So what's new?

This package will supersede Photoshop 7 and become the new standard. It's hoped by Adobe that people will buy this new 'CS' version as a suite of software ('CS' standing for 'Creative Suite') - the total package costs around £1,000 in the UK and comprises:

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe In Design
Adobe Go Live

Fortunately Photoshop CS will be available as a 'stand alone' package - albeit at just over £600.
Upgrades from previous versions (but not all) can be made.

What does Photoshop CS offer to photographers?
Here's a brief résumé:

Improved File Browser - Incorporating features found in 'Adobe Album' - it will look a little like a 'light-box' and have a vastly improved 'search' facility.

16 bit operation (almost) throughout - Improved bit-depth and handling of 16 bit information from other sources - digital cameras, scanners, etc. Higher quality images - but watch out for much larger file sizes!

RAW File Reader - An essential component for importing images from digital cameras using this file type. The need for a 'RAW Reader' package, available from Adobe, is eliminated.

Canvass Size - The choice of canvass colour can be selected in the dialogue box (rather than by setting the 'Background colour' in advance).

Editable Histograms - When using 'Levels', missing sections (shown by 'spikes' in the histogram) may be 'edited' and 'repaired'. There's also the option to display all-channel histograms simultaneously.

Improved Extract Command - This tool will now 'extract' on 'texture' as well as colour giving increased options to cut-out the subject from the background be identifying changes in textural detail.

Adjustable Filter pre-sets/dialogue boxes - Greater control to set what filters do.

Lens Blur Filters - A new set of filters with many options.

Photo Filters - A new set of filters that emulate traditional photographic filters, including, 'Warm-Up (85, 81)', 'Cool Down (80, 82)', Red, Orange, Yellow, Green Cyan, Violet, Magenta & Sepia.

Filter Gallery - A way to experiment with multiple filters on one image - change the filter order, hide one or more filters and edit filter settings. The 'Gallery' is a sort of 'layer order' for filters.

Healing Brush, Improved functionality - A 'Use All Layers' option (as found in the Clone Stamp tool).

New,' How-To' Menu - A set of descriptions with step-by-step how to do certain things.

Nested Layer Sets - Make additional Layer Sets within Layer Sets (like folders within folders).

Match Colour Adjustment - This is an interesting one. The concept is that if images originate from a variety of sources and/or lighting conditions they can be adjusted to all follow the same colour temperature. The adjustment can even be made between open documents.

Photo-Merge - A stitching routine for making panoramic images.

Picture Package - Several improvements to this popular feature.

Preferences Adjustments - Including the option of a 'text' version of 'History' - useful for a record of what you did for next time!

Colour Replacement Brush - A method of fine-tuning tonality. For adjusting shadow & highlight detail - it's like using a Brush tool in colour blend mode with the options of the 'Background Eraser' tool.

Type on a Path - A long awaited and desirable improvement to allow the typing to follow the course of a 'path' created by 'Pen' or 'Shape' tools. Text on wavy lines or around circles for example is now possible.

Flash export from ImageReady - ImageReady now has a streamlined toolbox (losing tools some little-used tools within ImageReady), enhanced rollovers and tables, the capability to specify COLSPAN or ROWSPAN, slice sets, and much more.

Activation - Yes, Photoshop CS will require 'activation' - what this effectively means is that use/installation will be restricted to the person who has the 'licence key'. This is a method of eliminating 'piracy'.

These are just some of the features new to Photoshop with Photoshop CS. But be warned:

These advancements come with a need for power!
Photoshop CS runs only on Mac OS X, Windows 2000 (Service Pack 3), and Windows XP.

Hardware-wise, a minimum monitor resolution: 1024 x 768 is recommended
Processor: G3/G4/G5 or P-III/P4
RAM: 192 MB absolute minimum (256 recommended minimum)
Hard drive space: 320 MB (Mac), 280 MB (Windows)

All in all, quite an upgrade.

CRH.

For more information, visit the Adobe website for Photoshop CS, click on the image the link below