Home > Consumer Reviews > Adobe Photoshop Elements 1.0

Well, I bought this one, despite owning similar software (UL's Photoimpact, JASC's Paintshop Pro, MS Picture It Photo, etc.)It is an improvement over Photoshop LE (which I also have) and certainly better than Adobe's Photo Deluxe Family Edition, but it is not particularly easy to use. For instance, the new red-eye tool is horrible to use - not intuitive at all, and has nowhere near the options as Jasc's Painshop Pro. Yes, it is an improvement over the 'LE' version, which lacked a lot, but for home graphic-ites at the beginner or intermediate level, you will probably be better off with Microsoft's Picture It Platinum (which does some hand-holding) and Painshop Pro (JASC) which is outstanding. Using these various programs has made me value the ease and intuitiveness of Painshop Pro and Picture It much more than in the beginning. Not so with this new one from Adobe. If you're going to be a full fledged graphic artist, you probably need the real/full version of Photoshop (ver. 6.0). But if you're like most of the rest of us, I think you'll be happier with some others.

I have been using MS Photodeluxe for a couple of years now, but it always felt like it was missing something. Everyone said buy Photoshop, but you'll need to take a class on it to understand it (and a loan to pay for the software). Along comes Photoshop Elements with the promise of professional level tools, low cost, and easy to use interface. I jumped on it and unfortunately am a bit disappointed. I will eventually figure it out (after reading some books), but really don't feel it lives up to its hype. The help system is an embarrasment and doesn't follow the standards you see in other windows programs. Within help you can only get basic information. The program was obviously designed for Mac users who spend a lot of time in front of the screen manipulating images. It is not designed for windows users (doesn't follow standard menu layouts) and is not friendly to MS Office applications (ex. Photoshop graphics that have been pasted into Word cannot be edited again in Photoshop... actually they probably can be, but I'm not going to spend another four hours trying to get it to happen). Don't buy it if you are not going to commit a lot of time to learn Adobe products. I thought the days of excessive studying to learn software were over, but Adobe doesn't think so.

This incredible software is for "the rest of us". If you have the inspiration , but not the education to master Photoshop 6.0, this is the perfect match ! You get most of the necessary features of Photoshop without the need to have the manual in your lap the entire time you are working. I found this software to be so user-friendly that it has given me the confidence to work through other progams that I never would have tried. I recommend this software for anyone who wants to clean up a photo or go all the way to complicated layers.

I was intimidated by the cost and complexity of full scale Adobe Photoshop, but Elements solved that! Cheap and much easier for a person like me. I understand graphics as used on the web, and I want to make good ones, but I don't want to spend a lifetime working at the art of it. I scan slides for my website and have been troubled with dirt on older slides. Adobe Photoshop Elements has fixed that, along with improving every other aspect of fine tuning my photos.

I do basic to intermediate graphics work for my personal web page and post a lot of my digital photos online. Photoshop Elements fits my needs perfectly.

It has this cool Web Photo Album generator which generates a nicely laid out photo album consisting of HTML files and thumbnails. It is highly customizable and is great if you have lots of photos you want to post immediately.

It's also a very good image editor. It has all the features from the full version of Photoshop that I need.

If you're used to the Photoshop interface, but can't afford to shell out ($$$)for it, Photoshop Elements is for you!