Home > Consumer Reviews > Adobe Photoshop CS Upgrade (Windows)

I hate to bring the average rating of this product down but as a new entrant to the high level of digital imaging software I have a few beefs. But first...

Pros: Easy to install (WIN XP Pro) and so far doesn't appear to have any certain hangups. This software package is so amazingly robust that, as a beginner, learning to use it can be daunting at times. I'm just looking forward to getting my hands on a reference manual to help me learn to use it. The movie tutorial packaged with the software provides good lessons on the new features included in CS (by Total Training) as it shamelessly markets its other products. The File Browser and image preview features are excellent. I like the shadow/highlight feature which does a pretty good job of balancing out high contrast images. As I stated above, I'm a Photoshop virgin and don't have a lot to base my review on other than the fact that there is a huge learning curve you enter when attempting to use this powerful software.

Cons: Documentation and Activation. Especially activation. Now I can't travel with Photoshop on my laptop. I don't know what these software companies are thinking by only allowing one installation per software bundle. Most photographers have both a desktop and a laptop and I'm pretty sure they would like to have the software on both of their machines - I know I would. I'm about to go to Afghanistan for a year and I'd like to tote this software along with me on my laptop. Now I'll have to uninstall it from my desktop and reinstall it on my laptop. I wonder what kind of jerk-around the people at Adobe will give me when I try to do this and re-activate the software.... As far as documentation goes, Adobe could have saved a couple thousand trees and left out their fairly useless user's guide. Their online help is a waste of my hard drive space, too. I just need the Photoshop CS books to start hitting the shelf so I can get reference material that'll actually teach me how to use this awesome software.

Photoshop CS (forget the numbers from this point on, think "CS") comes back with an improved File Browser, with very nice features such as the ability for users to add keywords to the files, PhotoMerge (which will allow you to seamlessly put together two or more pictures that were shot "side by side" as in a landscape picture of a city, for instance), and a number of great features that will make the application friendlier to photographers.

Among the photographers' goodies comes embedded support for the Camera Raw file format (previously only available through a paid plug-in) and MatchColor to allow you to apply the color of one image to another. Those that scan multiple prints at once are up for a great surprise: the Cop and Straighten feature which does just that... as unbelievable as it sounds, it crops all the scanned pictures and rotate them so as to make them perfectly straight, eliminating the guesswork and the rework from this tedious process.

Once again, for image processing there just is no better option (considering it comes bundled with Image Ready as usual, Macromedia Fireworks' direct competition). Photshop has something in it for all, designers and photographers.

I wasn't planning to add a review here, but I do feel the need to clear up some misinformation. Adobe's standard license agreement does allow you to install on two computer systems simultaneously, provided that you're not using both at the same time. This is specifically to allow the scenario that several other people here have mentioned: using Photoshop on both a laptop and a desktop computer. You are permitted multiple activations to allow for this, and, if you do run out of activations, Adobe's customer service department will be quite reasonable in granting extensions. If you purchase software with activation and it causes problems, don't hesitate to let the company know so that they can fix it. But don't stay away from the software based on misinformed rumors about how activation works. If you'd rather not trust me or anyone else writing reviews here, contact Adobe and find out for yourself prior to purchasing.

Thank God for Customer Reviews - I am always running different compter systems through my home network - always purchasing the latest and greatest equip to stay one step ahead of my customers who need support. This means I load and reload all OS's and APP's on different machines (thought never more than 2 at a time). What drives me CRAZY is that I do have to call MS and beg them to let me re-use XP and Office again and again, and I have to explain to them why I need to re-install; like I'm asking for approval to take out the family car from my Dad.

Now Adobe wants me to call them every time I swap out systems - they just lost me, I thought I was a very good customer :-(

By the way, to the few who said that you performed the Activation and did not have any problems with the process; I think you missed the point of the second reviewer. He wasn't saying that the process did not work - he was saying that he will not participate in the process - like me!

Your first reaction to purchasing the CS upgrade may be a bit of disbelief about your decision as the user interface, at least on first blush, is almost identical to the PS 7 interface apart from the new splash screen and logo.

Don't be misled by the looks of it, CS sports several MAJOR improvements, and I've become increasingly more impressed as I've used it the past few weeks.

So far I'm especially thrilled about the more comprehensive (but not complete yet) 16-bit image support, camera RAW support plus auto-stiching of images, text on a path, customizable keyboard shortcuts, a facelift for OpenType fonts, more layer functions (comps, nested layer sets, and the ability to export both as individual files), and above all the vastly improved and far more useful File Browser.

It's now possible to create MM Flash animations with vector artwork and variable text in ImageReady CS, bundled with Photoshop CS just as before Enhanced ImageReady user interface and more image manipulations features and improvements, especially for web design.

If you're into video, there's now innate support for pixel aspect ratio correction and several presets for working at various video resolutions.

Ever wanted to match a particular color in an image and replace it with another one? Well, it's possible with a "Color Replacement Tool" which works a lot more accurately than selections.

The price is a bit steep for an "upgrade" but you won't regret it. Highly recommended!