Unless you’ve been living in a cave or are quite simply dull, you’ll have pretty much certainly have heard of Adobe Photoshop. The latest incarnation is Version 7, following unsurprisingly in the footsteps of Version 6.0 (or to be more precise 6.0.1). Adobe and Macromedia have been slugging ... Read review
Advantages: New file manager, healing brush and web optimisation interfaces Disadvantages: Not that much really new from Version 6.0.1
...much certainly have heard of Adobe Photoshop. The latest incarnation is Version 7, following unsurprisingly in the footsteps of Version 6.0 (or to be more precise 6.0.1). Adobe and Macromedia have been slugging it out against one another for supremacy in the graphics department, which each new release of Fireworks (Macromedia’s offering) and Photoshop adopting more and more features – all good for the consumer!
After the usual painless ... ...have to restart your machine!), Adobe Photoshop 7.0 on first impressions looked and felt very much like Adobe Photoshop 6.0 apart from a minor tinkling with the toolbar icons (nothing radical). To a certain degree I had expected this to be the case, especially as there had been such a leap between versions 5.5 and 6.0, and therefore I was only really expecting the tweaks to be superficial. As with the previous version, there is Adobe Image Ready ... more
Unless you’ve been living in a cave or are quite simply dull, you’ll have pretty much certainly have heard of Adobe Photoshop. The latest incarnation is Version 7, following unsurprisingly in the footsteps of Version 6.0 (or to be more precise 6.0.1). Adobe and Macromedia have been slugging it out against one another for supremacy in the graphics department, which each new release of Fireworks (Macromedia’s offering) and Photoshop adopting more and more features – all good for the consumer!
After the usual painless installation (make sure you have no other Adobe apps open and you'll not even have to restart your machine!), Adobe Photoshop 7.0 on first impressions looked and felt very much like Adobe Photoshop 6.0 apart from a minor tinkling with the toolbar icons (nothing radical). To a certain degree I had expected this to be the case, especially as there had been such a leap between versions 5.5 and 6.0, and therefore I was only really expecting the tweaks to be superficial. As with the previous version, there is Adobe Image Ready included, except this time it is version 7 (a suitable tie-in).
One of my gripes from having done a lot of layout work and web graphics using Photoshop was that you often had to have an explorer window open in the background if you wanted to preview the various files you were working with. At least Adobe have included an inbuilt “browse” function very similar to the browse function that has been present in Paint shop Pro since time immemorial. The browser lets you search through directories, producing thumbnails, as well as displaying certain metadata for you – e.g. file type, creation date, file size etc. There are also various sorting options which is a welcome development so that you can “rank” your images e.g. by file size, height width etc. which is more useful that it sounds. To date I have experienced a few problems under Windows ME using the file manager, but Windows XP has not had any troubles... Similar to the Digital Camera Assistant in XP, you can also rotate pictures without opening them – great if you have a load of scanned pictures or pictures taken with a digital camera that are all landscape rather than being portrait orientation.
Another great photo related tool is the “Healing brush” which as the name might suggest “heals” a photo by removing the scratches dust marks etc. to allow you to restore the photo to its former glory. The cloning effect allows you to copy lighting effects that have been added – and the patch tool allows you to work more precisely on a specific area. In Photoshop 6 the most considerable work over was given to the Text tool (it needed it!) and this time round the brushes tool has been given the face lift, and special effects and patterns can be added to a brush e.g. chalk with a leaf effect, which provides the user with.
Of course Image Ready which is an essential part of the bundle (as per Photoshop 6.0 there is a shortcut to toggle between the two) has also been given attention, as had the web-focus of Photoshop (clearly aimed at Fireworks which did this in its Version 4 as a swipe at Photoshop’s version 5.5!). The web optimising process has been given the treatment to include improved transparency features, including the function “Map to Transparency”, which allows you to select a colour in an image and for all occurrences of this colour to be then turned transparent – great for similar techniques to blue screen! And there is also a dithered transparency feature to allow for partial transparency – great for those gradual fills. A rollover palette has been included in ImageReady to help make it easier to produce killer rollovers, animated gifs and image maps, with rollovers being viewable in their various states.
There is also a new emphasis towards the mobile internet – Photoshop 7.0 features the new WBMP export format for PDAs, which was previously only possibly by saving an image as a Bitmap (.BMP) and using third party software, as well as Adobe’s unified XMP format (intended for simultaneous use in print design, web design and E-books) (for more info visit: http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/main.html) which has hitherto been included in Adobe InDesign 2.0, Illustrator 10 and Acrobat 5. The Web Gallery tool has been given a make over – there are new styles and colour schemes, improving greatly on previous offerings and there is also password protection for pictures – similar to the previously used plug-in from Digimarc, and its offerings work very well.
At the end of the day, most of the changes are merely like giving the product a general lick of paint, and there is no real departure from the tried and tested approach. System specs have not drastically altered – a P III processor is a recommended minimum, with 128Mb RAM and 280Mb hard disk space the recommended minimums, although it is highly unlikely that someone willing to fork out for this will be running a P III 600 Mhz machine in the first place. The OSes supported are from Windows 98 onwards, through ME and 2K to XP, although I have found a couple of teething problems unless ME – maybe more RAM will improve this. The software is also available for Mac (G3 or later, MacOS 9.1 or later, 128Mb RAM or more and 320Mb hard-disk space).
Finally the pricing: EUR 270 (quoted from Internet Professionnel Magazine (German) for an Upgrade (for users of Photoshop 4 and later only!) or a hefty £449 + VAT (£527.57) for the Mac or PC full versions.(from dabs.com). Ultimately this is not one for your home user, but one for the pros to use, as the price tag reflects. The home user is far better off sticking to the Paintshop Pro type of software – cheap, relatively high on features, although this will remain the standard piece of software. Photoshop is very powerful but takes a while for the beginner to master - a lot of features are self explanatory, but not everything is clear if you have never used an Adobe product before in your life.
By rights it gets five stars for being a top product, but given the fact that there is not that much improvement on Photoshop 6.0.1 – I have kept both installed for the time being, I think it is only four stars for this product, although once the extended playtesting has occurred I'll gladly revise my judgment.
Advantages: The best photo-editor on the market, new time-saving features. Disadvantages: Expensive, new version has few new creative tools, not good for home use.
...new, improved version of the Adobe program. ======================================= The Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Package ======================================= Here’s what you get for that ridiculously large some of money: Adobe Photoshop 7 – The main program has the same layout as before and all the features you’d expect to find for professional photo-editing are here. There are also some new features such as “Heal” and ... ...later. Adobe ImageReady - This is mainly for creating Web graphics. But as the two programs (Photoshop and ImageReady) both have so much in common, I don’t see why Adobe didn’t just bundle them both together. Personally, I can never figure out which one to use for a certain job. Help Booklets - Great - if you can be bothered reading them. They're not really that much “help” anyway, and I find it easier to learn through using ...
freelancer1 18.09.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Complete package
Advantages: The De-Facto graphics package Disadvantages: Price and mabye the learning curve
...The loading, as usual with Adobe products, went as smooth as a cashmire codpiece and then,there it was in all its magnificent glory (I swear I heard Harps and Trumpets)It's interface was as clean, smooth and sleek as a freshly washed racehorse. Right,time to dive in and test the waters here we go ooh look at that,as you roll your mouse over the toolbox icons they change from the staid windows colours (grey, white and black)into a riot of colours ... ...think that the main reason Adobe came out with this version was the fact that Apple had introduced OS X, this operating system was an entirely new product and as such it had problems with backwards compatibility with most if not all apps running under previous OS' so Adobe decided to re write Photoshop to be compatible with the new OS,you cannot blame them, it was the mac that gave them the worldwide reputation that they enjoy today. So by adding ...
paulsymes 22.09.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Complete package
Advantages: various types of image editing, add-on features Disadvantages: takes lots of hard disk space while working
I m writing this review on my 2 years experience
with photoshop.
Previously i have also written review on photoshop 8.0, but that was too short and too advanced.
Now i m writing abt basic details to higher details abt what photoshop can do
First of all photoshop is best image editing software in market right now.
Photoshop 7.0 gives good support for ur scanners and digital cameras. one can directly import photos to photoshop.
1. You can change ... ...using some cutting tools like (pen, lasso etc.), and then apply new background.
2. if you have a black & white photo of yours,
u can easily colour it by using layers system or
by selection system ( u can easily find from help menu)
3. u can also use photoshop 7.0 for your web desingning purposes (can save image into web types)
4. One other important feature of photoshop is use of filters. there are many filters in photoshop.
when u apply different ...
crazyguy 19.12.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Complete package
Advantages: The Best graphics software & easily available Disadvantages: So many functions unknown about
...people using software such as Adobe and Macromedia products has exploded.
I started using Photoshop as soon as I enter college but we never received any type of training with the software, there are plenty of books in shops and libraries on using Photoshop (PS) but they average at 500 pages long and full of uninteresting rubbish. The best thing to do is look through computer magazines in shops and find articles that interest you and in the end nothing ... ...doing tutorials, the programme is too big to know it all, I don't know it all and I have been using PS for +5years.
Remember playing with images is fun so enjoy this great new programme from Adobe and don't be scarred from tying new things you can’t break it. ...
gorrila 03.03.2003 (04.03.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Complete package
Advantages: no limit to what you can achieve Disadvantages: steep learning curve
It's hard to know where to start on this amazing piece of software, there is honestly no limit to what you can achieve with it.
The learning curve is very steep for beginners, but using adobes own tutorials you can learn a great deal.
I started using this software about a year and a half ago, and I'll never look back at the other pieces of graphics software that are on the market again, this is the best without a doubt. The main advatages would ... ...the manipulation tools are excellent, and the more advanced features would be the support for graphics tablets, excellent range of brush types. You can literally create anything you want.
The main disadvantages would be the steep learning curve that comes attatched to an advanced piece of software, you really need to have some time to learn exactly how to use the software properly. ...
ember_666 02.08.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Complete package
Product Information for "Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Complete package" »
System requirements
OS Required
Apple MacOS 9.1, Apple MacOS 9.2, Apple MacOS X 10.1.3
Min Processor Type
PowerPC G3, Pentium III
Min RAM Size
128 MB
Min Hard Drive Space
320 MB, 280 MB
Peripheral / Interface Devices
CD-ROM, SVGA monitor
Manufacturer's product description
These days, graphics professionals are being called on to create images that work across a variety of media. You need a solution that lets you handle the widest variety of image-editing tasks and output images to multiple media - including print, the Web, wireless devices, and video - without having to learn a whole new set of tools. Photoshop 7.0 helps you work more efficiently than ever to meet the multimedia demands of today's marketplace and make impossible deadlines possible. In today's challenging business environment, Adobe Photoshop 7.0 helps you stay competitive with innovative tools that deliver new ways to express your creativity and work efficiently. Photoshop 7.0 rounds out its comprehensive toolset with new capabilities to meet any creative or production demand and to handle the widest variety of image-editing tasks in the most efficient way. The File Browser lets you quickly inspect images before opening them by viewing thumbnails and metadata such as color profile, date modified, and Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) information generated by digital cameras. With the new Healing Brush, you can effortlessly remove scratches and other flaws while preserving the image's shading, lighting, and texture. With enhanced Web features, you can instantly make Web page elements transparent simply by knocking out one or more colors; create dithered transparencies; manage Web page rollovers and animations; and create more sophisticated Web rollovers. Powerful new tools help you explore your creativity without limits so you can more easily meet the multimedia demands of today's market. Simulate traditional painting techniques (including pastels and charcoal) with dry and wet brush effects and use brushes to add special effects. Adjust dozens of precise brush settings including size, shape, and tilt to create custom brushes that you can share with other Photoshop users. With the new Pattern Maker plug-in, you can select any area of an image and automatically generate a nearly endless assortment of background patterns. And the enhanced Liquify plug-in lets you distort images more easily and gain greater control over warping.
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