| Product: |
Adobe Photoshop 7.0 |
| Date: |
20.12.05 (386 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Possibilities are endless, massive online collection of tutorials .
Disadvantages: Very expensive !
Adobe Photoshop is world renowned for it's uses in magazine and photo editing, it is a program that sets the standards of other applications of this nature and nothing even comes close! I have been using Photoshop, from version 5.5, and the latest version is 7, which is the one I am reviewing. I have been able to see how this application has evolved over the last few years, through it's different releases and give a great opinion on why this is a must have. I have used Photoshop mainly for web page design, it is fairly easy to use, and with the massive online collection of tutorials on how to use this package to create graphic and textures, you will always be able to find a way of doing what you want.
This program also comes bundled with another program called Adobe Image Ready, which is a program that is used to utilise images for the web, everything from compressing images,
slicing, image rollovers and animations! It is worth a review on it's own. But, for the sake of this review the two go together great for what I do, I design a web page and images in Photoshop and turn it into a web page using the other program.
On first look of this application, it looks like your normal image-editing program with a tool bar that you can use. It can be a daunting, but once you start playing around with features and having a basic understanding of the tools, you can then progress to use books or online resources to start creating technical images and layouts.
Things I like most
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When I am creating a web page, this program uses layers, and on each layer you can do an image or text that you want to include, and you can then add effects, move the layer, delete
layers, merge layers together. Until you create what you need. To have a full idea of the things that can be done with layer, the best thing to do is to use the program! The possibilities are
endless.
A tool I particular like is the gradient fill tool, where you can fill you whole image, or a selected part of your image with this type of fill, where you can set the colours to fade intoanother colour, which can give a very professional look to designs.
There is also a feature called add layer mask, and after using this you can fade images to make them see through, which is great for using in designs, and some professional results can
be made with this tool.
Layer effects are an excellent feature and the options include add drop shadow, inner shadow, outer glow, inner glow, bevel and emboss, colour overlay, colour fill, plus loads more and
each of these can be effected.
After using version 5.5 for a while, text effects were harder to create, but with this new version so many effects can be added to text from arching the text, waving the text, filling and stroking
the text. And to get even more technical with the text you can add layer effects to make the text three dimensional, bevel and emboss and add shadows, plus thousands of others tweaks
can be done, and its not just to text but to every element!
They are so many things I like about this program that it is hard to list them all, but the above are the main ones that I use and it scratches the surface, the possibilities are endless and it
depends on how far you want to go! It is frustrating for me to explain but there truly is too much and the outcomes are amazing.
Installation
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Installation can be longer than most because of this size this program, but it is a standard installation, where you have to agree to terms and conditions, enter a serial number and click a few next buttons. After installation you are ready to use the program and see what it has to offer!
Help Files
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The help files are very basic, and give a basic understanding on how to use tools. But they wont tell you how to get certain effects, and make images look a certain way. Other resources such as the tutorials and guides online will help you a lot more. But, the help files are good enough so you can understand how to use a tool, option or feature.
Problems
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I have never had any problems with the applications, it is very stable. The loading of the program can be slow depending on your computer specifications because of all the tools and
features it has to load. But, that is it!
Conclusion
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As I said before it is frustrating to try and list everything that this program has to offer and the effects that can be created. It has so much to other web designers. I have used this for web pages,
but I know it is used for editing images. I have used a version this application almost daily for four years, and it is the best and the outcomes amazing. You can expect to pay around £400 for this version, this is the best version. I think it would be hard to improve on this one! I can see a massive difference between this and previous versions, usually with a new release not
a lot change, but this has been fully improved.
I strongly recommend this to web designers, especially as this application comes bundled with another image editor. I have used this one for years, and it is best!
Buy it if you can afford it, or wait for the price to drop, or get your company to pay!
Summary: I cannot recommend this enough!
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