Product Description

Photoshop CS2 is the new Professional standard in Desktop Digital imaging. Its groundbreaking creative tools help you achieve extraordinary results. With more creative options, a more custom-fit Photoshop for the way you work, and more efficient File handling, you can stretch your imagination and let the ideas flow. Advanced noise reduction for high-ISO shooting plus JPEG artifact reduction 32-Bit High Dynamic Range (HDR) support Customizable workspaces and menus for easier access to task-based presets and custom menus Spot Healing Brush retouches in a single click One-click red-eye correction lets you set pupil size and darkening level

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1815 in Software
• Brand: Adobe
• Model: 23102149
• Released on: 2005-04-28
• Platforms: Windows XP, Windows 2000
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 7.80" h x 2.00" w x 9.50" l, 4.00 pounds

Features

• Revolutionary Vanishing Point technology lets you clone, paint, and paste elements that automatically match the perspective of the surrounding image area
• Smart Objects perform nondestructive scaling, rotating, and warping of raster and vector graphics with Smart Objects
• Multi-image Digital Camera raw file Processing - process multiple images simultaneously, adjusting exposure, shadows, and brightness and contrast -- all while you continue working
• Image Warp creates packaging mock-ups by wrapping an image around any shape or stretching, curling, and bending an image
• Multiple layer control for selecting, moving, grouping and transforming objects intuitievly

Amazon.com
It's hard to imagine that Adobe can make Photoshop any better than this. Long considered the professional image-editing standard among graphic digital artists worldwide, CS2 is certain to cement that reputation even further with its array of new features. Artists, creative professionals, photographers, and industry professionals will find that the workflow and image customization enhancements will be worth far more than the price of the upgrade.

Achieve amazing results in a fraction of the time with the groundbreaking Vanishing Point tool, which lets you clone, paint, and paste elements that automatically match the perspective of the surrounding image area.

Adobe Bridge (formerly File Browser)
Adobe Bridge software is the new-generation File Browser--a navigational control center that allows you to browse, organize, label, and preview graphics and files quickly and efficiently. Adobe Bridge takes File Browser a step further by providing centralized access to your suite project files, applications, and settings. With Adobe Bridge, you can process multiple camera raw images at once; resize, rate and label thumbnails; review images in slide show mode; and more. With file organization and sharing, plus Adobe Stock Photos at your fingertips all the time, you simply search for the files you want to place using metadata--such as key words, colors or image resolution--and seamlessly drag and drop your files into Photoshop. You can even page through an entire Adobe PDF file right in the preview panel of Adobe Bridge. And with Adobe Bridge, you can also browse, search and purchase royalty-free images from leading stock photo agencies without ever leaving InDesign CS2. It's as simple as that.

Revolutionary Vanishing Point and Image Warp
Photographers especially will be amazed at the effects that Vanishing Point can bring to a project. Clone, paint, and paste elements that automatically match the perspective of the surrounding image area in a fraction of the time that it currently takes. With Image Warp, you can easily create packaging mock-ups or other dimensional effects by wrapping an image around any shape. Place your client's logo around a coffee cup, or stretch, curl or bend an image across the hood of a car or around the Space Shuttle, for that matter. The effects you can create with Image Warp will be limited only by your imagination.

Accelerate your raw file workflow with simultaneous processing of multiple images while you continue working.

Digital Camera Raw File Support
Accelerate your raw file workflow with simultaneous processing of multiple images while you continue working. You can import images into your choice of formats, including Digital Negative (DNG); enjoy automatic adjustments to exposure, shadows, and brightness and contrast; and much more. This exciting new enhancement provides fast and easy access to the "raw" image formats produced by many leading professional and mid-range digital cameras. The Camera Raw plug-in--now available as part of Photoshop CS2--has been updated to support more cameras and include more features.

Spot Healing Brush and One-Click Red-eye Correction
Never have touch ups been so easy. With the Spot Healing Brush, you can effortlessly retouch photos--including 16-bit images--in a single click. Red-eye Correction lets you instantly neutralize red eyes and also lets you set pupil size and darkening level.

Effective red-eye reduction is only a few clicks away.

Use the new multilayer select feature to more intuitively edit and control your work.

Other New Features
Exciting new features designed to help artists and creative professionals in all fields stretch their imagination and increase their work and creative efficiencies:

• Smart Objects: Perform nondestructive scaling, rotating, and warping of raster and vector graphics with Smart Objects. Even preserve the editability of high-resolution vector data from Adobe Illustrator software.
• Multiple Layer Control: Select and move, group, transform, and warp objects more intuitively by clicking and dragging directly on the canvas. Easily align objects with Smart Guides.
• Nondestructive Image Correction: Improve the color, contrast, and dynamic range of any image using a comprehensive set of professional correction tools and nondestructive adjustment layers, which display corrections while preserving the original.
• Full 16-bit and New 32-bit Image Support: Work with absolute precision thanks to support for 16-bit images in all channels and layers. Create and edit 32-bit images, and take advantage of High Dynamic Range, 32-bit support.
• Advanced Noise Reduction: Reduce noise and remove JPEG artifacts for cleaner images.
• Customizable Workspaces and Menus: Get easier access to the tools you need with task-based presets, highlight new or commonly used menu items, and even set up and save custom menus and workspaces.
• Web Animations: Quickly create dynamic GIF animations directly within Photoshop CS2 by taking advantage of the new Animations palette and layer palette animation options.

Customer Reviews

Interesting Features but Still a Flawed License Manager
My experience with Photoshop CS2 has been limited thus far, but it does appear to offer some nice new features, particularly to the enhancement in Adobe Camera Raw, the Spot Healing Tool, and possibly Adobe Bridge as I explore it more. A major drawback to me personally, is that changes have been made in the user interface that conflict with the old Extensis PhotoTools plug-in, namely in that the PhotoBars component which provides a customizable toolbar ehancement will no longer work. Although Extensis no longer supports PhotoTools and deleted the PhotoTools component when Photoshop 6 was issued, I have been involved in maintaining PhotoBars so that it would work on the PC platform in Photoshop versions 6, 7, and CS. The customizable toolbars added a wonderful extension of usability to the Photoshop interface, and the loss of that capability due to changes made in Photoshop CS2 is very unfortunate.

Of great interest to me was to see how Adobe has changed License Management, i.e., product activation in Photoshop CS2. While the license manager does appear greatly improved in terms of not being as likely to have errant reactivations arise due to use of the System Restore utility in Windows XP, hardware changes, etc., it still manifests the same critical flaw as existed in Photoshop CS. Namely, Adobe has not provided any grace period at all for the instances when reactivation is prompted. So, if you are someone perhaps travelling with a laptop computer and are ever at a remote location where telephone or internet access is not readily available, you are at risk of fully losing use of Photoshop CS2 in the event of an errant reactivation prompt arising. The odds of this occurring do appear greatly reduced due to changes made in the triggers affecting a reactivation, but the risk is there nonetheless. Adobe should have implemented a short-term grace period of continued use following a prompt for reactivation, so that a user would not unexpectedly be faced with denied access at a critical time. The only alternative in this situation is to have a backup copy of an earlier version of Photoshop installed for use until Photoshop CS2 can be reactivated or, to employ the use of software hacks that defeat the license manager. The preferred solution would be for Adobe to provide an update that incorporates a reactivation grace period, but they seem to be ignoring the problem. I had hoped that the new Transfer Activation process in Photoshop CS2 might allow a user to export activation state data to removable media which, if an errant reactivation prompt arose, could be used to re-establish the valid activation state on the PC. Unfortunately, the Tranfer Activation process requires an internet connection and thus is again useless if one is at a remote location.

With regard to the 1st review posted here, installation of Photoshop CS2 is permitted to two computers under the normal single-user license. The only restriction defined in the license is that these 2 installations cannot be used concurrently. The license specifically reads as follows:

"2.4 Portable or Home Computer Use. The primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a portable Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided the Software on the portable or home Computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer."

comments by a long-time, professional user
I won't include my website URL here, but I'm a professional photographer, who displays and sells his work at juried exhibitions. I've been using Photoshop since version 5.0, roughly 6-7 years.

Frankly, I'm surprised to see how many negative reviews there are here of Photoshop CS2, and that overall the product only gets three stars. I understand all the frustration, though. Even on a top-of-the-line machine, "PS CS2" can be slow at times. However, in my case, that's because I'm working on incredibly large files.

For example, my camera / scanner combination typically produces 50 megapixel images. By the time multiple layers are added in PS, one image file can be 500 MB - 1 GB in size. This is exactly why I have a dual-Opteron system with 4 GB of RAM: so I can work on these monster files in Photoshop!

For me, Photoshop is a must-have. There are *no* alternative programs for me to consider that can handle my files and do what I want to get done. I don't even want to mention all the advanced features that I use on a daily basis, frankly because that's part of my edge as a professional. I've spent over five years working in PS everyday, and have carefully studied several advanced books on PS. The learning curve is long, but the rewards are great if you have high goals and high standards.

Yeah, Adobe's got some major improvements to make, along the lines that other reviewers have mentioned. For me, the only real problem is poor and often wasteful use of system memory. And I would agree with other reviewers here that for most people, the full Photoshop CS2 is probably a waste of money. Photoshop Elements is probably a better way to go, though I haven't used it personally. I know a good web designer who uses Paint Shop Pro, and who seems to be happy.

IMHO, some people are probably drawn to Photoshop the way others are drawn to AutoCad or Solidworks or 3D Studio Max. All these programs are incredibly powerful tools that can support an entire career if one puts in the time and effort to become a true expert user. You can't make a career out of PS Elements, or Paint Shop Pro, or GIMP, or whatever else other reviewers may mention. PS CS2 is "the standard" for image manipulation.

Adobe Photoshop as dinosaur
Adobe's insane pricing and licensing makes this product way too overpriced and inflexible for anyone except professionals. The laughable part is that you dont even get *reasonable* support for such premium pricing.

Every designer I know has at least 3 computers - work, laptop, and home desktop. The fact that Adobe insists that these people buy almost $2000 in licenses for one person to run this single application on all 3 is beyond arrogant. Even M$ Office lets you run on 3 PCs!

What is even more insulting then the price is the strategic deployment of features which are held back and then launched to incite almost annual upgrades, which cost more than the full versions of this product's competing products!

Additionally, the continuous lack of evolution in this product's UI (and lets be clear it is *POOR*) is amazing considering that so many of its users are UI professionals. When I fire it up it still smells like the version I ran on WFW 3.11.

The processing features are excellent, thats all that is keeping this product in position is its engineering team, because marketing, support, and UI are substandard.

As soon as Paint Shop Pro aquired layers it completely obliterated 95% of what Photoshop is used for daily in terms of productivity.

However, Corel has really taken the wheels off of Paint Shop Pro since its aquisition.

There is a lot of room in this space for competition to this product, M$ is looking to move into this market with Acrylic. Hopefully they will be successful and knock Adobe off its arcane high horse old-school marketing practices.

Its really sad when a company needs to be taught a lesson from M$ in humility!