By Dale Farris, Vice President
Golden Triangle PC Club
June 2004

Adobe's Photoshop CS, the premier product in the image editing software genre, just keeps on getting better and better. Photoshop has long been the superior image editor product, and most all professional graphics artists have long since standardized on Photoshop as their "go-to" application when needing to edit and improve the quality of their graphics files.

The release of Photoshop CS offers truly useful file management functions and pre-processing tools to jump-start the digital image workflow. Photoshop 7.0 introduced a visual browser, which was really a limited-function light box. In this new CS release, most of the browser's limits have been removed. New browser features, which include the ability to edit XMP metadata, add keywords, and create multicriteria searches, let you intelligently funnel images into production or out to clients.

Camera RAW functionality, previously available only as a plug-in, has now been thoroughly integrated into the product. This lets you preview unprocessed camera data in the browser. Factor in Photoshop's ability to perform more editing tasks on 16-bit-per-channel files, as well as up to 56 channels per photo, and you have an image-editing program that can deliver unprecedented quality.

Photoshop CS also streamlines the client approval process. You can use Photoshop's ability to import a PDF as a separate PSD file with Acrobat comments intact! The automated Web Photo Gallery offers new templates that let visitors to your Web site send you interactive feedback.

An even bigger time-saver comes in the form of Layer Comps. This new palette basically takes snapshots of the state of the Layers palette, including visibility, position, and appearance. You can then efficiently cycle through the various iterations of a design to show a client, either within Photoshop or as an exported PDF or Web Photo Gallery.

There are many time-saving features in Photoshop CS. Photoshop can now edit text on a path as well as text imported from Illustrator. The new Match Color command uses color statistics from a source image to modify the color values of a target image. The Shadow/Highlight correction filter lets you independently adjust shadows or highlights without affecting values in the rest of the picture, and it does so without all of the fuss and bother of using masks and adjustment layers. Video and film professionals will wonder how they lived without Photoshop's direct support of nonsquare pixels.

What makes Photoshop CS stand out among the rapidly growing genre of image editing programs is its fully developed features and tools that allow graphics artists complete control over their image files. While other, less priced products may focus on ease of use and mainly aim at novice users of this type of software, for all its life Photoshop has aimed at the higher end needs of professional graphics artists that aspire to perfection in their images that are created for all available output formats.

With the superior degree of control over the entire image editing process and the complete array of tools comes an equally challenging learning curve, especially for those who may have never before worked with Photoshop. For Photoshop novices, I would strongly advise considering investing in any of the many available Photoshop training sessions that are sold all over the country. One's very first access to Photoshop is apt to produce groans of dismay, with what at first seems a dizzying array of editing tools never before heard of, nor comfortable with using. However, once you do become adept at the many powerful tools in Photoshop CS, many not available in any other product, you will likely begin to find yourself permanently wedded to this very powerful program as your primary image editor.

The Professional Image-Editing Standard and Its Standard Features.

Photoshop CS helps you work more efficiently, explore new creative options, and produce the highest quality images for print, the Web, and anywhere else. Photoshop CS.0 lets you freely experiment without sacrificing precision, or editing capability. In addition, this powerful program supports the following features.

Professional toolset
Create original images or modify photos using a full assortment of painting, drawing, and retouching tools

Improved File Browser
Quickly preview, tag, and sort images; search and edit metadata and keywords; and automatically share batches of files from the improved File Browser

Customized workspace
Work the way that's best for you by saving personalized workspace and tool settings and creating customized keyboard shortcuts

History palette
Experiment freely knowing you can instantly undo or redo multiple steps with the History palette

Filter Gallery
Browse Photoshop filters from the Filter Gallery, where you can preview stacked effects

Layers
Achieve sophisticated results by compositing images, text, and effects on hundreds of layers that you control by grouping into sets, color coding, and locking

Layer Comps
Create design variations for clients more efficiently by saving different combinations of layers within the same file as Layer Comps

Text on a path
Create eye-catching typography by placing text on paths or within shapes. Edit the text at any time, even in Adobe Illustrator software

Artistic brushes
Simulate traditional fine-art techniques with dry and wet brush effects, pastel, charcoal, and more. Even use brushes to add special effects such as grass and leaves

Special effects filters
Easily experiment and achieve amazing results by accessing more than 95 special effects filters. Preview and apply more than one filter at a time with the new Filter Gallery

Color correction
Improve the color, contrast, and dynamic range of any image with a comprehensive set of professional color-correction tools

Healing Brush
Effortlessly remove dust, scratches, blemishes, wrinkles, and other flaws with the Healing Brush

Comprehensive
16-bit support Perform more precise editing and retouching with expanded support for 16-bit images in core features, including layers, brushes, text, shapes, and more

Integrated digital camera raw file support Get truer, higher quality output by working with the complete raw data files from most major digital camera models

File Browser tagging
Protect your images by adding key copyright information in the editable metadata panel of the File Browser

Enhanced ImageReady user interface
Create and modify Web designs faster with multiple object selection, object grouping, and smart guides

Improved Photoshop integration
Enjoy quicker, more seamless integration between Photoshop and ImageReady, plus automated file saving and common commands, tools, and shortcuts

Image slicing
Slice complex, layered images and apply appropriate format and compression settings to each area before exporting as an HTML table

Variable data support
Easily import database and spreadsheet information to automate the production of Web graphics

Macromedia Flash file export
Use ImageReady CS to create Macromedia Flash (SWF) animations, complete with vector artwork and variable text

Non-square pixel support
Create and work with different aspect ratios to accommodate non-square pixels without distortion

Guide presets
Easily design using video-specific presets that show action-safe and title-safe areas of the screen

Enhanced 16-bit compositing
Perform more precise matte painting, 3D rendering, and other advanced film compositing with expanded support for 16-bit images in core features, including layers, brushes, and more

Layers-to-files export
Quickly integrate layered Photoshop artwork with a variety of video editing and compositing systems using the built-in Export Layers to Files command

New and Improved Features

Improved File Browser

Match Color command

Histogram palette

Shadow/Highlight correction

Text on a path Integrated digital camera raw file support

Comprehensive 16-bit support

Layer Comps

Macromedia Flash file export

Customizable keyboard shortcuts

• File Browser to visually browse and retrieve images

• Healing Brush to effortlessly remove artifacts such as dust, scratches, blemishes, and wrinkles while preserving shading, lighting, and texture

• Web output enhancements to easily apply transparency or partial transparency to Web page elements, including seamless edges that blend into any Web background

• Single, enhanced Rollover palette to manage Web page rollovers, animations, and image maps more easily

• New "selected" rollover state for creating more sophisticated Web site navigation bars without hand-coding

• Customizable workspace for saving the arrangement of palettes and settings for tools, and instant access to a personalized Photoshop desktop

• New Auto Color Command for reliable color correction

• Publish hi-res, modem friendly, zoom and pan images for any Website with ease using Viewpoint ZoomView

• Auto Color

• Batch Renaming

• New Painting Engine to simulate traditional painting techniques

• Pattern Maker plug-in to create realistic or abstract patterns such as grass, rocks, and sand simply by selecting a section of an image

• Enhanced Liquefy (distorting) tool to allow you to view other layers, zoom, pan, and undo multiple steps, and even save custom meshes and apply them to other files

• Pattern Maker

• Photoshop CS.0 Scripting plug-in (Mac | Win) to automate repetitive tasks and key workflows using rich scripting support for JavaScript, AppleScript, and Microsoft Visual Basic

• Password protection to limit access to Photoshop PDF files, helping to secure image integrity

• Built-in Spell Checker for search-and-replace operations and spell-check in multiple languages within the same file

• Enhanced Picture Packages to allow you to print multiple images on one page, choose different page sizes, and add custom labels, such as copyright notices or captions

• More Web Gallery templates to easily show work online by posting a gallery page of images, and include watermark and copyright information to protect images

• Full compatibility with Mac OS 9 and support for the newest enhancements of Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows XP

• XMP support for embedding metadata in application files to easily repurpose, archive, and automate files in a workflow

• Heal Images

• Output to the Web with ease

• Remap transparencies

• Dither transparencies

• Output sharp vector art and text to the Web

• Manage rollovers easily

• Create workspaces

• Customize your tools

• Automatically correct color

• Dave time with data-driven graphics

• Get creative with paint tools

• Generate background patterns from any image

• Distort with precision

• Check spelling

• Easily repurpose, archive, and automate files in a workflow

• Customize your view

Bottom Line Recommendation

Photoshop CS is the professional image-editing standard for creating, editing, and retouching images that can be used in all media, including print, the Web, and wireless devices. Photoshop empowers users to get more done under tight deadlines and exceed client expectations, or simply meet their own demanding standards with the highest-quality results. This version of Photoshop has many new features that are targeted at professional photographers.

Photoshop CS addresses the needs of people who create or work with high-end images. While Photoshop CS customers fall into many diverse areas, Photoshop CS will particularly appeal to customers in the following three areas:  photography, graphic design, and Web design. These folks work as professional photographers, graphic and Web design professionals, and technical image editors in architecture firms, medical organizations, and law enforcement agencies, just to name a few types of professions that integrate Photoshop in their operations.

These professionals also work in Web and graphic design departments and studios, pre-press service bureaus and commercial printers, ad agencies, magazines and newspapers (photo journalism), video production departments and studios, and commercial and portrait photo studios.

Photoshop CS provides designers with an environment and all the necessary tools to automate production steps and file preparation for various media so they can focus on being creative. The program also empowers them to explore new creative options with a powerful new paint engine and artistic painting capabilities, makes work more efficient with enhanced retouching, and supports an organized file access and a more customizable workspace.

Photoshop empowers web designers to work more efficiently with convenient batch processing and the smoothest workflow possible to stay ahead of their deadlines, offers creative tools to help Web designers out-do their competitors, as well as themselves, and provides a seamless workflow for Web designers and developers to effectively transition images and efficiently update Web content.

Without a doubt, Adobe's Photoshop CS is absolutely a must-have application for all graphics artists, especially those involved in producing highly professional images for integration in any company's marketing or image building efforts. Customers who own v. 7 will also likely find the new features in CS (v. 8) well worth the upgrade price. Professionals already skilled in Photoshop will definitely want to consider this new version CS (v. 8).

Those new to image editing software may instead want to start with Adobe's super, scaled down version of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements 2.0. For a mere $99, Photoshop Elements 2 provides a super collection of tools that will delight, as well as challenge folks new to working with this type of software.

Add-On Functionality

With the many years of solid success dominating this field of graphics and image editing software, as you might expect, there has developed a major "after-market" of tons of add-on applications that are specifically developed to add still more power and more features to Photoshop. These many add-on programs are expressly written to be run on a machine that already has a copy of Photoshop installed. This indicates how important Photoshop is to this industry and to its millions of satisfied customers.

The Photoshop Family

In addition to Photoshop CS, Adobe also sells a super, lower-priced photo editor program, Photoshop Elements 2, at a MSRP of $99. Photoshop Elements is a super image editor program for those new to this type of software, and offers many of the features in its higher priced, feature-laden "big brother," Photoshop CS.

Price

$649 retail price
$169 upgrade price
(must have a serial number, and a previous version on same platform)

Note that Adobe Photoshop CS is part of the larger CS suite, the Adobe Creative Suite (CS) that includes, in addition to Photoshop CS, Adobe Illustrator CS, Adobe InDesign CS, Adobe GoLive CS, and Adobe Acrobat Professional. This super Creative Suite lists for $1,229 for the Premium edition and $999 for the Standard edition. You can also purchase Adobe Photoshop CS by itself.

System Configuration Requirements

Windows Machines
P-III or P-IV processor
Windows 2000 (SP 3), Windows XP
192MB RAM (256MB RAM recommended)
280MB free hard disk space
Color monitor with 16-bit color or greater video card
1,024 x 768 or greater monitor resolution
CD-ROM drive
Internet or phone connection required for product activation

Macintosh Machines
PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
Mac OS X v.10.2 through v.10.3
192MB RAM (256MB RAM recommended)
320MB free hard disk space
Color monitor with 16-bit color or greater video card
1,024 x 768 or greater monitor resolution
CD-ROM drive
Internet or phone connection required for product activation

Contact

Adobe Systems, Incorporated
Corporate Headquarters
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, California 95110-2704
408-536-6000
800-833-6687
FAX 408-537-6000

Order Online at Adobe Corporation
http://www.adobe.com/store/main.jhtml

You can also order from other retailers or online vendors.