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Two graphic artists serving as beta testers for Adobe Systems Inc.s Photoshop CS2 told Publish.com they are very impressed with this latest version.
“Ive been using Photoshop for many years, and this is the most significant upgrade yet,” said Steve Caplin, a London-based graphic artist who has written several books on Photoshop.
Frank Hatcher, an American graphic artist living in Okinawa, Japan, and a co-partner of WZ2K—Digital Illusions Explained, a Web site that offers video and PDF training in graphic arts and Web design, said, “This is the best version of Photoshop I have ever used.”
The new version is part of Adobes Creative Suite 2, which is scheduled to ship in May and also includes new versions of Illustrator, InDesign and GoLive as well as Version 7 of Adobe Acrobat.
So what does Photoshop CS2 offer that has caused these two artists to sound as if they had been cued by Adobes PR department?
According to Jupiter Research Senior Analyst Joe Wilcox, Adobe has succeeded in improving Photoshops features with every single release, partly because the company stays in tune with the innovations within its space.
“Were reaching an interesting inflection point with digital cameras. Slightly more than 50 percent of Americans have digital cameras, and the declining price of digital SLR cameras means that a photographer working for a small or medium-sized business can buy a Canon digital SLR for as little as $800 or $700 for just the body, and take the lenses from his or her old camera to the digital world,” Wilcox explained.
Photoshop CS2s native support for the camera Raw format, what Adobe calls the Raw Dialog feature, should greatly appeal to these users, Wilcox continued.