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Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0

List Price: $99.00
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Software fine, WON'T get a rebate though!!!!!!!!
Review: Software is fine. I wanted something basic to upload my photos and you can use it for basic items. Seems like you need to read more into the manual for the complicated things you can do with this software. So this software is fair.

Don't think of getting a rebate though. THIS IS THE SECOND TIME I've dealt with this rebate problem with the same people. I had the previous adobe item that is required for rebate and 6 months later...nothing...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incredible value for money.
Review: That may be a statement open to debate, since everybody's software seems to do so much nowadays. But I'm commenting from experience of Photoshop 5.0, which wasn't that long ago, and Photoshop LE, Elements' precursor.

Elements 2.0 is about as much Photoshop as most people would require. It is now able to create .PDF files for use in the Acrobat Reader, and has many simply executed commands for effects and touch-ups for the newbie. But after a while, the user would want to get into the more sophisticated options available by way of the Enhance tab. The two most useful are to be found at: Enhance > Adjust Brightness/Contrast > Levels - Crtl+L and, Enhance > Adjust Color > Hue & Saturation - Ctrl+U .

They would also want to go: Edit > Preferences > General , and uncheck the Export to Clipboard box. Uncheck the Backwards Compatibility box in the Save As section. And - if they have more than one partition - select one of the others for Scratch Disk use. This will avoid hanging the computer and keep file sizes much tighter.

The Window > Undo History is such a great feature, as it allows the user to step back along a path of work if they have made a number of mistakes, or simply want to compare pre and post results.

Unlike Photoshop LE, Elements is pretty demanding of computer resources, so the user's machine would need to be in good order and have a CPU in excess of 400Mhz to avoid slow launching of the application. Also, the installation might need some consideration via the Custom install if disk space is limited. Still doesn't directly integrate with Acrobat for editing an image by using Ctrl and double clicking with the touch-up object tool. You still need the full Photoshop for that. Not something that many will miss ;-)

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It said it was easy to use, Picture It Deluxe is easier!!
Review: I work with many picture programs, this one is not as easy as what was said. It was suppose to be campatible with Windows XP but this will not work in my computer because they had to unplug the twain in order to get it installed. I had trouble from the day I tried to install it. Can't use my scanner or my digital camera with this program without downloading to my hard drive. Can't import from either. Very difficult to understand and the language in the book is harder. I am not us to plug ins and I did not find the a lot of help from Adobe when I called in. They and I were both frustrated. Maybe it will work for you but it is a lot of money to find out. It is also non refundable!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Don't upgrade to Photoshop until it supports 16 bit color
Review: How to choose your version of Adobe Photoshop will depend on how many of the special features that you need. For an easy to use photo-editing software, I'm going to have to recommend Photoshop Elements. There are plenty of features to use and tools to master.

One feature that it lacks, is the ability to imprint digimarc watermarks to copyright your works. Chances are that if you're copyrighting your work with watermarks, you probably need the standard version of Photoshop. Still - Elements does provide the ability to read the watermark of an already imprinted file.

Page layout features are tricky. Importing files from my Nikon scanner, even after checking certain enlargement features, it's easy to get stuck with an image of 1 inch in size. MAKE SURE to use the PRINT PREVIEW feature often!

While many people sware by digital editing - I prefer to keep the main photo altering steps in the picture-taking itself. I'd rather use physical filters on the lens and have to do the extra legwork on site rather than just digitally remaster the photo afterwards. Consider whether or not you feel similarly - that should be a good gauge of whether you need to purchase a more inclusive photo-editor.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't expect that rebate
Review: Please note before you buy that in order to get the [] advertised rebate, you must already own a previous version of Adobe Photoshop you must supply the serial number of your PREVIOUS version. Adobe does not base this rebate on the fact that you bought their new version -- you have to already own the old version AND buy the new version. You will have a hard time finding out this little detail until after you have already made the purchase -- BUYER BEWARE!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great solution for the non-professional
Review: This software does most of what Photoshop does, but at a much lower price and is easier to use. This includes adjusting lighting, contrast, color, sharpness, and fixing red-eye. It has Levels and layers just like Photoshop, and a lot of painting/drawing tools. You can burn-in and dodge, and apply changes to just the selected portions of an image. You can adjust the layer "mask", adding and removing effects to portions of the image even after you create an adjustment layer. It can be a little intimidating at first because of the power of such things as layers, but the wealth of improvements you can make to your photos is amazing. You CAN print multiple pictures on a page, in multiple formats at once, despite what "Disappointed" said. You can also construct a set of web pages to display your work using a powerful wizard. The manual isn't bad, but provides little guidance on when to use various corrections, so a good book on this software is recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Visualize Whirled Peas, and Add Dropshadow
Review: All web sites can be grouped with their pornographic brethren in this respect: that, like the intuitive Brethren of the Supreme Court, most of us know a good web site when we see it. The care, style, and arrangement of text and images shows whether a person took some time and trouble with their design. It also shows whether the webmaster has any talent for page composition.

And, like most people who know something good when they see it (rather than having the ability to describe it taxonomically), I have no ability to actually make a good web site myself...Instead, we'll get into something that's been one of my main bugaboos for a long time - the ability to make pictures and text look good. That's not the same as composing an overall page, but we're talking baby steps here.

And by "looking good" I don't mean, necessarily, a picture with good content or composition, or well-written text. I mean a picture or text that looks good; something that tickles the senses... Y'know, like with a small, stylistic border, or vignette fading around the edges, or a drop shadow careening off the bottom right corner. I'm talking about stuff that your digital camera won't do. And, until not so long ago, your economically attainable drawing program wouldn't do it either.

PhotoShop Elements, a sort of subset program of the big...PhotoShop program, seems to me like it was made for amateur web designers. And whaddaya know - the Adobe web page says that's its purpose. It comes with the tools a person needs to add that extra bit of visual sweetness to a picture or 3-D beveled euphony to a group of words that really makes the image or text sing for the site. Assuming one has the talent to make a site at all, that is.

PhotoShop Elements comes with the tools that some of the truncated Adobe programs included in a digital camera's shrink wrap generally provide. This would include auto-adjustment of hue, contrast and brightness, straightening, rotation, color and background filters, black and white or negative switching, cropping - need I go on? What does one generally want to do with a raw photograph? Elements does that just fine, and adds things not found on the spare product that came with your camera: tools such as "dodge, burn and sponge" can be applied to specific areas of the photo to create the effect you need.

But my fun with Elements starts when I commence with the special effects. Like, for instance, 3-D Text-beveling, in various styles. Start with a blank slate, pick a font, type a few words, and start playing with it. Change its color. Add drop shadows, which, like people, come in different depths, intensities and degrees of coarseness. Add inner glows. Outer glows. Chunk in some background scenes, in the text itself or behind it. The text or picture can be bent, distorted, exaggerated, minimized, corrupted and bowdlerized. It's there for you to put into your web page.

The tools to do these things are found, mostly, in the Layer Styles tab on the top of your Elements window. Well, OK, not all the tools are there - but let me suggest Layer Styles as a place to start playing. Once you learn what a layer is - and thankfully, they don't complicate the learning process by assuming you already know all this - you can work on each layer and then pile 'em on each other.

And you all know that digital or scanned pictures don't always come out very well, and they're difficult to change without decent tools. This software is seriously capable of dealing with such intransigence, and you don't have to guess what color would look better for Aunt Prudence's pasty face. PhotoShop Elements will, at your behest, automatically create several color-adjusted versions of your image. Prudence might not look right with a Cayman Islands tan, but she might look better with a little glow in her cheeks. And what about that blemish on your neck? Mmm-mm, it's no good letting the spouse speculate about that... Touch the little sucker up. No pun intended.

If you're wondering about all those insidious little icons on your screen, drop down the Hints tab into its own little window and let it explain them to you as you pass your mouse over each icon. If you're wondering about how to make that text look like carved relief in marble, drop down the Recipes tab to find out how to do all sorts of wonderful things to text or pictures with step-by-step explanations. The Effects tab provides pre-designed manipulations that can be applied to either text or pictures. And, the good ol' Layer Styles tab has all those cool bevels, glows and inner or outer drop shadows. I love Layer Styles.

The best thing about PhotoShop Elements is its price...you can get a program that will let a web designer do all the things he's always wanted to do with his text and pictures - because that's how he saw them done on the really good web sites.

And we know a good web site when we see one, don't we.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The best of Photoshop at a great price
Review: Have you ever had the urge to edit your photos or be creative with them? Have you wanted to get a hold of Photoshop but found it too expensive and you weren't sure you would like it or use it?
Well, Photoshop Elements 2.0 is for you. It encompasses some of the best features from the full version at a fraction of the cost. It has automated features that do the work for you. It has tutorial hints and recipes that walk you through the processes of creativity.
I own Photoshop 7.0 but got this because of the automated photo merge and other automated items. It will get you hooked on photo editing ~ You will love it!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Compatibility Problems with Windows XP
Review: Photoshop Elements 2.0 is indicated as being compatible with Windows XP which I have on a new Dell PC, however, I have encountered several problems including the "help" and "tutorial" functions not working. I checked the Adobe forum web site and I found that other folks have reported the same/similar problems with PE 2.0 on an XP platform.

I have installed all Windows XP and PE 2.0 updates and have reinstalled PE 2.0 with no improvement.

Unless you enjoy working Windows compatibility issues -- go elsewhere!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Disappointed
Review: When I bought this program, I had great expectations. Boy, was I let down when I discovered you could only print one picture at a time and that you waste so much paper printing three, four or five pictures you don't need. Tried everything and you can only select one picture at a time. Bad move Adobe, bad move. I would't rate this package one star except I was given no other choice by this site.


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