Photoshop 7: A Must-Have Upgrade!

Adobe System, Inc. officially announced today (February 25, 2002) Photoshop 7, the next version of the world’s premier image editing software. The breadth and depth of the improvements makes this an upgrade that’s certainly worth your dollars.

At first glance, the difference between Photoshop 7 and its predecessor doesn’t seem that important. But that first glance is deceiving! While this upgrade doesn’t have the instant impact of Photoshop 5.5’s inclusion of ImageReady, nor the in-your-face addition of Photoshop 6’s Options Bar, it will change the way we work.

Perhaps most significant is Carbonization. Photoshop 7 runs natively in Mac OS X. In addition, it is fully Windows XP compliant (although Photoshop 6 also runs well in XP). With the move to OS X, Photoshop 7 gains preemptive multitasking, protected memory, and a more stable operating environment. Those who run multiple programs simultaneously know how frustrating it is to lose work in one program because another crashes. OS X prevents that from happening: Under most circumstances, a program that locks up or crashes leaves the others unaffected.

Okay, then, now that we’ve covered the important-but-boring part of the upgrade, let’s take a quick look at some of the major new features:

FILE BROWSER Say goodbye to the Open command-you may never use it again. The File Browser, which can act as either a palette or a window, allows you to navigate, preview, open, even delete or rename files.

The primary area of the File Browser, to the right, shows previews of all documents that can be opened in Photoshop. (You won’t see previews of SVG or SWF files, since Photoshop cannot open them.) You can double-click a preview on the left or right to open the image in Photoshop.

To the upper left (in the default “expanded” view) is a hierarchical directory, such as that used in Windows Explorer. Click on the arrow (or plus/minus in Windows) to expand or collapse a folder. Click on a folder to jump to its contents. (And note the pop-up navigation menu above the right-hand frame.) In the middle on the left is a larger, individual preview area shows the selected file. At the bottom of the left column is file information. Digital photographers especially will be happy to know that in addition to general file information, EXIF data can be displayed. The dividers between the panes can be dragged to re-size them, too. The preview on the left will re-size itself automatically to adjust to changes in the size of the pane.

Here’s one of the coolest features of File Browser: drag a file from the right side into a folder either there or in the navigation pane on the left to move it. Yes, really, you actually move the file, just as you would in the Mac Finder or My Computer for Windows. Open a folder full of digital photos and sort them as you go. Hey, want to rename them? Click on the file name and start typing. Again, the change isn’t made just in Photoshop, but to the actual file itself. (And, in an effort to keep us from shooting ourselves in our feet, File Browser doesn’t let us accidentally delete the file extension.)

Notice that below each file name is “Rank.” File Browser allows you to assign a priority or category, from A through E, to each file. You can sort by name, rank, file size, width, height, and more.

In the lower right corner you’ll see a couple of buttons. The trash can, of course, deletes the selected image. The curved arrow rotates the preview. If you rotate a thumbnail and open the image, Photoshop automatically applies the rotation for you.

File Browser creates a cache that stores the thumbnails and file data for the contents of a folder. You can export this data to the folder to speed the File Browser next time you look at the folder. This is especially valuable when burning a disc - export the cache just before you burn and include it on the CD or DVD.

The File Browser can be docked in the Palette Well for easy access (it functions like a palette), or it can be opened using the File or Window menus (it works like a window). In window mode, Photoshop’s floating palettes ride above the File Browser, and it can remain open behind the active document window.

TOOL PRESETS
So, you set headlines in 36-point Adobe Garamond Pro Semibold, Strong anti-aliasing, 30 point leading, tracking at -10. But body text requires Bodoni, 12-point, Crisp anti-aliasing, 14-point leading, and default tracking.

Perhaps you often crop images to 4×6 inches at 240 dpi. And just as often you crop them to 5×7 inches at 200 dpi. But sometimes you need 5×7 @ 240, or 4×6 @ 200, or 8×10 @ 240.

How would you like to change all of those setting with a single click? Welcome to the Tool Presets palette! Set up a tool with whatever options you desire and save it as a preset. Change to that tool, with those options, with a single click. Talk about a time saver! Just as File Browser makes the Open palette seem provincial and under-powered, so does the Tool Presets palette make the Toolbox look archaic.

Perhaps now we switch from the Move tool to the Type tool, then go to the Options Bar to select font. And style. And size. And anti-aliasing. And alignment. And THEN have to go to the Character palette because we need to adjust leading and tracking and height and width and baseline. In the future, we’ll simply pop over to the Tool Presets palette and click on the Preset labeled Headline or Body text or whatever else we call it. (Yes, tool presets can be named.)

You can set the Tool Presets palette to show all presets, or only those for the active tool. (You can still switch tools with a keyboard shortcut, so the Toolbox isn’t even necessary when Tool Presets is set to Current Tool Only.)

SAVED WORKSPACES
Just as you can save tool presets, Photoshop 7 allows you to save “workspaces.” Set up the palettes just as you like them for Web design. Save the workspace. Move those palettes into the positions most appropriate for your color correction work. Save the workspace. Switch back and forth using the list at the bottom of the Window> Workspace menu.

HEALING BRUSH and PATCH TOOL
Among the flashiest of Photoshop 7’s new capabilities are the Healing Brush and the Patch Tool. Designed to help you clean up and restore scanned images, they are a step beyond the Clone Stamp tool. The Healing Brush, with an icon that looks like a Band-Aid (it even glows in the correct color when you mouse over it in the Toolbox), can repair damage without removing texture or lighting. This allows a more natural look to the result, avoiding the Clone Stamp tool’s possible “discount plastic surgery” appearance.

The Patch tool works similarly to the Healing Brush, but uses selections to define an area to be “healed.” You make a selection, change to the Path tool, and select either Source or Destination in the Options Bar. Drag the selection with the Patch tool to the pixels that you want to fix (Destination) or the ones from which you want to copy (Source). (HINT: When you first start playing with this, think “Where am I dragging to?” The answer to that is Source or Destination.) Like the Healing Brush, the Patch tool retains lighting and texture in the pixels being repaired.

SPELL CHECKER, FIND/REPLACE
Oh, how we’ve asked for these features! The advances Photoshop has made in the type arena have been huge, and we’re almost “there” now. (It’s hard to believe that just a few short years ago Photoshop type capability was limited to making selections in the shape of letters.) Photoshop is still not ready to replace Quark, InDesign, and PageMaker, but it’s definitely going to make some of our lives easier.
One extremely cool feature of Photoshop 7’s new Spell Checker is its multi-lingual support. You can assign a language (dictionary) on a word-by-word basis, making it as easy as Apfelstrudel to spell check multi-lingual sentences.

While Photoshop 7’s Find and Replace Text command doesn’t quite have the sophistication of, say Microsoft Word’s Replace feature, it’s certainly adequate for an image editing program. Here you see the Replace capabilities of Photoshop 7 (top) and MS Word (bottom) compared. Word offers search by formatting, special characters, and more.

IMPROVED BRUSHES PALETTE
Photoshop 7 marks the return of the leave-it-open Brushes palette. When moving to Photoshop 6, for many one of the most difficult transitions was the auto-closing Brushes palette. Some never seem to have adjusted to not leaving the palette open on screen. That’s just one of the changes to the Brushes palette.

Far more important that being able to leave the palette open on screen are the changes to Photoshop’s painting engine. The Brushes palette gives you control over more than 40 painting variables, from textures to fine art media to special effects. The Dual Brush mode vastly increases the number of effects you can produce.

The new Brushes palette has nine different panes, making it seem rather daunting at first. Let’s take a peek at a couple of the key sections. Much like the familiar Layer Styles window, you’ll see a list of panes on the left side. You can click the checkboxes to activate with the current settings or you can click on the category names to open the pane containing those variables.

The Brush Presets pane is rather basic, allowing you to select a brush tip and scale it. Scale it? Yes, that’s right, any brush tip - round, square, pattern - can be scaled, from one pixel to 2500 pixels.

Other panes of the Brushes palette give you control over quite a variety of options, many of which can be controlled with a Wacom tablet’s pen.

Perhaps the most impressive trick (and potentially the most rewarding when mastered) is Dual Brush. Combining a pair of brushes can produce very complex patterns.

(We’ll be presenting much more on the new painting engine and the Brushes palette in the coming weeks.)

DOCUMENT PRESETS
Here’s a time saver that most of will be quite happy to use immediately. Photoshop’s menu New dialog box now includes presets.

The presets automatically set not only the dimensions but also the resolution. (Color mode is not changed automatically.)

PATTERN MAKER
Make a selection and use the pattern maker plug-in (you’ll find it under the Filter menu). Photoshop 7 generates a seamless, non-repeating pattern. Grass, rock, wood, pavement, cloth, abstracts. The dialog box even allows you to determine the size and offset of the new pattern.

. . . AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!
-Photoshop 7 offers support for the WBMP file format. That’s the graphics format often used for PDAs and wireless devices.

-The new Auto Color command (under the Image> Adjust menu) goes beyond Auto Levels and Auto Contrast. It checks the highlights, midtones, and shadows to check for color casts. Unlike Auto Levels, it doesn’t change the dynamic range of the image.

-PANTONE metallic inks anyone? Just as you select PANTONE Coated and Uncoated inks, Photoshop 7 allows you to select metallics.

-Improvements to ImageReady’s Rollovers palette will be warmly welcomed by Web professionals. View all slices, rollovers, animations, and image maps. And add layer-based slices with a single click.

-A new anti-aliasing option called Sharp is specifically targeted toward the Web (although it looks good with lots of small type).

-Dithered transparency gives the appearance of partial transparency. Say hello to shadows on the Web!
-Another major Web-related advance is weighted optimization for type and vectors. Assigning a higher priority to vectors allows them to remain sharp when prepared for Web.

-Most of the filter dialog boxes have larger preview windows.

-Liquify is more user-friendly, including a Zoom tool and a companion Hand tool. You’ll also find a new Turbulence tool.

-Both Picture Package and Web Photo Gallery have been worked over, and you’ll find them both more efficient and more flexible.

The Bottom Line
There’s much more to say about Photoshop 7, and between this announcement of Photoshop 7 and the actual shipment of the product, you’ll hear a whole bunch more. We’ll all make our own upgrade decisions, based on work requirements and budget. But if you can, get in line now - you’ll love Photoshop 7, especially if you’re moving to Mac OS X.

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