NDC
04-23-2002, 2:55 AM
Last Updated 4-25-2002
Windows/MAC 7.0 Full Version $657
Windows/Mac 7.0 Upgrade Version $152
First of all, as you may already know, I'm not very good with words. That's Jadison's job! :D. This is just written out as I see it. ;)
A new version of Adobe Photoshop has been released and it's loaded with new tools and GUI which in my opinion is a great improvement versus the previous version. I won't be able to give you the full description of all the new features as of now since I just got this a couple days ago and still fooling around with it myself. But I'll give you a decription of the noticeable features that have been added. Keep and eye on this thread for updated info if you're a Photoshop user. As I get more familiarized with all the added enhancements, this thread will be updated.
Unlike the previous version of Photohop, the tool bar definetly got a makeover. The layout looks much neater because there aren't borders dividing each tool on the Windows version and the icons look more enhanced and smoother. Also, a new tool has been added to the tool bar know as "Healing Brush" and "Patch Tool". The healing brush tool lets you correct imperfections, causing them to disappear into the surrounding image. Like the cloning tools, you use the healing brush tool to paint with sampled pixels from an image or pattern. However, the healing brush tool also matches the texture, lighting, and shading of the sampled pixels to the source pixels. As a result, the repaired pixels blend seamlessly into the rest of the image. And the patch tool lets you repair a selected area with pixels from another area or a pattern. Like the healing brush tool, the patch tool matches the texture, lighting, and shading of the sampled pixels to the source pixels. You can also use the patch tool to clone isolated areas of an image. But what happened to the "Air Brush Tool"? Well, now you won't find it on the tool palette. It's now located at the top portion of the screen with tool options. Air brush feature becomes accessible when you click on the "Brush Tool" on the Tools palette or the "Brush Presets" which is located at the top-right of the screen.
Healing Brush
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7-HealingBrush.jpg
Also to the top-right of the screen, a file browser has been added. This browser will allow you to view image files as you would on software such as ACDSee, Infraview, etc but on the same screen as your workspace which I've found to be very convenient. Another very good feature in this browser is the Batch Renaming Feature.
Another very noticeable enhancement is when you open a new document. Unlike the previous version where you always had to type in the width and height, the new version has commonly used preset resolutions and well as common print media such as Letter, Legal, Tabloid, A4, A3, B3~B5. It even has preset standard sizes for web banners (468x60). Another very convenient feature is that you can set a default monitor and print resolution for new documents which is another nice feature.
Above all the editing enhancments, Adobe Photoshop 7 also has more enhancements added for tablets (digitizers). Not only does it support pressure sensitivity, it also supports Fade, Pen Tilt, and Stylus Wheel. If your tablet doesn't support a certain feature, an exclamation icon will appear.
Enhancements for all the "Tranform" tools such as Scale, Rotate, Skew, Distort, and Perspective have been added as well. On the previous versions of Photoshop, you had to release the left mouse button after making adjustments with these tools which made working with accuracy rather difficult. This was especially noticeable when using the "Rotate" function since you had to reposition your mouse to continue rotating the image. However, Adobe has made changes to this tool where you don't have to release the left mouse button to see the changes before applying the alteration, you're able to see the changes as you make them. This is a big benefit since you're able to maintain accuracy when using these tools.
"Save for the web" is another area where a few changes have been made. For one thing, it renders much faster than the previous version. You won't need a stop watch to notice this. You''ll notice this right away as soon as you run "Save for the web" or by pressing the shortcut keys which are CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+S. The preview selection (Original, Optimized, 2-Up, and 4-up) remains the same. However, a few more tools have been added to to the tool palette on the upper-left side of the screen. However, I noticed one thing that was rather inconvenient. When you run "Save for the web", the "Slice Selection Tool" is selected as default where you have to manually press the "Hand Tool" to scroll the screen and there appears to be no option to change this.
One thing I was very surprised to see in this new version is how light it runs. I think most people who migrated from Photoshop 5.x to 6.x noticed how much heavier version 6 ran. The GUI also had slight split second pause in certain tasks in the previous version. This doesn't seem to be the case with version 7. It runs very quick. Tasking such as "Save for the web", and menus pop out instantaneously. It's also very responsive when you are multi-tasking with a huge graphic file in Photoshop. I opened a file and increased the size of the image to where the file size was 853.3mb and tried multi-tasking. On the previous version, with a file size as big as this, you were clearly able to see the image scroll on the screen when zoomed into the image. However, Photoshop 7 rendered this image much quicker! Perhaps a 1 second at the most.
But among the all the added features, the new preset brushes are definetly a big improvement. There are tons of detailed settings for this tool. Along with all the different brush patterns, you also have the "Dual brush" feature which lets you paint using two patterns simutaneously! very handy for making unique designs...
You'd be surprised what you can create using this tool even if you're not a graphic guru!
Here is an example of how powerful the "Brush Tool" can be. I only used Photoshop's "Brush Tools" to make the drawings such as the leaves and the grass at the bottom. I did not do any drawing to make this image... Only plug-in I used for this example was "KPT SkyEffects". All others are default features of Photohop 7. Believe it or not, this took less than 15 minutes to create using the new Photoshop tools!
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/autumn-breeze!.jpg
Here are also some screen shots of some of the main enhancements:
New Document Selection
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7_NewDoc.gif
File Browser
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7_Browser.gif
Preset Brushes
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7_Brushes.gif
Tool Bar
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7_ToolBar.gif
Test Platform:
Windows XP Pro
System Specs
Processor: AMD Thunderbird 1Ghz (200)
Mainboard: Abit KT7A-RAID Revision 1.2 (No RAID running)
RAM: 320MB Samsung CL2 PC-133
Western Digital UDMA-66, 7,200rpm 20GB Hard Disk Drive
Note: System was rebooted after each benchmark test in order to clear the memory and cache to get the most accurate results possible
Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1
Opening image size of 10000 x 10920 = 36.34 seconds, Re-open = 23.76 seconds
Resizing image from default size of 500 x 546 to 5000 x 5460 = 35.52s seconds
Gaussian Blur with pixel radius of 60 at 5000 x 5460 = 18.21 seconds
Radial Blur on image size at 5000 x 5460 with amount setting of 10, Blur Method = Spin, Quality = Normal = 3 minutes 21 seconds
Rotate 180 degrees on image size of 5000 x 5460 = 11.60 seconds
Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Opening image size of 10000 x 10920 = 1 minute 28 seconds, Re-open = 52.90 seconds
Resizing image from default size of 500 x 546 to 5000 x 5460 = 3.21 seconds
Gaussian Blur with pixel radius of 60 at 5000 x 5460 = 15.75 seconds
Radial Blur on image size at 5000 x 5460 with amount setting of 10, Blur Method = Spin, Quality = Normal = 2 minutes 38 seconds
Rotate 180 degrees on image size of 5000 x 5460 = 10.23 seconds
As you can see from the time marks shown above, Adobe Photoshop 7.0 is slightly or much faster in all tasks listed above. Resizing and Radial Blur are the two tasks that really had a significant performance gain vs. the previous version. I was so surprised by the difference, I rebooted the system several times and came up with the same results. However, the File Opening task was much slower than the previous version by over 100%! However, as mentioned before, the repsonsive GUI, overall performance gain, and loads of features added to the new version definetly makes it worth your while to upgrade!
Just off curiosity, I also benchmarked Photoshop 7.0 on my workstation system.As you will see the benchmark times below, Adobe Photoshop definetly takes advantage of SMP systems where tasks are performed twice as fast and even 5 times faster on certain tasks. However, this isn't a very accurate comparison between the 1Ghz Uni-Processor system above and this Dual-Processor system since this system not only has more physical memory, it's also running a SCSI Ultra-160 spinning at 10,000rpm vs. 7,200rpm...
Test Platform:
Windows XP Pro
System Specs
Processor: Dual Intel Pentium 3 1Ghz (133)
Mainboard: Abit VP6
RAM: 1024MB Samsung CL2 PC-133
Seagate Cheetah Ultra-160, 10,000rpm 18GB Hard Disk Drive
Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Opening image size of 10000 x 10920 = 13.21 seconds, Re-open = 9.21 seconds
Resizing image from default size of 500 x 546 to 5000 x 5460 = 1.53 seconds
Gaussian Blur with pixel radius of 60 at 5000 x 5460 = 7.24 seconds
Radial Blur on image size at 5000 x 5460 with amount setting of 10, Blur Method = Spin, Quality = Normal = 1 minutes 14 seconds
Rotate 180 degrees on image size of 5000 x 5460 = 2.7 seconds.
Windows/MAC 7.0 Full Version $657
Windows/Mac 7.0 Upgrade Version $152
First of all, as you may already know, I'm not very good with words. That's Jadison's job! :D. This is just written out as I see it. ;)
A new version of Adobe Photoshop has been released and it's loaded with new tools and GUI which in my opinion is a great improvement versus the previous version. I won't be able to give you the full description of all the new features as of now since I just got this a couple days ago and still fooling around with it myself. But I'll give you a decription of the noticeable features that have been added. Keep and eye on this thread for updated info if you're a Photoshop user. As I get more familiarized with all the added enhancements, this thread will be updated.
Unlike the previous version of Photohop, the tool bar definetly got a makeover. The layout looks much neater because there aren't borders dividing each tool on the Windows version and the icons look more enhanced and smoother. Also, a new tool has been added to the tool bar know as "Healing Brush" and "Patch Tool". The healing brush tool lets you correct imperfections, causing them to disappear into the surrounding image. Like the cloning tools, you use the healing brush tool to paint with sampled pixels from an image or pattern. However, the healing brush tool also matches the texture, lighting, and shading of the sampled pixels to the source pixels. As a result, the repaired pixels blend seamlessly into the rest of the image. And the patch tool lets you repair a selected area with pixels from another area or a pattern. Like the healing brush tool, the patch tool matches the texture, lighting, and shading of the sampled pixels to the source pixels. You can also use the patch tool to clone isolated areas of an image. But what happened to the "Air Brush Tool"? Well, now you won't find it on the tool palette. It's now located at the top portion of the screen with tool options. Air brush feature becomes accessible when you click on the "Brush Tool" on the Tools palette or the "Brush Presets" which is located at the top-right of the screen.
Healing Brush
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7-HealingBrush.jpg
Also to the top-right of the screen, a file browser has been added. This browser will allow you to view image files as you would on software such as ACDSee, Infraview, etc but on the same screen as your workspace which I've found to be very convenient. Another very good feature in this browser is the Batch Renaming Feature.
Another very noticeable enhancement is when you open a new document. Unlike the previous version where you always had to type in the width and height, the new version has commonly used preset resolutions and well as common print media such as Letter, Legal, Tabloid, A4, A3, B3~B5. It even has preset standard sizes for web banners (468x60). Another very convenient feature is that you can set a default monitor and print resolution for new documents which is another nice feature.
Above all the editing enhancments, Adobe Photoshop 7 also has more enhancements added for tablets (digitizers). Not only does it support pressure sensitivity, it also supports Fade, Pen Tilt, and Stylus Wheel. If your tablet doesn't support a certain feature, an exclamation icon will appear.
Enhancements for all the "Tranform" tools such as Scale, Rotate, Skew, Distort, and Perspective have been added as well. On the previous versions of Photoshop, you had to release the left mouse button after making adjustments with these tools which made working with accuracy rather difficult. This was especially noticeable when using the "Rotate" function since you had to reposition your mouse to continue rotating the image. However, Adobe has made changes to this tool where you don't have to release the left mouse button to see the changes before applying the alteration, you're able to see the changes as you make them. This is a big benefit since you're able to maintain accuracy when using these tools.
"Save for the web" is another area where a few changes have been made. For one thing, it renders much faster than the previous version. You won't need a stop watch to notice this. You''ll notice this right away as soon as you run "Save for the web" or by pressing the shortcut keys which are CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+S. The preview selection (Original, Optimized, 2-Up, and 4-up) remains the same. However, a few more tools have been added to to the tool palette on the upper-left side of the screen. However, I noticed one thing that was rather inconvenient. When you run "Save for the web", the "Slice Selection Tool" is selected as default where you have to manually press the "Hand Tool" to scroll the screen and there appears to be no option to change this.
One thing I was very surprised to see in this new version is how light it runs. I think most people who migrated from Photoshop 5.x to 6.x noticed how much heavier version 6 ran. The GUI also had slight split second pause in certain tasks in the previous version. This doesn't seem to be the case with version 7. It runs very quick. Tasking such as "Save for the web", and menus pop out instantaneously. It's also very responsive when you are multi-tasking with a huge graphic file in Photoshop. I opened a file and increased the size of the image to where the file size was 853.3mb and tried multi-tasking. On the previous version, with a file size as big as this, you were clearly able to see the image scroll on the screen when zoomed into the image. However, Photoshop 7 rendered this image much quicker! Perhaps a 1 second at the most.
But among the all the added features, the new preset brushes are definetly a big improvement. There are tons of detailed settings for this tool. Along with all the different brush patterns, you also have the "Dual brush" feature which lets you paint using two patterns simutaneously! very handy for making unique designs...
You'd be surprised what you can create using this tool even if you're not a graphic guru!
Here is an example of how powerful the "Brush Tool" can be. I only used Photoshop's "Brush Tools" to make the drawings such as the leaves and the grass at the bottom. I did not do any drawing to make this image... Only plug-in I used for this example was "KPT SkyEffects". All others are default features of Photohop 7. Believe it or not, this took less than 15 minutes to create using the new Photoshop tools!
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/autumn-breeze!.jpg
Here are also some screen shots of some of the main enhancements:
New Document Selection
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7_NewDoc.gif
File Browser
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7_Browser.gif
Preset Brushes
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7_Brushes.gif
Tool Bar
http://ndc.digitalmntsnow.com/bbs/ps7/PS7_ToolBar.gif
Test Platform:
Windows XP Pro
System Specs
Processor: AMD Thunderbird 1Ghz (200)
Mainboard: Abit KT7A-RAID Revision 1.2 (No RAID running)
RAM: 320MB Samsung CL2 PC-133
Western Digital UDMA-66, 7,200rpm 20GB Hard Disk Drive
Note: System was rebooted after each benchmark test in order to clear the memory and cache to get the most accurate results possible
Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1
Opening image size of 10000 x 10920 = 36.34 seconds, Re-open = 23.76 seconds
Resizing image from default size of 500 x 546 to 5000 x 5460 = 35.52s seconds
Gaussian Blur with pixel radius of 60 at 5000 x 5460 = 18.21 seconds
Radial Blur on image size at 5000 x 5460 with amount setting of 10, Blur Method = Spin, Quality = Normal = 3 minutes 21 seconds
Rotate 180 degrees on image size of 5000 x 5460 = 11.60 seconds
Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Opening image size of 10000 x 10920 = 1 minute 28 seconds, Re-open = 52.90 seconds
Resizing image from default size of 500 x 546 to 5000 x 5460 = 3.21 seconds
Gaussian Blur with pixel radius of 60 at 5000 x 5460 = 15.75 seconds
Radial Blur on image size at 5000 x 5460 with amount setting of 10, Blur Method = Spin, Quality = Normal = 2 minutes 38 seconds
Rotate 180 degrees on image size of 5000 x 5460 = 10.23 seconds
As you can see from the time marks shown above, Adobe Photoshop 7.0 is slightly or much faster in all tasks listed above. Resizing and Radial Blur are the two tasks that really had a significant performance gain vs. the previous version. I was so surprised by the difference, I rebooted the system several times and came up with the same results. However, the File Opening task was much slower than the previous version by over 100%! However, as mentioned before, the repsonsive GUI, overall performance gain, and loads of features added to the new version definetly makes it worth your while to upgrade!
Just off curiosity, I also benchmarked Photoshop 7.0 on my workstation system.As you will see the benchmark times below, Adobe Photoshop definetly takes advantage of SMP systems where tasks are performed twice as fast and even 5 times faster on certain tasks. However, this isn't a very accurate comparison between the 1Ghz Uni-Processor system above and this Dual-Processor system since this system not only has more physical memory, it's also running a SCSI Ultra-160 spinning at 10,000rpm vs. 7,200rpm...
Test Platform:
Windows XP Pro
System Specs
Processor: Dual Intel Pentium 3 1Ghz (133)
Mainboard: Abit VP6
RAM: 1024MB Samsung CL2 PC-133
Seagate Cheetah Ultra-160, 10,000rpm 18GB Hard Disk Drive
Adobe Photoshop 7.0
Opening image size of 10000 x 10920 = 13.21 seconds, Re-open = 9.21 seconds
Resizing image from default size of 500 x 546 to 5000 x 5460 = 1.53 seconds
Gaussian Blur with pixel radius of 60 at 5000 x 5460 = 7.24 seconds
Radial Blur on image size at 5000 x 5460 with amount setting of 10, Blur Method = Spin, Quality = Normal = 1 minutes 14 seconds
Rotate 180 degrees on image size of 5000 x 5460 = 2.7 seconds.