Photoshop CS first look

There is something for everyone in the new release. The group of users that will be the most excited though, are digital Phototographers.

Review by Colin Smith

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Photoshop CS First Look
Review by Colin Smith

Sept 29 2003. Adobe announces Photoshop CS

This morning we awoke to the announcement from Adobe Systems that Photoshop has reached version 8. Not only that ,but there is also a new name and a new strategy from Adobe Systems. The new release is CS (Creative Suite)

Adobe announced that the following products will soon be released and bundled together:
Photoshop CS (8)
Illustrator CS (11)
Indesign CS (3)
Golive CS

PHOTOSHOP CS

There is something for everyone in the new release. The group of users that will be the most excited though, are digital Phototographers. Photoshop cs is jammed with features for phototographers. 16 bit channel support is vastly expanded with most filters now working in 16 bit color. The camera raw plug in is now intergrated into Photoshop as well as jpeg 2000 support. The file browser is more of a mini app now, with extensive meta-data support and more. There are new photographic filters and adjustment layers. The histogram palette allows you to view your image histogram while working with various filters. There is now a color replacement brush that can remove red eye in a snap!

For designers, there are layer comps, filter gallery, a new blending mode and the long awaited Type on a path, which works killer!

Imageready has had some extensive working over and now provides a much more streamlined workflow. Image Ready cs is now more intergrated in Photoshop and doesn't launch a seperate window anymore.

For videographers there is now support for non square pixels.

Alright, lets have a look at some screen shots and talk a bit more about the new features:

Welcome Screen
As soon as you launch Photoshop CS, you will see the new the new welcome screen. This screen provides links to useful resources and tips

File Browser
The new file browser has extensive meta data capabilities and even has a window just for the meta data. Some image information can even be edited right from this window

The browser is faster and more stable than the one in Version 7. There is also a category of preferences just for the file browser, this way you can choose to not display image over a certain size, this speeds viewing a lot!

The automate menu is now intergrated in the File browser allowing you to perform batch processing to images without even opening them in Photoshop. There are also some new automated tasks including the PDF presentation which will build an animated slideshow complete with transition effects.

Type on a path
You can now create a path and flow your text on it. You can even use a custom shape and fill it with text

Histogram Palette
This is extremely useful for image manipulation and correction. You now have access to a histogram at all times. The palette offers features unavalible from the Levels dialog box.

Layer Comps
This new feature allows you to take snapshots of your layouts. You can experiment with different layouts and recall them at the click on the mouse. The layer position, opacity and effects are all memorized. The layer comps are preserved when the file is saved, so you could sent it to a coworker and have them add some of their own comps to your layout. This saves having to create multiple "base camp" files.

Filter Gallery
You can now see a preview of how a filter will effect the image. You can make adjustments to the filters and combime different filters together. You can add and remove filters as you experiment as easy as using the layers palette. This also means that you can do all your experimentation is the filter gallery. The benefit is speed and a better quality image because the filters are only being applied once.

Shadow Highlight Adjustment
This new filter provides a functionality previously unavaliable. The Shadow/Highlight can actually lighten the shadows and darken the highlights, thus effectively increasing the tonal range of yourimages. This is really quite an amazing adjustment filter and will be a lifesaver for some Photographs.

Custom Shortcuts are finally here, you can customize just about any Photoshop function and create a shortcut for it. Bravo!

Imageready
The big news with Imagready cs is the tighter intergration with Photoshop. It no longer has to launch a seperate copy of the image, but Imagready now will take over the Photoshop Workspace. Imageready has undergone a lot of updating. Some redundant features have been removed allowing more room for a truely streamlined web workflow. The rollover paltte has been replaced by the Web Content palette that allows you to control all your slices and rollovers. Creating multiple and disjointed rollovers has now become easier and more intuitive with the targetted slice feature. You can now create custom slice sets and apply more than one set to a page. Layer comps are fully supported in Imageready cs and combined with slice sets provide some great possibilities.

 

All in all, this is a great upgrade with tons of new features. There are also some productivity features such as 2 new interpolation modes (bicubic sharpener and bicubic softener). There is now large file support for unlimited file size and a new fortmat (PSB)

Keep an eye at Photoshop CAFE for more information, new resources and tutorials on Photoshop CS. I would also like to announce that I am in the process of writing several Photoshop CS books. The first to be released this year called "How to Do Everything With PhotoshopCS (McGraw-Hill Osbourne) and soon to follow... Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers

Also keep your eye out for some new training CDs on Photoshop CS. Join the mailing list for updated information and announcements.

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