i/s Back Issues

Volume 17

No. 6  July/August 2002

Adobe Photoshop 7 Enhances Creativity and Productivity

Robyn Fizz

Adobe Systems recently released Photoshop 7 for Windows and Macintosh. This version of Adobe's image-editing software offers a File Browser for managing images and new tools for painting, retouching, and correcting color. Better options for out-putting to the Web come courtesy of ImageReady 7, a companion program that's part of the package. Also with this release, Photoshop is now compatible with Windows XP and Mac OS X.

As has always been the case with Photoshop, the more muscle your machine has, the better. This version requires 128MB of RAM (192MB recommended) and 280MB of available hard disk space (320MB for Macintosh).

File Browser
Photoshop's new File Browser lets you view images as thumbnails with- out opening them. You can quickly locate and organize images on your hard drive, other drives, and CDs. Within this utility, you can create new folders; rename, move, and delete files; and rotate images. The Batch Rename feature lets you rename multiple files at once. Note that transformations applied in the File Browser stay in effect when you open an image.

The File Browser has four panes that you can customize.

	The Tree view lets you navigate disks and folders that contain images.
	The Thumbnail pane displays the images, letting you choose among five size options. The Small Thumbnail option lets you see the most images at once. At the other end, the Large Thumbnail with Rank option lets you see larger views ranked in an order you determine. For example, you could mark images as "original," "proof," or "final," then sort by those criteria.
	The Preview pane displays a selected image in a larger size.
	The Metadata pane provides details about a selected image, such as date created and modified, file size, file format, and color mode. It also includes file information from digital cameras.

Retouching Tools
While the File Browser wins high marks for utility, the Healing Brush Tool is probably Photoshop 7's most eye-opening new feature. The Healing Brush lets you easily remove artifacts such as dust, scratches, blemishes, and wrinkles. Unlike the Clone Stamp Tool, the Healing Brush automatically preserves shading, lighting, texture, and other attributes when cloning within one image or from one image to another.

Related to the Healing Brush (and sharing the same space on the Tools palette) is the Patch Tool. It does the same work as the Healing Brush, but on selections and channels.

Painting Engine
Photoshop's new painting engine gives users more creative options. It can realistically simulate traditional painting techniques such as pastels and charcoal, as well as wet and dry brush effects. Using the Brushes palette, you can adjust settings for shape, texture, and many other attributes, and save those settings as custom brush presets.

You can also create new painting effects by combining two different brushes.

Color Correction
Photoshop's new Auto Color command lets you adjust the contrast and color of an image, offering reliable, one-step color correction. It does a good job of removing color casts. Move over, Auto Levels.

ImageReady 7
ImageReady, the companion application to Photoshop, lets you create image maps, slices, animations, and rollover buttons for the Web. Some of the new features in ImageReady include:

Rollovers palette -- This palette displays all the image maps, slices, rollovers, and animations in a file, giving you a convenient overview of the various document states.

	Remap transparencies -- You can now make web page elements transparent by clicking on the color you want to exclude. You can remap more than one color at a time and restore the original settings.
	Dither transparencies -- This option lets you create partial transparent effects. You can easily blend web graphics into backgrounds, even patterned ones.
	Preview wireless device images -- You can now preview and save for the Web in WBMP format, commonly used for displaying images on PDAs and cell phones. WBMP images contain only black and white pixels.

Purchase and Support
You can purchase Photoshop 7 at an academic discount through GovConnection. The academic price is $259.41. An upgrade from a previous version costs $139.95.

To get the discount, begin at http://web.mit.edu/ecat/govconnection/

Certificates are required.

IS offers limited support for Photoshop, primarily through training. As of October, beginning and advanced Photoshop courses taught in W89 will use the newest version of the software. For details about these courses, see the Computer Training page at http://web.mit.edu/ist/training/

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