Mike Posted…

From what I've read elsewhere, many design professionals think Photoshop CS is *hardly* worth the money for the upgrade.

Besides the support for 16bit RGB color, the other features are "dumbing down" the application, turning it into a training device for low-end designers who don't know how to do complex tasks with Photoshop yet.

Among the features lamented, there are various buttons now that are quick fixes ("Click here to fix red-eye", "Click here to make a drop shadow", etc.) for designers who would have no idea how to do it normally in Photoshop.

Illustrator is reported to have a brand-new text rendering engine too.

Mike

Tony Posted…

But the Layer Comps seems very cool. I just hope they'll have an option to turn Photoshop back into a "Pro" version.

James Posted…

I think the fact that they include pre-done template designs shows just how bad it's getting. I'm all for quicker ways to do boring things, but as a designer, it's a rare day I use generic templates.

Jesse Wilson Posted…

And here I thought the purpose of Adobe Photoshop Elements was to provide a "dumbed-down" version of Photoshop to the average user.

I would rather have seen Adobe fix the various problems and refine the application as a whole instead of implement some of the features that are now present. I've also heard that the new text rendering engine in Illustrator is horrid.

Scott Posted…

I really hate the fact that they have finally raped us of our undo key. It is as if they were getting us ready for this, originally making Ctrl+Z undo and Ctrl+Y redo, then Ctrl+Z undo/redo with the option of switching it back, now unless you drag out the history panel, you only get one undo, since the key is undo/redo no matter what. Why doesn't Adobe get a clue from Corel and make everything customizable. EVERYTHING.

Also, Mike was right. They didn't add **** to this version to make it worth anything near what they are asking. How many years has the design community been complaining about the render->lighting engine? Still the same.

Basically, they either need to start listening to the community; developing an "extension" installer like Macromedia has done so we can install the things that we need, or they will find that they are quickly becoming the Beta-Max of the design world.

Macmade Posted…

They didn't raped your undo key, Scott... You can't change it via the global preferences, but you can via Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts

Before crying, you'd better learn how to use your software...

RadoN Posted…

Macmade, can you tell me how you change Ctrl+Z - Undo/Redo to just Undo? I've look'd for it everywere :l and I don't see any option for changin it

Macmade Posted…

Go in the «Edit» menu, in «Keyboard Shortcuts»... Then, expand the Edit menu, and change the keys... For example, Com-Alt-Z for Undo/Redo, Com-Z for Step Backward, and Com-Shift-Z for Step Forward...

Enjoy...

huphtur Posted…

Nate: you better delete all these comments, this is turning into a warez discussion.

nate Posted…

Thanks Huphtur - I deleted 17 comments that were all about illegal software tips. Anyone getting here via google and adding similar comments can expect them to be deleted - don't bother.

Rich Lowenberg Posted…

My first impression is definitely that the new features are not new at all, they're just making existing functions more accessible. The lens blur seems to be exactly the same as applying gaussian blur on an alpha mask, it's just called something different. The file browser doesn't dock anymore! ARGH! That's going to take some getting used to.

There are a couple of basic things that are better - switching between Imageready and PS is now much easier, because it doesn't automatically take ages to update the file when you change programs. Layer comps is fairly useful, but not mindblowing, I've yet to actually need them and I've designed 3 complete sites with the program now. Cascading layers is definitely a plus, but why the hell they didn't have that in Photoshop 1 I have no idea.

Overall, I would never have paid to upgrade from 7 to 8, but the company I'm working for did so whatever. But I'd recommend people save their cash and stick with 7.