Adobe PhotoShop CS 2 (v9.0) for Windows.
It's hard to imagine that Adobe can make Photoshop any better than this. Long considered the professional image-editing standard among graphic digital artists worldwide, Photoshop is certain to cement that reputation even further with the array of new features offered in Adobe PhotoShop CS2. Artists, creative professionals, photographers, and industry professionals will find that the workflow and image customization enhancements will be worth far more than the price of the upgrade.
Achieve amazing results in a fraction of the time with the groundbreaking Vanishing Point tool, which lets you clone, paint, and paste elements that automatically match the perspective of the surrounding image area. |
Adobe Bridge (formerly File Browser) Adobe Bridge software is the new-generation File Browser--Photoshop's navigational control center that allows you to browse, organize, label, and preview graphics and Photoshop files quickly and efficiently. Adobe Bridge takes File Browser, introduced in Photoshop 7.0, a step further by providing centralized access to your suite project files, applications, and settings. With Adobe Bridge, you can process multiple camera raw images at once; resize, rate and label thumbnails; review images in slide show mode; and more. With file organization and sharing, plus Adobe Stock Photos at your fingertips all the time, you simply search for the files you want to place using metadata--such as key words, colors or image resolution--and seamlessly drag and drop your files into Photoshop. You can even page through an entire Adobe PDF file right in the preview panel of Adobe Bridge. And with Adobe Bridge, you can also browse, search and purchase royalty-free images from leading stock photo agencies without ever leaving InDesign CS2. It's as simple as that.
Revolutionary Vanishing Point and Image Warp
Photographers especially will be amazed at the effects that Vanishing Point can bring to a project. Clone, paint, and paste elements that automatically match the perspective of the surrounding image area in a fraction of the time that it currently takes. With Image Warp, you can easily create packaging mock-ups or other dimensional effects by wrapping an image around any shape. Place your client's logo around a coffee cup, or stretch, curl or bend an image across the hood of a car or around the Space Shuttle, for that matter. The effects you can create with Image Warp will be limited only by your imagination.
Accelerate your raw file workflow with simultaneous processing of multiple images while you continue working. |
Digital Camera Raw File Support Accelerate your raw file workflow with simultaneous processing of multiple images while you continue working. With Photoshop CS2, you can import images into your choice of formats, including Digital Negative (DNG); enjoy automatic adjustments to exposure, shadows, and brightness and contrast; and much more. This exciting new enhancement provides fast and easy access within Photoshop software to the "raw" image formats produced by many leading professional and mid-range digital cameras. The Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in--now available as part of Photoshop CS2--has been updated to support more cameras and include more features.
Spot Healing Brush and One-Click Red-eye Correction
Never have touch ups been so easy. With the Spot Healing Brush, you can effortlessly retouch photos--including 16-bit images--in a single click. Red-eye Correction lets you instantly neutralize red eyes and also lets you set pupil size and darkening level.
Effective red-eye reduction is only a few clicks away. |
Use the new multilayer select feature to more intuitively edit and control your work. |
Other New Features
Photoshop CS2 offers a huge array of exciting new features designed to help artists and creative professionals in all fields stretch their imagination and increase their work and creative efficiencies:
- Smart Objects: Perform nondestructive scaling, rotating, and warping of raster and vector graphics with Smart Objects. Even preserve the editability of high-resolution vector data from Adobe Illustrator software.
- Multiple Layer Control: Select and move, group, transform, and warp objects more intuitively by clicking and dragging directly on the canvas. Easily align objects with Smart Guides.
- Nondestructive Image Correction: Improve the color, contrast, and dynamic range of any image using a comprehensive set of professional correction tools and nondestructive adjustment layers, which display corrections while preserving the original.
- Full 16-bit and New 32-bit Image Support: Work with absolute precision thanks to support for 16-bit images in all channels and layers. Create and edit 32-bit images, and take advantage of High Dynamic Range, 32-bit support.
- Advanced Noise Reduction: Reduce noise and remove JPEG artifacts for cleaner images.
- Customizable Workspaces and Menus: Get easier access to the tools you need with task-based presets, highlight new or commonly used menu items, and even set up and save custom menus and workspaces.
- Web Animations: Quickly create dynamic GIF animations directly within Photoshop CS2 by taking advantage of the new Animations palette and layer palette animation options.
1 Interesting Features but Still a Flawed License Manager
My experience with Photoshop CS2 has been limited thus far, but it does appear to offer some nice new features, particularly to the enhancement in Adobe Camera Raw, the Spot Healing Tool, and possibly Adobe Bridge as I explore it more. A major drawback to me personally, is that changes have been made in the user interface that conflict with the old Extensis PhotoTools plug-in, namely in that the PhotoBars component which provides a customizable toolbar ehancement will no longer work. Although Extensis no longer supports PhotoTools and deleted the PhotoTools component when Photoshop 6 was issued, I have been involved in maintaining PhotoBars so that it would work on the PC platform in Photoshop versions 6, 7, and CS. The customizable toolbars added a wonderful extension of usability to the Photoshop interface, and the loss of that capability due to changes made in Photoshop CS2 is very unfortunate.
Of great interest to me was to see how Adobe has changed License Management, i.e., product activation in Photoshop CS2. While the license manager does appear greatly improved in terms of not being as likely to have errant reactivations arise due to use of the System Restore utility in Windows XP, hardware changes, etc., it still manifests the same critical flaw as existed in Photoshop CS. Namely, Adobe has not provided any grace period at all for the instances when reactivation is prompted. So, if you are someone perhaps travelling with a laptop computer and are ever at a remote location where telephone or internet access is not readily available, you are at risk of fully losing use of Photoshop CS2 in the event of an errant reactivation prompt arising. The odds of this occurring do appear greatly reduced due to changes made in the triggers affecting a reactivation, but the risk is there nonetheless. Adobe should have implemented a short-term grace period of continued use following a prompt for reactivation, so that a user would not unexpectedly be faced with denied access at a critical time. The only alternative in this situation is to have a backup copy of an earlier version of Photoshop installed for use until Photoshop CS2 can be reactivated or, to employ the use of software hacks that defeat the license manager. The preferred solution would be for Adobe to provide an update that incorporates a reactivation grace period, but they seem to be ignoring the problem. I had hoped that the new Transfer Activation process in Photoshop CS2 might allow a user to export activation state data to removable media which, if an errant reactivation prompt arose, could be used to re-establish the valid activation state on the PC. Unfortunately, the Tranfer Activation process requires an internet connection and thus is again useless if one is at a remote location.
With regard to the 1st review posted here, installation of Photoshop CS2 is permitted to two computers under the normal single-user license. The only restriction defined in the license is that these 2 installations cannot be used concurrently. The license specifically reads as follows:
"2.4 Portable or Home Computer Use. The primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a portable Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided the Software on the portable or home Computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer."
2 support leaves a great deal to be desired
Unfortunately Adobe with its Photoshop product has made it increasingly difficult to install or to use on more than one computer. Like many people I have a desktop PC and a laptop. With CS1 I could install on both. Now I have to buy 2 copies at $1400 to have the program on both PCs. Even worse trying to install CS2 on a machine that already has Photoshop CS 1 installed, the install program can't find the version already installed in the default directory and so it fails. After 40 minutes with level one tech support I still was unable to install the CS2 upgrade. Calling back to talk to level 2 tech support I was told I would have to pay $39 for a support call.
This is the last time I purchase Photoshop. Adobe has gotten too big and too arrogant for me.
