Rating: 
Summary: The best gets even better!
Review: Photoshop, over the years, has become the standard for image manipulation. With the upgrade to version 6.0, Adobe has made this program even better. The controls are easier to use and find. But the real highlight here, is the programs ability to use and manipulate text. The text interface is very much improved. There is no more palette. You can now directly manipulate text size and color within the frame. This alone, for many, will make this a must upgrade. In general, the tools are more intuitive than previous versions. And overall the work out of v6.0 seems 'cleaner' than from v5.5.
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Summary: A web designers must have!
Review: I have been using Photoshop 6.0 for about a year now and I cannot imagine using any other graphics design program. If you own a digital camera, or design webpages with graphics, you need this industry standard program.I am not a progessional graphics designer, but using photoshop 6.0 makes me look like I am. Every graphic and photo that goes on my companies webpage was created or touched up in photoshop. The "Save for Webpage" option is great. I can see how many seconds my graphic or photo is going to take to download on someones home computer. I try to keep every graphic under 5 seconds on a 28.8 modem. Photoshop lets me do this quickly and easily! When I first opened up the program I didnt have a clue on how to do anything, but I got the Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book, and now I can do almost anything.
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Summary: The most powerful raster graphics program around...
Review: Most of you reading this have heard of, or are using a version of Photoshop. That alone attests to its popularity. And you know the basics. The single most powerful raster graphics program around, made more powerful and flexible by the number of plug-ins available. What's new:
"Vector shapes" - a little misleading in its meaning. Indeed they are vector shapes, but when saved, they are rasterized. Maybe future versions will integrate the fundamentals of Illustrator (or Freehand - both the best vector graphics programs available) a little better. But the shapes feature is quite useful for logos, and small icons. Editable text effects - Not quite "text on a path," but a very welcome feature. After skewing the text with this feature, you are still able to alter font styles/sizes/colors with no problem. Dockable Palettes - a great feature, if you have a large enough monitor (17" w/high-resolution setting, 19" w/mid-res setting), in order to see the dock. Allows you to place heavily used palettes in the upper right hand section, without having to move them around. It has quite a few more feature, but those I've mentioned are my favorites. Coming from 5.0 to 5.5 was fairly unimpressive, but the jump to 6.0 has made it a worthwhile upgrade.
Rating: 
Summary: Industry standard... except for automated features
Review: I am a relative "newbie" to Photoshop (about a year) and I put off upgrading. I guess I figured I hadn't gotten my "money's worth" out of Photoshp 5.5 yet. But, when I finally upgraded, I was so glad I did! I love this upgrade! Improved Layer Styles, improved Gradients, improved cropping. I know there's much more, but I still am kind of a newbie, I can't remember them all. And the most dramatic and fabulous improvement - the TEXT function! Oh my gosh! No more annoying pop-up window to type text into! You just start typing on your image. Editing and changing fonts and sizes is so much easier now. Also, I like the taskbar thingie at the top of the screen. Very convenient, I don't know how I lived without it. ImageReady is also improved. I find myself using it more and more. Also, I want to warn everyone - make SURE you have your CD of Photoshop 4 or above on hand. During the installation process, Photoshop 6 will want you to put in a previous version of Photoshop in your CD drive, to confirm you are qualified for an upgrade. They seem to only accept versions 4 or above. If you don't have a CD of at least version 4 of Photoshop, you need to contact Adobe support, and they will help you "unlock" the Photoshop upgrade, so that you can install it on your computer. Obviously, you must be a registered owner of Photoshop (any previous version) to qualify for this upgrade. I read on Adobe's support site that sometimes it's better to drag the upgrade installation file from the PS 6 CD to your HD. Have your previous version of PS in your CD drive, ready and waiting. Then, start the PS 6 upgrade installation from the install file on your your HD. When you come to the part where PS 6 asks for a previous version of PS, it's right in your CD drive. (This way, you avoid the annoying and tricky "CD-swapping" right in the middle of the upgrade. Trust me on this one!) Anyway, MAKE SURE you have a CD of a previous version of Photoshop on hand. Just having the program installed on your HD isn't enough. Contact Adobe about getting a replacement if you lost your original CD to the previous version of PS. Even though I am still a beginner/intermediate Photoshop user, I am finding MUCH to be excited about with this upgrade. I can imagine that most serious pro Photoshop users are elated. There's certainly a lot to be excited about. I cannot recommend this upgrade enough.
Rating:
Summary: Smoother, Quicker, and More Features!
Review: Why do you even need to read this review? This is a classic. Sleak, feature laden. An absolute must.
Rating:
Summary: Improvement with obscurity
Review: Adobe Photoshop has until recently been a full-timer's tool. Like Oracle or Unix, you either lived in it and loved it, or you didn't use it at all. But the Photoshop user base is changing. The Web has boosted the demand for bitmap graphics, and created a new breed of multimedia developers who use a huge range of tools for content creation and publication. And the rise of digital cameras and scanners has opened bitmap editing to consumers. So Photoshop is changing from its traditional position as part of Adobe's imaging solution, a tool to be used alongside Illustrator and Web-aware tools like ImageReady and ImageStyler. Now it's eating features from the rest of Adobe's imaging line. * Photoshop eats Illustrator: Photoshop 6.0 has sprouted serious text-editing tools. They end the old routine of importing Illustrator text to Photoshop. Decent control of letter spacing and justification appears for the first time. And Photoshop text is now editable on the page, a mere six years of so after the under-rated and now sadly wasted Corel Photo-Paint first performed this trick. * Photoshop eats ImageReady. The new ImageReady 3.0 is bundled with Photoshop 6.0, just as its predecessor was biundled with Photoshop 5.5. And Web tasks such as JavaScript rollovers and animations still require you to jump to ImageReady, an inconvenient process. But ImageReady 2.0's simple shape-creation tools have made it to Photoshop this time around. ImageReady's on track to disappear completely into Photoshop at about Photoshop 7.0. * Photoshop eats ImageStyler. ImageStyler 1.0's slightly gimmicky but sometimes useful "styles" appear in Photoshop 6.0 too, letting you create buttons and, um, more buttons. There's little chance of a separate ImageStyler 2.0. So Photoshop now does most of what a Web developer would want it to do. It has garnered mostly laudatory reviews, both for its continuing power and for implementing features that other programs already had. But there are prices to be paid. There's the money: at around $A1400 street or $A400 for the upgrade, Adobe gives the Mastercard a beating it won't soon forget. There's the speed; version 6.0 runs slower than any before it. And there's the famous Photoshop learning curve, which is becoming a problem as Adobe aims Photoshop at that wider audience. The loyalists won't acknowledge it, but Adobe has an interface problem. The program works like Unix, letting power users into an exclusive club while alienating everyone else. It has added a new context-sensitive toolbar to version 6.0. Yet it still buries powerful features and eschews basic interface devices like a Save button in favour of memorable keyboard combinations like Control-Alt-Shift-S (that's the command for saving a Web-ready graphic, so Web developers should keep their fingers flexible). The new shape-creation tools have aspects that are obscure even by Adobe's standards. So an increasing number of mid-level Photoshop users - especially Web development shops and individual users - are paying for power they can't access. They've bought a BMW, but they can't get it out of second gear. This interface problem, though, seems unlikely to end Photoshop's dominance. The program's new audience is following the high-end professionals' lead. They want industry-standard tools. And amongst bitmap graphics professionals, Photoshop remains the industry standard. If you do Web development, know Photoshop, own fast hardware and you're currently with version 5.0 or earlier - or if you create substantial amounts of bitmap text or simple button-like shapes - Photoshop 6.0 is a worthwhile investment. As long as you can afford it, and as long as you're prepared for its sometimes unnecessary difficulties.
Rating:
Summary: Must have for beginners.
Review: This is a great one to start with. The Image editing software is tops. Helped me set up at portfolio.com. My favorite program with may extras.
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