Portrait Professional Studio 9 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I had seen the ads in Shutterbug magaizine for months and was intrigued but dubious. Having a notion to give the free trial download a try I was quickly drawn to the ease of seeing the result of the application. At first the portrait adjustments were, in my opinion, much too extreme and fairly unrealistic. There is a learning curve as with all software. Biggest tip I could offer new users is to adopt the "less is more" philosophy when applying corrections. I have discovered that you can take an otherwise mediocre portrait and turn it into a more pleasing professional looking portrait within a matter of minutes. I have no experience with Photoshop as yet and have been using Lightroom2 as my file managment and editing software. Lightroom is a dandy program and I like it alot. I believe I must first learn the nuiances of Lightroom before I jump into the deep cold waters of Photoshop. And as Photoshop will most likely perform to all those other adjustments I might wish to make on a portrait, it seemed a bit far off in the future before my brain was ready to undertake such knowledge. Portrait Professional Studio 9 was/is the best new "touch-up" software to use bridging the gap between Lightroom and Photoshop. It works great! If you take pictures of people....get it, you will be glad you did. You can use the software as a "stand alone" program or you can use it as an editing option in Lightroom. After adjustment in Portrait Pro you can save the file/data as a tiff or jpeg. I would reccommend saving all to a tiff.
I give this amazing software five stars because it works, is very affordable, easy to learn, and it will help build your professional self esteem. Costs less than one thearpy session, not that I have ever been in therapy...got off topic, opps.


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Adobe Photoshop Extended CS4 Student Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I've given PS CS4 Extended an overall four star rating. The breakdown is five stars for its capabilities averaged with two stars for the user interface.
Most of the low ratings for this student edition have to do with problems getting the software registered, rather than with the product itself. Please read the student license carefully on Adobe's site. As I recall, you have to be an active full-time four year (or graduate) student at an approved institution that grants four year college degrees. Adobe is very protective of this $199 price. Getting a retailer to ship you this software is just the beginning of the process. You then have to contact Adobe directly for permission to use it. Adobe takes its role as gatekeeper very seriously and will follow up on your student credentials. The burden is on you to prove that you fully qualify as to each and every requirement. I suspect that some of the low ratings come from people who didn't quite meet the requirements for a student license, but thought they would squeak by. Surprise.
Be aware that Adobe also markets an academic edition of PS CS4 Extended for $299. I own the academic edition. Other than the price, what are the differences between the student and academic editions? Well, the first difference is that the license for the academic edition is far less restrictive. The second is that the install code comes printed on the inside packaging. You do not need to go through Adobe for any further permission to use the software.
My understanding is that the academic edition is available to students at any grade level from 10th grade high school on up, as well as to academic faculty and staff. However, I note that one reputable retailer of academic software states: "If you are a K-12 Student, a parent of such a student or a school employee then this version of Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended is the lowest Academic pricing available." So, it's possible that some retailers are more liberal than others. Remember, the retailer is the only gatekeeper you'll have to deal with because the only code you need comes with the disk.
The full price for PS CS4 Extended is over $900. $299 for the academic edition is still a good deal, even if it is $100 more than the cost of the student edition. Many people will qualify who wouldn't have qualified for the student edition. Don't cheat yourself by trying to cheat Adobe out of a student license, or by purchasing from a vendor with a price that's too good to be true.
Update 12/8/2009:
I would lower my rating to two stars if I could. The problem is that the program has ceased to work since I upgraded to Windows 7 Professional 64 bit. $299 is a lot of money to throw out the window, and Adobe is not being helpful. If interested, please see the review that I posted today under the retail edition of Photoshop CS4 Extended.
Update 3/9/2010:
The problem noted in my update of 12/8/2009 took me about three weeks to solve. The issue turned out to be very sophisticated. Fortunately, the issue is also very rare and unlikely to affect you. See my review under the retail edition of PS CS4 if interested. To summarize, I received no assistance from Adobe, whose technical support of this product is greatly lacking in relation to the cost. My rating remains at four stars due to the simple fact that there really isn't an alternative to Photoshop.
Update 4/12/2010:
Today is the so-called "launch date" for Photoshop CS5 Extended. Little new information has been provided except that the actual release to sales will be in mid-May. It appears that Adobe will continue to offer a free trial period beginning on the release to sales date. Anyone who is seriously considering purchase of CS4 should defer to mid-May. The best information I can find states that the current "Student Edition" will become the "Student and Teacher Edition," while the current "Academic Edition" will become the "Institutional Edition." Prices will apparently remain at $199 and $299 respectively, with eligibility requirements similar to the current products.
When Adobe released sneak previews of CS5's new content aware fill feature, it was immediately obvious to me that this might (finally!!) be the solution for the ghosting problem that ruins so many HDR images. Adobe's new preview of automatic ghost removal during HDR merge suggests that its content aware technology is being used for exactly that purpose. Therefore, I suggest holding off on the purchase of Photomatix or FDR Tools until you've had a chance to experiment with the PS CS5 trial. Similarly, I would hold off on the purchase of Mask Pro 4.0 from On One Software. If (and it's a very big if) CS5 has really leapfrogged over both Photomatix and Mask Pro 4.0 -- both of which I was planning to buy -- then this is going to be a fairly easy upgrade to justify. On the other hand, CS5 could turn out to be no big deal. Be sure to try before you buy.

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PS EXT CS4 11 win Essd RTL

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Autodesk Mudbox 2010 Review

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(More customer reviews)I have not really used this product it came as part of the Autodesk Suite. I am studying for a bachelors degree in Media Art and Animation and we are using Autodesk Maya and 3D Studion Max. The school is geared toward using zBrush as the texture editing/sculpting software as this is what is currently being used in the industry. This may change in the future as it is much easier to work within the different applications when they are controlled by on product group.

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Autodesk Mudbox 2010 digital sculpting and painting software gives artists the freedom to create 3D digital artwork as if they were working with clay and paint. Designed by professional artists in the film, game, and design industries, Mudbox combines a highly intuitive interface with a powerful toolset of stencils and brushes for creating ultra realistic models and environments.

Whether you're a seasoned 3D professional, an artist who works with traditional media, an amateur enthusiast, or a 2D graphic designer or illustrator looking to add 3D to your workflow, Mudbox is what you need to add a whole new dimension to your creativity.
"Mudbox has always been a part of my workflow since I started to use it on King Kong. I really liked the real-time shading and rendering features that were added in the recent versions, and as a Maya user, I love Mudbox's working environment."-- Pascal Raimbault, 3D Modeler
Hit the road to freedom Mudbox gives artists the ability to create without worrying about the technical details. Sculpt and paint as fast as you think. With its friendly user interface, Mudbox can be easily used by both traditional and digital artists.
Welcome to the age of digital sculpting and 3D painting There was a day when design ideas were visualized through a physical model fabricated or sculpted from materials such as metal, paper, wood, or clay. There was a day when digital artists worked in 2D. That time is over. Meet Mudbox.
Brush based digital sculpting With Mudbox you can digitally sculpt ultra realistic 3D models with incredible detail--down to the pores on a character's skin--with easy-to-use, high-quality sculpting tools, stamps, and stencils. Choose from an extensive list of brushes, or quickly tailor them to fit your project's particular needs.
If you are new to 3D, you can use one of the simple built-in primitive shapes, such as a sphere, as a starting point for creating organic forms. Artists already familiar with 3D software may want to begin their designs in a 3D application like Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, or Autodesk Softimage, and then bring them into Mudbox to refine the shape and add depth and texture. The Mudbox interface will be familiar to artists who already know these tools.
Texture painting Rotate your model to apply paint precisely where you want, no matter how complex the surface. Quickly and easily paint multiple diffuse, specular, reflection, and bump textures across multiple high-resolution maps on your 3D models. 3D painting is integrated with the familiar stamps and stencils workflow.
What you visualize is what they'll see The real-time rendering effects in Mudbox enable you to see your work in progress from any angle. When you're done, use Mudbox to show it off to clients, co-workers, or friends.
"Mudbox is a joy to use and is always surprising me with new possibilities for creativity. This software gets an A in my book and is a must-have for the serious CG artist." -- Tom Cushwa
From 2D to 3D It's never been easier to add a whole new dimension to your creativity. Adding Mudbox to your current 2D workflow frees you from the creative limitations associated with traditional photography, 2D software, hand illustration, and other traditional graphic design methods.
While the tools themselves will feel familiar to those who sculpt with clay, the Mudbox workflow offers the advantages of digital creative tools, such as Adobe Photoshop software, including the ability to organize your work using layers, mirror or flip them, and nondestructively edit your 3D models.
Let your inner child come out and play When was the last time you played with Play-Doh? It's time to try it again (minus the funny smell)! Mudbox guarantees hours of guilt-free fun--you're on a computer, so you must be working, right? After all, Mudbox is a work tool used by major film, TV, and games studios to create 3D characters and environments.
Ideal for:
3D artists
2D artists
Fine artists
Web and multimedia professionals
Traditional sculptors
Students

Applications:
Web and multimedia content
Film
Games
Television products
Design--automotive, consumer goods, industrial, architectural
Advertising
Product packaging
Illustration (classic, medical, or scientific)


Features
What's Included
Documentation and Learning:
Learning movies --Watch these movies to learn the essential skills to work in Mudbox.
QuickStart tutorial--Learn the basics of sculpting and painting in this step-by-step lesson.
Online documentation--The fully searchable online HTML-based help system includes user guides, tool references, and best practices.

Community: The AREA, a community for Autodesk Media & Entertainment products. Access free tutorials, downloads or interact with fellow users in discussion forums and see the multitude of talent from around the globe. Directly connect with industry professionals through blogs--more at area.autodesk.com.

Detailed Features IMPORTANT: Please read the System Requirements. As new hardware is added on an on-going basis, please also visit Autodesk's updated requirements.
User Interface Become productive in hours, rather than weeks, with the intuitive Mudbox user interface.
For traditional artists with no previous 3D experience, tools that closely mimic the behavior of their real-world counterparts are quickly understood and easily adopted.
Work with tools such as brushes, stamps, and stencils to quickly sculpt and create lifelike textures.
Use the Layer Editor to organize your work.
Maximize your workspace by hiding UI elements and using standard hotkeys to manipulate the camera.

Cameras Mudbox features innovative, accelerated camera manipulation, for excellent interactive performance with even the densest meshes.
Use multiple real-time cameras within a scene, including true perspective and orthographic cameras.
Bookmark your camera positions.
Model using reference images: each camera has its own image plane.
Use Smart Focus to position the camera based on the cursor position and brush size.
Manipulate your camera with trackball-style controls.
Use the same keyboard shortcuts for Mudbox cameras as those that are used for cameras in Autodesk Maya software.

Display Work interactively in an environment in which high-res 3D models retain their subtlety, realism, and detail.
Apply one or more image maps to any object, independent of the other objects in the scene.
Use smooth shading mode to get a display more representative of the limit surface.
Interactively view multiple texture channels (including bump and reflection) at the same time.
Interactively view multiple maps and multiple materials in the scene.
Work in real time with models that properly display advanced lighting (including HDRI-based lighting) and shadows.
Incorporate advanced display options into your presentation, including ambient occlusion, depth of field, and tone mapping.

Sculpt Layers Store different detail passes, design directions, libraries of morph targets, and more on multiple layers.
Mirror or flip the detail stored in one or more layers.
Edit nondestructively: Mudbox delivers paintable masks.
Quickly duplicate, merge, flatten, and reorder layers.
Precisely blend layers using interactive multiplier sliders and layer masks.
Use layers to store libraries of morph targets.

Advanced Digital Sculpting High-quality brushes, stencils, and curves let you quickly "sculpt" your geometry into the 3D model you envision.
3D Brushes
Use intelligently designed default brushes or quickly tailor them for custom behavior and performance.
Choose from a number of base brush types, including
Dry brush--enables you to create an effect similar to what can be achieved by painting only on the raised details of a model
Clone brush--enables you to quickly and easily copy existing paint on a model from one area to another, for your retouching needs
Sculpt brush--enables you to create complex forms with great control
Flatten brush--enables you to quickly create planes and wipe away detail
Wax brush--enables you to easily fill in area

Accurately shape your brush tips with falloff curves and stamps. A sharp falloff curve will cut an accurate, sharp stroke into the geometry with no soft stroke profiles.

Workflow
Sculpt both sides of topologically symmetrical models simultaneously--even when they are in an asymmetrical pose--with the powerful tangent space mirroring functionality.
Use curves as guides for brush strokes.
Use image stamps to quickly brush (in 3D) a detailed texture directly into your mesh.
Quickly add high-quality detail through mesh displacement. Use 8-, 16-, or 32-bit images to displace your mesh; Mudbox even supports displacement using multiple maps at one time.

Texture Painting and Assignment Quickly and easily paint multiple diffuse, specular, reflection, and bump textures across multiple high-resolution maps on your 3D models.
Apply detail precisely where required, regardless of UV distortion or surface complexity. In the Mudbox 3D Paint mode, the brush position relative to the model is calculated in true world space; paint is projected tangent to the model. 3D painting is integrated with the familiar stamps and stencils workflow.
Selectively paint reference images onto the model from a particular viewpoint. Using the new Projection brush, you can project paint onto the model from screen space.
Paint hero characters with ease: Mudbox supports the painting of multiple maps on multiple meshes.
Paint both sides of your model simultaneously with the familiar symmetry workflow.
Paint and display a different texture for each UV square unit tile.
Use the intuitive layer editor to easily manage multiple paint layers. You can select, blend, and organize several images for each texture channel.

Texture Baking With its robust texture baking capabilities, Mudbox solves one of the most common bottlenecks in production pipelines: baking of normal and displacement maps.
Bake high-quality normal and displacement maps between multiple arbitrary meshes. Detail can be baked into 8-, 16-, and 32-bit maps.
Generate smooth, high-quality maps using extraction options designed to address issues related to poly faceting by extracting between the limit surfaces of the given meshes.
Displace your meshes using multiple floating point maps.
Bake normal maps that are compatible with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max software.

General Workflow Mudbox performance is renowned, with tools organized in a familiar, intuitive manner.
Work in real time even on 3D models that are fully subdivided into tens of millions of high-quality polygons.
Manipulate the camera using conventional camera controls--to maximize your workspace and reduce "back and forth" workflows.
Streamline your workflow through tools such as the Hover Pick functionality and hotkeys.
Use asymmetrical mirroring to streamline the process of working on posed or asymmetrical models.
Work on one mesh in the context of others: Mudbox supports multiple meshes within the scene.
Use the built-in image browser--with full support for 8-, 16-, and 32-bit images--to view reference images and quickly assign them to stamps, stencils, or camera image planes.

Connectivity and Integration Mudbox works well with Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Softimage, as well as with other 3D software applications, making it a natural choice for experienced artists.
Simpler interoperability with Maya, 3ds Max and Softimage Mudbox has support for Autodesk FBX file transfer technology, allowing artists to import and export scene data containing more information than the usual OBJ file format. Important data can be retained, including painted texture maps, cameras and image planes. This results in higher fidelity transfers; saving artists time.

PSD File Support Round-tripping of Mudbox paint layers (converting to and from Adobe Photoshop) is now possible through added support for PSD import and export.
Software Developer Kit (SDK) The addition to Mudbox of a software developer kit (SDK) opens up the software as never before, giving developers the ability to customize Mudbox and integrate it with their production pipeline. This is the launch of the Mudbox SDK and it is anticipated to be expanded with future releases.

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Adobe After Effects Professional 6.5 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If you're about to buy this product. I'm about to, do you the biggest favor ever. I'm so glad you're reading this. What you need to do is buy the Adobe video collection, Professional Edition. Let me tell you why!
With the Adobe video collection Professional Edition. You get Adobe aftereffects professional 6.5 Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 Adobe encore DVD 1.5 Adobe audition 1.5 and Adobe Photoshop CS all for only $400 more. That is crazy go nuts!!!
Check here for video tutorials free
/www.xtreme-is-back.com/tutorials.html
You can download a 30 day free trial by going to Adobe's web site here:
/www.adobe.com/products/tryadobe/main.jsp
Have some fun and get it done

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The essential tool for motion graphics and visual effects.Adobe After Effects 6.5 software continues to set new standards in motion graphics and visual effects for film video DVD and the Web. Offering unmatched integration with Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe Encore DVD Adobe Audition Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS software After Effects gives you the speed precision and power to be visually innovative as you meet production challenges and deliver quality results. After Effects 6.5 is available in two editions: After Effects 6.5 Standard provides core 2D and 3D compositing animation and visual effects tools. After Effects 6.5 Professional includes all of the features in After Effects Standard plus motion tracking and stabilization advanced keying and warping tools more than 30 additional visual effects a particle system scripting network rendering 16-bit-per-channel color additional audio effects and more. * TOP NEW FEATURES - Advanced Clone tool Remove unwanted elements from multiple frames more accurately using theadvanced Clone tool which offers five presets and the ability tosimultaneously view the source frame as an overlay while you paint.- Disk caching Take advantage of disk caching to speed up your interactive work.- Animation Presets Save any combination of animation parameters -- includingtransformations masks Expressions effects and text -- as AnimationPresets to quickly reuse without setting keyframes.- Tighter Adobe integration Import Adobe Photoshop CS and Illustrator CS files with layers andother attributes preserved. In Windows copy and paste selected AdobePremiere Pro clips into After Effects and create motion menus andbuttons for use in Adobe Encore DVD and much more.- Color correction and grain management effects Adjust the color of footage and other elements with powerful colorcorrection tools such as Color Finesse. Use grain management tools toadd grain to make video look more like film or remove grain to givefilm the lo...

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Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album 4 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Edit: I was pleased with it while I used it. But since posting the review below, I've stopped using it in favor of the (now free) program Picasa, available through Google.
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I tried a bunch of other programs and free trials, and this one packed the most stable and useful features into the cleanest, most intuitive, and most convenient package.
I especially like the design of the cropping tool, the ease of assigning and customizing the categories while organizing, and the clean simplicity of the interface. I'm perfectly capable of using complicated programs, and figuring out how to use programs that aren't very user-friendly. But when you're trying to organize a ton of digital photos, why make it more work than you have to?
Paint Shop Photo Album 4 does what it does very well, and does all of the things I would ask a photo album program to do.
It makes it easy to print, share, and organize my photos. For quick photo touchups, resizing, rotating, adding captions, and the other kinds of edits that an average home user would want to make to their photos, the editor included in this program is quite suitable, and does a very nice job.
It also has a nicer format for creating web pages to share photos online than most of the other similar programs I tried.
I've been using the 30 day free trial, (which is a full version rather than a chopped down sample) and my time is almost up, so I am definitely going to by this program.


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Get your photos out of your camera and into your life with Jasc Paint Shop Photo Album. Now you can quickly and easily make the most of your digital photos. In just two clicks you can get your photos from camera to computer. Then enhance, organize, and share those digital memories in a flash with Photo Album's fast and easy-to-use tools.
Create CD albums to watch with family and friends on a TV with a DVD player. Add an MP3 soundtrack and a variety of background templates for a complete audio-visual experience. Or you can archive full resolution copies of your favorite shots automatically when you create a Video CD. Also, easily send photos to friends and family with enhanced e-mail capabilities that automatically optimize photos for quicker download. Now Photo Album is compatible with the AOL e-mail client.
Take control over photo enhancements with the new Adjust Wizard that guides you through key correction processes to get the best color and exposure correction possible. Correct imperfections with flash and backlight controls that brighten only the dark areas of photos or reduce backlighting in over exposed areas. Add an elegant finishing touch by framing photos, applying creative edges, or adding artistic borders. Plus, you can personalize your workspace with adjustable thumbnail sizes and background colors.

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Corel Snapfire Plus Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If you want to get the digital photos out of your camera and out in email, this is a good place to start. Snapfire puts the basic functions where you can find them and makes them relatively easy to understand. It helps if you understand pixel dimensions, but it isn't required.
The first thing you need to do is to see how big your photo will be when displayed on the computer screen of the email recipient. Simply open the photo and click on "zoom to 100%." That's the true size. If you drag your photo into the Photo Tray (see more below on dragging restrictions), you can also see the photo dimensions and the file size by placing your cursor over the photo thumbnail.
If the photo is too big and you want to resize it, you can do so from the Edit menu ("Resize") by setting new pixel dimensions (e.g. 800x600) or by setting the new size as a percentage of the original. Then view the resulting photo size by using "zoom to 100%". When it's the right size, save it.
Crop is also easy. You can crop to any shape you want, or to standard proportions (e.g. 4x6). Again, "zoom to 100%" to see the results.
That's pretty much all it takes to get a photo ready for email. My only complaint is that when you have resized a photo and it is still in your editing window, you can't see its current properties (dimensions and file size) without saving it. (When you save it, it is placed in the Photo Tray, and you can put your cursor over it to see the details.)
Snapfire has standard photo enhancement options such as red-eye correction, "quick fix," adjustments to brightness and warmth, and also a "makeover" option which can be used to whiten teeth and remove blemishes. You can also, of course, rotate photos. And you can insert text and add picture frames.
The same options are available in other software, but I like the fact that this product is not so overloaded with options that it is difficult to use. I would find it relatively easy to guide someone through the processes even if they were inexperienced. And it still has all the features I would need.
I haven't used the Download software, but it appears to put the photos into My Pictures, the standard location. When you go to the Snapfire Home page, you first highlight the folder you want to work with using "Find Files" in the left pane. The individual photos in that folder will appear on the right in the main editing screen. From there you can select one photo to edit, or drag multiple photos into the Photo Tray at the bottom for easier access. If you put your cursor over a photo in the Photo Tray you can see its dimensions and size.
One option that I personally like is the ability to unlock the aspect ratio when resizing a photo. If you ever capture photos from a video source, you sometimes may find the photos to be distorted. For example, people may look fat. Unlocking the aspect ratio allows you to fix the photos.
A warning: I tried sending a Slide Show to a friend and they were unable to open it without obtaining Snapfire software. I felt that I was sending Snapfire advertising, so won't be using this feature.


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Ignite photo fun with Corel Snapfire Plus! Whether you want to complete fun photo projects or share photos in new, entertaining ways, Snapfire Plus is for you! Drop photos into stunning creative templates that include calendars, cards, or album pages; share groups of photos and video clips with easy-to-make Snapfire Shows complete with music and cool transitions; and so much more! Snapfire Plus even has zero-click downloads from your camera to your computer, effortless photo organization, easy-to-use retouching tools, oneclick photo fixes, and automatic backups of your photo collection, making it the easiest way to work with your digital photos.

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Adobe Flash Builder 4 Standard Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)If you do serious work in J2EE then you know eclipse/myeclipse is the only real platform for professionals. In that context Adobe made the right choice with its plugin and product path. Flash 4 is far superior to Flash 3 with regards to comprehensive enterprise development. This is the first attempt by Adobe to transition from a clunky Macromedia design-centric approach to a power tool that will bring technical experts to a world currently populated by animators and game designers.

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Adobe Flash Builder 4 (formerly Adobe Flex Builder) software can help you accelerate development, build higher performing applications, and more easily integrate new projects with your existing infrastructure. This feature-packed release improves workflows for developers and designers through integration with the new Adobe Flash Catalyst interaction design tool.

Adobe Flash Builder 4 Standard Edition Adobe Flash Builder 4 comes in two editions: Standard Edition and Premium Edition. The Premium Edition adds professional testing tools, including profilers, network monitoring, an automated testing framework, integration with Flex unit testing, and command-line build support, plus it includes Adobe ColdFusion Builder software.

Develop cross-platform rich Internet applications Flash Builder 4:
Enables intelligent coding, interactive step-through debugging, and visual design of user interface layout, appearance, and behavior of RIAs
Provides productivity tools for working with databases, web services, REST APIs, and other data sources
Includes powerful testing tools, such as memory and performance profilers, network monitoring, and integrated support for automated functional and unit testing, that speed up development and lead to higher performing applications

Improve productivityAccelerate development and testing of expressive web applications using powerful developer tooling.
Powerful coding toolsTake advantage of a powerful Eclipse based IDE that includes editors for MXML, the Adobe ActionScript language, and CSS, as well as syntax coloring, statement completion, code collapse, interactive step-through debugging, and automatic generation of common code.
Code refactoringQuickly navigate through code or restructure it by renaming all references to a class, method, or variable. Flash Builder 4 adds move refactoring.
Native support for Adobe AIRCreate applications for the Adobe AIR runtime with Flash Builder 4, including all the tools required to build, debug, package, and sign AIR applications. Adobe AIR lets you quickly develop RIAs for the desktop using the same skills and codebase you use to build RIAs for the browser.
Debugger improvements Set conditional breakpoints, evaluate expressions, and set watchpoints on variables to halt execution on value change. Use the Expressions view to watch variables selected in the Variables view and to add/evaluate watch expressions. Break out of a loop during a debugging session using run to line.
Custom templates Customize default information contained in new MXML, ActionScript, and CSS files, such as author and date, introductory comments, copyright information, opening and closing tags and attributes, ActionScript declarations, namespace prefixes, and more.
ASDoc support Display comments in MXML and ActionScript editors using ASDoc.
Adobe Flash Professional workflow Import and update custom Flex components using the new workflow between Adobe Flash Professional software and Flash Builder 4.
Integrate with existing infrastructure

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PhotoImpact 8 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I recently received the assignment from my boss to evaluate the various digital photography/image editing programs in the ~$$$ price range. Included were:
- Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0
- Microsoft Digital Image Pro 9.0
- Ulead PhotoImpact 8.0
- Jasc Paintshop Pro 9.0
My review centered around three criteria: image mainpulation, advanced design and photo effects, and suitability for making web graphics. I spent a total of 16 hours on the various programs performing a pretty intensive evaluation in order to determine which product to select for our business. (We needed to purchase a large site license and so there was a lot of $$$ at stake.)
I will tell you that, much to my surprise, PhotoImpact came out on top - not just overall but in each of the three areas individually, as well. I say "to my surprise" because it's definitely the underdog. It doesn't have the kind of sensationalism that the other seem to have, and you don't see it advertised all that much. But it's definitely the champ.
I found PhotoImpact and Paintshop Pro the easiest to use when it came to digital photography features. (Photoshop Elements was far too difficult for business use, and Digital Image Pro far too simplistic, in my opinion.) But PhotoImpact takes the cake in this area because its drag-and-drop orientation is very straightforward.
When it comes to the higher-end design features, PhotoImpact was the clear winner. It supports Adobe's plug-in architecture, so all of the cool filters you can get for Photoshop (and elements, for that matter) are compatible with PhotoImpact. But PhotoImpact gives you a much greater degree of control over customizability than Photoshop Elements, the no. 2 contended in this second area, in my opinion. Once again, it's very easy to create some spectacular effects: There's built-in sophisticated vector drawing (which none of the other evaluated products have), as well as 3D text with some outstanding effects.
And, lastly, in the area of web graphics, PhotoImpact came in tops with Paintshop Pro following second. PhotoImpact has a great system for compressing GIFs, plus it includes a GIF animation application that's really sweet.
Anyway, I hope this helps all you image editing shoppers. Wish I had seen this sort of review upfront; it would have made the decision much easier for me,

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98/W2K/WME/XP

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PhotoPlus X2 Digital Studio Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)PhotoPlus X2 is a very good photo editor. It is operates in a similar manner to Photoshop in many aspects though it is not as powerful as CS3 or CS4.
PhotoPlus X2 is similar in features and power to Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate. Both programs are more powerful than Photoshop Elements versions 6 or 7. An additional bonus of PhotoPlus X2 not offered with Paint Shop Pro is compatibility with 3rd party Photoshop plugins.
Pros:
Basic editing such as color adjustment, sharpening, lens filters, cloning etc are easy to find and use.
Photo resizing is excellent - the best that I have seen! (I am referring to taking a small photo and doubling it in size. Most programs leave the photo in a fuzzy condition. PhotoPlus X2 somehow doubles the photos with less fuzziness.)
The lens vignette function is really a nice feature to have. If you use a polarized filter, often times the sky on one side of the photo will be much darker than the other side. The lens vignette function largely eliminates this problem.
Cons:
The sharpen slider in the Quickfix studio works in chunks rather than in a linear fashion - 0,50 etc. You must type in a sharpen amount in the box next to the slider and then sharpen in a linear fashion - 28,29,30,31 etc. Serif verified this bug in Sept 08.
The makeover studio requires several steps similar to Adobe Photoshop - creation of editing masks. Paintshop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate thankfully does not require the creation of masks to do makeover tasks.
All in all an excellent photo editor that will generally run quite nicely on older hardware - Pentium 4, 3ghz with 3gb of ram.

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PhotoPlus X2 offers everything you need to get the very best from your digital photos!PhotoPlus X2 Studio Pack is Serif's powerful Windows Vista certified photo editor, fixing, organising and sharing powerhouse which, offers all you need to get the very best from your digital pictures.If you're new to PhotoPlus, then don't worry! With PhotoPlus X2 anyone can fix common photo problems such as red-eye and colour balance, whilst also giving you all the tools you need to perform more complex tasks all in a stylish, flexible interface.This powerful new version of PhotoPlus is now both more flexible and easier to use than ever, and is even amongst the first non-Microsoft graphics applications to be awarded the full Certified for Windows Vista? Logo! Whether you've already upgraded to Vista, are planning to in the near future, or you're happy sticking with Windows XP or 2000, you'll find PhotoPlus X2 looks and works great with your version of Windows!

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Adobe Pagemaker 7.0.2 (Upgrade Version) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)To add a little to the previous review, it is an upgrade as it says. Typically any software upgrade expects to find a previous installed version, and this is no exception. My previous install is Pagemaker 6.5. The Pagemaker 7.0.2 upgrade found it, but it also asked me to enter its serial number, so write it down before you start or you'll have to exit install and then start again...damhikt. And of course it wants the new serial number which is on the CD box. Past that and all goes well. It does not overwrite or replace the previous version, so in my case I have a functioning 6.5 and 7.0.2 should I want that.
This new (and what I guess will be the last) release of Pagemaker doesn't differ a lot from 6.5. The biggest difference for me is it's compatibility with Photoshop PSD files. Pagemaker 6.5 issues a popup declaring that it doesn't know how to place this filetype, so getting a Photoshop image into this version requires working with a different bitmap filetype (jpg, etc.). But a PSD image places into Pagemaker 7 with no problem, even one that has been "Photoshopped" to include layers, etc.
There are some other bells and whistles, but for me the Photoshop compatibility is the heavy hitter.
Recommended.

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Corel MediaOne Plus Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased this product primarily for the function of being able to freeze still photos from video clips. Everything else seemed to work with the program EXCEPT that particular function. I tried emailing the company several times to get assistance, and nobody would respond. They offer some kind of technical support, but you have to PAY FOR IT!! I have been really frustrated with this particular program not having technical support available. With the particular function I wanted to use, I'd go through the steps, and it just wouldn't work. Other simple photo funtions seem to work just fine. In my case, this was a waste of money, and you are definately ON YOUR OWN once you buy it.

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MediaOne Plus MUL UNSPSC CodeUNSPSC Code:43232102Product IDUPC:735163116052Manufacturer Part:MOP2ENGPC

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Photostory on CD & DVD 9 Deluxe Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I found out about this product by Googling for "Slideshow Programs". One of the first hits is a Top-10 Review showing that this product is superior to others. I normally rely heavily on Amazon customer feedback and there was only one entry. I went ahead and bought the product from Amazon, due to the fact that they are so good about letting your return products that don't measure up. After one day of playing with the product I came to some conclusions:
Pro: It's pretty easy to throw together an impressive-looking slideshow that promises to be outputted in various formats.
Cons: I was not able to produce a DVD that did not clip vertically on a 16:9 screen (even though I told the software not to expand horizontally). The quality of the display not sharp at all. I tried to produce a video file to be uploaded to my TiVo HD, but it informed me that I needed to buy an add-on encoder. After doing that, it failed with an error message. When I tried to get support I found that their method of support is a lame bulletin board site. Most of the problems are not in English. You can filter for English and then filter for the product. I found that others were reporting problems that hadn't been solved. Some major problems were outstanding after months or more than a year. The product claimed to have training videos, but they are no more than promotional videos. There does not seem to be enough documentation. There certainly isn't reasonable support available.
Hint: If Amazon.com sells 3rd-party books on a product, then you probably have a chance at success.
I ended up going back to the Top-10 list and then did research on ProShow Gold. Amazon.com doesn't sell this product, but they sell three 3rd-party books on it. Reading comments on the books shows that people are satisfied with the product. So I bought a license for ProShow Gold from the manufacturer's web site and turned around and bought a quick start book from Amazon. I paid as much for shipping as the book because I want to read it tomorrow!
In an hour of playing around with ProShow Gold, I've been able to do all the things I want to do. I expect to put together slide shows for DVD and MPEG-2 and, as I learn more about ProShow Gold, come back and make incremental improvements to the presentation.
Buyer beware -- unless you buy from Amazon and do your evaluation in 30 days!

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Simply import photos and video recordings, easily transform them into exciting slideshows with texts, music, and effects, burn them to disc with a DVD menu, and then enjoy them on TV with your DVD player or export for experiencing on the web, digital photo frames or mobile players.

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Adobe After Effects Professional 7.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Adobe After Effects 7 is the program to have if you want to create effects for film and video. In short, this program is amazing.
As the manager of the Seattle Flash User group, several times people have asked me what is "After Effects?" My response is: any of the effects in animation that you generally see in commercials, movie intros, or a Ken Burns special; chances are it was done in After Effects.
Now speaking from a Flash Designer perspective this is really exciting because with Flash 8 you can now effortlessly import video to your animations. This means blue screen effects, special effects, and text animations all done in After Effects. After Effects then easily exports .swf, .fla and all the major video and audio formats.
Adobe After Effects has a lot of canned text effects and they make it very simple to import them as a .swf file. Just keep the stage and frame rate the same as your Flash settings and amazing text animations are done in minutes.
I mentioned the blue screen effect. You can now place a live actor in front of a cartoon background just like Disney did in his Alice cartoons. This is possible because you can export them with the alpha channel.
A major difference between version 6.5 and 7 is in the interface itself. This is always a touchy area to change with veteran users of the program, but this time it makes sense. Now you have the pallet running across the top of the program like so many of the Macromedia products did. It has several preprogrammed desktop workspaces accessible from a drop down box and it is very easy to create and save your own configuration if you do not like any of the presets. Also, the whole interface scales together making it easy to drag open the one you are working in if you need more space and all the other pallets automatically adjust accordingly. This is a feature you really need to see to believe.
Ever work in a 3D program and you view your project from several angels all at once (the top, right side, left side, bottom)? Now you can do it in After Effects. A cool new feature to version 7.
What if your project has Photoshop CS2 images and you realize you want to make a change. No problem. You can now open Photoshop CS2 within After Effects. Open your .psd, make your changes, save it and your back to After Effects. It also features enhanced integration with Premier Pro 2.
After Effects is a very advance program with a steep learning curve, but Adobe does make is easy to jump right in and with a little knowledge you will be producing some impressive work.
Keith Johnson
[...]

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Adobe After Effects 7.0 Professional can be registered and upgraded. This is the full retail version not an Upgrade, Educational, NFR, or OEM version.
Adobe After Effects 7.0 is the industry standard for motion graphics and effects. You can animate your ideas and create compelling motion graphics and blockbuster visual effects with efficiency, precision, and infinite variety. Take advantage of unmatched integration with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator software. Adobe After Effects 7.0 Pro gives you flexible 2D and 3D compositing, and hundreds of effects and Animation Presets to bring a new dimension to your film, video, DVD, and web productions. Part Number 22070216.

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Adobe Photoshop CS5 Upsell from Photoshop Elements Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Very powerful, plenty of options, and it can help you produce better work. Functions can be complicated but there is excellent on-line support and a number of very good 3rd party user guides are available. Look for discounts (student, upgrade from Elements, etc.)

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Adobe Photoshop CS5 delivers breakthrough capabilities to help you create images with impact. Refine your images with reengineered photography tools for removing noise, adding grain, and creating high dynamic range (HDR) images. Get precise results when making complex selections. Remove any image element and see the space fill in almost magically. Paint with naturally textured brushstrokes and realistic color blends. Also work fast with cross-platform 64-bit support and dozens of other time-savers.

Upgrade From Photoshop Elements to Adobe Photoshop CS5 To install an upgrade version of Photoshop CS5 software, you must have an eligible earlier version of Adobe software:
Photoshop Elements 4.0, 6.0, & 8.0 for Mac OS
Photoshop Elements 6.0, 7.0, or 8.0 for Windows

For more information on eligibility, visit www.adobe.com/go/upgradeinfo.
Top reasons to upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS5
Complex selections made easy Get precise results in fewer clicks when selecting intricate image elements, such as hair, and eliminate background color around selection edges. Automatically vary selection edges and perfect masks using new refinement tools.
Content-Aware Fill Remove any image detail or object and watch as Content-Aware Fill magically fills in the space left behind. This breakthrough technology matches lighting, tone, and noise so it looks as if the removed content never existed.
Superior HDR imaging Create photorealistic or surreal high dynamic range (HDR) images with unprecedented speed, control, and accuracy. Get better-than-ever results thanks to automatic ghost removal and greater control with tone mapping and adjustments, and even give single-exposure photos the look of HDR.
State-of-the-art raw image processing Use the Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 6 plug-in to nondestructively remove image noise while preserving color and detail; add grain to make digital photos look more organic; enjoy more control as you perform post-crop vignetting; and more.
Extraordinary painting effects Achieve natural and realistic painting effects with the Mixer Brush, which offers on-canvas color blending, and Bristle Tips, which let you create lifelike, textured brushstrokes.
Puppet Warp Precisely reposition or warp any image element. Swing a raised arm to a person's side in a photo, stretch text to create new effects, and more.
Automatic lens correction Save time with automatic correction of lens distortions, chromatic aberration, and vignetting. Photoshop CS5 uses an image file's EXIF data to make precise adjustments based on the type of camera and lens you used.
Efficient workflow Enjoy productivity and creativity boosts thanks to dozens of features and enhancements requested by Photoshop users. Straighten images automatically, pick colors from an onscreen color picker, adjust the opacity of many layers at once, and more.
Better media management Easily manage media with more flexible batch renaming, and access your assets in the context of what you're working on by using the customizable Adobe Mini Bridge panel in Photoshop.
Faster performance across platforms Speed up day-to-day imaging tasks and process very large images up to 10 times faster by taking advantage of cross-platform 64-bit support. (Requires a 64-bit-capable computer with a 64-bit version of Mac OS, Microsoft Windows 7, or Windows Vista. Actual performance varies depending on amount of RAM, driver types, and other factors.)
Streamlined creative reviews through integration with CS Live services Use Adobe CS Review, part of new CS Live online services, to initiate a more secure review without leaving Photoshop. Reviewers can add comments to your images from their browsers, and you see those comments appear automatically on your screen. Adobe CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time. Visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.
New GPU-accelerated features Take advantage of GPU-enabled enhancements to everyday tools. Crop with the Rule of Thirds grid; zoom with click-and-scrub functionality; and sample colors with better visualization and an onscreen color picker.
Easier user interface management Use the collapsible Workspace Switcher to quickly navigate and choose among favorite user interface configurations. Live workspaces automatically record your user interface changes so panels will remain in place even if you switch away for a while.
Superior black-and-white conversion Explore an endless variety of black-and-white looks. Use the integrated Lab B&W Action to interactively convert color images; create gorgeous HDR black-and-whites with greater ease and speed; and experiment with new presets.
Create powerful images with the professional standard
Easy access to core editing power Get just the tools you need--exactly when you need them--as you perform common editing activities. Adjustments and Masks panels guide you in making precise adjustments and masks.
Extraordinary creative tools Achieve realistic painting effects with the ability to mix colors on canvas and create natural brushstrokes. Merge multiple exposures into stunning high dynamic range (HDR) images. Move, remove, warp, or stretch any image element.
State-of-the-art photography Easily merge multiple exposures to extend the dynamic range with more power, precision, and fidelity than ever before. Convert to black-and-white in new ways. And use Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools that intelligently preserve color and tone details.
Industry-leading raw image processing Enjoy superior results when you convert raw images with the Camera Raw 6 plug-in, which offers support for over 275 camera models plus nondestructive editing so you can experiment without harming your original photo.
Automated compositing tools Easily create a single image from a series of shots that have different focal points, smoothly blending color and shading and extending your depth of field. And take advantage of accurate, automatic layer alignment.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom integration Enjoy tight integration with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software (sold separately), easily moving files from Lightroom to Photoshop CS5 to create HDR images, panoramas, and multilayered Photoshop documents. Roundtrip your files back to Lightroom.
Efficient media management Manage your media visually with Adobe Bridge CS5 software. Enjoy more flexible batch renaming plus the ability to access files in the context of your work using the customizable Adobe Mini Bridge panel.
Powerful printing options Get outstanding prints in less time with automation, scripting, and a print dialog box that's easier to navigate.
Broad file format support Import and export hundreds of image file formats, including PSD, AI, PDF, NEF, CRW, TIFF, BMP, Cineon, JPEG, JPEG2000, FXG, OpenEXR, PNG, and Targa, and video formats including 3G, FLC, MOV, AVI, DV Stream, Image Sequence, MPEG-4, and FLV.
Extensibility Personalize Photoshop and extend its capabilities with custom panels that developers create to accomplish specific tasks, the Adobe Photoshop Marketplace for third-party plug-ins and resources, and Adobe Community Help for tips and tricks.
Top new features of Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended
Intelligent selection technology Photoshop CS5 takes the time and frustration out of making precise image selections and masks, providing you a faster way to extract subjects from their backgrounds and create realistic composites. New intelligent selection technology offers better edge detection and faster, more accurate masking results of complex subjects, like hair. Automatic color decontamination helps you eliminate background color around the edges of a selection, resulting in more seamless compositions when placing extracted subjects on new backgrounds.
Experienced Photoshop users know that the best selections are created by constantly adapting the selection technique for differences in the subject's edges--one method for hair and another for the edge of a building. With Photoshop CS5, you can produce highly accurate masks and selections faster and more simply than before with a set of new adaptive selection-edge modification controls. Smart Radius automatically matches the best selection approach with the subject's changing edge characteristics, and the extra view modes assist you in previewing the quality of your selections. The Refine Radius and Erase Refinements tools customize your masks and selections as you make them. These tools, in combination with the color decontamination settings, help eliminate any residual background color from around the edges of your selections.
Content‐Aware Fill One of the most exciting new features in Photoshop CS5 is the remarkable ability to remove an image element and magically replace it with details that match the lighting, tone, and noise of the surrounding area so that it looks like the content never existed. Now, you can make substantial changes to photo composition quickly and easily, as even large complex subjects can be seamlessly erased.
You can use Content-Aware Fill with the Spot Healing Brush or as an option of the Fill feature to replace content in an active selection. Selecting the Content-Aware setting with the Spot Healing brush changes the way the tool fills in the areas you paint. This retouching approach is designed to account more fully for the structure and detail of the image elements that surround the painted area, providing a near-invisible result when removing unwanted objects. Alternatively, you can select the object to be removed, and then replace the area with synthesized details from the area surrounding the selection, simply by using the Content-Aware option in the Fill dialog box.
HDR Pro for creativity and precision with the next generation of high dynamic range imaging With just a few clicks, you can go beyond the capture capabilities of your camera by combining multiple exposures into a single high dynamic range (HDR) photo that preserves the full tonal range of a scene with high contrast. Photoshop CS5 introduces HDR Pro for more control over the HDR merging process and greater adjustment power over the mapping of tones and the styling of HDR output, resulting in images that range from photorealistic to highly surreal.
HDR Pro offers extended controls, an enhanced dialog box, and improved image processing. New algorithms enable more accurate alignment of source files and automatically deghost any problem areas that occur when trying to merge source photos where subjects have moved during capture. You can even select a source file to be used as the sole reference for any ghosted areas or allow the feature to do this automatically for you.
New tone-mapping tools and adjustment controls give you the power to implement your own HDR vision, producing photos that range in style from fully textured images of high-contrast scenes to wildly hyper-realistic creations. Save your favorite styles as presets and apply them to multiple groups of source files to provide a common look and feel to your HDR photos. And for times when you don't have multiple source files, create the look of an HDR-processed image from a single photo with the new HDR Toning feature that allows you to mimic the tone-mapping results traditionally achieved in high dynamic range photos.
Together with the existing Photomerge feature (which allows for image stitching), the exposure-merging capabilities of HDR Pro can add up to high-bit-depth, 360-degree panoramas ideal for composite photography, video, and beyond.
The Auto Stack Panorama/HDR files option in Adobe Bridge CS5 and the new panelized Mini Bridge groups source files together into stacks for quicker creation of HDR images in Photoshop CS5. You can even start the creation of an HDR file by choosing Tools > Merge To HDR from the Mini Bridge panel inside Photoshop.
State-of-the-art raw-image processing The Adobe Camera Raw 6 plug-in, which ships with Photoshop CS5, now supports more than 275 camera models as it continues to provide you with the industry-leading conversion of raw files. In addition, the utility provides advanced, nondestructive image editing and enhancement for raw files, as well as for other standard formats, including JPEG and TIFF. Now you can remove noise, achieve better quality sharpening, and creatively apply new styles of vignettes and film-like grain.
You can now shoot at higher ISO settings with confidence, because the updated controls in the Adobe Camera Raw 6 plug-in remove the noise common in such high-ISO images (as well as in photos captured with long exposures and pictures from consumer cameras) while still preserving excellent color and detail.
New controls for adding grain and additional post-crop vignetting settings join many creative options already available in this utility, such as the Adjustment Brush and the Graduated Filter. For the first time, you can add grain-like texture to photos as part of your nondestructive editing workflow. Adjust amount, size, and roughness of grain to easily give composites a more natural, seamless appearance by matching levels of grain across all source images--or simply use the feature to make a digital photo look more organic or film-like.
Updated post-crop vignetting options offer more creative control over the corner darkening and lightening process, and your favorite vignette effects can be saved as presets for quick application across multiple files.
Upgraded sharpening options produce clearer photos with fewer artifacts while providing better control over key details, especially when working with high-resolution pictures produced by multi-megapixel cameras.
Extraordinary painting effects With a new Mixer Brush, a Bristle Tips feature, and a new mechanism for blending colors, Photoshop CS5 redefines the way you paint. You can take advantage of more natural and realistic painting effects, making it easy to take your imagery and designs in new artistic directions.
The Mixer Brush lets you define multiple colors on a single tip, and then mix and blend them with the underlying hues on your canvas, achieving creative results that rival traditional painting media. When starting with a photo original, you can use a dry, empty brush to blend the existing colors while at the same time adding a painterly effect to the image. Mixer Brush settings provide extensive control over the wetness of the canvas colors, the load rate that determines amount of paint loaded on the brush, the mixing rate between brush and canvas colors, and whether the brush is refilled, cleaned, or both after each painting stroke.
In conjunction with these new mixing features, Photoshop CS5 incorporates unprecedented control over stroke characteristics of its painting tools with Bristle Tips. Bristle Qualities define key bristle properties such as shape, length, stiffness, thickness, angle, and spacing, which affect how the color is laid on the image as you paint.
The Bristle Brush Preview feature provides a visual representation of these changes, and you can save your tip configurations for future use, allowing you to build a customized collection of Bristle Tips to experiment with when using Photoshop brush tools.
Puppet Warp Puppet Warp gives you more freedom when pushing and pulling elements within an image. The feature lets you recompose an image to make it more appealing, or to fit a specific layout, by allowing the precise repositioning of any element within a Photoshop document, or selection, by simply clicking and dragging. After you reposition an object, Photoshop adjusts the rest of the image to account for the shifted pixels.
After choosing Edit > Puppet Warp, click on your image to drop pins establishing anchor points where you want image parts not to move, and handles that you can use for warping. Then drag any of the pins to reposition the picture elements. Use Puppet Warp to swing a raised arm to a person's side, warp and stretch text to create new effects, or reposition intrusive objects in a photo to create a more pleasing composition.
Automated lens correction The Lens Correction features in Photoshop CS5 create better quality captures by removing or correcting the three most common lens-based errors: geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting. This means you can use a wider range of lenses with the confidence of producing images of the highest quality. With the aid of the Adobe Lens Profile Creator (available separately as a free download from labs.adobe.com) you can produce custom profiles characterizing the optical aberrations of your camera lenses. When installed and selected in the Lens Correction filter in Photoshop CS5, the profile automatically removes or corrects the three types of distortion.
The Lens Correction filter in Photoshop CS5 is redesigned to include manual adjustment controls under the Custom tab, and settings for locating and applying custom Lens Correction Profiles (LCP files) under a new Auto Correction tab. Installed profiles that match your camera and lens combination are used to apply precise distortion corrections to your photos. Suitable profiles can be located easily based on the EXIF data automatically recorded with the image, and if a suitable profile is not present in the Lens Correction filter, then with a single click within the dialog box, you can search online for the correct profile to meet your needs.
Individual error types can be selected in the filter's settings, as can options for handling any transparent areas that surround the corrected image.
User-inspired productivity enhancements Photoshop CS5 helps boost productivity and creativity throughout the editing workflow with dozens of enhancements inspired by Photoshop users. Some of these include:
A neutral-density preset for the Gradient tool
The ability to save 16-bit Photoshop documents in 8-bit JPEG format in a single step
An option for reversing the clone source using the flip buttons in the Clone Source panel
A Don't Show This Message Again option when saving files with maximum compatibility
Default value for Shadows/Highlights changed from 50% to 35%
The ability to move a selection while the active layer is hidden
An on/off option for trackpad gesture support on Mac and in Microsoft Windows 7
A new layer command for deleting all empty layers via scripts
A Straighten button on the Ruler tool options bar
A Close All Open Images Without Saving option
A Save As option for always defaulting to the folder to which you last saved an image
The ability to drag and drop a file onto an open Photoshop document to create a new layer
Multiple improvements in Lens Correction filter options, including:
Grid Display is off by default
Show Grid, Grid Size, and Grid Color settings are now sticky
Default grid size is increased from 16 to 64 pixels
Decimal point adjustments are allowed as values for the Chromatic Aberration sliders
A third Chromatic Aberration slider enables the correction of green/magenta fringing
The Background Color Edge setting is replaced with the Black Color entry
A White Color option is available in the Edge menu
Reset options are changed so that only the calibration settings are reset, not the Grid options

A new Cache Tile Size control in the Performance section of the Preferences dialog box
Zoom in and out with the new scrubby zoom tool
Presets for setting Cache Tile Size and Cache Levels simultaneously
The ability to use keystrokes to set values in the Adjustments panel text fields
Performance increases of up to 50% when importing OBJ files
Sample colors faster using the new on screen color ring built into the eyedropper tool
Customizable default values for Layer styles
New creative resources, including actions, tools, presets, brushes, swatches, shapes, gradients, styles, and tool presets
Window and Door shapes added to list of meshes that can be created from a layer
An option for changing the opacity of multiple selected layers
The ability to create a mask from the transparent areas of a layer
Pick colors faster using the new on-screen color HUD
Print settings saved with the image file, allowing one-button printing with user-selected values
Selecting a printer automatically lists the profiles installed for that printer at the top of the profile list
Printer-specific profiles are selected automatically when choosing a printer
Customized print settings can be recorded as part of a Photoshop Action
An overlay grid can be displayed when using the Crop tool
Layer groups can be nested more than five levels deep
New Paste Outside and Paste Inside commands, along with the previously existing Paste In Place option, are included in a new Edit > Paste Special menu

Streamlined creative reviews through integration with Adobe CS ReviewCollaborate with colleagues and seek client comment quickly and easily with Adobe CS Review, a new CS Live online service* designed to simplify and accelerate the design review process.
With CS Review, you can avoid the hassles of large email attachments, logon problems with FTP servers, and time-consuming next-day air deliveries usually associated with client reviews by instead initiating a secure, shared review. Comments are displayed in near-real time and in context, providing convenient feedback on your images and designs. You can access the CS Review service from within Photoshop CS5.
Faster performance with cross-platform native 64-bit support Tight deadlines and large file sizes make performance a high priority for many Photoshop users. Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended deliver cross-platform 64-bit support, allowing you to perform day-to-day imaging tasks up to 10 times faster. Video and photo professionals, especially, benefit from the extra performance, as gains are even greater if you regularly work with very large files, where processing can be up to ten times faster when you take advantage of higher addressable RAM amounts--limited only by what your hardware accommodates.
To help you tweak the performance of your setup, Photoshop CS5 lets you adjust history, tile, and cache controls in combination.
Greater access to key resources via flexible custom panels Photoshop CS5 offers easy ways to integrate and extend your workspace with customized panels. With the aid of the Configurator 2.0 panel utility (available separately as a download from labs.adobe.com) you can produce your own panels, bringing together your most used tools and menu selections and incorporating your favorite web feeds or video tutorials.
Stay connected to the greater Photoshop community and all facets of your digital life directly from within Photoshop CS5 by using panels you create or those produced and distributed by other users. You can access anything that lives on the web--favorite blogs, video content, even your email--with these integrated panels. You can even expand content beyond a panel's standard viewing area when you need a magnified view.
Easier interface management with Live Workspaces and Workspace Switcher Creating dedicated, task-specific workspaces that mimic your individual workflow increases productivity and efficiency by hiding the features you don't use and exposing the ones you do. New Live Workspaces auto-save any changes you make to a task-specific workspace, so that if you switch to a different workspace and then back again during an editing session, your panels remain exactly where you left them. The number of entries displayed in the collapsible Workspace Switcher can be altered, and the position of each workspace can be rearranged. This provides quicker navigation between frequently used setups.
Superior black-and-white conversion Photoshop CS5 continues to support the tradition of producing finely crafted monochrome photos with the inclusion of new ways to explore an endless variety of black-and-white looks. You can use the integrated Lab Black & White Technique action, located in the Default Actions group of the Actions panel, for an easy and interactive way to convert color images. Create gorgeous HDR black-and-whites with greater ease and speed by taking advantage of the new and updated features in HDR Pro. Take your monochrome creations in new directions with conversion presets in the Black & White panel.

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Corel Paint Shop Pro X Scrapbooking Edition Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This software is wonderful! I have been trying to find a good program to scrapbook digitally for many years. I've tried Broderbund (sp?) whose interface was too clumsy, Nova which was rather difficult at times (many things you can't do) and now this. When I first took this out of the package and installed it I thought I had made the wrong decision with this software since there were very, very few backgrounds, templates or embellishements even when I opened the Xtras CDs that came with this. I truly did not feel the Xtras CDs were worth purchasing since there are very few things on them. But then I found the tutorials that are included on the CD and watched the one about making collages. I didn't get halfway through the video - I had figured out how to do it. I have now created some of the best scrapbook pages I've ever made. Within hours I had a beautiful collage/letter to send with my holiday cards. My husband's first impression was a heartfelt "It's lovely". What has so throughly convinced me of the abilities of this software is that I can take ANY image and make it a background, I can create and manipulate text almost any way I want, I've been able to create my own embellishments as well as using downloaded embellishments from websites that sell it (.png format). I feel like I have no limitations on what I can do now. I imagine this software is not as sophistacated as Adobe Illustrator, but then it probably isn't as complicated to use (from what I remember that program has a rather steep learning curve).
You can also use the eyedropper tool to "pick up" any color from any picture, background, or element (read "anything") in the program. I was able to take the background colors and make embellishments that matched! I can take a color from one of my pictues and make a background that matches. You can also remove backgrounds from photos - it takes a bit of time to do, but the area around the image will be transparent - this functionality has many uses. You can also save your files in many different formats including .jpg for file sharing, etc. There are so many more features I couldn't possibly list them here, nor would you want me too (too much time).
If you only use premade templates and don't feel ready to venture out on your own yet this software may not be for you unless you find a website that sells templates for this software. You could start with something like Nova Scrapbook Factory Deluxe 3.0, which I liked, and when you start becoming really frustrated by its limiations it may be time to move up to this program. You may also want to read a book about digital scrapbooking to give you ideas and alert you to possibilities.
The great thing about this program is that it isn't just for scrapbooking. You can do all your photo manipulation in it . I have always liked Paint Shop Pro so much that I haven't been able to afford to upgrade my copy since version 6, but I kept using that version. I'm so glad I got version 10 as it is very user friendly too. But please know that version 10 (which comes with this package) is not the most recent version. Version 11 is out now. If you don't want/need the Xtras CDs that come with this package you may want to just buy the most recent version and buy some embellishements from a website that makes .png files (portable network graphics format) or make your own.
I hope you have as much fun with this software as I am having. I highly recommend the training videos on the CD - they really help.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Corel Paint Shop Pro X Scrapbooking Edition

Corel Paint Shop Pro X delivers a complete set of photo editing tools to help you createprofessional-looking photos fast! With Paint Shop Pro X you can fix brightness, color andphoto imperfections; compose photos full of depth and imagination; give photos a uniqueand exciting look, plus, organize and share all your photos with Corel Photo Album 6 -Standard Edition, included. By combining automatic photo fixes, precision editing controls in a revolutionary Learning Center with organizing features, Paint Shop Pro is a first of its kind -- an easy-to-use photo editor for anyone who wants to create stunning photos right out of the box. Includes three ready-to-use scrapbooking resources for print or digital layouts.

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Photo Explosion Deluxe 3.0 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I used to have Microsoft's Image Composer (now discontinued) that came with FrontPage '98. What a great, intuitive little program that was for cutting out parts of photos and combining them into collages or new photos! It came with no manual, yet I was able to teach myself to use it just by playing around and trying things out. It was that easy, and it was a lot of fun!
This program claims to have many of the same functions IC did: cutting out pieces of pics by tracing an outline, resizing or recoloring or otherwise manipulating these pieces, and then combining them into a new 'photo.' Unfortunately, this program is so counter-intuitive and inflexible that you can't just play with it to figure things out.
Which would be tolerable if the manual was helpful but, of course, it's useless. It spends 70 pages describing the 'workspace' and how to 'organize your photos' (as if any moron can't do that by creating directories on their PC). After all that, there are only 10 pages on how to use the selection/trace function, how to resize, etc. And it doesn't seem to explain anywhere what to do to 'select' something once you've cut it out of a photo.
The worst part of the program is that you have to create a separate file for the place you want to combine all your images. This is stupid. Why can't you just work on one base photo, add to and alter it, and then do a 'save as...'? That would be simple. This program makes you create a 'project,' which requires sifting through dozens of their templates to find one that you can twist into something like what you want. Why not just let me work without a template? Not fun and certainly not functional.
The templates are very restrictive. For example, you can't size the space of the project once you create it. So if what you create needs to be a little larger or smaller than the template size, you have to shrink everything to fit into the template.
Further, the program's logic doesn't make much sense. If I cut out a piece of a photo and then go to resize it, the program resizes the original picture only (even though the cut-out is highlighted as selected). There's no obvious way to tell the program what I want to manipulate: the original or a cut-out. This is just one example, but there are many others I could offer.
I think the program MIGHT be good if all you want is real basic photo editing (i.e. cut a square shaped piece out of a photo and plop it into some inane greeting card template provided), but otherwise this is very limited and difficult to work with.
I can't see shelling out the bucks for Adobe. And I don't understand why someone doesn't offer an inexpensive version of Adobe (like Image Composer was)? I think I'm going to hunt for an old copy of FrontPage '98 at used software stores and reload IC.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Photo Explosion Deluxe 3.0

Photo Explosion® Deluxe made history as the first software of its kind to deliver powerful editing features spectacular special effects and professional-quality photo projects all together in one program.Now Photo Explosion Deluxe 3.0 makes digital photography even easier. And it s packed with exciting new features all designed to let you get the most out of your digital camera.System Requirements:Windows 98 2000 Me XP or Vista; 32 MB RAM; Pentium 166Mhz or faster; CD-ROM DriveFormat: WIN 98ME2000XPVISTA Genre:PRODUCTIVITY UPC:727298403831 Manufacturer No:PRW

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Adobe Photoshop CS5 Review

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(More customer reviews)My main interest is photography and after using Photoshop Elements for many years I decided to see what Photoshop CS5 would offer. This software package comes with Bridge which is a Browser that will help you keep track of photos by adding key words, and ratings, etc. It will let you open photos then send them to Photoshop. If you shoot RAW photos Adobe Camera Raw is also included. My first impression of these three elements is very positive. I was especially impressed with Adobe Camera Raw. This very capable program will allow you to do most of the adjustments that a photographer will need to do for non-destructive adjustment of exposure, color, sharpness, spot removal, cropping and more. Bridge is great for organizing photos for projects using other Adobe software along with Photoshop. For organizing hundreds or thousands of photos I think Photoshop Elements Organizer is a little better than Bridge. I think the Elements Organizer is a data base where as Bridge is a browser so PSE Organizer will keep track of and show thumbnails photos on external drives or DVDs even when they are off line. As for Photoshop itself it is an awesome piece of software with an amazing capability. You can find plenty of reviews on-line. There is quite a learning curve for this package so I think you need to get a good book on the subject since there is none included. There are quite a lot of on-line video tutors available however. I suggest you check out the Russell Brown Photoshop Tutor on-line. He has several excellent videos free to view also check out Adobe TV, this may be a good way to review the program before purchase.
One big problem I had is this: I wanted to use my existing Photoshop Elements 8 Organizer, to keep track of photos, with Photoshop but these two programs don't play together well. When a Raw file is passed on to Adobe Camera Raw version 6.3 things work ok but when done with ACR the photo will not be passed back to the Organizer whether or not the photo is opened in Photoshop CS5. Using a JPEG photo sent directly to Photoshop seems to work ok however so it looks like the problem may be with ACR. I didn't see a way to open a JPEG into ACR from the Organizer, you can with Bridge. I sent a notice about this to Adobe support and got a reply that since my PS Elements 8 is not supported I would have to purchase support even though the problem could be in Photoshop or ACR which are supported. A web search revealed that this is apparently a bug going back several versions. One blogger was told to buy Lightroom. So don't plan on using Photoshop with Elements Organizer for raw files and don't count on Adobe support for help. You could pay for the support but may still find this fruitless. Of course you may not encounter this problem (I'm using Win 7 Home premium 64 bit). Photoshop Elements will do both Asset Management plus photo editing. To do the same with Photoshop you will need to use Bridge or a better solution for Photographers is to use Lightroom, an asset management program. The Lightroom + Photoshop option costs 10 times more than Elements alone however.
Bottom line: If you are starting out in photo editing I suggest Photoshop Elements and see if that will meet your needs. If not then move on to Lightroom which has the same capabilities as Adobe Camera Raw plus asset management however you will still need an editor. You can use the Elements Editor with Lightroom and if you what even more capabilities then get Photoshop for your editor. Photoshop, Bridge, Adobe Camera Raw has a learning curve of many hours, which could be fun. Elements also will take a lot of time but a lot of the knowledge you learn for Elements is also useful with Photoshop but plan on getting a book for either. You can learn this software on-line but I found that I would tend to bounce around from topic to topic where as a book leads you through a more logical flow. For PS Elements I used Philip Andrews Advanced Photoshop Elements 7 for Digital Photographers also available from Amazon and found it excellent. If you are a Pro or want to do graphic design then Photoshop is the only way to go. I wish Adobe would offer a photographers version of Photoshop that included Lightroom rather than or in addition to Bridge.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe Photoshop CS5 delivers breakthrough capabilities to help you create images with impact. Refine your images with reengineered photography tools for removing noise, adding grain, and creating high dynamic range (HDR) images. Get precise results when making complex selections. Remove any image element and see the space fill in almost magically. Paint with naturally textured brushstrokes and realistic color blends. Also work fast with cross-platform 64-bit support and dozens of other time-savers.

Create powerful images with the professional standard
Easy access to core editing power Get just the tools you need--exactly when you need them--as you perform common editing activities. Adjustments and Masks panels guide you in making precise adjustments and masks.
Extraordinary creative tools Achieve realistic painting effects with the ability to mix colors on canvas and create natural brushstrokes. Merge multiple exposures into stunning high dynamic range (HDR) images. Move, remove, warp, or stretch any image element.
State-of-the-art photography Easily merge multiple exposures to extend the dynamic range with more power, precision, and fidelity than ever before. Convert to black-and-white in new ways. And use Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools that intelligently preserve color and tone details.
Industry-leading raw image processing Enjoy superior results when you convert raw images with the Camera Raw 6 plug-in, which offers support for over 275 camera models plus nondestructive editing so you can experiment without harming your original photo.
Automated compositing tools Easily create a single image from a series of shots that have different focal points, smoothly blending color and shading and extending your depth of field. And take advantage of accurate, automatic layer alignment.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom integration Enjoy tight integration with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software (sold separately), easily moving files from Lightroom to Photoshop CS5 to create HDR images, panoramas, and multilayered Photoshop documents. Roundtrip your files back to Lightroom.
Efficient media management Manage your media visually with Adobe Bridge CS5 software. Enjoy more flexible batch renaming plus the ability to access files in the context of your work using the customizable Adobe Mini Bridge panel.
Powerful printing options Get outstanding prints in less time with automation, scripting, and a print dialog box that's easier to navigate.
Broad file format support Import and export hundreds of image file formats, including PSD, AI, PDF, NEF, CRW, TIFF, BMP, Cineon, JPEG, JPEG2000, FXG, OpenEXR, PNG, and Targa, and video formats including 3G, FLC, MOV, AVI, DV Stream, Image Sequence, MPEG-4, and FLV.
Extensibility Personalize Photoshop and extend its capabilities with custom panels that developers create to accomplish specific tasks, the Adobe Photoshop Marketplace for third-party plug-ins and resources, and Adobe Community Help for tips and tricks.
Top new features of Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended
Intelligent selection technology Photoshop CS5 takes the time and frustration out of making precise image selections and masks, providing you a faster way to extract subjects from their backgrounds and create realistic composites. New intelligent selection technology offers better edge detection and faster, more accurate masking results of complex subjects, like hair. Automatic color decontamination helps you eliminate background color around the edges of a selection, resulting in more seamless compositions when placing extracted subjects on new backgrounds.
Experienced Photoshop users know that the best selections are created by constantly adapting the selection technique for differences in the subject's edges--one method for hair and another for the edge of a building. With Photoshop CS5, you can produce highly accurate masks and selections faster and more simply than before with a set of new adaptive selection-edge modification controls. Smart Radius automatically matches the best selection approach with the subject's changing edge characteristics, and the extra view modes assist you in previewing the quality of your selections. The Refine Radius and Erase Refinements tools customize your masks and selections as you make them. These tools, in combination with the color decontamination settings, help eliminate any residual background color from around the edges of your selections.
Content‐Aware Fill One of the most exciting new features in Photoshop CS5 is the remarkable ability to remove an image element and magically replace it with details that match the lighting, tone, and noise of the surrounding area so that it looks like the content never existed. Now, you can make substantial changes to photo composition quickly and easily, as even large complex subjects can be seamlessly erased.
You can use Content-Aware Fill with the Spot Healing Brush or as an option of the Fill feature to replace content in an active selection. Selecting the Content-Aware setting with the Spot Healing brush changes the way the tool fills in the areas you paint. This retouching approach is designed to account more fully for the structure and detail of the image elements that surround the painted area, providing a near-invisible result when removing unwanted objects. Alternatively, you can select the object to be removed, and then replace the area with synthesized details from the area surrounding the selection, simply by using the Content-Aware option in the Fill dialog box.
HDR Pro for creativity and precision with the next generation of high dynamic range imaging With just a few clicks, you can go beyond the capture capabilities of your camera by combining multiple exposures into a single high dynamic range (HDR) photo that preserves the full tonal range of a scene with high contrast. Photoshop CS5 introduces HDR Pro for more control over the HDR merging process and greater adjustment power over the mapping of tones and the styling of HDR output, resulting in images that range from photorealistic to highly surreal.
HDR Pro offers extended controls, an enhanced dialog box, and improved image processing. New algorithms enable more accurate alignment of source files and automatically deghost any problem areas that occur when trying to merge source photos where subjects have moved during capture. You can even select a source file to be used as the sole reference for any ghosted areas or allow the feature to do this automatically for you.
New tone-mapping tools and adjustment controls give you the power to implement your own HDR vision, producing photos that range in style from fully textured images of high-contrast scenes to wildly hyper-realistic creations. Save your favorite styles as presets and apply them to multiple groups of source files to provide a common look and feel to your HDR photos. And for times when you don't have multiple source files, create the look of an HDR-processed image from a single photo with the new HDR Toning feature that allows you to mimic the tone-mapping results traditionally achieved in high dynamic range photos.
Together with the existing Photomerge feature (which allows for image stitching), the exposure-merging capabilities of HDR Pro can add up to high-bit-depth, 360-degree panoramas ideal for composite photography, video, and beyond.
The Auto Stack Panorama/HDR files option in Adobe Bridge CS5 and the new panelized Mini Bridge groups source files together into stacks for quicker creation of HDR images in Photoshop CS5. You can even start the creation of an HDR file by choosing Tools > Merge To HDR from the Mini Bridge panel inside Photoshop.
State-of-the-art raw-image processing The Adobe Camera Raw 6 plug-in, which ships with Photoshop CS5, now supports more than 275 camera models as it continues to provide you with the industry-leading conversion of raw files. In addition, the utility provides advanced, nondestructive image editing and enhancement for raw files, as well as for other standard formats, including JPEG and TIFF. Now you can remove noise, achieve better quality sharpening, and creatively apply new styles of vignettes and film-like grain.
You can now shoot at higher ISO settings with confidence, because the updated controls in the Adobe Camera Raw 6 plug-in remove the noise common in such high-ISO images (as well as in photos captured with long exposures and pictures from consumer cameras) while still preserving excellent color and detail.
New controls for adding grain and additional post-crop vignetting settings join many creative options already available in this utility, such as the Adjustment Brush and the Graduated Filter. For the first time, you can add grain-like texture to photos as part of your nondestructive editing workflow. Adjust amount, size, and roughness of grain to easily give composites a more natural, seamless appearance by matching levels of grain across all source images--or simply use the feature to make a digital photo look more organic or film-like.
Updated post-crop vignetting options offer more creative control over the corner darkening and lightening process, and your favorite vignette effects can be saved as presets for quick application across multiple files.
Upgraded sharpening options produce clearer photos with fewer artifacts while providing better control over key details, especially when working with high-resolution pictures produced by multi-megapixel cameras.
Extraordinary painting effects With a new Mixer Brush, a Bristle Tips feature, and a new mechanism for blending colors, Photoshop CS5 redefines the way you paint. You can take advantage of more natural and realistic painting effects, making it easy to take your imagery and designs in new artistic directions.
The Mixer Brush lets you define multiple colors on a single tip, and then mix and blend them with the underlying hues on your canvas, achieving creative results that rival traditional painting media. When starting with a photo original, you can use a dry, empty brush to blend the existing colors while at the same time adding a painterly effect to the image. Mixer Brush settings provide extensive control over the wetness of the canvas colors, the load rate that determines amount of paint loaded on the brush, the mixing rate between brush and canvas colors, and whether the brush is refilled, cleaned, or both after each painting stroke.
In conjunction with these new mixing features, Photoshop CS5 incorporates unprecedented control over stroke characteristics of its painting tools with Bristle Tips. Bristle Qualities define key bristle properties such as shape, length, stiffness, thickness, angle, and spacing, which affect how the color is laid on the image as you paint.
The Bristle Brush Preview feature provides a visual representation of these changes, and you can save your tip configurations for future use, allowing you to build a customized collection of Bristle Tips to experiment with when using Photoshop brush tools.
Puppet Warp Puppet Warp gives you more freedom when pushing and pulling elements within an image. The feature lets you recompose an image to make it more appealing, or to fit a specific layout, by allowing the precise repositioning of any element within a Photoshop document, or selection, by simply clicking and dragging. After you reposition an object, Photoshop adjusts the rest of the image to account for the shifted pixels.
After choosing Edit > Puppet Warp, click on your image to drop pins establishing anchor points where you want image parts not to move, and handles that you can use for warping. Then drag any of the pins to reposition the picture elements. Use Puppet Warp to swing a raised arm to a person's side, warp and stretch text to create new effects, or reposition intrusive objects in a photo to create a more pleasing composition.
Automated lens correction The Lens Correction features in Photoshop CS5 create better quality captures by removing or correcting the three most common lens-based errors: geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting. This means you can use a wider range of lenses with the confidence of producing images of the highest quality. With the aid of the Adobe Lens Profile Creator (available separately as a free download from labs.adobe.com) you can produce custom profiles characterizing the optical aberrations of your camera lenses. When installed and selected in the Lens Correction filter in Photoshop CS5, the profile automatically removes or corrects the three types of distortion.
The Lens Correction filter in Photoshop CS5 is redesigned to include manual adjustment controls under the Custom tab, and settings for locating and applying custom Lens Correction Profiles (LCP files) under a new Auto Correction tab. Installed profiles that match your camera and lens combination are used to apply precise distortion corrections to your photos. Suitable profiles can be located easily based on the EXIF data automatically recorded with the image, and if a suitable profile is not present in the Lens Correction filter, then with a single click within the dialog box, you can search online for the correct profile to meet your needs.
Individual error types can be selected in the filter's settings, as can options for handling any transparent areas that surround the corrected image.
User-inspired productivity enhancements Photoshop CS5 helps boost productivity and creativity throughout the editing workflow with dozens of enhancements inspired by Photoshop users. Some of these include:
A neutral-density preset for the Gradient tool
The ability to save 16-bit Photoshop documents in 8-bit JPEG format in a single step
An option for reversing the clone source using the flip buttons in the Clone Source panel
A Don't Show This Message Again option when saving files with maximum compatibility
Default value for Shadows/Highlights changed from 50% to 35%
The ability to move a selection while the active layer is hidden
An on/off option for trackpad gesture support on Mac and in Microsoft® Windows® 7
A new layer command for deleting all empty layers via scripts
A Straighten button on the Ruler tool options bar
A Close All Open Images Without Saving option
A Save As option for always defaulting to the folder to which you last saved an image
The ability to drag and drop a file onto an open Photoshop document to create a new layer
Multiple improvements in Lens Correction filter options, including:
Grid Display is off by default
Show Grid, Grid Size, and Grid Color settings are now sticky
Default grid size is increased from 16 to 64 pixels
Decimal point adjustments are allowed as values for the Chromatic Aberration sliders
A third Chromatic Aberration slider enables the correction of green/magenta fringing
The Background Color Edge setting is replaced with the Black Color entry
A White Color option is available in the Edge menu
Reset options are changed so that only the calibration settings are reset, not the Grid options

A new Cache Tile Size control in the Performance section of the Preferences dialog box
Zoom in and out with the new scrubby zoom tool
Presets for setting Cache Tile Size and Cache Levels simultaneously
The ability to use keystrokes to set values in the Adjustments panel text fields
Performance increases of up to 50% when importing OBJ files
Sample colors faster using the new on screen color ring built into the eyedropper tool
Customizable default values for Layer styles
New creative resources, including actions, tools, presets, brushes, swatches, shapes, gradients, styles, and tool presets
Window and Door shapes added to list of meshes that can be created from a layer
An option for changing the opacity of multiple selected layers
The ability to create a mask from the transparent areas of a layer
Pick colors faster using the new on-screen color HUD
Print settings saved with the image file, allowing one-button printing with user-selected values
Selecting a printer automatically lists the profiles installed for that printer at the top of the profile list
Printer-specific profiles are selected automatically when choosing a printer
Customized print settings can be recorded as part of a Photoshop Action
An overlay grid can be displayed when using the Crop tool
Layer groups can be nested more than five levels deep
New Paste Outside and Paste Inside commands, along with the previously existing Paste In Place option, are included in a new Edit > Paste Special menu

Streamlined creative reviews through integration with Adobe CS ReviewCollaborate with colleagues and seek client comment quickly and easily with Adobe CS Review, a new CS Live online service* designed to simplify and accelerate the design review process.
With CS Review, you can avoid the hassles of large email attachments, logon problems with FTP servers, and time-consuming next-day air deliveries usually associated with client reviews by instead initiating a secure, shared review. Comments are displayed in near-real time and in context, providing convenient feedback on your images and designs. You can access the CS Review service from within Photoshop CS5.
Faster performance with cross-platform native 64-bit support Tight deadlines and large file sizes make performance a high priority for many Photoshop users. Photoshop CS5 and Photoshop CS5 Extended deliver cross-platform 64-bit support, allowing you to perform day-to-day imaging tasks up to 10 times faster. Video and photo professionals, especially, benefit from the extra performance, as gains are even greater if you regularly work with very large files, where processing can be up to ten times faster when you take advantage of higher addressable RAM amounts--limited only by what your hardware accommodates.
To help you tweak the performance of your setup, Photoshop CS5 lets you adjust history, tile, and cache controls in combination.
Greater access to key resources via flexible custom panels Photoshop CS5 offers easy ways to integrate and extend your workspace with customized panels. With the aid of the Configurator 2.0 panel utility (available separately as a download from labs.adobe.com) you can produce your own panels, bringing together your most used tools and menu selections and incorporating your favorite web feeds or video tutorials.
Stay connected to the greater Photoshop community and all facets of your digital life directly from within Photoshop CS5 by using panels you create or those produced and distributed by other users. You can access anything that lives on the web--favorite blogs, video content, even your email--with these integrated panels. You can even expand content beyond a panel's standard viewing area when you need a magnified view.
Easier interface management with Live Workspaces and Workspace Switcher Creating dedicated, task-specific workspaces that mimic your individual workflow increases productivity and efficiency by hiding the features you don't use and exposing the ones you do. New Live Workspaces auto-save any changes you make to a task-specific workspace, so that if you switch to a different workspace and then back again during an editing session, your panels remain exactly where you left them. The number of entries displayed in the collapsible Workspace Switcher can be altered, and the position of each workspace can be rearranged. This provides quicker navigation between frequently used setups.
Superior black-and-white conversion Photoshop CS5 continues to support the tradition of producing finely crafted monochrome photos with the inclusion of new ways to explore an endless variety of black-and-white looks. You can use the integrated Lab Black & White Technique action, located in the Default Actions group of the Actions panel, for an easy and interactive way to convert color images. Create gorgeous HDR black-and-whites with greater ease and speed by taking advantage of the new and updated features in HDR Pro. Take your monochrome creations in new directions with conversion presets in the Black & White panel.

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