Datasheet

Part I ✦ Welcome to Photoshop

If you’re serious about computer graphics, you should own at least one painting

program and one drawing program. If I had to rely exclusively on two graphics

applications for producing still, two-dimensional images, I would choose Photoshop

and Illustrator. Adobe has done a fine job of establishing symmetry between the two

programs so that they share common interface elements and keyboard shortcuts.

Learn one and the other makes a lot more sense.

What’s New in Photoshop CS2

While at first glance it doesn’t appear that CS2 is a major upgrade from CS (or from

version 7, if you happened to skip the upgrade to CS), that doesn’t mean that it isn’t

a worthwhile investment; on the contrary, you’ll find that new tools and new options

for individual tools and the program as a whole make it a very important upgrade

for users of all levels. Many of these improvements don’t smack you in the face when

you first open the application — you might not notice them until you go to do some

image restoration, tinker with color or light correction, or attempt to organize your

images. To give you a quick tour of what’s new and improved, a list of the most sig-

nificant upgrades/changes and notes as to where to find coverage of the features

in the book follows — bear in mind there are a lot of smaller upgrades and changes

beyond this very basic list, and you’ll discover them throughout the rest of the book

and in your own travels with Photoshop:

✦ New Workspace Presets (Chapter 2). In previous versions, you could save

workspaces — configurations of palette and tool placements that were con-

ducive to specific images or types of work. In CS2, you can choose from nine

new workspace presets, designed for different tasks such as creating Web

graphics, working with type, or correcting color.

✦ The Bridge (Chapter 3). When you upgraded from version 7 to Photoshop CS,

you probably noticed the File Browser. You may not have used it much, how-

ever, because while it was a major improvement simply because such a tool was

added, it wasn’t the most efficient or intuitive tool. Replacing the File Browser

in CS2 is the Bridge, a workspace that you can invoke through several avenues.

The Bridge provides tools for searching for, sorting, organizing, and using your

images for a variety of print and online distribution products — from photo

album pages to a gallery of Web images.

✦ Animation (Chapter 18). Previously available only in ImageReady, Photoshop

CS2 enables you to create animations from your images, building frames and

establishing the playback rules for them. It’s rumored that ImageReady will be

going away in future releases of Photoshop, so this is just the beginning of the

integration of ImageReady’s tools for creating Web graphics.

✦ Keyboard and Menu Customization (Chapter 2). Now you can create your

own keyboard shortcuts and customize the appearance of menus and menu

commands. If you aren’t a big shortcut user now, this enhancement may turn

you into a keyboard shortcut junkie — the ability to make the software work

the way your mind approaches your tasks is a major enhancement.

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