Surprise! CS2 doesn't suck!
May 6, 20:56
My desk at work was relocated, and as a result I am now using a new computer, one that was recently reinstalled from scratch. I was pleasently surprised to discover that both Photoshop and Illustrator CS2 had been installed. I wasn’t planning on buying them for myself anytime soon, but I was eager to test out the new versions and see if they were really worth the upgrade.
I spend many more hours in Photoshop than in Illustrator; today was no exception. Photoshop has matured somewhat, with several strangely-missing features finally added.
My favorite new feature so far is without doubt the ability to select multiple layers. I always wondered why it was that ImageReady had this ability, and Photoshop did not. Now it’s easy to move several layers around, put them in folders, etc. The way it should have always been.
Next up are the new Smart Objects, which are a new layer type. There used to be a NeXT and Mac OS X graphics program called Tiffany that kept all layers as full resolution until they were saved out to a certain resolution file. With CS2, this ability has been added to
Photoshop. This solves the problem of multiple transformations sucessively reducing image quality. Smart Objects work with vector data, such as Illustrator art, and bitmaps. Suddenly multiple undos seem less important.
Adobe changed the GUI in the CS2 series, giving users a few new useful abilities, and also doing a certain amount of what seems to be changing-for-changing’s-sake. The tabs on palettes are now more rounded, shadowed, and, in my opinion, more obnoxious. The font size in some parts of the GUI is now adjustible, though, which is a nice feature for those that have difficulty reading the standard tiny type. Additionally, painting cursers now have an option to display a cross-hair in the center when using brush size mode.
Also included in PS CS2 is the new Image Warp function, which allows for more flexible in-place image warping, and new filters including the impressive Vanishing Point, Noise Reduction, and Red Eye.
I only used Photoshop CS2 for a few hours today, so I have yet to try out all of the new features. I didn’t get to spend enough time with Illustrator to notice anything other than the GUI changes. So far I have been very happy with the upgrade, as it seems to have delivered substantial improvements to my workflow. MacUser says that Photoshop CS2 ‘is the most significant upgrade… since Layers were introduces in version 3’. That’s quite a statement to make, and while I’m not agreeing, I will say PS CS2 is a big step forward.
However, Adobe is still on my shit list. For one, Camera Raw 3.1 requires CS2. This is lame. I know that CS2 is the newest, most current version, but this is such a blatant upgrade motivator. And then there’s the whole Macromedia ordeal. All of which goes to show that while Adobe might occasionally kick out some great software, it’s still run by money grubbing bastards.