The fact that it’s Mac OS X native is one of the most talked about features of the new Photoshop 7. However, it also comes with lots of under-the-hood enhancements and “gotta have” tools, according to Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and editor-in-chief of Photoshop User magazine.
“Photoshop 6 was a very visual update, you saw the interface changes right out of the box,” he told MacCentral. “When Photoshop 7 launches, you don’t get that ‘wow, an all new look’ experience, even though it has the Aqua interface. But when you start digging into it, it’s a much more compelling upgrade than version 6 was. When we first got our hands on it, we thought it was interesting, but weren’t blown away. But when we started digging into Photoshop 7, we realized that it was like an onion: the deeper you peel, the more you find.”
Some of the new tools, such as the Healing Brush and Patch tools, along with the ability to have tool presets, make this a “very robust” upgrade, Kelby said.
“With the tool presets, you can pick a tool and put all your own settings in and save them in a palette, so you can get to them any time you want,” Kelby said. “People don’t realize how this will change way they will work with Photoshop.”
The Photoshop User Web site has QuickTime movies and a downloadable six-page PDF with all the new features of Photoshop 7.
Meanwhile, Photoshop 7 is huge news on the at this week’s Photo Marketing Association (PMA) Show in Orlando, FL, according to Kelby. He said it’s “stealing the thunder” of digital cameras.
Macworld has also published an in-depth review of Photoshop 7 and Macworld Magazine will feature Photoshop in the April issue.
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