Adobe Photoshop 7.0 (Mac) [OLD VERSION]

Photoshop 7.0's new file management system comes in the form of a Windows Explorer-like file browser that allows users to easily sort and locate their images within various projects. Users can now organize projects by name, date, resolution, and a number of additional parameters.

The enhanced brush palette allows users to create custom brushes and save them as a preset that can be accessed from the Tool options bar. Users can easily vary different aspects of the brush by changing the hue, opacity, or flow of the brushes for pastels, oils, and charcoal. Photoshop 7.0 also introduces a new Healing Brush and Patch Tool. With this tool, users can easily "heal" their images by removing scratches, blemishes, and other imperfections while also preserving shading, lighting, and texture attributes.

Adobe has taken great strides in revamping Photoshop 7.0 to be more Web-ready than ever before. With the help of its companion software, Image Ready, users can now easily create rollovers and complex navigation bars with selected state by using the new Rollovers palette. Additional Web-ready features include enhanced Web export functions that allow designers to preview images designed for PDAs and mobile phones in the WBMP format. Users can easily create a slide show of their images and post online using the new Web Gallery. For those concerned about posting their images online, they can secure their images with the new password protection feature before sharing them.

A long overdue spell checker has finally been introduced, with wicked multilingual spell-checking capabilities. A new search-and-replace feature allows users to search and replace across different layers in the same document.

While Photoshop 7.0 introduces an impressive array of features that allow photographers and Web and graphic designers to work more effectively with Web and wireless devices, Photoshop still remains the leading tool for anyone serious about digital imaging. No other software package provides users with the ability to create such high-quality images. --Rich Ting

Amazon.com Review
With each new version of Photoshop, Adobe never fails to come up with an awe-inspiring mix of great new features, productivity enhancements, and tweaks and treats. Version 7 is no exception.

The major difference between this and earlier versions is that Photoshop 7 is Mac OS X compatible. Other main points of interest include a new healing brush that removes facial wrinkles and other surface blemishes with incredible ease, a long-awaited file browser that allows you to view image thumbnails and metadata, enhanced Web features, automatic color correction, and even a spell checker.

One of Photoshop's many strengths is the versatility of its tools, and this has been stretched to new limits. Filter previews are bigger, the Liquify tool has been enhanced, brush parameters have been extended, and commonly used tool settings can be saved as presets. This means you can virtually do away with the toolbox, instead selecting tools with exactly the settings you need from the presets palette.

Image Ready, Photoshop's Web-authoring and export module, remains a separate, linked application. Creation of rollovers is simpler and a new "selected" rollover state takes some of the repetitive strain out of nav-bar production.

New output options include Picture Package, which allows you to print multiple images on a single page, and new templates and security watermarking for Web galleries.

All in all, this is an upgrade guaranteed to keep Photoshop at the cutting edge of professional image editing. --Ken McMahon

Amazon.com Product Description
Photoshop 7.0 boasts an extensive set of features that allow photographers, Web, and graphic designers to work more efficiently, explore creative options, and produce high-quality images for print, Web, and other media. Create imagery with easier access to file data; streamlined Web design; faster, professional-quality photo retouching; and more. Support for WBMP format enables optimization for display on PDAs and other wireless devices. Plus, Web designers can apply extra compression to images and exercise greater control over how transparency is maintained online with Photoshop 7.0's added output enhancements.

Photoshop 7.0 delivers a comprehensive tool set that helps users meet both creative and production challenges. Its Healing Brush revolutionizes the process of retouching images. Remove dust, scratches, blemishes, and wrinkles effortlessly. Preserve shading, lighting, texture, and other attributes automatically. Photoshop 7.0's File Browser lets users locate, organize, and visually manage images quickly. You can even view EXIF data from digital cameras, including date captured, exposure settings, creation and modification dates, and more.

Native on Mac OS X, Photoshop 7.0 provides even greater multiprocessor support as well as superior interoperability with other Adobe applications. The software also offers a robust painting engine that lets users create custom brush presets, simulate pastels and charcoal, and add special effects, such as grass and leaves, while its Pattern Maker plug-in creates patterns, including rocks and sand. Photoshop 7.0's Liquify plug-in provides enhanced control over image warping with zoom, pan, and multiple undo capabilities.

I really enjoyed learning how to use Adobe Photoshop 7.0. I'm not one to read manuals or help menus and just like to play around. Learning how to use everything is fairly easy.

One feature I LOVED is what is called "layers". You can have a photo in the background and then open other files and drag and drop onto the first picture. Then you can choose to erase part of the pictures you placed on top. But not everything is erased...each layer underneath the one you are erasing is still visible! There are various erasers (shape-wise) too, so it can look blended or have neat edges.

I also liked the variety of "filters". These filters help change the picture. You can add texture to the picture, distort it, add light to a certain area, make the picture look like it on a stamp (as in rubber stamp)...the list goes on.

The one bad thing about this is you can't do "Undo except for the change you just did (meaning if you made a mistake and decided to try something to "cover it up", if you didn't like the outcome of the "fix" you can't go back and change the mistake) EXCEPT if you are layering, you go to the box where it shows each layer and go to the history where you can delete (or "undo") up until the mistake you had made is gone.

My point is, this program is Top Class. The best I have used (and I have tried a few) Although I'd like to try the Windows version, for those who have a Mac (this is the version I used and have experience with) GET THIS if you love photoediting. The possiblities are endless.

Now if only I could save up enough money...


Cannot pull myself away   March 2, 2003
matt rafferty (Jersey)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

Photoshop 7.0 is incredible. The new paint enhancement are mindblowing. Everyone should learn how to use this program. I have been able to do so many things, Edit and enhance my own artwork and comics, make custom t-shirts, make beutiful portaits and photo collages, just let my artistic mind run wild. This program has opened a world of opportunity, and it should for you to. BUY IT, worth every penny.


Adobe Photoshop Rocks   April 21, 2002
Daniel J. Nowak (San Francisco, CA)
9 out of 11 found this review helpful

Adobe did it again. Not only did they make a product that runs great in OS X but they inhanced it and made it better with new features like the heal tool. If you have been waiting to upgrade to OS X because of Photoshop order both right now.