Adobe Photoshop 5.5 New Feature Highlights
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Power Macintosh/Windows® 95 & 98/Windows NT® 4.0 version Adobe® Photoshop® 5.5 New Feature Highlights The world-standard Adobe Photoshop 5.5 software delivers the reach of the Web and the power of print in one complete image- image-editing editing solution. With Photoshop 5.5, you can design eye-catching images and then prepare them for Web solution for print distribution or for printed output with the same integrated ease. Instead of pulling together a hodge-podge and the Web of programs to support your Web graphics production, you can rely on a consistent world-class solution. Whether you’re a creative professional who’s passionate about print, a Web designer or producer who’s de- voted to the Web, or someone designing for both, Photoshop 5.5 provides the toolset you need to create brilliant results. Photoshop 5.5 presents powerful new Web optimization features to help you create high-quality Web graph- ics with the smallest possible file sizes: you can, for example, compare an original image and several opti- mized versions as you apply compression settings in a LiveView window, manage colors, check browser dither, and more. With the LiveView window, you can achieve exactly the right balance between image qual- ity and file size for all of your Web graphics. Photoshop even delivers an extraordinary new Lossy GIF feature, which lets you produce GIF files that are 10–50% smaller than previously possible with minimal loss of im- age quality. Photoshop 5.5 includes the Adobe ImageReady™ 2.0 component for advanced Web-production tasks such as creating sliced images, sophisticated JavaScript rollovers, dynamic animations, and image maps. This compo- nent looks and behaves so much like Photoshop that you can jump between them easily. You can even undo steps performed in one program in the other, and you can preserve all of the layers and attributes in a file through successive round-trips between these programs. Photoshop 5.5 also fulfills customers’ requests for several creativity features. You can work with new masking tools that are easier to use and that help you mask image areas with hard-to-define edges. A new art history brush lets you paint images with painterly strokes using source data from a specified history state or snap- shot. Photoshop 5.5 even includes new contact sheet capabilities, so you can export a single image in multiple sizes as a picture package. You can also export multiple images on contact sheets or as a Web-based gallery. Together these new features extend the rich functionality that has long made Photoshop the tool of choice for anyone producing digital images. This document introduces the powerful new Web functionality in Photoshop 5.5, as well as its new creative features. It illustrates all of the ways in which Photoshop continues to deliver the leading image-editing solu- tion in the world. Rely on Consistent Adobe Design Tools One of the hallmarks of Adobe’s professional graphics programs is the consistency in look and feel among these programs. Wherever possible, Adobe programs share similar commands, tools, palettes, and keyboard shortcuts, so you can instantly apply what you know about one program to another. Adobe Photoshop 5.5 continues this tradition, providing tight integration and a smooth workflow with its advanced Web produc- tion component, Adobe ImageReady 2.0. In addition, Photoshop 5.5 supports the new Portable Document Format (PDF) 1.3 standard introduced by Adobe Acrobat® 4.0. This section describes how this integration ® supports your Web- and print-based workflows. 2 Adobe-Standard User Interface From the moment you insert the Photoshop 5.5 CD-ROM in your CD drive, you’ll experience the consis- tency between Photoshop and ImageReady. For starters, you can install them at the same time in one effi- cient step. As you work in both programs, you’ll notice numerous similarities. For example, ImageReady offers many of the same tools as Photoshop, including the pencil, paintbrush, eyedropper, rubber stamp, airbrush, line, dodge, burn, sponge, sharpen, blur, crop, and smudge tools. These tools work identically in both programs. Because they’re available in both programs, you can work more flexibly, making image adjustments wherever you are in your Web workflow. The History, Actions, and Layers palettes also look and behave similarly in both programs. For example, the History palette in each program helps you undo any number of steps. The Actions palette records a se- quence of steps, such as the steps involved in color correcting or saving images in different file formats. You can then play actions to apply those steps to other images. The Layers palette displays the layers in an image, so you can select and apply attributes to specific layers. The Color, Swatches, Brushes, and other palettes also provide consistent functionality between Photoshop and ImageReady. ImageReady and Photoshop even offer similar commands, such as the Layer Effects, Levels, and Load Selection commands. Note: While the Actions palettes perform identically in Photoshop and ImageReady, actions recorded in one program cannot be used in the other. The Layers palette provides an excel- lent example of the integration between Photoshop and Photoshop ImageReady ImageReady: this palette is virtually Work with common identical in each image-editing tools that program. Differ- behave the same way in ences appear only both programs. to support pro- gram-specific features, such as the animation features in ImageReady. Palettes in Photoshop 5.5 Palettes in the ImageReady 2.0 component These similarities offer only a few examples of the built-in integration between Photoshop and ImageReady. The bottom line is this: if you’re familiar with Photoshop, you can pick up ImageReady almost instantly. And if you’re new to Photoshop, you can absorb both programs quickly, without encountering the puz- zling—and production-stopping—inconsistencies of other Web-graphics “solutions.” Seamless Workflow for Web Graphics Photoshop 5.5 supports an efficient workflow with ImageReady. You can, for example, move files back and forth between the two programs numerous times without any data loss. Layers, layer effects, type, and other file attributes are all flawlessly preserved. Changes made in one program are even preserved as history states in the other program, so you can undo those steps easily. In addition, you can jump from one program to the other instantly by clicking the Jump To icon on the toolbox in either Photoshop 5.5 or ImageReady 2.0. If the other program is running, the focus switches to that program instantly and the image you’re preparing appears, so you can work with it. If the program isn’t Click the Jump-To buttons at the bottom of either the Photoshop or running, then Photoshop or ImageReady launches the other program and transfers the image to it for editing. ImageReady toolboxes to switch to the other program and open the When you jump from one program to the other, the image stays open and active in both programs. You file you’re working on. decide whether the changes you’re making in the second program automatically update the image in the first program when you save, or whether you must manually update the image when you return to the first program. Each time you update the original image, those changes appear in a single history state in the History palette for that program. You can then undo changes easily after you return to the first program if you change your mind later about an edit you’ve made. 3 Let’s look at an example of how this workflow supports you: imagine for a moment that you’ve created a layered illustration in Adobe Illustrator® software. You’ve then imported those layers into Photoshop and added numerous effects to different layers. Now you’re creating an eye-catching animation with those layers in ImageReady. In the middle of this task, you realize you need to tweak an effect in Photoshop again. You simply click the Jump To button on the ImageReady toolbox to transfer the image (and all its layers and file attributes) back to Photoshop, adjust the effect, and update the change in ImageReady. Later, if you change your mind about the adjustment, you can undo the Photoshop changes in ImageReady by clicking the relevant history state in the History palette and starting again from that point. When you perform actions in one program, save your changes, and jump back to the other program, those changes appear as an AutoUpdate state on the History palette. You can then quickly undo those changes. PDF 1.3 and Other Support Photoshop 5.5 extends its long-standing support for other professional Adobe design programs by updating its PDF support—it now opens PDF files saved in the new PDF 1.3 standard introduced by Acrobat 4.0. PDF 1.3 files offer better support for: • high-end print production • the robust printing capabilities in Adobe PostScript 3™, including PostScript 3 Smooth Shading for the smoothest blends possible at any resolution • color management and embedded ICC profiles • font embedding and printing • late-stage edits By opening PDF 1.3 files, Photoshop supports a PDF 1.3-based workflow that involves Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign™, and other Adobe programs. In addition, you can configure Photoshop and ImageReady to jump to Adobe Illustrator or other graphics editing programs as easily as they jump from one to the other. You can also set ImageReady to jump to an HTML editor, such as Adobe GoLive™ software. If these programs are installed when you install Photoshop 5.5, the installer creates the connection automatically. If you install an Adobe graphics editing program afterwards or want to link to a non-Adobe program, you simply add an alias or shortcut to the appropriate subfolder in the Helpers folder in the Adobe Photoshop 5.5 folder.