Photoshop feature research

(Chris Peerman) wrote:

I am currently doing research into PhotoShop and other popular image editing package.

Did you already do a thorough comparison of the product features on the product websites?

Photoshop is a very complex program. Listing "everything" that I like about it is BYSOUP – Beyond the Scope Of a Usenet Post.

The Doormouse

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In article ,
says…

(Chris Peerman) wrote:

I am currently doing research into PhotoShop and other popular image editing package.

Did you already do a thorough comparison of the product features on the product websites?

Photoshop is a very complex program. Listing "everything" that I like about it is BYSOUP – Beyond the Scope Of a Usenet Post.

The Doormouse

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The Doormouse cannot be reached by e-mail without her permission.

I agree. PS is many things to many folk. It is by far, the most robust image editing program available. This, in no way, denegrates all the others, but a fair comparison might be to leave PS out of the survey and do a side-by-side of many of the others.

Hunt

"Chris Peerman" wrote in message

I am currently doing research into PhotoShop and other popular image editing package. The current section of my research mainly concerns:

Which ones? That would help narrow down a comparison.

– What would you say is good about the package?

1.) It’s THE industry standard. Unlike say, M$Office, there is a GOOD reason it is the standard (Office got there by brilliant marketing and dirty business practices – the product itself SUCKS). PS doesn’t suck.

– What would you say is bad about the package?

1.) The price. If you can afford PS, get it. Simple as that.
2.) The learning curve. If you are not used to the concept of working with
layers it can be confusing and unintuitive (I’ve watched my boss try to use it, that’s how I know that). If you expect a souped up and intuitive version of Paint, you’ll be quite frustrated by PS.
3.) It’s big. Takes a few minutes to load the program on my old clunker of a machine. If I want to edit an image FAST I open something else.

Also, I don’t know about the latest version (I use version 7), but there are few or no very simple touch-up routines, like say red-eye removal at the click of a mouse. If you are looking for a simple push-button photo fixer-upper, PS ain’t it. Mind you, I have never used one of those type of programs that I didn’t hate, but maybe I’m just a control freak.

– What are your favourite features?

Too many to list. Web intergration is nice (ImageReady has caused some grief but I got used to it). Making a nice text effect and saving it as a syle. Nah, really, too many to list.

– What other image editors do you use?

Corel Photopaint, M$Paint, many many came-with-the-digital-camera packages (so far they all suck), an ancient program called PhotoFinish (version 2, copyright 1992), icon editors, forget what else. Don’t really need much else if you’ve got PS.

– What features would you like included within mainstream image editor applications?

I really wish it would do the dishes for me. And clean the aquarium.

Hope this helps,

Stella

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 10:49:53 -0400, "Black Dog" wrote:

"Chris Peerman" wrote in message

I am currently doing research into PhotoShop and other popular image editing package. The current section of my research mainly concerns:

Which ones? That would help narrow down a comparison.

– What would you say is good about the package?

1.) It’s THE industry standard. Unlike say, M$Office, there is a GOOD reason it is the standard (Office got there by brilliant marketing and dirty business practices – the product itself SUCKS). PS doesn’t suck.

Digression- there isn’t a better spreadsheet for the desktop than Excel. Word has nor real competitors anymore except the very clunky Wordimperfect. Yes, there are better databases than Access. MS SQL for one. Powerpoint is only as good as the people that use it – and a lot of people aren’t very good. It has nothing to do with marketing. Office is clearly the best Office product by a long way.

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Hecate – The Real One

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"Hecate" wrote in message

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 10:49:53 -0400, "Black Dog" wrote:

1.) It’s THE industry standard. Unlike say, M$Office, there is a GOOD reason it is the standard (Office got there by brilliant marketing and

dirty

business practices – the product itself SUCKS). PS doesn’t suck.

Digression- there isn’t a better spreadsheet for the desktop than Excel. Word has nor real competitors anymore except the very clunky Wordimperfect. Yes, there are better databases than Access. MS SQL for one. Powerpoint is only as good as the people that use it – and a lot of people aren’t very good. It has nothing to do with marketing. Office is clearly the best Office product by a long way.

Just because M$ managed to eliminate, or buy out, the competition along the way doesn’t actually make the final product any better. Office is the best office product for two reasons – 1) It’s the one "everybody" uses (thanks marketing) and 2) there is, as you pointed out, damned little competition left (thanks dirty business practices)

Word is one of the worst programs I’ve ever had to use. Period. Part of my job involves proofreading and fixing documents after my boss has struggled vainly against this anti-productive program. So my view is a bit tainted. Another part of my job involves testing the software our company writes. If any of our coders wrote something this bad, after so many years at it, I’d have to slap’em upside the earhole (metaphorically speaking, of course – but at least our coders are at arm’s reach, not in India).

Powerpoint – OMG- there isn’t enough bandwidth in an OT post to tell you what is wrong with Powerpoint. True, it works. In fact, it’s so simple my dog could put together a Powerpoint presention. Since she can’t talk, her’s would probably be MUCH better than most I’ve seen. Maybe there are people out there who can do wonderful stimulating creative shows with this thing. I have never been fortunate enough to witness one. The program more or less takes a person that might have a spark and puts them into a cookie-cutter format that discourages creativitity. At least that’s my experience. YMMV.

Stella

Micro$cum Orifice … ? ? ? ? ?

I agree with "Black Dog." Since my "Office Suite" needs have changed so that I no longer need to frequently "interchange" documents with clients, I’ve been very happy with the
combination of StarOffice / OpenOffice, PhotoShop, Picture Window Pro, PageMaker, and Ventura (aka Ventura Publisher).

Excel … Now use StarOffice / OpenOffice. Works better. Actually would prefer the old Quattro Pro, but not enough to get and install the Corel/WordPerfect version.

Word … Now use StarOffice / OpenOffice. Works better.

PowerPoint … Never used this abomination … always used Corel Draw or PhotoShop, and made the "presentation" function with Acrobat, or even IrfanView!

Access … Puke. It’s actually a good database program
(primarily because M$ bought it from someone else), but
still just ‘Puke.’

Micro$cum Pub$lasher … NEVER. Just plain NEVER.

The *only* advantage Micro$crew Orifice has is it’s tight integration with the operating system … and I mean that in a MARKETING sense … as for a long time you literally could not buy a computer without getting it installed by default.

Such are Monopolies …

"Black Dog" wrote in message

"Hecate" wrote in message

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 10:49:53 -0400, "Black Dog"

wrote:

1.) It’s THE industry standard. Unlike say, M$Office,

there is a GOOD

reason it is the standard (Office got there by

brilliant marketing and

dirty

business practices – the product itself SUCKS). PS

doesn’t suck.

Digression- there isn’t a better spreadsheet for the

desktop than

Excel. Word has nor real competitors anymore except the

very clunky

Wordimperfect. Yes, there are better databases than

Access. MS SQL

for one. Powerpoint is only as good as the people that

use it – and a

lot of people aren’t very good. It has nothing to do

with marketing.

Office is clearly the best Office product by a long way.

Just because M$ managed to eliminate, or buy out, the

competition along the

way doesn’t actually make the final product any better.

Office is the best

office product for two reasons – 1) It’s the one

"everybody" uses (thanks

marketing) and 2) there is, as you pointed out, damned

little competition

left (thanks dirty business practices)

Word is one of the worst programs I’ve ever had to use.

Period. Part of my

job involves proofreading and fixing documents after my

boss has struggled

vainly against this anti-productive program. So my view

is a bit tainted.

Another part of my job involves testing the software our

company writes. If

any of our coders wrote something this bad, after so many

years at it, I’d

have to slap’em upside the earhole (metaphorically

speaking, of course – but

at least our coders are at arm’s reach, not in India).

Powerpoint – OMG- there isn’t enough bandwidth in an OT

post to tell you

what is wrong with Powerpoint. True, it works. In fact,

it’s so simple my

dog could put together a Powerpoint presention. Since she

can’t talk, her’s

would probably be MUCH better than most I’ve seen. Maybe

there are people

out there who can do wonderful stimulating creative shows

with this thing.

I have never been fortunate enough to witness one. The

program more or less

takes a person that might have a spark and puts them into

a cookie-cutter

format that discourages creativitity. At least that’s my

experience. YMMV.

Stella

On Fri, 15 Oct 2004 19:07:10 GMT, "RSD99"
wrote:

Such are Monopolies …

Which to me, all sounds like two people who don’t like Microsoft for being Microsoft and would never admit that *anything* they produced was any good. 🙂

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Hecate – The Real One

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