Adobe targets non-techies with V4 Photoshop Elements image editor

[Bob Crabtree]

Adobe targets non-techies with V4 Photoshop Elements image editor

Adobe is adding a selection of new and improved automatic functions – and better organising their layout - in the latest lite version of its image editing program, Photoshop Elements 4.0.

Its forerunner, V3, delivered at fraction of the cost, much of the power of the full Photoshop – a program that dominates the world of professional graphics.

However, this made it somewhat daunting for mere mortals to use. That's a hurdle Adobe is trying to overcome with V4. It sees ordinary folk as being Elements 4's prime target and has realised that more nimble-footed competitors already offer ease-of-use features that were conspicuous by their absence from V3.

Check out our extended news story, including hands on with a late beta.

[Flibb]

Good review, am very tempted with this. Currently running V3, and a seperate bit of RAW fiddling software.

[Bob Crabtree]

Good review, am very tempted with this. Currently running V3, and a seperate bit of RAW fiddling software.

Thanks for the kind words but what I've done is really only an extended news story that includes some hands on with a beta of Photoshop Elements 2.0.

And, after that relatively limited hands on, I'm in two minds.

I downloaded last night the trial version of PaintShop Pro X - recently launched by its new parent, Corel - and have to say that I'm rather more impressed by that than I am by Photoshop Elements 4 (I never did see V9 of PaintShop Pro).

But, in neither case, have I messed around long enough to form a firm opinion - and, anyway, one program might be more suited to what I want to do but might not be suited to what others want to do.

Also, and this is true about most types of program, I'm sure there will be features in Elements that are absent from Paintshop - or are implemented in a way I like better - and vice versa.

So, in an ideal world (which is a place, of course, where reviewers sometimes visit, even if they don't live there), you'd run both programs - and probably some others as well.

If I look at my current usage of graphics/still-image programs, there are five that I regularly fire up.

PaintShop Pro 7.04 is my default image editor and has been for a long time.

It's the program that loads when I double-click on most types of image, and is the one I'm most at home with.

But I also regularly use PaintShop Pro V8.10 even though it runs far more slowly than V7.04 and has a less friendly recent-files listing (and the listing in V10/X and Photoshop - all variants - is no more friendly).

However, V8.10 of PaintShop Pro has some features I use regularly, notably its one-button auto-fixer and ultra-easy perspective-correction tool.

See the two shots of the page in Electronics mag in this Intel news story where I only last night edited the top shot to correct the perspective (which was the same as the false perspective in the second shot).

Then there is the full Adobe Photoshop 7.0.1 (I've never used CS in anger) which has a number of things I couldn't live without, such as its hand-holding way of creating images with transparent backgrounds.

Next is Photools iMatch 3.4.0.34, which has a lot of very useful batch-conversion functionality and cataloguing tools.

And, finally, there's Xara X V1.1, which is great for creating logos and the like.

So, I'd certainly be unhappy living without any of five graphics programs I currently use.

And, the same thing is essentially true for video editing, DVD authoring and sound editing - there is a set of programs I use for each task and wouldn't be comfortable if I was restricted to using just one program from those sets.

This, of course, is a truism that no software maker will want to acknowledge unless, of course, it's able to claim that it makes that full set of programs - but no maker does, at least, not for the editing of stills, video and sound and for the creation of DVDs.


Bob

[Bob Crabtree]

Sorry, I should also have mentioned that it's not clear to me from the beta or from the info Adobe currently has available, what Raw formats V4 is able to bring in.

Hopefully, though, our review will be able to include that info.

Bob