Home > Consumer Reviews > Adobe Photoshop 6.0 [OLD VERSION]

If you've read any of the other reviews I've submitted on various image-editing programs, you'll see that I mention that I do photography professionally and Photoshop is pretty much where I've put most of my faith. Photoshop is, after all, the top shelf in image editing software and Adobe has made some significant improvements with this version. I won't mention them again here because you've probably read them all in the other reviews, most of which I agree with. A big problem with this, and again, one that's mentioned in most of the other reviews, is the speed. I've got this program on a system that's a 750 MHz Pentium III and has plenty of RAM and it's still slow. An associate of mine has Photoshop 6.0 on a 1.5 GHz Pentium IV and it's not the speediest. I'll more than likely continue to use Photoshop in my work and I'll never bad-mouth it because it is a superb piece of work, but as I said in another review, I'm using Ulead Photo Impact 6.0 more frequently all the time. Using the Photoshop plug-ins with the Ulead program is a wonderful combination in my opinion.

One main intent here is aimed at the home imaging crowd. Adobe Photoshop is a "household name" in photo imaging software, and for that reason, people run out and buy Photoshop to take home and "have fun" with their pictures. Unless you have a considerable amount of disposable income, a lot of time on your hands for learning purposes, and do a lot of image editing and web work, this probably isn't the program for you. I know a few people that bought Photoshop because they always heard "Adobe Photoshop is the best", and though it very well may be the best, these people were heartsick when their frustration level peaked and the buyers remorse set in. And once it's opened, you know as well as I do that you probably can't return it. This is a program with a Jekyll-Hyde personality and one that can promote a love/hate relationship. I don't think it's a fair statement to say that "nothing compares with Photoshop". There really isn't any other image editing program out there that costs $..., so comparing is a bit difficult. Photoshop truly does stand alone. So for you weekend editors, get a fuctional program that allows you to do what you want and need to do and has a straightforward user interface that won't take an eon to learn to use. Use the extra money for a better digital camera or a vacation to take more pictures. At least if I decide I really don't want to use Photoshop 6.0 as much as I should to make it worth the investment, I can write it off my taxes....can you?

There are certain software packages that I skip versions of as I don't feel they're worth the upgrade: Photoshop has always been an exception. This is the number 1 app I use in my work and with each new version it gets easier to accomplish that work.

With the release of Photoshop 6, Adobe has made a number of interface changes and/or enhancements. Most notably is the context-sensitive toolbar at the top of the screen. It might take some time to get used to but I feel it's one of those things that most users won't want to get rid of once they've experienced it. Other features include new selection tools, more color palettes and choices, better layer management and the ostensibly useless Liquify effect. I'm sure someone out there will find a way to abuse this feature.

One overlooked feature that seems to have gone unnoticed by most previous beta reviews is the annotation tool. In my work, this will come in handy for jotting down design notes such as what typefaces and colors were used to create an image, etc. It's similiar to a little Post-It™ Note that you can attach to your images. Overall, Photoshop 6 is a great product and worth upgrading to.

I have been using Photoshop since version 3. With each subsequent version, Adobe continues to add more and more features and functionality. These continued additions are what makes the program both wonderful and a monster all at the same moment.

Photoshop is undeniably the number one tool for photographic and other image maniputlation. If you are looking to get into professional design this is the tool to learn. It is highly appropriate for both print and electronic design. There is little you can imagine that it cannot do. If however you are a beginner who simply wants to use a graphics package to make images for a personal website or edit family photographs, then buy something else. (I suggest Photoshop Elements or Jasc's Paint Shop Pro.)

Photoshop is overkill for the non-professional user. Some might argue that buying a toolbox that contains every imaginable tool is best. I'd argue that you may break from the weight of all that it requires you to learn. If you buy this software realize it can take months and years to master. While the effort is truly worth it, decide first if you really want to invest not just the considerable purchase price, but also the personal cost of time to learn and master it.

I agree with some of the various other reviews. While Photoshop 6 has added some interesting innovations, the speed at which the program runs is ridiculous. It takes way too long to open the layer options menus and many of the other menus, and some things just take too long to find if you're not sure where to look for them. I like the enhancements for the most part, but I too find myself switching back and forth between versions 5.5 and 6.0, using the more than adequate version 5.5 when I require speed and ease of use. I am running version 6.0 on a 500 MHz PIII system with 128 Megs of RAM, and it still runs ridiculously slow. Hopefully Adobe will release an update soon. Still, if you're into graphics and don't mind a bit of waiting for menus to pop up, I recommend this product to anyone who has a system that can handle it.

Adobe Photoshop has until recently been a full-timer's tool. Like Oracle or Unix, you either lived in it and loved it, or you didn't use it at all.

But the Photoshop user base is changing. The Web has boosted the demand for bitmap graphics, and created a new breed of multimedia developers who use a huge range of tools for content creation and publication. And the rise of digital cameras and scanners has opened bitmap editing to consumers.

So Photoshop is changing from its traditional position as part of Adobe's imaging solution, a tool to be used alongside Illustrator and Web-aware tools like ImageReady and ImageStyler. Now it's eating features from the rest of Adobe's imaging line.

* Photoshop eats Illustrator: Photoshop 6.0 has sprouted serious text-editing tools. They end the old routine of importing Illustrator text to Photoshop. Decent control of letter spacing and justification appears for the first time. And Photoshop text is now editable on the page, a mere six years of so after the under-rated and now sadly wasted Corel Photo-Paint first performed this trick.

* Photoshop eats ImageReady. The new ImageReady 3.0 is bundled with Photoshop 6.0, just as its predecessor was biundled with Photoshop 5.5. And Web tasks such as JavaScript rollovers and animations still require you to jump to ImageReady, an inconvenient process. But ImageReady 2.0's simple shape-creation tools have made it to Photoshop this time around. ImageReady's on track to disappear completely into Photoshop at about Photoshop 7.0.

* Photoshop eats ImageStyler. ImageStyler 1.0's slightly gimmicky but sometimes useful "styles" appear in Photoshop 6.0 too, letting you create buttons and, um, more buttons. There's little chance of a separate ImageStyler 2.0.

So Photoshop now does most of what a Web developer would want it to do. It has garnered mostly laudatory reviews, both for its continuing power and for implementing features that other programs already had. But there are prices to be paid. There's the money: at these prices, Adobe gives the Mastercard a beating it won't soon forget. There's the speed; version 6.0 runs slower than any before it. And there's the famous Photoshop learning curve, which is becoming a problem as Adobe aims Photoshop at that wider audience.

The loyalists won't acknowledge it, but Adobe has an interface problem. The program works like Unix, letting power users into an exclusive club while alienating everyone else. It has added a new context-sensitive toolbar to version 6.0. Yet it still buries powerful features and eschews basic interface devices like a Save button in favour of memorable keyboard combinations like Control-Alt-Shift-S (that's the command for saving a Web-ready graphic, so Web developers should keep their fingers flexible). The new shape-creation tools have aspects that are obscure even by Adobe's standards. So an increasing number of mid-level Photoshop users - especially Web development shops and individual users - are paying for power they can't access. They've bought a BMW, but they can't get it out of second gear.

This interface problem, though, seems unlikely to end Photoshop's dominance. The program's new audience is following the high-end professionals' lead. They want industry-standard tools. And amongst bitmap graphics professionals, Photoshop remains the industry standard.

If you do Web development, own fast hardware and you're currently with version 5.0 or earlier - or if you create substantial amounts of bitmap text or simple button-like shapes - Photoshop 6.0 is an important upgrade. And if you're entering serious bitmap graphics, it's the one tool to have. As long as you can afford it, and as long as you're prepared for its sometimes unnecessary difficulties.