I use photoshop more than any other program. I use it at work, I use it for freelance at home, and I use it for personal stuff like this blog. I use it all the time and I have to say that I’m pretty damn good at using it. I’m not saying I’m a pro or anything, as there are plenty of things I never use in photoshop that other people use all the time. I use what I know and I get by with that. But I know most of it.
So anyway, I always like to get my hands on the new releases of photoshop whenever they come out, which is about once a year nowadays. This year we got Adobe Photoshop CS4. I don’t really understand the CS nonsense, but whatever. Photoshop “Creative Suite” 4 even though it is technically just Photoshop 11, but who’s counting?
I always like to upgrade as soon as I can because I figure I will have to anyway, so I might as well learn the new stuff now before CS 12 comes out and I have to take a class just to catch up. Plus, I figure if there are new cool features in the new Photoshop, that might just help me in my everyday work flow.
So I got CS4. So far it’s not all that great. I’m not completely downing it just yet, but from what I have seen so far, I’m not about to switch over completely. The first thing I couldn’t stand was just pure performance. Maybe I have a bum copy or maybe they just need to put out some updates, but whatever it is, it does not work as smoothly as CS3. The only other thing I can say negative about the new program, is the new window “docking” aspect of the images. The way the document you are working on is “docked” on the top of the screen. Then you get a “tab” for each additional document open. I theory this sounds great cause you can see all the images that are open all the time, but it makes it extremely difficult to have two documents open and drag one layer from one to the other. I do this all the time. Now I am forced to just copy and paste which is similar, but it does give the same freedoms. OK, I am done giving the negative side. Lets tackle all the new fun stuff.
First of all the interface got a remake. It looks awesome. I have always personally loved it when any programs mix up the their interface because it gives me something new to stare at all day and most of the time it just looks cooler. Second, the inserted the ability to turn the document you are working on. Now this doesn’t really effect me all that much, but if I was to draw a picture with my wacom freehand on the computer this feature would be extremely helpful. Also, the new photoshop has new abilities to incorporate 3D (which I think is pointless, but cool) and it has new windows like the adjustment and mask windows. Also, it can now zoom in to a ridiculous 3200% using OpenGL. It’s cool, but most likely unnecessary.
One giant thing CS4 brings is the ability to utilize 64-bit processing. This means you can utilize 8 gigs of ram which will help with overall performance. I have not tested this out, but I’m not gonna lie, I am pretty excited about it.
All in all CS4 is similar to CS3, but with a cooler look and feel. It needs work and needs updates, but maybe I just need a newer computer. Only time will tell.