Customer Reviews

Adobe Photoshop 6.0 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

There are certain software packages that I skip versions of as I don't feel they're worth the upgrade: Photoshop has always been an exception. This is the number 1 app I use in my work and with each new version it gets easier to accomplish that work.

With the release of Photoshop 6, Adobe has made a number of interface changes and/or enhancements. Most notably is the context-sensitive toolbar at the top of the screen. It might take some time to get used to but I feel it's one of those things that most users won't want to get rid of once they've experienced it. Other features include new selection tools, more color palettes and choices, better layer management and the ostensibly useless Liquify effect. I'm sure someone out there will find a way to abuse this feature.

One overlooked feature that seems to have gone unnoticed by most previous beta reviews is the annotation tool. In my work, this will come in handy for jotting down design notes such as what typefaces and colors were used to create an image, etc. It's similiar to a little Post-It™ Note that you can attach to your images. Overall, Photoshop 6 is a great product and worth upgrading to.

If you've read any of the other reviews I've submitted on various image-editing programs, you'll see that I mention that I do photography professionally and Photoshop is pretty much where I've put most of my faith. Photoshop is, after all, the top shelf in image editing software and Adobe has made some significant improvements with this version. I won't mention them again here because you've probably read them all in the other reviews, most of which I agree with. A big problem with this, and again, one that's mentioned in most of the other reviews, is the speed. I've got this program on a system that's a 750 MHz Pentium III and has plenty of RAM and it's still slow. An associate of mine has Photoshop 6.0 on a 1.5 GHz Pentium IV and it's not the speediest. I'll more than likely continue to use Photoshop in my work and I'll never bad-mouth it because it is a superb piece of work, but as I said in another review, I'm using Ulead Photo Impact 6.0 more frequently all the time. Using the Photoshop plug-ins with the Ulead program is a wonderful combination in my opinion.

One main intent here is aimed at the home imaging crowd. Adobe Photoshop is a "household name" in photo imaging software, and for that reason, people run out and buy Photoshop to take home and "have fun" with their pictures. Unless you have a considerable amount of disposable income, a lot of time on your hands for learning purposes, and do a lot of image editing and web work, this probably isn't the program for you. I know a few people that bought Photoshop because they always heard "Adobe Photoshop is the best", and though it very well may be the best, these people were heartsick when their frustration level peaked and the buyers remorse set in. And once it's opened, you know as well as I do that you probably can't return it. This is a program with a Jekyll-Hyde personality and one that can promote a love/hate relationship. I don't think it's a fair statement to say that "nothing compares with Photoshop". There really isn't any other image editing program out there that costs $..., so comparing is a bit difficult. Photoshop truly does stand alone. So for you weekend editors, get a fuctional program that allows you to do what you want and need to do and has a straightforward user interface that won't take an eon to learn to use. Use the extra money for a better digital camera or a vacation to take more pictures. At least if I decide I really don't want to use Photoshop 6.0 as much as I should to make it worth the investment, I can write it off my taxes....can you?

I have been using Photoshop since version 3. With each subsequent version, Adobe continues to add more and more features and functionality. These continued additions are what makes the program both wonderful and a monster all at the same moment.

Photoshop is undeniably the number one tool for photographic and other image maniputlation. If you are looking to get into professional design this is the tool to learn. It is highly appropriate for both print and electronic design. There is little you can imagine that it cannot do. If however you are a beginner who simply wants to use a graphics package to make images for a personal website or edit family photographs, then buy something else. (I suggest Photoshop Elements or Jasc's Paint Shop Pro.)

Photoshop is overkill for the non-professional user. Some might argue that buying a toolbox that contains every imaginable tool is best. I'd argue that you may break from the weight of all that it requires you to learn. If you buy this software realize it can take months and years to master. While the effort is truly worth it, decide first if you really want to invest not just the considerable purchase price, but also the personal cost of time to learn and master it.

I agree with some of the various other reviews. While Photoshop 6 has added some interesting innovations, the speed at which the program runs is ridiculous. It takes way too long to open the layer options menus and many of the other menus, and some things just take too long to find if you're not sure where to look for them. I like the enhancements for the most part, but I too find myself switching back and forth between versions 5.5 and 6.0, using the more than adequate version 5.5 when I require speed and ease of use. I am running version 6.0 on a 500 MHz PIII system with 128 Megs of RAM, and it still runs ridiculously slow. Hopefully Adobe will release an update soon. Still, if you're into graphics and don't mind a bit of waiting for menus to pop up, I recommend this product to anyone who has a system that can handle it.

Adobe Photoshop has until recently been a full-timer's tool. Like Oracle or Unix, you either lived in it and loved it, or you didn't use it at all.

But the Photoshop user base is changing. The Web has boosted the demand for bitmap graphics, and created a new breed of multimedia developers who use a huge range of tools for content creation and publication. And the rise of digital cameras and scanners has opened bitmap editing to consumers.

So Photoshop is changing from its traditional position as part of Adobe's imaging solution, a tool to be used alongside Illustrator and Web-aware tools like ImageReady and ImageStyler. Now it's eating features from the rest of Adobe's imaging line.

* Photoshop eats Illustrator: Photoshop 6.0 has sprouted serious text-editing tools. They end the old routine of importing Illustrator text to Photoshop. Decent control of letter spacing and justification appears for the first time. And Photoshop text is now editable on the page, a mere six years of so after the under-rated and now sadly wasted Corel Photo-Paint first performed this trick.

* Photoshop eats ImageReady. The new ImageReady 3.0 is bundled with Photoshop 6.0, just as its predecessor was biundled with Photoshop 5.5. And Web tasks such as JavaScript rollovers and animations still require you to jump to ImageReady, an inconvenient process. But ImageReady 2.0's simple shape-creation tools have made it to Photoshop this time around. ImageReady's on track to disappear completely into Photoshop at about Photoshop 7.0.

* Photoshop eats ImageStyler. ImageStyler 1.0's slightly gimmicky but sometimes useful "styles" appear in Photoshop 6.0 too, letting you create buttons and, um, more buttons. There's little chance of a separate ImageStyler 2.0.

So Photoshop now does most of what a Web developer would want it to do. It has garnered mostly laudatory reviews, both for its continuing power and for implementing features that other programs already had. But there are prices to be paid. There's the money: at these prices, Adobe gives the Mastercard a beating it won't soon forget. There's the speed; version 6.0 runs slower than any before it. And there's the famous Photoshop learning curve, which is becoming a problem as Adobe aims Photoshop at that wider audience.

The loyalists won't acknowledge it, but Adobe has an interface problem. The program works like Unix, letting power users into an exclusive club while alienating everyone else. It has added a new context-sensitive toolbar to version 6.0. Yet it still buries powerful features and eschews basic interface devices like a Save button in favour of memorable keyboard combinations like Control-Alt-Shift-S (that's the command for saving a Web-ready graphic, so Web developers should keep their fingers flexible). The new shape-creation tools have aspects that are obscure even by Adobe's standards. So an increasing number of mid-level Photoshop users - especially Web development shops and individual users - are paying for power they can't access. They've bought a BMW, but they can't get it out of second gear.

This interface problem, though, seems unlikely to end Photoshop's dominance. The program's new audience is following the high-end professionals' lead. They want industry-standard tools. And amongst bitmap graphics professionals, Photoshop remains the industry standard.

If you do Web development, own fast hardware and you're currently with version 5.0 or earlier - or if you create substantial amounts of bitmap text or simple button-like shapes - Photoshop 6.0 is an important upgrade. And if you're entering serious bitmap graphics, it's the one tool to have. As long as you can afford it, and as long as you're prepared for its sometimes unnecessary difficulties.

Obviously people considering photoshop 6.0 are faced with having to justify spending this amount of money on a piece of software. Many would-be buyers do considerable work with graphics and photos, and many can justify the cost by pointing to new features and usability. When I bought 5.0 in 1999, I was convinced that the increase in productivity and durability of the product would pay for itself.

How wrong I was!!! In the first place, when I upgraded to Windows ME, I was surprised to find that Photoshop 5.0 didn't work and support couldn't help me at all. Their only suggestion was to upgrade to 6.0, which definitely had ME support. Wait, so spending $500 means that I can't upgrade my operating system without paying $200 for an upgrade? No patches?

I'm not a real fan of Paint Shop Pro or Gimp (both have deficiencies and usability problems), but they offer comparable features at a fraction of the cost. Plus, you're more protected in the event of OS upgrade or Adobe's failure to deliver free patches. Unless you think only 2 years of productivity is worth $600, your interests might be better served by buying a cheaper product and learning it inside out and out.

I'm not going to waste time by listing all the new features since most have already been written about in the other reviews. I do want to say that the upgrade to Photoshop 6 is a true upgrade, not just bug fixes in a new box. I love it, and the new contextual menu bar. The improved text tool will save you so much time if you regularly work with text. Everything has been revamped to streamline the workflow, and now even Photoshop has slice tools so you no longer need to go to IR if you only want to dice your images.

Also, I want to comment on the speed complaints. I am running a P3 700 with 320mb of ram and the upgrade is faster than 5.5. Don't believe the requirements on the box. To get maximum speed out of Photoshop you need at least 256mb of ram and more if you work on large images. RAM is dirt cheap as of this writing,... a 128mb dimm. RAM is the most overlooked speed bottleneck in computers. Go for the RAM...it will increase system and stability more than just adding a faster processor.

While this is by far Adobe's best Photoshop edition, they have yet to correct several serious problems. The new Photoshop 6.0 still lacks many features when an image is in 36-bit mode or 48-bit mode (12 or 16-bits/channel instead of 8-bits/channel). The majority of the editing features, including most of the filters and important tools such as the rubber stamp and airbrush functions, are unavailable in these mode. This is a serious detractor since most of today's newest scanners work in at least 36-bit mode.

Despite the fact that I have a 750Mhz PIII with 192MB RAM, Photoshop is still very slow to load and takes an incredible amount of time to import images when they are batch scanned. If you intend to scan several high resolution images at once or plan to work on more than one high resolution at a time on the screen, be prepared to wait while Photoshop 6.0 processes all the information.

Despite these two shortcomings, Adobe Photoshop 6.0 is an excellent product. Anyone interested in doing serious digital photography must have this product, as nothing else on the market comes close to this product's abilities. Photoshop's wide array of filters and editing tools allows you to do whatever you want with an image. Additionally, when used with Adobe's other software, Photoshop allows one to create professional web pages, brochures, and digital art. Adobe Photoshop 6.0 is by far the best digital imaging product on the market today.

I recently purchased a copy of Adobe Photoshop 6.0, and it blew away all other graphics programs that I have previously tried (most recently JASC Paint Shop Pro). Adobe Photoshop 6 offers you tools that used to be available only to graphics professionals! Using Photoshop, you can easily transform your ordinary pictures into extraordinary works of art using filters, which are simple to use. The program can save in a variety of formats, so you'll never have to be at a loss for file type, and can work with just as many file types. The program is extremely adaptable, and you can add plug-in's that will do everything from add new filters for your use to altering the way you work with documents! I am a novice at graphics work, and I find Photoshop to be one of the easiest programs out there!

Bundled with Photoshop, is a handy program called ImageReady which will allow you to work with animated files! Create that GIF file for your webpage that you can't seem to find anywhere else... It is simple with Photoshop!

This program does have some flaws in it. The program takes up an INCREDIBLE amount of system resources, so if you are working on a slow system do NOT try this product... If you are going to use this, make sure to get as much memory as you can you will need it. The price is also astronomical, but for the capabilities that you get, it is well worth every penny!

PhotoShop is without a doubt the best digital image editing software on the market. However, Adobe seems to have placed testing of the application on the users who fork over the big bucks and stake their livelihood on its use. If you check the User to User Forum on Adobe's WebSite, you will see the large number of problems people are experiencing with this product. Foremost is speed. Take the minimum system requirements on the box and times those by 4 if you expect it to run efficiently. Also there are many features that either do not work correctly or were just not thought out well when designed. If you are a graphics professional, you will find some of the new features and design a work flow killer. The guides and slice tool are not precise, the text tool is half thought out and there are many features hidden away in right mouse click menus such as text attributes like bold and italic and layer options (you can't rename layers without going to a menu anymore). There is a complete lack of consistency between PhotoShop, ImageReady and Illustrator, which makes no sense at all. I am finding myself switching back and forth between 5.5 and 6. Hopefully, with all of the complaints, Adobe is finding out what real world users need in an application (not what programmers and product people think we need) and are working on a patch.