Rating: 
Summary: Does what I need quickly
Review: After using many image editing software packages, I found Photoshop Elements does what I need faster than any other.My criteria is based on how fast I can: 1. Get an image from my scanner or digital camera 2. Crop it 3. Fix red eye 4. Adjust overall brightness, contrast, color. 5. Darken or lighten specific areas 6. Save it .jpg Practically all the software I've used can do all of my list, although some packages can't darken or lighten specific areas. Some programs are so simple that they become hard to work with; It takes forever to crop a picture with Microsoft Picture It. Adobe PhotoDeluxe will only save as a .pdd, you have to do several extra steps to export it as a .jpg. I really don't use all the extra features and filters and special effects, although PhotoMerge is pretty cool. I know my way around a darkroom, but photography isn't my life. I just want to clean up pictures and move on. Adobe Photoshop Elements allows me to improve and correct my pictures quickly. But when I want to do something artistic, it works great. Look... Buy or Go to your local library and check out the book "50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques". It has a CD that contains trial versions of Photoshop Elements as well as several other programs. Try them side by side. Find the one that works best for you, I'll bet it's Photoshop Elements.
Rating: 
Summary: Well worth its price !
Review: I upgraded to Photoshop Elements from Photoshop 5.0 LE last week. The package arrived promptly. Yes, there is a manual, unlike some software packages I have(such as MS Office 2001). But, many features are not explained fully in the paper manual (hence the four star rating). I think the program itself is competent enough for most "prosumer" level users. My favorite features that are not in the LE version? Unlimited undos, history pallet, editable text, the ability to position image on a page. Feature that I wished included: the ability to save selection. To me, Elements included quite a few very useful features missing in LE. It's well worth the upgrade fee. The program is very solid on my iMac. No problems with working with several 5-10 megs files at a time with the default memory setting.
Rating: 
Summary: PhotoShop LE
Review: Adobe PhotoShop Elements seems just like LE. The claim is that they added all the functionality of PhotoShop to an affordable graphics design package, but in truth the only viable feature is the ability to merge. I know of at least 3 other image editors and graphics design packages offer so much more than Elements. While Adobe is a household name, Elements will not be.
Rating:
Summary: This is very affordable with many features!
Review: I bought this software last week, and I love it! It is easy to use, and has good support both online and via the help menu on the software. It is a slimmed down version of Adobe Photoshop 6, and all you need for the basic layperson. It has a lot of extra features too that are fun to experiment with. You can remove the background on any photo and merge with another pic. Plus you can easily remove red-eye. Also you can print in any size you want. Definetely worth the money!
Rating:
Summary: Solid product with lots of improvements.
Review: I have owned Photoshop since 3.0 (14 3.5 inch floppies). Each of the new releases has had some great productivity improvements. Actions, adjustment layers, Image Ready all were great bonuses. There is no revolution in 6.0, but the sum of the improvements are worth the cost of the upgrade. Check the system requirements carefully. It will not run on Windows 95. I have not had any problems running both Photoshop and Image Ready on a machine with 128 meg of ram. The install is a pain. You have to get out your 4.0 cd and insert it, then remove it after Photoshop verifies you own one. My CD did not like this the first two times I tried it, but it finally came through after a reboot. On to the improvements. My favorite is the intuitive toolbar at the top of the workspace. This puts tool options one click away. No need to hunt for the options palette. Next is the "Step backward" and "Step Forward". This works like a multiple level undo without having to go to the history palette. Text (excuse me, type) is getting easier. Now you can add paragraph text to a box with ease. Define the size of the box and start keying, right in the layer. They still need to improve the font handling (you can't see a text string in the new font unless you update the layer), but the changes to type in 6.0 are fairly intuitive, especially if you have worked in Flash or Corel. Oh, by the way, you no longer render a layer of text, you rasterize it. To the action they have added "droplets," a productivity improvement that lets you run an action on multiple files through "drap and drop". The crop tool is no longer in with the marquees but stands alone in the toolbox. Big timesaver. They have added the ability to round the corners of a rectangle, and create all kinds of shapes without using the lasso (Bravo!). You can add free form notes to a file. I won't use this much, but I can see where it might be helpful. The implementation of this feature, however, is lacking. There are no new filters, but they have added "Liquify" which is pretty cool. It works like Extract. Path selection has been improved and the path tools have been separated from the pens (used to create the path). Also new: Layer styles, trim, adding slices in Photoshop.
Rating: 
Summary: Great program, dissapointing interface, documentation, value
Review: As a long time user and consistent upgrader of Adobe Photoshop I am always impressed with the functionality of the program and what I am able to do with it. I am also continually dissapointed with the the confusing user interface and terrible documentation. Given the high price of the software, I always feel cheated. Version 6 has particularly poor documentation... they managed to confusingly merge the user guide for both Photoshop and Image Ready into a single incomprehensible document. New features are barely documented. Numerous features have no documentation in the guide at all... only the online help covers them. The illustrations are a joke... they have some examples of before and after color effects printed in an all B&W manual (no visible difference... duh!). Overall, the guide reads like it was written by programmers for programmers, not for people thinking about the artistic use of the features. They really give you the impression that they just didn't care about the guide and were trying to save every last penny they could. Given the cost of the program I feel I should have a comprehensible, complete, full color user's guide. I imagine that the CEO of Adobe never looked at this guide or he certainly wouldn't have let it out the door. Finally, while the program's functionality is very powerful, the interface is described in a way that sounds more like their programmer's perspective than a user's conceptual framework. Instead of vector and bitmap shapes they talk about clipping paths, working paths, quick masks, layer masks, text layers, text shapes and on and on and on. I'm sure there is good reason why the program needs to keep track of this but there is no good reason why the jargon and user interface couldn't be simplified to make the advanced features more accessable to a broader class of users.
Rating:
Summary: The industry standard gets better
Review: What a great product. When it comes to image editing, if you can imagine it, with Photoshop, you can do it. If you are new to graphics/design I recommend that this be the first software you start to master. (if you aren't new, then you already know this) Not only is it powerful, its a great deal of fun to use. Adobe has updated the interface. Now when you select a tool all of the options for the selected tool appear (you don't have to go to the pallettes as often). The selection tools and text handling are much better than previous versions. There are several other improvements that I haven't mentioned. Using Photoshop is an art in itself. I've been using this product for several years now and I'm still learning.
Rating:
Summary: The best gets better!
Review: If you do any kind of computer graphics then you should have this program. Its without a doubt the best image editing software on the planet, and with this newest version it gets even better. When I first got into this latest release I noticed that they made some cosmetic changes to the layout. They added some more buttons on the top of the screen, which really helps save time searching around for certain functions, and of course you can customize this if you like. From what I have seen so far from using this is that there really isn't anything significantly new. There is a new style function which you can stylize layers, but I'm not exactly sure what use this has besides being able to create tacky logos :) If this was just an upgrade you are thinking of over v5.0 or 5.5 I would try out the demo before buying it, because there really isn't a drastic improvement, at least for what I use it for. But, if you have never owned a copy of Photoshop, theres no better time to get this than the present.
Rating:
Summary: So glad I upgraded!
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: 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.
| 
