The 'improved' version loses its charm
Written: Jun 19 '00 (Updated Jun 20 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well, the window is prettier..
Cons: There's nothing in this software that's worth the price tag
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| QueenLyssa's Full Review: Adobe PhotoDeluxe Home Edition 2.0 (Windows) |
When I bought my scanner it came bundled with Adobe PhotoDeluxe 1.0 for Macintosh, a fantastic little program I used with a passion for two years. I decided I might be missing out on new features, so I upgraded to version 2.0. The biggest disappointment of my life.
PhotoDeluxe 1.0 was a breeze to use and was hardly limited in application to photo editing. In fact, the majority of the time I used it for creating graphics for my web sites. With text editing I could make custom title graphics and navigation buttons that spiced up my page without adding bulk and long download times. I generated images and logos that rivaled those created on PhotoShop and with half the effort due to the intuitive and user friendly interface. (You can get a taste of the types of graphics I can create with PhotoDeluxe 1.0, an Adobe compatible filter named BladePro, and very little artistic talent at The Realm of Fantasy, http://trof.net.)
In version 2.0 Adobe has decided to drop what was the most valuable feature on PhotoDeluxe, editable text. Where previously text had been created on a separate layer that behaved like any other image layer in the document, 2.0 keeps it as a text only layer. Because of this, the user is limited in what sorts of effects they can create with text. Basically you can now choose the font, size, and flat color of the text. Whoopee. With the old version, you were allowed to do anything with the text that you could do with any other layer, including special effects and filters. Now what is left is pretty much a photo editor that can put a rather boring and unprofessional looking layer of text on your picture. Isn't that nice.
On top of that, the space saving interface has been replaced by wide textured windows that yes, look pretty, but take up a good half inch more of your work space. There is the addition of a few interesting special effects and projects, like the photo calendar project, but nothing that you'll use often over the good old filters provided with version 1.0. Mac users are taunted with a tool bar that promises all sorts of internet interactive goodies, but it's mere pretense since they offer these goodies only for that other platform. Why bother putting them in at all? Mac users are heavy graphic creators and it would be nice if Adobe paid attention to a rapidly growing segment of their market. The menu choices manage to be clunky and confusing in spite of the appearance that this version was 'dumbed down' a bit from version 1.0 to make it easier for first time graphics editors to figure out, but version 1.0 was my first graphics editing application and I had no difficulty in understanding how to work with it.
One usually expects an upgrade to be an improvement on existing features, or to at least add really functional features if they do take out a few problem ones, but with PhotoDeluxe 2.0 Adobe managed to take a wonderful little graphics editing tool and make it a pretty but extremely limited one. For those considering an upgrade, don't bother. For those shopping around for the first time, keep on shopping until you find a useful bit of software that's worth the price. If you happen upon a dusty copy of version 1.0 on a clearance table, buy it!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
QueenLyssa
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Member: Lyssa Jaraba
Location: Riverside, CA
Reviews written: 64
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
It's good to be queen.
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