Photoshop CS adds creativity to the quest for perfection

By PAUL SIMEI-BARTON

In the 1880s when George Eastman launched the first commercial roll film cameras, "taking kodaks" soon became a synonym for making family snap shots.

Polaroid did the same thing for instant photography and now "photoshopped" has become shorthand for digitally manipulating a photo on a computer screen.

Version 8 of Adobe Photoshop is called Photoshop CS. The CS stands for the Creative Suite that has Photoshop packaged with Adobe Illustrator CS for creating graphics, Adobe InDesign CS for page layouts and Adobe Image Ready CS, which combines with GoLive CS for web design.

Also included are Adobe Acrobat Professional and the new Version Cue, which is a file manager designed to track the proliferation of versions that accumulate at an alarming rate when this sort of software is applied to design tasks.

The full Premium Edition Creative Suite is for design professionals and in this area it has been received as something of a break-through product. It provides a platform that allows high resolution, multi-layered images to be shuffled between the specialist programs.

The component software is still available as individual packages and Photoshop CS is the program that will appeal to most users.

For the general user some of the most attractive innovations in Photoshop CS are found in the File Browser function that is used for editing and organising photos - the digital equivalent of the proof sheet, light box and magnifying Lupe.

Similar software is supplied with most digital cameras but the Photoshop CS browser is a great leap forward from their limitations.

The thumbnails can be resized, dragged around and arranged to suit and the program builds previews that can be enlarged. There is also a useful flagging system to sort images.

More significantly the program is design to accept and convert the RAW files that are used for image capture in digital cameras. Digital photos come with more formats, file types and acronyms than most people want to know about. Unlike the more universal JPEG and TIFF formats, RAW files vary according to the brand of the camera.

The File Browser makes it easy to convert and adjust these files individually or in batches while the Metadata function provides access to everything you ever want to know about files types - including the exposure, and shutter speed settings for each shot.

For the uninitiated the main problem is the tyranny of too many choices. With so many exciting ways to transform your photos it is often difficult to know where to start and more significantly when to stop.

After a few hours of resizing, re-shaping, distorting, adjusting brightness and contrast, adding new layers, throwing in an array of filters and special effects, filling in backgrounds with multi-colour gradients and adding type, embossing and 3D effects, the results can be less than satisfying.

This is where the History Palette comes to the rescue. It is easy to switch back to earlier versions and by saving snapshots you can compare the stages of your creative journey.

Photoshop CS enhances this facility with the new History Log and the Layer Comps function that allows you to switch on and off alterations made on a particular layer of your image.

The ability to transform images with a mouse click is inherently appealing. Photoshop and its associated programs flatter the user with the fantasy that they are a high-powered art director in the same way that Powerpoint seduces middle managers into believing they are statesmen preparing an address to the United Nations.

If I were to presume to offer a suggesting for improving Creative Suite it would be the addition of a pop- up window carrying the old Bauhaus maxim "less is more."

Digital imaging software has completely changed the way the graphic design industry works and Creative Suite provides an integrated platform that is suited to these new ways of working.

Adobe CS Premium Edition.

* Price: $2778, upgrade price $1743, education price $798.

* Adobe website

* Pros: full integrated platform for all design needs.

* Cons: complex and requires high spec hardware.

* Rating: 9/10