Adobe Photoshop CS

I’m the Multimedia Director of Netclick.ca. We constantly work on websites, graphic designs and the one tool that probably comes to achieve our projects every time is also one of the most commonly used desktop digital imaging software in the industry: Adobe Photoshop. So I’m here to give you my impressions on this latest upgrade of the Adobe Photoshop family with Photoshop CS (Creative Suite). I remind you that I will not cover every new feature (since that would take forever) but I’ll cover the more significant ones to the every day user.

Probably the first thing you’ll notice when you’ll start using Photoshop CS is the improvement of the new File Browser. It was first introduced in Photoshop 7 and it was a nice tool to manage your library of images but it was also limited. This time around it comes with more powerful features that are definitely going to ease the way you organize your library. In this new version, you get more options to customize the way you view your files, change thumbnail views and sort them in specific details (size, dimension, resolution or custom info). The layout itself is customizable by simply dragging the different panes into different locations to suit your personal workspace. But one of the most interesting new features available in the File Browser is the possibility to create, edit and apply metadata and keywords for individual or multiple files which allows you to search for specific kind of files. For example, you could organize a group of images that are landscape and identify them as “landscape” and then later view them separately from the rest of your files by typing “landscape” in the search area. This is a big plus for those who have a huge collection of images. You can even perform batch and automation actions directly from the File Browser. If you tend to use and import files from digital cameras, you’ll be happy to know that it supports RAW Camera image files. You can directly manipulate raw data giving you complete control of color calibration and create custom profiles for different type of cameras. And with the extended support of 16-bit images, you can work even more precisely then ever before. This new File Browser is practically a software by itself only it’s integrated within Photoshop CS.

File Browser

All of this and you didn’t even start to work yet. Well now we can talk about the new things we can do in Photoshop CS. Let’s start with an improved Filter Gallery. You can now find all of Photoshop CS filters within one dialogue window. With small thumbnail examples of different filters, it makes it easier to find what kind of effect you’re actually looking for. You can actually control and apply different filters at once and see the result of your stacked filter effects in a large preview pane.

Filter Gallery

Another nifty little feature available in Photoshop CS is the Match Color command. What it does is pretty simple but a major time-saver. By a simple click you can apply a color scheme of a new picture to match an original picture, making your images look consistent from one to another quickly and easily.

1.original image    2.other image     3.Match Color applied

Besides images, the Text tool also has new tricks up his sleeve. You can create some pretty wild typography effect by placing text on along a path or within a custom shape and both path and shape are fully editable along with the text. This gives you a much greater range of effect you want to apply on your projects.

Fully editable text and path

You want to incorporate alternate looks to a same file; you can now do it with ease with Layer Compositions. It allows you to keep any combination of layer visibility, effects, blending modes, adjustments, etc. and put the different end results in different compositions within a single file. It makes it easier to switch and demonstrate different varieties of a same project. You can then output these compositions as individual image files or as PDF documents using each comp as their own page. Pretty neat!

And whenever you work on your files, the new Histogram palette actually follows your every move and updates dynamically any color adjustment of your image.

OK, so now you have better knowledge of what Photoshop CS can do, but what about his trusty Web oriented “sidekick” ImageReady? Well it has been upgraded as well with ImageReady CS. One the interesting new features available is the possibility to export in Flash format in a convenient way. Since Macromedia Flash software can’t support layered Photoshop files, exporting each layer was a tedious labor. This time with ImageReady CS, you can export your layers in Flash in a simple step with a dialog box that gives a variety of options to customize how you want to export them. ImageReady CS preserves exported vector and text objects as SWF-native objects so you don’t lose any information in the transfer.

The interface has also some welcomed options that make the editing of your Web projects much flexible. Easily select and manipulate a group of objects directly on the canvas. Change and apply layer command on multiple layers at once, you can also change font settings of a group of selected text objects simultaneously. These new features really accelerate your workflow, before you actually had to modify objects one by one. Another improvement in the interface is the new Web Content Palette that that gives a much easier control and organization of your rollover slices with a point-and-shoot targeting system.

Of course ImageReady still has his solid HTML exporting module, only this time you get to finer tune your results. You can assign individual table cells by pixels or percent. Favor colspan or rowspan for your slices and combined them in nested tables. And there are plenty of other tweaking options to help you generate precise results.

Well that covers my impressions and I’ve been using Photoshop for a long time and it was already a powerful digital image editing software and with the latest upgrade with Photoshop CS, it only gets better. You could be a graphic designer, a web designer or a professional photographer; you’ll find everything you need and even more in Photoshop CS. But is it worth the upgrade for those who own previous versions? Definitely! The upgrade is at an affordable price and if you are a serious image editor, you’ll know how to use the new features and you’ll be glad you did!