Since last December , thousands of digital imagination thrill seekers have had their own first look at Adobe Photoshop CS3 — agree to Adobe , more than a half - million people have downloaded the first - everpublic genus Beta versionof the icon editor .
But the public beta edition lacked some features that will be in the cargo ships version , due next month . I ’ve been work with a near - final reading of Photoshop CS3 in preparation for a forthcoming review of the shipping version . My initial take : CS3 is the proficient , most powerful interpretation of Photoshop yet — but there ’s elbow room for some refinement .
What’s new
The biggest news for Mac users is that Photoshop CS3 is a Universal Binary and thus runs dramatically quicker on Intel - base Macs . Macworld laboratory will be testing the terminal button , but even trial performed on the public beta showed significantly faster public presentation . And as an owner of dual - processor , 2GHz Power Mac G5 , I can report that CS3 ply well on old systems , too .
Photoshop ’s overall look and feel are unchanged , as are the immense absolute majority of the keyboard shortcuts that Photoshop users perform in their sleep . Still , Adobe has give Photoshop a modest side lift , impart dock that hold the program ’s many palette ( now call panel ) . you’re able to hide and show docks with a shiner click or keystroke , or set them up to disappear and re-emerge when you move the mouse toward the edge of the blind — much like Mac OS X ’s pier .
Alas , you ca n’t create docks on a second show . you could move venire there , but you ca n’t create a dock to hold them .
As for see enhancements , they ’re here in coon . They begin with Camera Raw 4 , the in style version of Adobe ’s in the altogether - format spiritual rebirth software . photographic camera Raw 4 ( also included with Adobe ’s Photoshop Lightroom ) provides far more ascendancy , from an enhanced curvature editor program to raw sliders for fine - tuning lighting to new black and white rebirth tool . There ’s also a non - destructive clon and healing brush dick that ’s idealistic for cleaning up sensor dust spot . And in a first , you may now open TIFF and JPEG files in Camera Raw and apply its tools to them .
A new Quick Selection tool allow you make selections by simply painting across image regions . You have to do some fine - tuning when selecting objects that have likewise colored backgrounds — the Quick Selection instrument is easy led wide by like colors — but the newfangled putz give way you a better head begin than the Magic Wand tool ever did .
A young Refine Edge statement replaces the Feather command and provides excellent control over selection edges , enable you to expand and compact them , for example , as well as preview the results . you could also give the Refine Edge command to layer masks , which greatly aids advanced compositing and cloak chores .
Photoshop CS3 also crap it well-heeled to go gray , thanks to a new Black and White adjustment that yield you exact ascendancy over how the image ’s colors are converted to bootleg and white . Several presets simulate a kind of photographic filters , and one even provides a reasonable simulation of infrared pic . ( Adobe contribute standardised presets to CS3 ’s enhanced Channel Mixer , which had been the previous tool of choice for black - and - white-hot conversion . ) And a raw “ eyedropper scrub brush ” lets you click and haul straight off on your look-alike to refine the spiritual rebirth of specific hues . Using it feel much more natural than type numerals or dragging a slider .
With Smart Filters , you could selectively use filter and change their circumstance later . Here , I applied the Motion Blur filter to the icon , then painted on its level mask to remove the blur from the fly fool .
Photoshop CS3 takes another step toward non - destructive redaction with the new Smart Filters feature , which let you hold filter without falsify the underlie image data point . As with adjustment layers , you’re able to use a stratum masque to selectively hide a filter ’s solution — for example , you’re able to apply a fuzz filter and then paint on its layer mask to reconstruct keenness to parts of the image ( see screenshot ) . And as with adjustment layers , you’re able to change a filter ’s preferences or remove it entirely .
What’s improved
There are dozens of improvements small-scale and large in Photoshop CS3 . The Curves dialog boxwood provides more control over double key and lets you save presets that you may enforce to other images .
A newfangled Clone Source panel works with the clone tender and healing brushing tools to greatly simplify accurate retouching . For case , you could trigger off an overlay that prove exactly what you ’re cloning and where . The new instrument panel also expands your creative options . you may , for example , specify that a clone object be scaled and rotated : turn one balloon into a 12 , each a unlike sizing and orientation .
Photoshop CS3 ’s Photomerge stitching feature does a far better job than CS2 ’s , with smoother blend and more control . And speak of alignment , new stratum - alliance features allow you put multiple images on separate layers and then have Photoshop adjust them . It ’s a great way to take several exposure of a group shot and compound them to capture the best facial expression from each phallus of the group .
Photoshop CS3 also sports a kinder , gentler Print dialog box that offers a reasonably large preview window and the layout controls that used to be present in the ( now gone ) Print with Preview dialog loge .
What to expect
There ’s much more in Photoshop CS3 — including an altogether separate version , Photoshop CS3 Extended , which add together sophisticated video and scientific - imagery features . We ’ll cover this rendering and the ease of Photoshop CS3 ’s enhancements in our schematic limited review of the transportation product .
It ’s obvious that Photoshop CS3 is the most knock-down translation of the mental image - redact app to date . But there is some room for interface refinement . While the dock are a nice enhancement to Photoshop CS3 ’s interface , the program has n’t suffer well-fixed to apply . Indeed , there are now more ways than ever to reach standardised undertaking . Black - and - clean interpretation is a good example : do you use the Grayscale command , the Black and White adjustment , the Channel Mixer , or the Convert to Grayscale selection in Camera Raw ? And the controls themselves for each of those functions are often inconsistently named .
mayhap that ’s just the nature of the brute : Photoshop may be too deep , too versatile , and too feature - rich for a one - approaching - fits - all blueprint philosophy . But after being spoiled by the user interface elegance of Adobe Lightroom and Apple ’s Aperture , it ’s tantalising to wish for some similar tidiness in Photoshop ’s user interface .
[ Senior Contributor Jim Heid write about digital mass medium . He is the author ofThe Macintosh iLife ’ 06(Peachpit Press , 2006 ) and range its companionWeb internet site . ]
