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Introduced just before NAB among a flurry of new product announcements that includes Premiere Pro CS3, Adobe's new version of Photoshop has been buried somewhat by the hype surrounding the whole CS3 family. That's a shame, because Photoshop CS3 Extended contains a host of new and improved features that hold special promise for video producers.
Photoshop CS3 Extended is part of the new CS3 Design Premium software package from Adobe. (It also comes as part of the Production Premium package.) The Design Premium package also includes InDesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, Flash CS3 Professional, and Dreamweaver CS3, along with Acrobat 8 Professional. Additional programs included are Bridge CS3, Version Cue CS3, Device Central CS3, Adobe Stock Photos, and Acrobat Connect for $1,199 for the full version or $399 for the upgrade.
If you don't need new versions of InDesign, Flash, or Dreamweaver, you could choose the standalone Photoshop CS3 Extended upgrade ($349), which is only $150 more than the standard Photoshop CS3 upgrade ($199). In this review, I'll focus mainly on Photoshop CS3 Extended because that's where most new video and animation features lie. First, I'll mention an omission: Photoshop no longer ships with the separate program ImageReady. Largely ignored by some users, ImageReady was powerful when it came to preparing images for animation and the Web. Those tools have been rolled into Extended for the most part. (For more on the other CS3 programs, see upcoming issues.)
Enhanced basics
Considering the new additions, it might follow that Photoshop CS3 Extended would be one huge, clunky, slow program. It's actually the fastest-loading and most responsive version of Photoshop I have used in several revisions.
The first thing you'll notice as you boot up the new Photoshop is the redesigned interface. The toolbar used to default as two rows; now it can be set up as a single horizontal or vertical row. Panels that are docked to the right of the screen (such as colors, text options, and layers) can now be toggled to icon mode. This is amazingly handy for tidying up and conserving screen real estate. (Of course, this feature comes a few years too late, because inexpensive 24in. and 30in. monitors now provide plenty of screen space for most serious digital artists.)
One...