Adobe Photoshop CS2 Upgrade (Mac) from Photoshop [Old Version]

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Product Features

• Photoshop CS2 is the new professional standard in desktop digital imaging. Its groundbreaking creative tools help you achieve extraordinary results. With more creative options, a more custom-fit Photoshop for the way you work, and more efficient file handling, you can stretch your imagination and let the ideas flow.
• Revolutionary Vanishing Point technology lets you clone, paint, and paste elements that automatically match the perspective of the surrounding image area
• Smart Objects perform nondestructive scaling, rotating, and warping of raster and vector graphics with Smart Objects
• Multi-image digital camera raw file processing - process multiple images simultaneously, adjusting exposure, shadows, and brightness and contrast -- all while you continue working
• Image Warp creates packaging mock-ups by wrapping an image around any shape or stretching, curling, and bending an image

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0008GM6JO
• Item model number: 13102172
• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 19, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,377 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

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Product Description

Amazon.com
It's hard to imagine that Adobe can make Photoshop any better than this. Long considered the professional image-editing standard among graphic digital artists worldwide, Photoshop is certain to cement that reputation even further with the array of new features offered in the Adobe PhotoShop CS 2 Upgrade for the Macintosh. Artists, creative professionals, photographers, and industry professionals will find that the workflow and image customization enhancements will be worth far more than the price of the upgrade.

Achieve amazing results in a fraction of the time with the groundbreaking Vanishing Point tool, which lets you clone, paint, and paste elements that automatically match the perspective of the surrounding image area.

Adobe Bridge (formerly File Browser)
Adobe Bridge software is the new-generation File Browser--Photoshop's navigational control center that allows you to browse, organize, label, and preview graphics and Photoshop files quickly and efficiently. Adobe Bridge takes File Browser, introduced in Photoshop 7.0, a step further by providing centralized access to your suite project files, applications, and settings. With Adobe Bridge, you can process multiple camera raw images at once; resize, rate and label thumbnails; review images in slide show mode; and more. With file organization and sharing, plus Adobe Stock Photos at your fingertips all the time, you simply search for the files you want to place using metadata--such as key words, colors or image resolution--and seamlessly drag and drop your files into Photoshop. You can even page through an entire Adobe PDF file right in the preview panel of Adobe Bridge. And with Adobe Bridge, you can also browse, search and purchase royalty-free images from leading stock photo agencies without ever leaving InDesign CS2. It's as simple as that.

Revolutionary Vanishing Point and Image Warp
Photographers especially will be amazed at the effects that Vanishing Point can bring to a project. Clone, paint, and paste elements that automatically match the perspective of the surrounding image area in a fraction of the time that it currently takes. With Image Warp, you can easily create packaging mock-ups or other dimensional effects by wrapping an image around any shape. Place your client's logo around a coffee cup, or stretch, curl or bend an image across the hood of a car or around the Space Shuttle, for that matter. The effects you can create with Image Warp will be limited only by your imagination.

Accelerate your raw file workflow with simultaneous processing of multiple images while you continue working.

Digital Camera Raw File Support
Accelerate your raw file workflow with simultaneous processing of multiple images while you continue working. With Photoshop CS2, you can import images into your choice of formats, including Digital Negative (DNG); enjoy automatic adjustments to exposure, shadows, and brightness and contrast; and much more. This exciting new enhancement provides fast and easy access within Photoshop software to the "raw" image formats produced by many leading professional and mid-range digital cameras. The Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in--now available as part of Photoshop CS2--has been updated to support more cameras and include more features.

Spot Healing Brush and One-Click Red-Eye Correction
Never have touch ups been so easy. With the Spot Healing Brush, you can effortlessly retouch photos--including 16-bit images--in a single click. Red-eye Correction lets you instantly neutralize red eyes and also lets you set pupil size and darkening level.

Effective red-eye reduction is only a few clicks away.

Use the new multi-layer select feature to more intuitively edit and control your work.

Other New Features
Photoshop CS2 offers a huge array of exciting new features designed to help artists and creative professionals in all fields stretch their imagination and increase their work and creative efficiencies:

• Smart Objects: Perform nondestructive scaling, rotating, and warping of raster and vector graphics with Smart Objects. Even preserve the editability of high-resolution vector data from Adobe Illustrator software.
• Multiple Layer Control: Select and move, group, transform, and warp objects more intuitively by clicking and dragging directly on the canvas. Easily align objects with Smart Guides.
• Nondestructive Image Correction: Improve the color, contrast, and dynamic range of any image using a comprehensive set of professional correction tools and nondestructive adjustment layers, which display corrections while preserving the original.
• Full 16-bit and New 32-bit Image Support: Work with absolute precision thanks to support for 16-bit images in all channels and layers. Create and edit 32-bit images, and take advantage of High Dynamic Range, 32-bit support.
• Advanced Noise Reduction: Reduce noise and remove JPEG artifacts for cleaner images.
• Customizable Workspaces and Menus: Get easier access to the tools you need with task-based presets, highlight new or commonly used menu items, and even set up and save custom menus and workspaces.
• Web Animations: Quickly create dynamic GIF animations directly within Photoshop CS2 by taking advantage of the new Animations palette and layer palette animation options.

Product Description
To install this upgrade successfully, you will need a licensed version of any version of Adobe Photoshop, on the same platform as this purchase. NOTE:This upgrade does not apply to Adobe Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Album, Photoshop Limited Edition, or PhotoDeluxe licensed users.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A gem that can be enhanced and polished, July 28, 2005

By	Nicolas S. Martin (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Photoshop is one of the great software products ever created. It has continued to evolve to match the needs of advanced digital photography, offering some really astonishing capabilities -- assuming that you have the time and necessary instructional materials. It has a steep learning curve.

Where Photoshop falls short is in ease of use. Along with features development, Adobe should focus on making the application simpler where possible. Even advanced users can benefit from simplicity. For instance, it could be much easier to crop photos to the conventional 3-to-2 proportion for printing and commercial processing. Adobe could adopt the kiosk method of visual cropping using a moveable box without eliminating the existing approach. It is especially bothersome to work a non-standard image into the 3-2 format, and many commercial processors automatically (and crudely) crop irregularly sized photos instead of fitting them entirely within the selected print size. Adobe needs to acknowledge the reality of every day use, and offer a simplified solution. The company is a bit slow in this department, as evidenced by how long it took to create a relatively automated way to correct red eye.

There is always a group of users who defend software difficulty of use as they either profit from the time consumption (hourly billing), or it makes makes them feel important to gain mastery over something difficult. Adobe should ignore this minority and make Photoshop easier.

One nit that I pick with recent versions is that they have made the blur tool more clumsy. A high-pixel file need be viewed at 100 percent, or it is virtually impossible to see the effect of blurring. That wasn't necessary in the past, and it shouldn't be now.

Photoshop is a gem that Adobe can continue to polish and enhance.

Update: Adobe is working of a product calle Lightroom, which permits very easy cropping to precise sizes, such as 5 x 7, among many other features. I think the cropping capability should be part of Photoshop, and not require moving between two products. The combination of Photoshop, Lightroom, and Bridge presents a daunting combination of bloatware.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars John Farr Photoshop Review, January 21, 2006

By	Tim E Robertson "Publisher MyMac.com" (Battle Creek, Mi United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Everyman's Photoshop CS2 Review

The reason this is called an "everyman's" review is that I'm less than an expert. In fact, if Photoshop were a car, I'd be the one driving it cross-country in first gear.

I normally use Photoshop for creating Web graphics or sexing up photos - no shifting required, in other words. But Photoshop does way more than that, so much so that without it, most designers would curl up and die. For most of us though, running a full-bore image-editing app is like driving a Ferrari in the back yard. I ought to know: I've had access to the software for a long time and still don't know what all the tools are for - the latest version, Adobe Photoshop CS2, has even more. That said, if you have any kind of visual project in mind and a modicum of talent, there's hardly anything you can't do. It may take a while to get rolling, but once you do, you'll kill for a chance to have your very own copy. See what you can do?



Photoshop CS2 is available alone or as part of the Adobe Creative Suite 2, which includes Adobe Illustrator CS2, Adobe InDesign CS2, Version Cue CS2, Adobe GoLive CS2, and Adobe Acrobat 7.0 Professional in the Premium Edition. (This reviewer was slated to receive the full suite, but "only" the Photoshop component showed up. Color me stupendously grateful regardless, of course, but I won't be addressing the integration features in this review.)

At $599 for the standalone version, piracy has always been a problem for Adobe, but the company has gone out of its way to save you from yourself by requiring activation -- not the same thing as registration -- within 30 days of installation. In the past, you could buy the app and install it on all your computers (or any machine for that matter), but the new version only works on the user's primary and secondary computers. Frankly, the details of the activation process left me confused. According to Adobe's activation FAQ page (my emphasis):

The activation process supports installation on two machines. The Adobe product license agreement allows the primary user to install the product on a primary computer and also on a home or laptop computer for his or her use, provided that the two copies are not used simultaneously. While the activation process supports installing and activating Adobe software on two machines, the usage of the product on the second computer is restricted to the user who licensed the software. Allowing others to use a second copy of the software violates the product license agreement.

Call me dense, but I have no idea what they mean by not using both copies simultaneously. Shortly before submitting this review, I had Photoshop CS2 running on both of my computers and nothing blew up, nor did anyone unpleasant bust down my door. And apparently my wife isn't allowed to use the software on the TiBook, according to the above. Frankly, this is absurd, and I wish the company's lawyers would get a life. But be that as it may, the installation process itself was straightforward, although my 500 MHz TiBook with OS X 10.3 (an oldie but a goodie) required a few hard slaps on the case above the CD-ROM drive before the disk would mount. And the first thing I learned when launching the new app was that as usual, I was coloring outside the lines:

Mac OS X version 10.3.4 or later is recommended for maximum performance and correct operation of Adobe Photoshop CS2. An earlier version of Mac OS X was detected.

Oops! Despite the warning, the official system requirements listed in the reviewer's guide only call for a minimum of Mac OS X version 10.2.8, and I haven't seen any signs of "incorrect" operation yet. True, installing Photoshop on my 400 MHz Blue & White G3 with OS X 10.3 seems to have magically doubled the boot time, but that's it. If you don't have 10.3.4, I'd say go for it anyway. For those of you with older versions, there are more than enough useful new features in Photoshop CS2 to justify the $149.99 upgrade cost. A partial rundown includes the following, a few of which I'll expand upon later:

* Adobe Bridge (the File Browser on steroids)
* Vanishing Point (an extraordinary plane-based visual perspective tool)
* Image Warp (turns flat images into shaped graphics)
* Reduce Noise filter (corrects JPEG compression artifacts and more)
* 32-bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) editing (creates images with the "widest possible dynamic range")
* Spot Healing Brush (one-click retouching)
* One-Click Red Eye tool
* Optical Lens Correction
* Animation (create animated GIFs directly in Photoshop)
* Smart Sharpen
* Enhanced 16-bit Filter Support
* Smart Objects (allow non-destructive scaling, rotation and warping of layers within Photoshop CS2)
* Multiple Layer Control (select, align, group and simultaneously move multiple layers)
* Multi-Image Camera Raw (um...)
* Video Preview (preview your work on a FireWire-connected monitor)
* WYSIWYG Font Menu (you're gonna love this)
* more color management options when printing
* all-new PDF engine (automatic optimization for Web viewing)
* High Capacity RAM Compatibility (can address 3.5 GB on a G5)
* expanded, integrated online services

See what I mean?

As for Adobe Bridge, I probably shouldn't comment, since I've never used the old File Browser [blush]. But here's what Adobe has to say:

The acclaimed File Browser has evolved into its own application - Adobe Bridge. Now, the two applications work efficiently in parallel - Adobe Bridge building thumbnails while you edit in Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS2 batch processing images while you continue to work in Adobe Bridge. Adding essential new features for photographers such as multiple-file Camera Raw processing, enhanced ranking and labeling, and a slideshow mode for quick review of your images, Adobe Bridge also integrates with Illustrator CS2, InDesign CS2 and GoLive CS2, bridging the workflow across the new Creative Suite 2 applications.

I don't know about File Browser, but Bridge rocks, and I'm converted. Instead of locating a particular image in the Finder using column view, in Bridge I can browse any folder on my hard drive, see all the photos at once (Filmstrip View, below, is a hoot), and open any or all of them in Photoshop with just a click. Just five minutes of playing with this opened my eyes, and when a skeptic like me gets all mushy, people should pay attention.



The Vanishing Point filter, completely new to CS2, rates a whole review all by itself. As Adobe explains it, "First you define the perspective in your image by creating perspective grids, then you edit your image normally, and let Vanishing Point take care of adjusting your editing to the defined perspective." What that means in real terms is that you can do things you never dreamed of without doing hours of work, like pasting "WAY COOL" and "YOW!" into the image below. (How did I do the "Hah!"? Keep reading...)



Talk about serious empowerment! I've never even tried to do work on this level, but now I can. Once you've defined the planes (grids) in your image, you can drag objects into the distance and have them still be in correct perspective. And since the perspective grids are saved inside the image (or on a separate layer if you want), you can return to re-edit whatever's been placed in them. Edit in perspective? Yup. You can paint directly onto perspective planes with the Stamp Tool, make selections within them, and a whole lot more. This is one extraordinary feature.

Add Image Warp to the mix, and your inner package designer will wake up hollering. Adobe has thoughtfully included a full set of presets for common object shapes, and you can drag control points on the warp grid to customize as desired. Ever wonder how your logo would look on a coffee mug or baseball cap? Image Warp has it covered. This is what I used to place the "Hah!" text inside the Mexican pot, of course, and remember, I don't know what I'm doing - so power users ought to be able to effect miracles.

* * *

There's a lot more to talk about, but we only have one Web site, and I'm sure my MyMac colleagues will have more to say about Photoshop and the other CS2 applications. Meanwhile, my other picks for things to be thankful for in the CS2 version are the ability to make animated GIFs right inside Photoshop, the Spot Healing Brush for removing unwanted pixels with a single click, multiple layer control, and the WYSIWYG Font Menu. Those of you who import vector graphics from Illustrator ( I don't ) will be able to start a whole new religion with Smart Objects, and photographers will love the new Camera Raw format editing power.

This is an incredibly powerful and versatile application. If I were Santa Claus or a benevolent deity, I'd make sure every artist and designer with half an ounce of talent had a copy to carry him- or herself to the Promised Land. It really is that good, although I have to say the complexity is overwhelming for beginners. (The Adobe Help application is the best I've ever seen, however, and provided tremendous assistance in writing this review.) I'd have no hesitation whatsoever in giving Photoshop CS2 the highest possible rating, except for an intuition that the app has grown to the point where its sheer size and multitude of features, not to mention the price, are bound to limit expansion of the user base. Personally, I'd like to take a digital carving knife to Photoshop and create about half a dozen specialty image editing apps, but that's not the direction Adobe is going, especially after absorbing Macromedia, and who's to say I know better than them? I also have no love for the increasingly maddening anti-piracy and copy protection measures employed by the industry, although Adobe's activation process gave me no trouble. It's the principle of the thing, and I'm just old-fashioned when it comes to trusting people.

But if you can get yourself a copy (legally!), this is the one to have, hands down. That's why hesitation aside, there isn't even a contest. I love it, and it's already indispensable, even for a first-gear user.

MyMac.com Rating: 5 out of 5

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars PS CS2 - Very Good Upgrade - Bridge, well......, July 13, 2005

By	Dennis M. Wierzbicki (Plainfield, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Upgrading from PS 7 to CS2 is worth it for the advanced healing tools and the Vanishing Point alone. As for The Bridge, well, it still acts like a product that hasn't quite been finished. As opposed to others on these reviews, I think it's an improvement over the old Browser, but it is a bit slow, and if you regularly download hundreds of shots like I do, you best look at something like Photo Mechanic or Photo Mechanic LE ($50), which can be seamlessly integrated with PS CS2.