Adobe Photoshop has certainly earned its position as the premium graphics editor on both Mac and Windows for the past 7 years. From version 3 thru 5.5 Photoshop consolidated its position as the best bitmap graphics editor by providing features for highest quality color input, output and display.Photoshop has been aand is the print shop standard by which all other tools are measured. Photoshop has also been developing top notch multi-layering control and effects while keeping pace with retouch, masking/selections, and special effects of its graphic editor competition. In versions 6 thru 7, Photoshop added compelling Web and vector graphics features while dramatically improving its lagging painting and brush features while attacking its mixed record for usability and ease of learning.

Photoshop 7 Image Browser

Whats New in Version 7

Having sat on the sidelines and allowed Jasc's PaintShop Pro to set the standard for Image Browsers, Photoshop finally got into the game with Adobe Photoshop Elements 1 and now the top of the line Photoshop (see Figure above). The Photoshop Image browser is slower than PaintShop Pro's both in initial scan of the images and updates; but the Photoshop browser brings along EXIF data for each bitmap and adds direct manipulation commands such as rotate and rename to thumbnails.

But Photoshop is not playing catchup with its Patch and Healing Brush tools. Anybody who has done retouches using the clone tool available in most grapics editors has secretly wished for a "smart clone tool". And Photoshop has delivered two. Healing Brush works just like the Clone tool with two important exceptions: each time you move the brush along in the destination area with the aligned property off, the starting source area remains the same. If you change the aligned switch to on, then Healing brush works just like the Clone if you have set the Blend mode to Replace. But if you set the blend mode to Normal; then the healing brush blends the source colors and image in with the shading, tonality and texture of the destination or retouch area.That alone can be worth its weight in gold because there are times when users would like to draw from the same spot to do their cloning (yes, this does not always work; hence the Patch tool). But because Healing Brush is also smart and preserves some of the shading, tonality and texture of the retouched area; the result is a blend that many times fits much better with surrounding pixels than the Clone tool. The Patch tool works on a selection that is dragged over to the retouch area and again the tonality, lightness, and shading of the retouch area are preserved in a blend that adds the hue and contrast of the source patch. These are not cure-alls, but these two tools add powerful new retouch options to the PhotoShop Palette.

However, the major upgrade in Photoshop 7 is the completely revised Paint Engine and associated Brush palette. This update alone takes Photoshop from so-so paint tool into the upper echelon of natural media paint programs challenging Corel's Painter which has heretofore stood head and shoulders above all the major graphic editors. Painter retains the lead over Photoshop by a fair but diminished margin with its broader set of controls and unique water paint, impasto, and pooling technologies. Note the Brushes pallete to the left. Adobe has it organized into 11 brush groups of about 25 brushes each. Users can easily reset not just the brush tip shape but also its dynamics. There are 11 types of which the first six - Shape Dynamics, Scattering, Texture, Dual Brush, Color Dynamics, and Other Dynamics have about 5-6 additional user settings each. Many of these settings allow for pressure sensitive tablets like Wacom to control the dynamic effects. For example click on the Other Dynamics check box, and two controls sliders appear for Other Dynamics. Opacity Jitter and Flow Jitter. Contol for each of these jitter factors can be set to the fade, pen pressure, pen tilt or stylus wheel of a tablet stylus. Users can immediately use the new brush without closing the Brush palette. As soon as the user is satisfied that the new brush is working

properly, they can save it as a new brush which will appear in the list of Brush Presets for that type or group of Brushes. This reviewer really appreciated this new functionality in PhotoPaint. The richness of brush definitions afforded is vast. For example, the dual brush option that allows a pre-existing brush to be merged with a new style to give a distinctive cast or styling to the new, emerging brush. With this master stroke, PhotoShop becomes not just the premium photo retouch tool but also a top contender for original digital art creation tool vying with Corel Painter, Macromedia Fireworks, and Creature House's Expression 2 among others for that honor.

However, the new features do not stop here. Photoshop has added new retouch features such as AutoColor as an automated color adjuster that gets many images quickly closer to color refinement.Filter | Pattern Maker allows users to create subtle patterns from a subselection of an existing image or layer. Users can generate several variations on a pattern and then choose to save the best ones. Whats missing is the ability to copy a pattern to the clipboard for later use elsewhere. the default option is that the tiled pattern will replace imageor layer used to generate the pattern - yes, it seems a bit strange. Finally, Photoshop developers have enhanced the Liquify filter allowing mesh and other settings to be saved between Liquify sessions so that its much easier to successively refine a Liquify look. But this is only half of the new features in Photoshop 7.

New Web Features

Photoshop continues to add new Web support features, many are imported directly from Image Ready. Clearly Image Ready, which comes free with every copy of Photoshop, is the Web feature testbed for Photoshop. Photoshop now supports the .wbmp file format that is popular in PDA and mobile devices. Photoshop allows for automated weighted optimizations of images for use on the Web. Users designate areas which must preserve higher or looser image fidelity and Photoshop or Image Ready do the image optimizations by slicing automatically. A similar feature allows users to designate color areas of an image to have partial or complete transparency. This allows easier blending into a Web page background or neighboring CSS layer. Finally here are two Image Ready only features that may make it over to Photoshop in the next version. A new rollovers palette gathers to together all the controls necessary to make sophisticated menus and buttons. the second is a datadriven set of templates. ImageReady allows users to combine visual images in automated production. Design a template and use the Layers palette to designate key elements as variables. Then using scripts in GoLive or Adobe Altercast image server to replace the variables with images acessed through ODBC in a database.

New User Work Shortcuts

Photoshop has had a good reputation for providing users with powerful work shortcuts (one of the first to provide unlimited undos, a simple batch processing capability, and macro recording of commands) and this edition adds to that tradition. The first is the addition of a presets recorder for every tool. Already we have seen what user can do with the Brush creator. Well consider that there is a general Tool Creator becuase user can save under their chosen name all the option settings for any tool. For some tools such as eye dropper this feature can be ignored; but for most others like the Type Tool, Clone Tool, and all the retouch tools presets are a godsend. In fact in evaluating Photoshop students we now look to what and how often they use the presets to help gauge their Photoshop efficiency and savvy.

Another great time saving new feature is the ability to save the Photoshop workspace into a named file. What this does is allow restoring all the palettes, their docking state and positions so they can be quickly re-instated at any time by load a workspace by name from the Windows | Worspaces command. This also saves a lot of time when switching between retouch, color correction, and layer compositing work - in which exact sizing, positioning and grouping of palettes is a convenience this graphics editor highly values.

In adition, Photoshop continues to add the Windows keyboard shortcuts many of the new commands. Some users avoid keyboard shortcuts like the plague and others cannot be efficient and productive without them. This user sits in the middle - using some keyboard shortcuts all the time;ut always valuing the fact that they are there ebven for the latest commands for use when required. Finally, Photoshop tightens the integration between Photoshop and the rest of the Adobe family of products. We certainly welcome this trend but are somewhat alarmed by some of the negative effects. For example, Adobe's Plugins only work with Adobe products where as plugins from Corel and Jasc also work with Adobe products. Likewise, I can import from the clipboard practically any size image from Adobe Photoshop; but Photoshop refuses to accept comparably sized images on the clipboard from Jasc, Corel, Ulead or other graphic editing products. This smacks of the Redmondian haughtiness that has generated so much ill-will towards Microsoft. Let us hope that Adobe does not fall victime to the same hubris- especially given that many new features in Photoshop can clearly be traced to innovations first done by their competitors. One would hope that Adobe has not mini-cloned Redmond's Borg-like mindless competitive ferocity.

New Ouput Features

New Picture Packager

Photoshop 7 has added a number of output features in version 7. My personal favorite is the new Picture Packager (see screenshot above). What the Picture Packager does allows a user to pack as many pictures as possible into different print page sizes (currently 8 x 10in, 10 x 16in and 11 x 17in). Within each of these page size, Photoshop has several pre-packaged layouts of images that cram several photos per printout page. Users just clck on each photo and choose what picture is to be fit in that position. Its not as flexible as Jasc Photo Layout command but faster to use since all the templates and layouts are predefined. Users can add top of page titling and other info. We found the 8 2.5x3.5in images to be quite helpful in creating cards for trade show distribution.

As well, Photoshop 7 has added new security features to its PDF output routines which include the ability to password protect access to images or the ability to copy and edit them from a PDF. Likewise the new Web Photo Gallery enhancements allow user to quickly create web-based photo galleries with added new templates and more access features similar to the PDF Security. This option lets you enter text or embed the filename, caption, or copyright information on the image as a watermark beforedisplayed in the gallery.

Clearly this is an impressive set of new features to a "mature" product. The only trend we find worrisome is the tendency for Adobe to take an overzealous - "it works best (or only as in the case of their filter plugins) with Adobe products".

Bitmap and Vector Integration

We have said before but it bears repeating - three vendors, Wright Design out of Australia, Macromedia's Fireworks and Deneba's Canvas have been pioneering the integrated use of bitmap and vector graphics. The key point of integration was to have bitmap and vectors be separated on different layers; but subject to the same selection masks, transparency controls, ,adjustment filters and dislayed in the same layers palette. Adobe Photoshop with its clipping paths, shapes and styles has a number of capabilities to offer in this arena.In fact clipping paths were probably one of the earliest introductions of vector graphics into bitmap graphics.

Clipping paths, as the name implies, clips off a portion of a bitmap image from being printed or seen. Have you ever wondered how complex shapes the edge of a book were printed in magazine layouts. It could have been careful masking; but just as often it is done by means of a clipping path whose crisp vector lines and curves define what is to be printed and what lies outside the printed area. The Pen Tool, Freeform Pen Tool, Add Anchor Point Tool, Delete Anchor Point Tool, Convert Point Tool and Path palette are all devoted to the important task of defining and editing a clipping path.

These same tools can also be used to create fill and stroke paths. The advantage is that precise vector paths can be used to define a wide range of bitmap strokes such as brush, dodge, burn, smudge, etc. Likewise the full range of fills can be applied to a fill path. However there is a disadvantage to the stroke and fill path tools - once the fill or stroke options are defined they are permanently applied into any underlying layers subject to the fill/stroke depending on masks and transparencies. Any changes to the fill used in the fill path replaces the previous fill; and any changes to the stroke option used in the stroke path accumulates on the underlying exposed bitmaps. More troubling: any edits made to the fill or stroke path using the Add Anchor Point Tool, Delete Anchor Point Tool, and Convert point Tool do not undo the previous fill or stroke applied. users are responsible for erasing or restoring those fill or strokes. In sum fill and stroke paths should be used judiciously and the new vector shape tools should be used preferentially because all of the contents/properties of shapes are dymically changed with any edits to the shapes.

Vector Shapes

Shapes are really the best way to use vectors for graphics purposes in Photoshop because they are more versatile then paths. As noted previously the fill, stroke, and other effects applied to a shape are done on a dynamic basis - this means unlike fill and stroke paths, all changes to a shape and or its contained effects are immediately updated and then blended into the Photoshop image depending on where the shape is on the stack of layers.

In our screenshot example above, all of the image is made up of shapes including the type which has been converted to shapes in order to allow for the gradient fill with beveling. Shapes can be editted with the Path tools Add Anchor Point, Delete Anchor Point and Convert Anchor Point. These are the tools used to create the rainbow butterfly shape in upper left of the image. The Background is a rectangular vector shape filled with a purple-to-orange circular gradient. The heart is on of the many predefined shapes available in Photoshop; but it is easy tocreate or edit a shape and then save it as done inthe case of the butterfly shape in this image.

The effects that can be applied to a shape are quite impressive. They include:
  - drop shadow with 12 options for user control
  - inner shadow with 13 options for user control
  - outer glow with 12 options for user control
  - inner glow with 13 options for user control
  - bevel and emboss with 24 options for user control including contour and texture
  - satin with 8 options for user control
  - stroke with 5 options for user control
  - color overlay with 2 options for user control
  - gradient overlay with 5 options for user control
  - pattern overlay with 7 options for user control
The last effect, pattern overlay, provides a backdoor for getting user images loaded into a shape. Since users can create custom patterns, including color images, just save an image as a pattern and then select it as the gradient overlay for the shape or type you want to fill.

Styles Of course with 10 effects for shapes with so many user options there are over 1.6 billion different effect combinations or styles possible with Photoshop 7. So Adobe has provided the Styles Palette to store thumbnails of their own plus user defined styles which can be used over again with any shape either at the time of creation (just select from the Tool Property bar's Style pulldown. Alternatively, just select a shape in the Layer Palette and then click on the thumbnail of the Style you want to apply to that shape. Its that simple. To edit a style just select the Shape in the Layers Palette and then double click on the effects fn symbol or any of the enumerated effects. That pops up the Layer Style dialog

where users can edit any of the ten major style effects to their hearts content. Clicking on the name of a style, like bel and emboss cause it user control options to be displayed in the Layer Style dialog. Finally note that in the upper right corner one of the buttons says New Style. Press that button and name your style and Photoshop automatyically creates a new style including a thumbnail which it then adds to the Styles Palette - it couyldn't be easier. One problem though - when you save a style with the same name Photoshop just writes a second copy of the style with the same name. So if you want to edit a style and delete the old one you will have to that yourself in the Styles Palettes menu pulldown(upper right corner, small black wedge in grey circle-click there).

CAST Proficiency

All of the graphic editors we have reviewed have been assessed for their proficiency at the simple CAST set of photoediting tasks that digital photographers are confronted with. CAST stands for Cropping, Adjust colors, Sharpen and Touch up. This is the order these edits are normally done in and Photoshop is very well equipped to handle these chores. Start with the cr;opping tool which highlights the area to be cropped and allows users to rotate the cropping rectangle - often a fast way to make an image rotation correction. But there are ample Flip, Mirror, Rotate commands. Photoshop 7 provide a number of ways a layer, selection or object/shape can be transformed including scale, rotate, shear/skew, distort, and perspective warp. They are all easy to do. Ditto for Resize, Canvas Size, Trim and Crop to Selections. In sum, Photshop gets A for the C-Cropping portion of the regular CAST edits.

How does Photoshop 7 fare in the A-Adjust Color category ? As might be expected of the program that provides the definitive set of color input, display and output options, Photoshop 7

Replace Color Dialog

has numerous color adjustment tools including the basics such as Curves, Brightness/Contrast, Levels, Color Balance, Hhue/Saturation/Lightness. Equalize, Auto Levels, Auto Color, and Auto Contrast are available for good one click adjust ments. Selective Color, Replace Color (my personal favorite, see screenshot above), Channel Mixer, and Gradient Map provide for selective color changes. Invert, Threshold, Desaturate, Posterize provide for color switch or reductions. Despite this impressive list of color tools Photoshop 7 cedes the position of best color adjustment tools to Jasc PaintShop Pro. Nonetheless, Photoshop 7 will more than meet your color adjust ment needs.

Next to color adjustments S-for Sharpening is one of the toughest things to do in photo retouching. Blame it onmovies and TV which show PC photos being instantly snapped into sharp, crisp focus - NOT!!! Photoshop 7 is just a step behind PaintShop pro with its Sharpen, Sharpen More and Unsharp Mask tools. This latter tool is a misnomer that lingers from the early days of photo retouching - the Unsharp mask does increase sharpness, but as in all sharpening tools at the cost of greater contrast and greater highlighting.

Finally we have already seen that Photoshop with its new Healing Brush and Patch Tools has become the one of the best tools for touch ups. It helps to have one of the best sets of masking/selection tools so touch ups can be confined to exactly the areas desired on the image - masking helps with sharpening tool, restricting the sharpening to only the areas needing it. In sum give PhotoShop 7 an A for CAST Retouching capabilities.

Layering: A Labor of Love

Photoshop 7 has a deserved reputation for having one of the largest learning curves in graphic editing tools. Inevitably the richness of the tool has something to do with it. The relative weakness of the online help does not help - Photoshop Elements shows how to do better documentation as does Photoshop 7's manual. But the crux of the matter is that revolving arround color calibration, channels, layering, masks and paths there is both potential for confusion and just a lot to learn. Yet layering and masks are the strength of Photoshop 7. These tols allow users to do extensive "gardening" to pictures and images. Gardening is judicious addition of snips and image elements that were not in the original picture. In fact there is artistic style established in the early 1900's which used found objects including cloth, toolls, scarps, even picture fragments as part of an overall composition. So "gardening" has a long tradiion in art circles. Devious gardening in which replacement of people or objects with benign or malicious substitutes for malicious intenet - is like an off color joke not only morally wrong but often just in bad taste.

Whatever, the moral implications, Photoshop was one of the first and best tools for photographic gardening. And Photoshop 7 asures that honor will be maintained. Here are the basics of layering that Photoshop 7 allows (see our tutorials on layering for more information).

1. Image layers occur when a new photo or image is pated onto an exiting drawing/image;
2. Duplicate layers occur when a layer is copied and placed onto the stack of layers;
3. Adjustment layer made up of one of the following:
   1. Curves color correction
   2. Color Balance color correction
   3. Brightness/Contrast color correction
   4. Levels color correction
   5. Invert color correction
   6. Threshold color reduction
   7. Posterize color reduction
   8. Gradient Map color reduction
   9. Hue/Saturation/Lightness color correction
   10. Selective Color correction
   11. Channel Mixer color correction
4. Fill layer applied with solid color, gradient or pattern fills;
5. Vector mask applies a shaped defined set of effects.

This comprises basic outlines of layering but their are a set of blending options available to determine how the layers interact with each other. And finally, each layer may have a transperncy mask attached to it determining how much of its images and effects are passed on through to the final image. Sounds complicated. And is complicated.

Some may ask - why have duplicate layers ? There are two primary reasons: first to preserve the original colors, tones, and shading of an image; second to allow the duplicate layers to receive edits and then with a mask selectively send through or diminish those edits. At the price of extra file size this allows the user to make a boad range of changes without having to recreate the whole set of changes from scratch using a history file. Ditto for Adjustment layers - since they generally apply to the whole image - they must stand on their own if users want to make instant changes. Fill layers are almost always used with masks and are used iinterchangeably with Vector Masks. And of course Vector Masks as we have already seen, allow the applying of 10-12 effects through the lens of a very tight, crisp vector shape.

So in Photoshop layers supply two things - a means of incorporating extenal images and shapes to a drawing that were not originally there. And second, a live history of all the major transformations done to the image so if an art director asks for a change - it can be immediately rendered. As mentioned the cost is some enormous filesizes and sometimes very hard images to tune - because some changes can have unintended consequences. hence the title for this section Layering: A Labor of Love.

In fact Adobe developers will probably have to bite the bullet and simplify the relationship between channels, paths, and layers/masks because there is clearly redundancy, some degree of predictive ambiguity(you don't get what you expect), and a certain amount of Rube-Goldberg -machine complexity. But also there is a consistenly industry-leading set of facilities for doing two things: 1) compositing or combining two or more images into a completed whole and 2)allowing a designer/developer to retain as active all the layers of changes to an image so that final, last minute edits can be done in a few moments and not have to be laboriously reconstructed.

Summary

Even in this brief review it becomes clear that Photoshop 7 deserves its ranking as the number one graphics editor. It is at or near the top in nearly every category. And now that Photoshop Elements is available as training wheels for full Photoshop - the number of users that will make the step to full Photoshop mastery will inevitably increase.