CS2... or not

[BillSchwab]

Hey All,

Seeing Bjorke's ChartThrob is making me re-examine whether I want to upgrade from CS to CS2 or not. What are your general thoughts on improvements in CS2 that would be of benefit over CS? Personally I am not interested in tools that extrude buildings and fold images such as the demo shows me. Is there more to it than that?

thanks in advance.

Bill

[Greg_E]

It takes a lot of CPU and memory to run fast. Almost painful on my old laptop, but PS7 runs great on that machine. Otherwise I can't help much.

[clay]

Bill, the biggest difference in the way I work is the new Adobe Bridge application, which is sort of the launching pad into all their other apps. It is more sophisticated than the old file browser thingie, but has a learning curve involved to get up to speed. I am still pretty low on that particular curve. Most of the other additions are pretty benign or transparent to the average user. two cents worth

[Joe Lipka]

What he said. Bridge is a very good tool when you use it with other applications in the adobe creative suite. Part browser, part "light table", part data manager, and file manager it shines when you are using as part of the entire creative suite.

It's a good thing for me when I am putting together portfolios on my website or (gasp) creating word and text art for digital output.

As for CS2, I think the advantage is a good built in RAW processor and some improved sharpening tools which are a big improvement over PS7.

[BillSchwab]

Thanks Greg, Clay and Joe! Still considering downloading the UG. Judging from what you have both said, perhaps the time has come.

Bill

[Joe Lipka]

One other suggestion. Adobe allows a 30 day free trial. If your internet connection is high speed, it doesn't take that long to do. You get 30 days to play and then decide.

Now, if you decide that CS2 is for you, then you should enroll in your local community college's photoshop course. The courses are usually fairly cheap, but the real point is that you become an "official student." Being an "official student" means that you can buy CS2 at the bookstore or on the web with a student discount. That's the real money saver.

[BillSchwab]

One other suggestion.

Thanks Joe, I saw the trial download and will give it a try later today. As for being a student again, it's a thought. Aren't we all students anyway???

Thanks again,

Bill

[Greg_E]

Educational software normally comes with a clause in the license... You are not allowed to use it for commercial purpose! So if photography is you business, and you want to be completely legal, you should not use the discounted software.

With the Adobe products, there aren't any features that are lacking now, they used to make special versions for education that had a few things lacking, now it's just a different number and everything works.

[naturephoto1]

Thanks Joe, I saw the trial download and will give it a try later today. As for being a student again, it's a thought. Aren't we all students anyway???

Thanks again,

Bill

Hi Bill,

If you have a valid registered earlier copy of Photoshop you can get an upgrade to Photoshop CS2 for perhaps $150 to $170? If you do, Adobe will provide you with the info to unlock and use the program. That is and has been true since I believe the beginning. I originally had Photoshop 4 which I have upgraded at different times. Now I have CS2. Adobe keeps the registration info on file just for this purpose.

Rich

[BillSchwab]

If you have a valid registered earlier copy of Photoshop you can get an upgrade to Photoshop CS2 for perhaps $150 to $170?

Thanks Rich, This is the way I will go. It is 169.00 via their website. I am using the trial now and feeling as if it will be well worth it.

Thanks again everyone.

Bill