Photoshop 4.0

Adobe adds macro features to newest version of photo-editing package

By Graeme Bennett

Photoshop 4.0
For: Macintosh & Windows
From: Adobe
Price: US$895; US$149 (upgrade), US$199 (upgrade from Photoshop LE)

I've been beta testing Photoshop 4.0 for several weeks and, as I write this, the final shrinkwrapped package has shipped. It's a delight to be able to say that it has never crashed or misbehaved. Photoshop has always been a world-class production tool, and this newest version of the package -- which I've gone on record as saying might just be the best piece of software ever written -- hasn't let me down.

However, there is a new class of photo-editing application emerging, as typified by the inexpensive and powerful Microsoft Picture-It! and LivePix applications, that will probably be giving Photoshop a run for its money by this time next year. Why? Because Photoshop's greatest weakness (and the core of its strengths, as well) is that it is pixel-bound. Bigger files take longer to work with. Picture-It! and LivePix products -- based on Kodak's FlashPix format (which, in turn, is based on the FITS technology that first appeared in a Macintosh application called Live Picture, that once retailed for US$3,000) -- have a better solution for large files than Adobe currently offers. But I digress....

The new version of Photoshop offers several improvements, it is safe to say, the avid Photoshop users won't want to miss out on, not the least of which is the fact that it finally offers a macro function that provides customizable sets of procedures termed "Actions."

A list of Actions appears on a new palette, and additional actions, which are easy for end-users to create or modify, may be installed at will. Using Actions, you can batch-process a number of images, or perform sequences of image-processing operations. If there is a must-have feature in the 4.0 release, this is it.

Expect to see a lot of user-created actions available on the Internet in the next few years.

Speaking of the Internet, Photoshop 4.0 has added several Net-friendly file formats, including standard support for GIF89a (at last, the GIF89a format has been out for more than seven years!), and Progressive JPEG. In another nod to the increasing pervasiveness of the Internet, there is a link to Adobe's Web site (see contacts) accessible directly from the Photoshop toolbar. The Web site includes links to tips and techniques, access to a searchable tech-support database, updates and plug-ins, and more.

However, there are a few features that are different enough from the way they behaved in version 3.0 that experienced users will be running for the manuals.

Most notably, the way text is handled is completely different. Older versions created text as a selection, which was all-too-easy to accidentally drop. Version 4.0 creates a new layer. This means that you have to perform a few additional operations if you want to turn the text into a selection. (Fortunately, it's not hard-just drag a marquee around any item on a layer and then move the selection with a cursor key.)

A similar (and related) situation will bedevil 3.0.x users who were used to pressing the Delete key to remove text that was the wrong size or font. Because version 4.0 puts new text items on separate layers, you can no longer press Delete to remove the newly created text layer. Fortunately, you can simply Undo the operation to achieve the same result.

Version 4.0's transparency-mask functions behave (and look) differently, too. In version 3.0.x, you could select the outline of an object on a layer with a simple keyboard shortcut (option-command-T). Although this still works, the item now appears with resize/rotate points instead of the "marching ants" effect that version 3.0 showed. Once you are accustomed to the new behavior, however, you'll probably appreciate the improved ease and functionality.

The keyboard shortcuts for some functions have changed, too, and this may annoy some users. The Brightness and Contrast shortcut is gone, probably because Adobe wants its users to stop using these linear adjustment methods and start using the less-destructive Levels or Curves commands instead. So there.

One annoyance is the fact that version 4.0's Free Transform function degrades images more than the equivalent Scale function did in version 3.0.5. It is possible to work around the problem by using the Image Size... command instead, but I hope Adobe fixes this shortcoming in the inevitable maintenance release. (More info on resizing problem at: http://www.macsense.com/MacSense/HOTBITS/96/9612/turkey.html)

Another Photoshop 4.0 feature I'm not too impressed with is its Digimarc technology. The principle is a good one: embed owner information in the photo itself as a watermark. The only problem is, I added a watermark (set to "most durable"), saved the file as a JPEG, and loaded it back in.

Result: watermark unreadable. There's "lossy" for you.

Fewer PC problems

Compatibility with plug-ins and scanner drivers is excellent. I detected none of the problems that plagued users of version 2.5 moving up to the 3.0x release. These previously included incompatibilities running 16-bit plug-ins in a 32-bit environment, as well as Windows 95 incompatibilities in the original 3.0 release (and earlier versions).

Version 4.0 is fully compatible with both 16- and 32-bit Windows environments (Photoshop is a true 32-bit program), and my considerable collection of plug-ins from Metatools, Alien Skin, Extensis, Storm, Pixar, Aldus/Adobe, Xaos Tools, Microsoft, et al, all worked like a charm.

Moreover, Photoshop 4.0 for Windows is MMX optimized and promises speed to improve by up to six times on machines supporting that chip (I am not yet able to test these claims). Photoshop fully takes advantage of multiple processors on both PCs running Windows NT and multi-CPU PowerMacs.

I don't perceive any particular advantage to the Mac version over the PC version or vice versa, aside from a somewhat larger selection of plug-in filters and color-calibration options available on the Mac. If you're looking for justification to switch platforms or further debate the operating systems war, this isn't the application to make an example of.

Photoshop is virtually identical on both Windows and Mac platforms, and the PC's significantly faster disk performance is fairly evenly offset by the PowerMac's excellent performance in CPU-intensive operations.

Navigator palette

Another new palette will prove to be a boon to users who have found navigating a large image with the scroll bars or grabber hand to be a pain. The Navigation palette basically gives a miniature view of your image, and lets you rapidly move a "windowpane" around to to different parts of your large image.

The new version is neither appreciably bulkier nor significantly different in its hardware requirements than the 3.0 release-which, as long-time Photoshop users may recall, was a lot bigger and more demanding on system resources than previous versions had been.

Conclusion

Should users of previous release upgrade? For 2.x users, definitely. Users of 3.0 may find 4.0 seems a bit more like it should have been called "3.5," but the Actions palette alone is probably worth the price of admission.

Although in general, I would not rate the new release as a quantum leap, it has enough improvements to qualify as a worthwhile US$149 upgrade. The US$199 upgrade from any version of Photoshop LE is a great bargain, as well. Recommended.

Paint Shop Pro

While I'm making recommendations, I'd certainly have to put in a good word for JASC's Paint Shop Pro. For US$69 (a 30-day trial version is downloadable for free), you get a program that delivers most of the power of Photoshop and a pretty good interface to boot. Yes, Photoshop is better, but not that much better.

If you need Windows-based bitmapped graphics, scanning utility and/or screen capture program now and then, this should be your first stop. I've got Photoshop and I still use Paint Shop Pro for occasional tasks. It is very fast, and its screen-capture functions are great.

The same argument holds true for Corel's Photo-Paint application. Photo-Paint 7 is in the top five in terms of features, and it is right up there in terms of user interface. Corel's incredible pricing on the Corel Graphics Pack is the cheapest way to get version 6 of the program (various versions are also a part of recent CorelDraw packages), and there are few if any Photoshop-like functions it can't handle. In Dec. 1996, Corel announced that it would not continue selling Photo-Paint as a standalone package. Instead, you'll find it bundled with other Corel titles, such as the just-released US$99 Lumiere video-editing package, the above-mentioned Graphics Pack, and so on.

Contact: Adobe, Web site: http://www.adobe.com

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TCP Online February 1997 Issue