Adobe Photoshop 7.0

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Summary: You have digital camera, you need to own it!
Review: The most powerful photo editing system in the world. Combine a lot of pictures to one. Make a very creative post for your school club or party. Even though it is kind of expensive, it is worthful.

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Summary: The ONLY Professional's Tool
Review: I'm a professional Web Designer and there is no better product on the market for graphics and photo editing. There are better products for logo design and desktop publishing, but not for Web design. This is the standard by which all others are judged. If you're serious about Web design or any graphic design in general, this is the professional's tool.

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Summary: Great for Getting Rid of Dust on Scanned Images
Review: I wanted to make enlargements of my kids' school and sports team portraits using my flat bed scanner, but dust on the photo (and the glass) always thwarted my efforts, no matter how diligent I was to brush the dust away.

The new "healing tool" in Adobe's Photoshop 7.0 has been a godsend. The healing tool matches the color and texture of the surrounding area perfectly. The size of the area to be corrected -- and copied from -- can be controlled precisely. Photoshop lets me zoom into any area of my photo so I can see exactly what I'm going. I use the healing tool to get rid of dust and facial blemishes -- all with just a few quick clicks!

(I also purchased the Adobe Photoshop 7.0 Classroom in a Book, available from ..., which, in just a few paragraphs, taught me how to use the healing tool. I had never used Photoshop before. I highly recommend it.)

The enlarged 8 x 10 portraits (which look professionally printed) that I now include in my photo albums are a vast improvement over the snapshot-only arrangements I had done previously. And the grandparents, of course, are tickled pink to receive the enlargements as well!

Dust had prevented me from using my flat bed scanner -- and my 8 x 10 photo printer -- more fully. I now use both much more regularly. Thank you Photoshop 7.0!

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Summary: A major upgrade for Adobe
Review: Bitmap editing tools have come a long way since MacPaint in the early eighties, running on the Mac 128. At last, the good folks at Adobe have released a viable upgrade to their star flagship product in R7.

You now have more control over vector shapes in Photoshop, allowing for blends and fills. However, the tool set is not quite as sophisticated as Illustrator.

A spell checker is now available in version 7 for those of you who wish to create your text without leaving Photoshop.

Plugins from other vendors will work with this product, such as CGSD's RealTexture Tools.

What's annoying is that saving a layered project, opened as a tiff, is no longer by default saved to PSD (native format). In that case, the user must scroll the dialogue box.

A major drawback is their lack of support, at least for the previous version. When I installed the 6.0 upgrade on my Windows 2000 workstation, the program wouldn't correctly boot. I was unable to locate a phone number from their site to call. After e-mailing their tech support, I received an automated response the size of a book. A message was posted on their website forum without a response. One realizes that cutting costs (personnel) is vital to a company's existence, but the lack of support of this product is unacceptable.

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Summary: my lucky number is... 7
Review: This latest version turns out to be a very pleasant suprise, and i would already find it difficult bto return to vers 6.
The new interface is lovely, unlike some new software which looks like the interface was designed with three crayons.
The tweaks such as too the dialogue boxes was an unexpected bonus, as now much finer adjustments can be made, also new and more powerful curves features. dint personally see too much benefit from auto colours but i guess itll prove occasionally handy.
The file browser is long overdue, this was one major feature i always preferred from Corel Photopaint, and finally we have it in Photoshop, maybe four years too late but nonetheless usefull.
The major enhance ment for me is the ability to save tool settings, not least the Crop tool, each tool can be configured with customised settings, which means no more painful typing in the same settings 50 times a day. Again its a case of why didnt we have this in version 5, but better late than never.
The new tools are pretty cool, i love the patch tool, it literally has taken my breath away, magic is not the word. the healing brush isnt quite as user friendly and as obviously useful to me , but this will no doubt make a bit more sense after further use.
The pattern maker has proved to be quite interesting and can actually be used to create some new twists when tinkered with enough.
I find this version (running on XP) runs a little faster.
all in all worth the upgrade

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Summary: The Best but the Most Complex to Learn
Review: I'm taking my 2nd Photoshop studio course in a college setting in the Commercial Art department right now. I'm an artist who sells her art online. I've quickly discovered that if you ask another student what another design program is like in another CART course offering, the response will be, "Well, it's hard but it's easier than Photoshop." So far there is NO program I've mentioned in the commercial art department that is not considered easier than Photoshop. That said, it is an absolutely fabulous program and if you are an artist, photographer, designer or work with images in any professional way, then this is the program for you. Conversely, if you are not such a person or, even worse, have minimal computer skills, then I think you'd do better with something simpler, like Paint Shop Pro.

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Summary: A high-quality piece of software
Review: Photoshop is excellent for what it is: a high end, professional piece of software. That is to say, it has a good range of features and is very flexible, capable of producing anything to which you set your mind.

However... because of the depth of features, it can be INCREDIBLY difficult to use at first, and even the simplest tasks can take an age to perform if you aren't fluent with the software!! In that respect, it scores low for ease of use, but since it is probably not intended for the amateur user, it would be unfair to let this count against it.

Don't be intimidated by this -it'll become easy once you've done a few tutorials, and once you've mastered it the world is your oyster- but be prepared to have learn first!

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Summary: GREAT PRODUCT FOR SERIOUS EDITING
Review: I am not a realy serious photo editor, but so many people have said that this is such a great editor so I went ahead and coughed out the 600 dollars. It is a little pricey , but to the serious editor, the usefulness outweighs the price. 7.0 is probably the best version yet. However if you have 6.0, I would recommend saving your money for either the next version or waiting a little while for the price of this to go down. The only complaint about the product is the price. I know that it is really good, but for 600 bucks it is a little much. I suggest that they make one for home editing with features that are somewhat scaled down, since the average home user does not need this much power. Overall I recommend this if you are serious into image editing. And don't be expecting to know how to work the software in the first hour. It could take days of time sitting in front of your computer to figure out how this works. But it is worth it in the end.

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Summary: Why I Love Photoshop
Review: I've been using Photoshop for about 10 years, and I would humbly call myself an intermediate.

Everything I've used that's not Photoshop is just a cheap imitation with bits and pieces of photo editing taken from Photoshop, right down to the lasso tool and the magic wand.

But Photoshop isn't made for making quick flyers or greeting cards. It's made for--that's right--photography in its digital form. Professional photography to be used in publications and on the web.

Someday I hope to understand all the tricks and tools of Photoshop. But even if you have a basic knowledge of layers, the pen tool, fill, and an eraser (paintbrush if you're creative), you can do amazing things.

I'll never outgrow Photoshop. It's the gold standard of digital imaging (and, no, I'm not being paid to say this).

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Summary: Simply Amazing...
Review: Adobe Photoshop is simply the best when it comes to photo-editing. I've personally been using it for years and have found it to be one of my most valuable tools in the field of web page design. When version 6.0 came out I was blown away by all the new features, more filters, more powerful. Version 7.0 is slated to be the BEST version of Photoshop EVER, with tons of new features such as the new Image Browser the Healing brush, and Spell Checking. Now, while Photoshop is one heck of a great piece of software...