Question: upgrade to Photoshop CS worth it?

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I’ve been doing simple web design with Photoshop 6.0 for years now, and frankly, I’ve seen no reason to upgrade. I’m not a photographer, so I don’t need any new features having to do with digital photos. And frankly, I think animations (I’m thinking Flash) are a bit overused, misused, and overrated in good web site designs. So I pretty much have a scaled-down concept of what good design is and should be.
That said, I’ve checked out the trial version of CS, and so far, I haven’t found any new features that would make buying an upgrade worth it. But I could be wrong, and I’m willing to hear if there’s anything I’m missing about CS. As far as basic graphic design/development and optimization are concerned, is there anything about CS that makes them doing those things easier or more convenient? Has anyone found it worth upgrading from 6 (or 7) to CS? Thanks for your input. Best regards,

Trazweil

Probably the easiest way to make the decision is to get all of the "changes/ upgrades" from Adobe’s site. Make a bit of a spreadsheet for yourself, and then weigh the use of these new features. Next, do a Groups.Google search using your subject line header, as this question has been an on-going thread in this, and the comp….photoshop NG’s. Much of the input to the question has come from the photographic community, so you will need to filter out most of those articles.

In the end, it is only you, who can make the decision, based on your work needs. As a photographer, it was about the most exciting upgrade since 3 ( Layers). Next came Adjustment Layers (3.5, 4?). However, for plain vanilla graphic design, I think 6 would more than suffice. One caveat, however, might be if you constantly get images from CS, and need to do some more work on them. Then, you might really like the upgrade.

I still run some older versions, for those times that I need to do something in the "old way."

Hunt

trazweil wrote:

I’ve been doing simple web design with Photoshop 6.0 for years now, and frankly, I’ve seen no reason to upgrade. I’m not a photographer, so I don’t need any new features having to do with digital photos. And frankly, I think animations (I’m thinking Flash) are a bit overused, misused, and overrated in good web site designs. So I pretty much have a scaled-down concept of what good design is and should be.
That said, I’ve checked out the trial version of CS, and so far, I haven’t found any new features that would make buying an upgrade worth it. But I could be wrong, and I’m willing to hear if there’s anything I’m missing about CS. As far as basic graphic design/development and optimization are concerned, is there anything about CS that makes them doing those things easier or more convenient? Has anyone found it worth upgrading from 6 (or 7) to CS? Thanks for your input. Best regards,

Trazweil

Image states and layer sets inside layer sets have become totally invaluable to me for front end web design. It makes it very easy to build demo interfaces with faked interactivity via toggling states and sets.

Also, CS has really good "Save for Web" (not much better than PS7, but way better than PS6).

As for animations… well, Flash has its place. We use a lot of Flash in the sites we build, but then they’re almost ‘expected’ in the market we work (fashion, music, ultra trendy). MTV watching twenty somethings’ wont suffer sites without some interactivity 🙂

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x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

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On 16 Dec 2004 06:42:11 -0800, "trazweil"
wrote:

I’ve been doing simple web design with Photoshop 6.0 for years now, and frankly, I’ve seen no reason to upgrade. I’m not a photographer, so I don’t need any new features having to do with digital photos. And frankly, I think animations (I’m thinking Flash) are a bit overused, misused, and overrated in good web site designs. So I pretty much have a scaled-down concept of what good design is and should be.
That said, I’ve checked out the trial version of CS, and so far, I haven’t found any new features that would make buying an upgrade worth it. But I could be wrong, and I’m willing to hear if there’s anything I’m missing about CS. As far as basic graphic design/development and optimization are concerned, is there anything about CS that makes them doing those things easier or more convenient? Has anyone found it worth upgrading from 6 (or 7) to CS? Thanks for your input. Best regards,

If it’s web design you want to do, save your money and buy proper web design software instead. I.e. Dreamweaver.

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Hecate – The Real One

veni, vidi, reliqui

Hecate wrote:

On 16 Dec 2004 06:42:11 -0800, "trazweil"
wrote:

I’ve been doing simple web design with Photoshop 6.0 for years now, and frankly, I’ve seen no reason to upgrade. I’m not a photographer, so I don’t need any new features having to do with digital photos. And frankly, I think animations (I’m thinking Flash) are a bit overused, misused, and overrated in good web site designs. So I pretty much have a scaled-down concept of what good design is and should be.
That said, I’ve checked out the trial version of CS, and so far, I haven’t found any new features that would make buying an upgrade worth it. But I could be wrong, and I’m willing to hear if there’s anything I’m missing about CS. As far as basic graphic design/development and optimization are concerned, is there anything about CS that makes them doing those things easier or more convenient? Has anyone found it worth upgrading from 6 (or 7) to CS? Thanks for your input. Best regards,

If it’s web design you want to do, save your money and buy proper web design software instead. I.e. Dreamweaver.

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Hecate – The Real One

Er… Hecate, since when does DreamWeaver do graphics? You’ll still need a graphics package to go with it. PhotoShop CS is the best, but it costs a lot.

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x theSpaceGirl (miranda)

# lead designer @ http://www.dhnewmedia.com #
# remove NO SPAM to email, or use form on website #

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 10:54:31 +0000, SpaceGirl
wrote:

Er… Hecate, since when does DreamWeaver do graphics? You’ll still need a graphics package to go with it. PhotoShop CS is the best, but it costs a lot.

he was talking about web design. Image manipulation is something different. That’s Photoshop (which is the best for image manipulation, but not the best for web images which involve code, slicing and so forth). Putting images on the web – well, unfortunately Adobe persist in adding in that piece of crap called Image Ready. So I use Fireworks. 🙂

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Hecate – The Real One

veni, vidi, reliqui