We remain very impressed with Adobe's Photoshop 7.0. This update adds
several solid new features, some of which we've already found we can't live
without. The Autocolour and Healing Brush tools particularly impressed us, as
did the new Liquify tool additions and the increased integration with Adobe
ImageReady.
Photoshop 7 also adds
two excellent automatic creation tools for beginners, and a pattern
creation tool for those who... like patterns.
Users who create graphics with text in Photoshop will rejoice
at the addition of a spellchecker, and unlike the add-in dictionaries often found
in other products, this one appears to be entirely functional and effective. These users will also benefit from the
addition of PDF file security options to reflect those available in other Adobe products. Web designers
will benefit from the new 'save for web'
optimizations to wrangle in image weight, and benefit from the ability to see up to four
different quality scales. The new rollover pallete in ImageReady makes designing
interactive buttons and image maps much easier.
The return of the paintbrush pallete is matched by Adobe's introduction of a
new painting engine, enabling custom brush and canvas texture creation as well
as a huge list of paint options.
As far as the interface is concerned, not much has changed with the exception
of the new file browser (a feature that was long overdue). The ability to
create and save custom workspaces will be welcomed by those who use Photoshop
for highly specialized tasks or several different ones.
All in all, it's tough not to recommend Adobe Photoshop 7.0, which retails
for approximately $600 USD. As an upgrade, it
adds several worthy features, including one which can really reduce the time you
spend making your images look better. As a retail purchase, it's the most successful and effective photo editing software available.
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