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03 June 2002
Posted in
Graphics
| Review | |
Installation & Documentation |   |
Ease of use |  |
Value for money |
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Price approx. | RRP $1,895+GST Upgrade from Photoshop 4+ $448.88+GST |
Operating System | OS 9.1+ OS X 10.1.3+ |
Available from | |
NZ Macguide Issue 4
OK, I said I was all aquiver at the prospect of an OS X version of Photoshop and I was, but that was mostly because Photoshop was one of only three applications I had left that still had to be run in classic mode. A straight OS X capable version of Photoshop 6 would have been sufficient for me - but Adobe have thrown in far more than that.
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Control your collections like never before with the file browser |
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To get you up and running, your Action sets can be imported from Photoshop 6 and used exactly the same in 7, complete with the key commands you set for them. Apart from the slightly chunky kiddy-land look of the toolbar items, at first glance everything looks the way you'd expect it to. Then you look under the bonnet ...
The plumbing
For a start - and I guess this will appeal most to users of real Photoshop dedicated machines - the tear-off File Browser palette is a one-jump-ahead version of X's own advanced file navigation. With the customisable Browser you can navigate to folders, preview images, rank them by size, type, colour profile, resolution, bit depth etcetera, and it facilitates importing images from digital cameras. Image thumbnails can be rotated; this is applied to images as they're opened.
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Brushes can now be controlled and modified like those of the best paint programs |
Brush off
Once you tear the palette off the Palette Well, you can even create and name new folders and batches.
Brush control has been vastly improved, putting Photoshop 7 on a par with the top painting programs. Brushes are now controlled from the Brushes palette also found by default in the Palette Well: they can now simulate different dry brushing media or wet media and can be used to add affects like butterflies, grass and leaves.
The previewable brushes can include noise, affects, smoothing, wet edges and spacing and even maximum ink flow can all be controlled - and for tablet users, tilt, sensitivity and even airbrush thumbwheel features are now supported.
Newer, softer, whiter
The liquefy filter, now where it should be - in the Filters menu - was previously only beyond a gimmick if used very discretely. It's had a revamp and is now less destructive. You can create a mesh on a low-resolution image and then apply it to a high resolution version when you have it right, to save processing time, and there's a new Turbulence brush and multiple undos.
The Save For Web feature now cleverly lets you map transparencies to gifs with diffusion, noise, or pattern dither patterns to simulate feathering: using the eyedropper tool, select the colour you wish to knock out, then click the new transparency icon.
As if all this wasn't enough, a new version of ImageReady - also 7.0 - comes on the same CD as Photoshop 7. This software for optimising images for the web features improved slicing and more sophisticated rollover management.
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These candy Monaros have been too long in the sun, thanks to the improved Liquefy filter |
Heal thyself
New in the tool palette are the Healing Brush and Patch tool. The Healing Brush is like a super clone stamp that somehow preserves texture and shading - it's not magic, and it doesn't do the job perfectly with little effort, but it's pretty close. The Patch tool does a similar job with selections - select an area with it, then move it to an area with is unblemished and voila! Your damaged area becomes seamless with its texture and shading intact. (See the Photoshop 7 How-To in this issue for a step-by-step run-through of these features.)
Another absolute boon is Tool Presets. Set up a tool just how you like it - for example, a brush combo complete with custom colour or a custom crop setting - and save it to the new Tool Presets palette to be recalled whenever you need it. Brilliant!
Other features
Pattern Maker creates patterns from user-defined selections, documents can be annotated either with notes or voice recordings, a one-hit colour correction feature (Image>Adjustments>Auto Color) that intelligently removes colour casts, AppleScript aware, enhanced Droplet creation for batch edits, three new light modes (Pin Light, Vivid and Linear), image placement on paper viewable from Print Preview.
Pros
- It's the most important general application to become OS X savvy
- The new features are very, very good
- Also runs on OS 9
Cons
- Seems a little sluggish - likes RAM and processor power like never before
- Your old filters will work in Photoshop 7, but only under OS 9 - not in OS X
- Filter preview windows are bigger, but most are still not full screen
© Parkside Media 2002
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