Preserved Topic: PS 7!

Whew! I am still working with 5.5. You guys have any experience with this new version? Feedback?

CRO8

Well it would help it'd been released yet, but it hasent.

Say, has anyone here pre-ordered themselves a copy?

I'm interested in hearing about the Paper thing. Is it like the paper thing in Painter? I think PSP has paper thing as well, but I don't remember.

Dunno what your meaning about paper thing. PSP has something that makes the photo look drawn. You should be able to do the same thing with a "remove white filter" I think? Don't remember the steps. PSP also has an aged newspaper filter. It does ok. I made this with it and it helped my model pic blend in some. Take note that I'm a noob in the noobiest sense of the word.


God bless,
Atomic

I'll be honest...

I'm a bit of a beta-testing fanatic. I've been given a copy of PS7 by Adobe, and I've been playing around with it and I've noticed a few substantial changes.

My biggest problem with PS has always been it's color management. The new version, I believe, finally corrects some of the age-old issues that we've had with color matching. The file management system, however, is nothing more than fluff to make a new release worthwhile. It doesn't change how we work, though it may make things confusing for a while.

A most impressive piece of technology is the "Patch Tool," which essentially does what a dust/scratches + history brush did before; it "repairs" areas of photos that are undesirable. Age lines, red eye, cracks in photos--these are all eradicated fairly painlessly. However, the issue with this tool is that it requires a storybook example. It's along the same token as the famous extract command that was added in AP6. While it's nice when it works, the other 80% of the time it's positively useless and a waste of processor time.

The rest of it, in my humble opinion, is nothing more than cosmetic changes, similar to what we saw when we upgraded from v4 to v5, from v5 to v6. Software producers these days seem far more concerned with version numbers than they are with stability.

Oh, and it's a fucking power-hog. Whew.

I dunno, I'm beginning to think I'm alone when I say that older devices suit me just fine. I'm still running windows 98 (I've brought this up before, I'm gonna try and duel boot with linux red hat soon) and am using 5.5.

It does everything that I want it to do, on both accounts, and more, so I think I'll save myself the near $1000 it'll cost me and stick with what I got

njuice42
icq 957255

Egads, twitch, nice to see you again.

I agree, though, that the major version changes recently have been mostly cosmetic. With all the bells and whistles, I still don't see a really big reason to go from 5.0 (which I have) to 6.0. I don't really do much vector or printing, so as far as digital goes, 5 is all you really need.

But, we'll see. If they add an espresso machine and a cigarette dispenser to PS 8.0 then the ink wouldn't even have time to dry on the check.

hey Steve, good to see ya too, is the new paint engine worth it? apparently they have revamped the painting tools completely? anything to share on that?

~Vp~

Yes, they have re-vamped some of the painting techniques. However, it remains to be seen whether or not this is a useful change. The fact remains that v5 through v7 have been a great heap of cosmetic changes, and a small pile of functionality changes (read: programmatic changes that will affect how you do your work with PS).

The basic balance is this: On one side, you have increased "functionality" of the painting tools. On the other, you have a big resource hog that will eat your system if the processes are being shared. Is it worth the update? This commentator says nay. However, v7.1 is also in the works, and they're fudging through some of the processor hogging issues. Whether or not they will be successful remains to be seen.

thanks for the info , I agree with your words regarding 5 to 6, then to 7 (from what I have read so far), however, I did find the improvement in the text tool, (5.5-6.0) was a benefit, plus I must admit to loving the ability to create layer sets (always been a nut about good house keeping), and now I am use too the custom shape tool, I quite like that too (its still no illustrator though).

~Vp~

If you do Web graphics at all, PS5.5 is essential over v5.
And along that same line, you'd probably find the additional Web changes made to v6 useful too.

As for PS7...
Did i miss something?... or has no one bothered to talk about the new-found functionalities of the Brush Tools and Palette...?!

If you use Photoshop for ANY kind of ART, the changes to this tool are definately a realization of a prior 'wish list' for many folks (me included). If you're not familiar with the Brush Tool changes, check 'em out at Adobe's site. Some new features can also be found in their User-to-User board (and not within the normal 'Features' list).

Coolness. Thanks twItch. Long time no see, hope your keeping well.