Photoshop 7 Beta is terrific

**theCaptain** · December 12th, 2001, 10:34 PM

I have only had a little time to play around with it, but photoshop 7 beta is looking great. I can only dream of what the final is going to be like. Not to mention it is sooo fast, even on my 400mhz G3. Dont worry I plan on paying for it when it comes out, im just testing it. I will post some screen shots later.

**Captain Code** · December 12th, 2001, 10:37 PM

Cool, sounds like it will be good.

**jokell82** · December 12th, 2001, 10:37 PM

Agreed. Mucho speedy on my iBook 500.

**wdw_** · December 12th, 2001, 10:41 PM

I have the beta too and I'm just wondering why they're making it version 7.
I don't see any changes exept for the fact that it's for Mac OS X. Shouldn't it be 6.5?

And why is Image Ready at version 7? How does an application go version from 3 to version 7?

**meancode** · December 13th, 2001, 01:33 AM

hi,

i would argue that 6.5 sounds better, but there are enough new features to warrent an entire number. as for why IR is up to v. 7, maybe for simplicity.

i am using build 43 right now. the new file browser is kick ass, very usefull. this is a major addition, and probably why it is called 7 and not 6.5. you can get as much info about images through the file browser as you could with Extensis Portfolio, if you have ever used that.

it uses the new quartz layer for transfermations and such, thats speadier. there is a new Healing brush wich is like the clone tool on srerioids, it "fixes up" bad parts in an image - very cool. there is a Patch Tool, i have not played with it yet. the text can now wrap around objects. there is multilayer text spelling and find and replace.

there is a new worgroups feature that is similar to Dreamweaver's check in/check out feature. parts of this was in version 6, but it was not as nice to setup and use. its also a lot more functional now.

there is a Texture Maker that created seamless textures with about 98% accuracy (maybe i have not played with it enough) it is like the Offset filter to the extreme. there is an Extract fuction, i have no idea what it does, have not messed with it.

there is a Presets Manager, very handy. there are numberous interface inhancements to pallets and such. i am sure i missed a buch of the new things as i have only had a day to play with it. but thats the big stuff thats new. i did not notice any new features to IR.

**boomw** · December 13th, 2001, 03:34 AM

I wanna play, can someone post it?

**serpicolugnut** · December 13th, 2001, 06:46 AM

the beta (43) does kick mucho butt. As I've already stated, Adobe could have had a open beta program for owners of PS, charged $19.95 or even $24.95 for copies, and made a killing. I make my $$$$ off PS, and wouldn't have had any problem doing that. Instead, they (or some beta tester) leaks it and everybody can get it for free.

Oh well. Less money in Adobe's pocket...

As for it jumping to version 7, I'm not entirely convinced the new features warrant going to 7.0. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the jump in features from 5.5 to 6.0, but the new features, while very good and appreciated, don't really seem like they warrant going to 7.

The File Browser is nice, but come on - with OS X and WinXP you basically have all this functionality (thumnails, image size, file type) available in each OS' file navigation system. Having it inside PS is nice, but nothing ground breaking.

The new spell check and find/replace type tools are nifty, but again, not really ground breaking. Same goes for the Heal tool. The Texture Maker is a nice addition too.

I guess the new tools are just really enhancements to the way we currently work with Photoshop. That's a good thing, mind you - it's just that we've come to expect that each new version of Photoshop feature a change that really makes our work easier (type tools of 6.0 as an example). These new tools are great, but not as revolutionary as the changes we got in versions 3-6.

I guess Photoshop has developed in to such a great application that now instead of new releases being revolutions - they are more like evolutions.

Either way, Photoshop 7 is awesome. I really hope Adobe can't get this out the door before February!

**.dev.lqd** · December 13th, 2001, 09:16 AM

From what I've read- Adobe's gone through and gutted a lot of underlying code- such as the antialiasing engine, that hadn't really been touched in awhile. I imagine that they replaced so much code that they -needed- to change it by a whole revision number just so people knew that it really was that big of a change. You also don't want to give people the impression that you 'just carbonized it' when you really went through and rewrote a TON of underlying code.