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Photoshop 6 Review: What it Means for Web Work
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Image ©Adobe. Used with permission.
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Photoshop 6 has been officially announced by Adobe, with shipping
scheduled for late September. I have been on the beta testing team
for several months, so have had a chance to actually work with the
new features. So what's the scoop from the Queen of Practical? If
you care about how fast you can get your work done, you will love
Photoshop 6.
I made myself a promise that I could play with some of the fancy
features for this article. But darn it, there will be a flurry of
articles on the fun stuff, and there are so many great production
improvements in this release, that I have to focus on that. I will
not ignore the new artistic elements. But, as is my normal style,
I am going to concentrate on the features that allow you to produce
professional work fast.
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Finally! Call me simple, but a highlight is
the addition of rounded rectangles to Photoshop's capabilities. Not
a selection boundary, which would have been nice, but part of the
new vector capability. Certainly a lot easier than blurring or levels,
or any of the other convoluted methods we have used to get a rounded
corner.
You can now at least shape text with the Warp Text
function. Not text on a path, but on the way.
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The Missing Pieces
There are a couple of features missing from Photoshop that regular
users have been complaining about for a long time – especially
in the Web world, where vector programs are not always part of the
production process. The first is rounded
rectangle capability. It has arrived ... sort of. You will
have to make the mental shift to vectors, which I will cover later,
but the shift is an easy one. Click and drag, add one click, and you
have a rounded rectangle selection.
The second plea I have heard over and over is for text
on a path. Again, this is not an official "text on
a path" as you will find in a vector drawing program, but the
Warp Text feature will handle simple text manipulations. There are
11 basic shape settings, with variations for each that will provide
a wide range of text effects. Best part ... the text remains editable,
and you can change the text warping parameters unless you render the
layer.
| And one from my personal want list. There is not
officially a multiple undo function,
but now there is the regular undo plus a Step Backwards and Step
Forward function in the same menu. Finally! |
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I have no idea why the strange name, but I'll take it. I know, I know,
there is the History palette, with all its wonderful capability, but
for recent goof ups, I still find multiple undo much faster. |
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Look where the brushes have found a home. In the new toolbar. Click
on the fly-out and choose your shape. Set your mode and opacity, and
away you go. No more "find the palette" or closing the palette
to clean up your screen, only to need it for the next step.
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Interface
I have been using Photoshop for nearly 10 years. Until now, the look
and basic operation has been remarkably stable through all the added
features. Fasten your seat belts for this version. If there is anything
that will cause you to feel out of balance with the new program, it
will be the new toolbar. It will feel awkward, and you may even say
a few bad words ... for about 10 minutes.
The big change is in the Tool Options.
Instead of the familiar palettes, the options values are now in a
toolbar at the top of the screen as shown below. Activate any tool,
and the options are presented for that tool. Although it takes some
adjustment time, it is amazingly fast once you break old patterns.
Great addition. However, I do wish I had a picture of my face the
first time I double clicked a tool ... and nothing happened.
The toolbar can be docked at the top or bottom of the screen (why
not the side?) or set loose. Unfortunately, you can't change the shape,
and it runs across the entire screen. So far I am hard pressed to
find a reason to set it free. Unless, of course, you have your palettes
on a different monitor ...
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