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Adobe PhotoShop 4.0
by Review by Joe Mizer — NOCCC, jmmizer@juno.com - November 23, 1999 at 20:56:46:
Adobe PhotoShop 4.0 is a professional level graphics image editor and special effects manipulator. PhotoShop remains a direct pixel editor only, while providing full visual feedback on the edits as you make them. Because of its abundant list of tools and reputation it is one of the leading programs in its class and is near the top in sales volume. The purge command, which is new in this version, will allow you to free up memory being held captive in the clipboard, or by a snapshot when you get an out-of-memory message. PhotoShop 4.0 still has only one level of undo, which forces you to save a copy before making extensive changes that you are not sure will give the exact effect you are looking for. However on the other side they have boosted the speed of screen display and redraw from previous versions.The minimum hardware requirements are modest, requiring only a 486 based PC with 16Mn of RAM, and 25Mb of hard disk space. PhotoShop 4.0 will run on WIN 3.1 or later and Win NT 3.51 or later.
One of the long-awaited features, which resulted from user requests, is adjustment layers. An adjustment layer can hold tonal and color changes, You can apply opacity levels and bend modes to these layers, and control which underlying layers they affect, and then adjust gray-scale levels to modulate the effect. The other nice feature is that these do not add to the file size until you start painting on them.
The new editing features allow all transformations (rotate, skew, distort and scale) to be done from a single interactive command set. New grids and the new command snap to grid allow horizontal and vertical airbrush strokes. PhotoShop 4.0 has a very strong set of editing tools and is capable of producing professional quality work.
Adobe PhotoShop 5.0
I recently had the opportunity to use PhotoShop 5.0 at work and there are some significant improvements over version 4.0. The Box indicates the system requirements have jumped to a Pentium level machine 32Mb of RAM, a 256-color video Adapter, 60Mb of disk space and Windows 95 or Win NT 4.0. The list price is $995 and the upgrade is $199; however I am told the street price at discount houses is closer to $650.00
The new features now include multiple undo and redo commands. The History palette also allows you to take a snapshot of the current state, then switch between snapshots to compare versions of the image. In place of normal undo and redo commands, PhotoShop 5.0 uses the History palette. It is even possible to use the special History Brush to clone portions of a source snapshot into a target snapshot and merge two versions of an image. I am told that Adobe, unlike some software vendors, listens to the customers who use their products, the new features included in the latest version are in response to comments from those who buy and use the products. Also included in the new version are magnetic tools that automatically snap a path around an object for copying or cropping. The measuring tool makes finding distances and angles easy. One spectacular feature is the 3-D transform filter. You can make a 3-D wire frame and wrap a 2D image around it.
I am not great at modifying images myself, however I recommend this product. The advertising group where I work has created some great images using Adobe PhotoShop 5.0. They make the finished product look better than the real thing, but that is advertising, right?
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