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Description:
Adobe
Photoshop has always been the application of choice for professional
image editing. And with the new features and improvements that have been
implemented in version 7, its appeal is now stronger than ever. To
describe Photoshop as merely an image editing application does not do
this package justice, as it can do far more than that. For example it is
almost equally at home helping you design and create entire Web pages
and print adverts as it is at enhancing, re-touching or editing
photographs and other digital images.
Every new
version of Photoshop has delivered significant, noteworthy improvements.
Witness: Photoshop 4.0 unveiled Layers and Actions; Photoshop 5.0
brought us the History Palette and Layer Styles; Photoshop 6.0
introduced Shapes. Hence, Photoshop 7.0's perfunctory,
should-have-been-there-earlier enhancements, such as the new file browser and updated paint engine, are a bit of a letdown.
We were most
impressed with a number of smaller features that we predict will save
skilled graphic artists scads of time and effort. Two new retouching
tools-the Healing Brush and
Patch Device-are finest described as very sensible cloning brushes that
may make scratches, mud, and other imperfections disappear
automatically. They work by blending the noise (or texture) of selected
source pixels with the colour and shading of the target area. The
results are spectacular: You'll be able to remove unwanted artifacts
whereas preserving the color and shading details found within the
original image. In addition, the new Auto
Shade function can stability shade images with a single click. Auto
Color works only in RGB mode, and it nonetheless cannot beat handbook
adjustments. However for quick removing of a colorcast, Auto Shade gives
more pleasing results than either Auto Levels or Auto Contrast.
Indeed, its
ability to produce almost complete Web pages, complete with all the java
necessary to handle button rollovers and image swapping behaviours,
makes Photoshop a tool not just for those working in more general media
design and print houses, but also one that Web designers can use
alongside their HTML editors.
One of the most annoying limitations of Photoshop 6 and all its predecessors was its lack of an image browser,
a feature available in just about every other image editing
application, including those at only a fraction of its cost. Thankfully
this has finally been rectified in Photoshop 7, which now boasts a
powerful image browser that not only allows you to view thumbnails of the images in any directory on your PC, but also to view information on
them, such as their colour profile, size, modification date, and even
any attached Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) information generated by the
likes of a digital camera.
Photoshop's
painting facilities have also been improved, making it easier to choose
the size, shape and dynamics of the brush you want. Some completely new
features have also been added to the brush section, which amongst other
things allow you to accurately simulate traditional types of painting
techniques should you wish to. And you can now even combine two
different brush types when painting, which allows you to produce some
quite amazing results.
Photoshop's
image editing and enhancing facilities have also improved. You'll now
find it even easier to automatically correct colours in a photograph,
for example, and thanks to some additions and tweaks in its Liquify
facility, you'll find making precision distortions or adding certain
types of special effect an absolute doddle. Two completely new photo enhancing tools have also been added to Photoshop 7 - the healing brush and patch tool - which together make invisibly removing blemishes, scratches, dusk and wrinkles from scanned images a pleasure rather than a chore.
The new
Rollover palette makes it far easier to create, edit and manage
rollovers and image maps than was the case in previous versions of the
package. However, it is still not quite as easy or intuitive as
performing the same tasks with arch-rival Macromedia's Fireworks
Web-specific image manipulation package. A few more general improvements
to Adobe Photoshop 7 are also
worthy of note albeit briefly - such as the slightly more modern look to
its user interface, support for Adobe Acrobat 5's security settings
and, last but by no means least, a built-in multilingual spell checker.
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