Adobe Photoshop Elements

Review by Janet DeVore

There are certain programs that every computer user should have. One of those is an image editing program. They come in a variety of strengths and costs, and it can be hard to choose which one to use. Well known among these is Adobe Photoshop, a favorite among Mac users since 1990, it is compatible with many graphic file types. The problem with Photoshop is that, although it is powerful, it is also expensive.

Many people have gotten copies of Photoshop LE (Limited Edition) or PhotoDeluxe with scanners, cameras or other bundles. Limited Edition was enhanced with more of the full Photoshop tricks and is now available as Photoshop Elements. This gives you great tools to adjust the pictures you take with digital cameras and make them ready to publish to the web or to print.

I have been a casual user of Photoshop for years. That is, I use it to adjust photographs and other existing images to be able to use them in print (such as Mouse Tracks) or on the Web. I know I am not using all the tricks of the Photoshop pros, but it gets me by. Photoshop Elements seems to have most of the tools that I use in Photoshop- crop, adjust size, resolution, contrast and brightness. The layer styles and filters are close to the list in Photoshop 6, though I have not compared each option in detail. The menu items are a bit rearranged (which only makes it difficult in that I have the "image size" location memorized). Some of the choices are on palettes and can be opened by clicking on a central menu or torn off and left open if you have the screen space to do this.

It is very interesting to experiment with the various filters and effects which are included in the programs. Also helpful is the automated process of creating a Web Gallery, or Contact Sheet out of a group of pictures. But one of the most useful tools came from Adobe's Image Ready-the Save for Web feature. It is quite helpful to see two versions of your picture in "before" and "after" mode as you convert it to the best resolution and format for uploading to a web site. You can also see the estimated time-to-load based on average modem speeds. You can also import images from PDF documents.

There are some interesting new features, such as "recipes" and "photomerge." Recipes gives you hints or step by step instruction on how to accomplish common tasks such as clean up, or adding a shadow or bevel. Photomerge helps automate the joining of multiple images into a larger one.

Features that I did not find in Elements are the ability to adjust curves, paths, channels; the actions palette (but it does have the history palette); color separations; CMYK editing; spot color and high level color management capabilities.

Elements definitely has more features than Limited Edition for 5.0 had-grids, advanced layer features, advanced selection capabilities, effects (which are like the filters but tend to modify a frame or text formatting rather than the image itself) and recipes for common tasks. Best of all, the imbedded talents of Image Ready gives you an easy way of changing your image to web-ready status.

A detailed help file is available which opens in your web browser application instead of the QuickHelp application that was used in Photoshop 5.

This application, like the full Photoshop, is not yet OS X native. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements can be installed and run concurrently on one computer, though it can be confusing which program you are actually in! However both applications will share the same application icon, and only one of the programs will automatically start when Photoshop native format files are double-clicked from the Finder. The version of Photoshop (6.0 and below or Elements) most recently installed will determine the application icon for both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, as well as the version of Photoshop that will launch when Photoshop native files are opened. However if Photoshop 6.0.1 is installed, the Photoshop icon will be used for both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements programs.

If you already own Photoshop 5.5 or 6, the differences are limited. But if you have been getting along with an earlier version of Photoshop or have only owned PhotoDeluxe, this is an excellent chance to upgrade for a reasonable price. As of this writing, version 1.0 is available for $99 list price. There is a $30 discount currently for owners of some other photo imaging applications. You can check out the offer at the Adobe website www.adobe.com or through other online ordering places.