Adobe's 2003 "
Creative Suite" rebranding led to Adobe Photoshop 8's renaming to Adobe Photoshop CS. Thus, Adobe Photoshop CS6 is the
13th major release of Adobe Photoshop. The CS rebranding also resulted in Adobe offering numerous software packages containing multiple Adobe programs for a reduced price. Adobe Photoshop is released in two editions:
Adobe Photoshop, and
Adobe Photoshop Extended, with the Extended having extra 3D image creation, motion graphics editing, and advanced image analysis features.
[5] Adobe Photoshop Extended is included in all of Adobe's Creative Suite offerings except Design Standard, which includes the Adobe Photoshop edition.
Adobe only supports Windows and Macintosh versions of Photoshop, but using
Wine, Photoshop CS5 can run reasonably well on Linux.
[8]
Photoshop functionality can be extended by add-on programs called
Photoshop plugins (or plug-ins). Adobe creates some plugins, such as Adobe Camera Raw, but third-party companies develop most plugins, according to Adobe's specifications. Some are free and some are commercial software. Most plugins work with only Photoshop or Photoshop-compatible hosts, but a few can also be run as standalone applications.
There are various types of plugins, such as filter, export, import, selection, and automation. The most popular plugins are the filter plugins (also known as a
8bf plugins), available under the Filter menu in Photoshop. Filter plugins can either modify the current image or create content. Below are some popular types of plugins, and some well-known companies associated with them:
- Color correction plugins (Alien Skin Software,[14] Nik Software,[15] OnOne Software,[16] Topaz Labs Software,[17] The Plugin Site,[18] etc.)
- Special effects plugins (Alien Skin Software, Auto FX Software,[19] AV Bros.,[20] Flaming Pear Software,[21] etc.)
- 3D effects plugins (Andromeda Software,[22] Strata,[23] etc.)
Adobe Camera Raw (also known as ACR and Camera Raw) is a special plugin, supplied free by Adobe, used primarily to read and process
raw image files so that the resultant images can be processed by Photoshop.
[24] You use Camera Raw by opening an image file, rather than using the 'Filter' menu. Like other plugins, Camera Raw's help information is in the 'Help > About Plug-In' menu (as "Camera Raw"). You can use Camera Raw also by
Adobe Bridge, by clicking on any image and selecting 'File > Open in Adobe Camera Raw'.
Tools
Upon loading Photoshop, a sidebar with a variety of tools with multiple image-editing functions appears to the left of the screen. These tools typically fall under the categories of
cropping and slicing;
drawing;
painting;
measuring and navigation;
selection;
typing; and
retouching.
[25] Some tools contain a small triangle in the bottom right of the toolbox icon. These can be expanded to reveal similar tools.
[26] While newer versions of Photoshop are updated to include new tools and features, several recurring tools that exist in most versions are discussed below.
[edit]Cropping and Slicing
The
crop tool can be used to select a particular area of an image and discard the portions outside of the chosen section. This tool assists in creating a focus point on an image and excluding unnecessary or excess space.
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The
"slice" and
slice select tools, like the crop tool, are used in isolating parts of images. The slice tool can be used to divide an image into different sections, and these separate parts can be used as pieces of a web page design once HTML and CSS are applied.
[28] The slice select tool allows sliced sections of an image to be adjusted and shifted.
[28]
[edit]Drawing
Photoshop includes a few versions of the
pen tool. The pen tool creates precise paths that can be manipulated using anchor points.
[25] The
freeform pen tool allows the user to draw paths freehand, and with the
magnetic pen tool, the drawn path attaches closely to outlines of objects in an image, which is useful for isolating them from a background.
[29]
[edit]Measuring and Navigation
The
eyedropper tool selects a color from an area of the image that is clicked, and samples it for future use.
[25] The
hand tool navigates an image by moving it in any direction, and the
zoom tool enlarges the part of an image that is clicked on, allowing for a closer view.
[25]
[edit]Selection
The
marquee tool can make selections that are single row, single column, rectangular and elliptical.
[25] Once an area of an image is highlighted, the
move tool can be used to manually relocate the selected piece to anywhere on the canvas.
[25] The
lasso tool is similar to the marquee tool, however, the user can make a custom selection by drawing it freehand. In addition, the lasso tool can make magnetic and polygonal selections.
[25]
Photoshop also provides tools for adding and editing text. The
type tools create an area where text can be entered, and the
type mask tools create a selection area that has the shape of text.
[25] The type tool creates vector-based text, so symbols, letters and numbers in various fonts and colors can be re-sized while maintaining the same resolution.
[30]
[edit]Retouching
There are several tools that are used for retouching, manipulating and adjusting photos, such as the
clone stamp,
eraser,
burn,
dodge,
smudge and
blurtools.
[25] The clone stamp tool samples a selected portion of an image, and duplicates it over another area using a brush that can be adjusted in size, flow and opacity.
[25] The smudge tool, when dragged across part of an image, stretches and smudges pixels as if they are real paint, and the blur tool softens portions of an image by lowering the amount of detail within the adjusted area.
[31] The eraser tool removes pixels from an image, and the
magic eraser tool selects areas of solid color and erases them.
[25] The burn and dodge tools, which are derived from traditional methods of adjusting the exposure on printed photos, have opposite effects; the burn tool darkens selected areas, and the dodge tool lightens them.
[31]
[edit]Content-aware
Content-awareness is a useful aspect of Photoshop where image editing is done automatically and intelligently. It comes in two forms,
content-aware scaling, and content-aware filling, in which elements in a background automatically recompose according to the areas a user of the program decides to fill or scale. More specifically, content-aware scaling works by rescaling an image and causing its content to adapt to the new dimensions and preserving important areas of it. Content-aware filling functions by matching tone, color, and noise of an area of the image that contained an object or detail in which the user decides to remove.
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[edit]Healing Tools
With improvement retouching tools like the
Clone Stamp tool and
Healing Brush tool, imperfections of an image can easily be removed. These tools essentially function by locating a source point (or multiple source points) that can be scaled or rotated in order to cover an imperfection or unwanted detail in a specific area of an image.
[32]
[edit]Puppet Warp
Similar to the content-aware tool, the
puppet warp tool reveals Photoshop’s intelligence by allowing a user to reposition an object in an image such as a flower or arm. This is done by using points that outline the structure of an object and easily repositioning in the wanted orientation.
[32]
[edit]Video Editing
In
Adobe CS5 Extended edition, video editing is comprehensive and efficient with a broad compatibility of video file formats such as
MOV,
AVI,
FLC,
MPEG-4, and
FLV formats and easy workflow. Using simple combination of keys video layers can easily be modified, with other features such as adding text and the creation of animations using single images.
[33]
With the Extended version of Photoshop CS5, 2D elements of an artwork can easily become three-dimensional with the click of a button. Extrusions of texts, an available library of materials for three-dimensional, and even wrapping two-dimensional images around 3D geometry are all possible with this version of Photoshop. Realism can also be added to an image using the 3D features of Photoshop such as animating image-based lights and
depth of field.
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