If you don’t get the mask right initially, just continue to mark areas until it’s perfect. Then, you can simply copy and paste the result in Keynote.

That’s only one thing the Magiq interface offers. In addition to several different forms of masking, you can also perform color corrections and cropping, warp and twist your image, overlay an image with a texture, produce several types of blurs and even do some free-form drawing, all within the easy to use tabbed interface.

Special limited time pricing is available for Comic Life Magiq. If you don’t already own Comic Life, the price is $39.95 (a savings from $44.95). If you do own Comic Life either purchased or if it came installed on your Mac, it’s $19.95 (a savings from $30.00). Find out more and watch a video preview at plasq.com.

Grunge is a theme that has been designed around a tan worn and stressed look. Consisting of 40 master slides, Grunge allows your presentation to stand out by being creatively imperfect and invoking an analog feel.

It also features six slides of extras that include resizable media placeholders that allow you to create your own layouts. There are also color and texture palettes along with editable custom icon objects extend the main theme’s flexibility. A video tutorial is included instructing on how to achieve several of the grunge effects seen in the sample presentation.

Grunge can be purchased for $26.00. For more information, visit DivineFiat.com.

As with their earlier releases, Jumsoft’s Keynote Themes package covers a wide variety of styles that can be used both professionally and informally. Borrowing from their previous versions, KT 7 brings an updated 17 themes plus three new designs.

The three new themes, Green, Blue, and Red are not just different colors of the same layouts. Each one has a distinctive look, Red is a rustic earthy feeling theme, Green is styled around word balloon frames, and Blue is made of cool blue gradients. Each has more than 30 different master slides and they are available in 1920×1080, 1680×1050, 1280×720, 1024×768, and 800×600 resolutions.

Keynote Themes 7 requires Mac OS X 10.4.3 or later and Keynote 4.0 or later and is available for $59.00. Users can upgrade from a prior version for $29.00. Find out more and view slide samples at Jumsoft.com.