islandalex's Full Review: Adobe PhotoShop CS 8.0 Upgrade Version for PC (718...
Last month I ordered Adobe CS Premium edition from Creation Engine. Creation Engine (www.creationengine.com) specializes in discounted academic software.
Photoshop is sold in three ways:
As a stand-alone program.
Part of Creative Suite Standard Edition.
Part of Creative Suite Premium Edition.
I was only going to upgrade Photoshop, but as the whole Creative Suite was only $360 I made a giant leap of fate!
I have the whole Suite now, and promise to post reviews as I play with each program! One day, when I am comfortable with the Suite as a whole, I will also review it.
Please note that, although I own the whole Suite, this review is on Photoshop, one of the programs Included with the Suite. The Photoshop CS that ships with the Premium Edition Suite is exactly the same as the stand-alone Photoshop CS. (aka Photoshop 8.0)
My history with Adobe
When I was at school in the US I took a class in web design. We did a lot of work with GoLive 5.0 and Photoshop 6.0. After the first week I was hooked.
The layouts made perfect sense to me. The two programs were also laid out in a similar manner, and it was easy to switch between the two.
I like GoLive so much that I bought the Educational version from Creation Engine. (I wish there was the opportunity to review them on epinions, but I cant find them!) I liked it, and there was nothing “lite” about the Educational version. Everything seemed the same!
Fast forward a couple of years! I work for an architect, and study part-time. At work I spend a ton of time on Photoshop 7.0, and GoLive 6.0. I even dabble a bit in Illustrator 9.0. Everything seems to be so much better than the last version. I admit it, I am a devoted adobe fan!
Now that I am planning to go to the UK in the fall for college, I thought it was time to upgrade!
The Initial Impression
My new box of toys arrived quickly, and I couldn’t wait to get home to install them. I got home late, and installed into the wee hours of the morning. Finally, it was time for the infamous activation. I entered in all the information and waited… and waited. Something was wrong! Nothing happened. So I closed the activation box, reopened it, and activation was almost instant, even on dial-up. It was also completely painless.
Last month I ordered Adobe CS Premium edition from Creation Engine. Creation Engine (www.creationengine.com) specializes in discounted academic software.
Photoshop is sold in three ways:
As a stand-alone program.
Part of Creative Suite Standard Edition.
Part of Creative Suite Premium Edition.
I was only going to upgrade Photoshop, but as the whole Creative Suite was only $360 I made a giant leap of fate!
I have the whole Suite now, and promise to post reviews as I play with each program! One day, when I am comfortable with the Suite as a whole, I will also review it.
Please note that, although I own the whole Suite, this review is on Photoshop, one of the programs Included with the Suite. The Photoshop CS that ships with the Premium Edition Suite is exactly the same as the stand-alone Photoshop CS. (aka Photoshop 8.0)
My history with Adobe
When I was at school in the US I took a class in web design. We did a lot of work with GoLive 5.0 and Photoshop 6.0. After the first week I was hooked.
The layouts made perfect sense to me. The two programs were also laid out in a similar manner, and it was easy to switch between the two.
I like GoLive so much that I bought the Educational version from Creation Engine. (I wish there was the opportunity to review them on epinions, but I cant find them!) I liked it, and there was nothing “lite” about the Educational version. Everything seemed the same!
Fast forward a couple of years! I work for an architect, and study part-time. At work I spend a ton of time on Photoshop 7.0, and GoLive 6.0. I even dabble a bit in Illustrator 9.0. Everything seems to be so much better than the last version. I admit it, I am a devoted adobe fan!
Now that I am planning to go to the UK in the fall for college, I thought it was time to upgrade!
The Initial Impression
My new box of toys arrived quickly, and I couldn’t wait to get home to install them. I got home late, and installed into the wee hours of the morning. I initially installed in on a borrowed Sony Vaio while my Toshiba Satellite 1905-S303 was getting “fixed”.
Finally, it was time for the infamous activation. I entered in all the information and waited… and waited. Something was wrong! Nothing happened. So I closed the activation box, reopened it, and activation was almost instant, even on dial-up. It was also completely painless.
Activation is only for Photoshop. Adobe has yet to implement it on any of its other products. You have 30 days to activate it before you get the boot. However, as it is so painless, why wait?
You can only activate Photoshop on two machines, your laptop, and your home desktop. There are many doubts and questions on what to do if you get a new computer. Most people say it is easy, you just have to contact Adobe and explain everything to them, and confirm that you have uninstalled it on your old machine. I will be attempting this soon, when I get my new computer, and I will update then.
When you install the suite, you can choose to install all of the CS programs, or just the ones you choose.
As I bought the product to get the latest and greatest Photoshop, I put all the other programs on the back-burner and focused on Photoshop!
My first few hours of it were a blur! I was so overwhelmed! I thought it was time to look at the contents of the box, and find out the power of my toy.
New Photoshop Features
You could probably get a better features list from Adobe, but here is my attempt!
Text on a path:
This as a very nifty little tool. You make a path with the pen tool, and then you can type along it. It adds a wonderful freedom to images. After you have written the text, you can transform the path as much as you please. It doesn’t handle sharp corners very well, but that is to be expected. I used to do this in Illustrator, but having it in Photoshop is an added bonus.
Photomerge:
Wow. Wow! It is really, really nifty. Ok, I am being a bit broad here. Photomerge makes seamless panoramas from multiple pictures. There is also the option to fix the perspective. It has a few problems when there are more than 5 pictures, but otherwise is great. Although it does a very good job, you still have to do a few edits in the end. If you are interested in photo merge and not the price of CS try Photoshop Elements 2.0.
Nested layers and Layer Comps:
This is by far my favorite addition! You can organize your organized layers one step further. It sure makes the layers palate a lot more user friendly. This alone made CS worthwhile, scary thought, isn’t it?
Layer comps let you save different layer compositions. Wow, that said a lot! You can make a layer comp that has layers on, off, or at any degree of opacity, or on any blending mode. It is a solution to saving multiple versions of the same project. Showing off the different versions of your work is also easier.
Other Features:
There are a few features that I don’t know much about, such as non-square pixel support, 16-bit image support, and advanced web features. They all seem brilliant, but I’ll need more time to utilize them. (What is a non-square pixel anyway?)
There are a few more less-publicized features, like color matching. This simplifies an action that used to take many steps into one easy step. It is nice, but not a necessity.
Going Deeper
I tried my first big project, and was impressed with the results. I have a Wacom Intuos2 and the two together really awed me. The brushes are dynamic, and absolutely beautiful. With Photoshop you can make your own brushes and save them to your own folders. You can also define each brush’s default properties. And save the versions you like the most.
The healing brush tool, introduced in 7.0, always gives excellent results. It does everything from removing the odd pimple to rust spots on your car.
As with all older version of Photoshop, you can fully customize your workspace, and all of the available tools. You can also download many 3rd party plug-ins from Adobe Studio Exchange as well as many other sites.
ImageReady
Photoshop has a sister program, ImageReady. It focuses on web graphics and is considered part of Photoshop. In ImageReady you can make animated gifs, and dynamic web pages with rollovers. You can also export a swf file.
Image ready makes saving for the web a breeze, whether it is a single image, or a whole page. You can control the quality for each individual component in your image. This means that you can specify that text must be less compressed than less-important background images.
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Adobe has never been well known for their customer support. If you go to the Adobe forums online there are enough complaints to write a book. There are a few people who are totally clueless, and some that make valid points. Here are a few complaints I can agree with:
It is slow!
It is true, CS is slower than 7.0. Some filters that applied instantly previously now take half a second. I think I will survive. The text on a path needs time to catch up to your typing. Again, it is not the end of the world.
Now that I am back on my Toshiba Satellite 1905-S303 I am finding the speed less of an issue. The only time it has hiccups is when I work with files over 200mb. Remember I use a laptop, so I am sure it will be smooth on a fully loaded desktop.
Freezing, brrr:
Photoshop CS does freeze, but then who doesn’t? I haven’t had any more problems than I have had with 6.0 or 7.0. It freezes, you get over it! It is one of the reasons why you get taught to save often, no matter what you are doing!
Same as the speed, now that I am back on my Toshiba I hardly have any freezing problems.
Not intuitive:
Sure, the multiple menu’s may be confusing. And there is always the fact that there is at least 3 ways to do anything. If you are anything like me, this is actually a good thing! First timers can easily find it overwhelming, but a few tutorials and they will be gliding along! (www.studio.adobe.com)
Activation:
Sure, it is a bummer, and a few extra seconds before you get to start creating. I don’t really mind it! Many complaints say that Adobe is just using activation to spy on its users, ect. Well, I have nothing to hide, so if that is the case, they aren’t getting anything from me.
Show Me the Money:
Photoshop CS will not let you edit the new $20 bill. Sorry, no more head swapping. There are rules and regulations on what you can and cant do when you are reproducing money. It seems a bit odd for Adobe to be reinforcing it! If you really want to make a “United States of Alcohol” get yourself an older copy of Photoshop (Or an older 20), just make sure you follow the detailed rules!
It also doesn’t let you edit the Euro, quite frankly, I am impressed. How do they do that?
I still think that the good far outweighs the bad!
What the Next Release Needs
Multiple Layer Editing:
You can apply the same effect to multiple layers by writing an action, and then replaying it over each layer you want. This is time-consuming, and, well, a pain to do! Hopefully, in the next release, we will be able to link layers, and then apply an effect to all of them at once.
It just means Adobe will have to work on the speed issue...
Educational VS Standard
If you are only interested in Photoshop the educational price is $280. It is scary that, for less than $100, you can get so much more! The full price of Photoshop CS is $650.
If you are a student, you can get CS premium for about $360. The regular price is $1200. It is well worth the savings, for a comparable product.
The educational version is no different to the regular. The software is complete, nothing is missing. The only difference is in the packaging and the license.
The educational versions do not come with the reference manuals. However, there are so many sites online with more information than could ever fit into the manual.
The educational version can not be used commercially.
To Upgrade or not to Upgrade
If you have never used Adobe Photoshop I would recommend starting off with Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. It has most of the features, for $60-$100.
If you have 7.0 the upgrade is not a big step up, but the difference from 6.0 is huge! I am very happy I upgraded. You have two options if you already own a previous license. You can just choose to upgrade Photoshop for $170 or you can upgrade to the whole Premium Suite for $750.
If you are a hobbyist, Photoshop is very pricey, but any student who wants to study digital design a little further will enjoy this product.
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