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WHEN WE STARTED comparing Micrografx Inc.'s Picture Publisher to Adobe Systems Inc.'s Adobe Photoshop, Version 3.0, the reigning product from our last comparison (see June 20, page 74), (omitted) we thought we might have found a rival that could dethrone the current king among image-editors, but our excitement was premature.
The old king, Adobe Photoshop 2.5, has merely passed on the scepter to a descendant -- Adobe Photoshop 3.0. Rather than rest on its throne, Adobe Photoshop 3.0 has met its increasingly powerful rivals with a program that's better and more robust than ever.
On the Macintosh, Adobe Photoshop 3.0 is virtually unrivaled, but it faces stiff competition on the Windows platform. Photoshop 3.0 still isn't as easy to use as Picture Publisher and doesn't give users the control over brush effects that Fractal Design Corp.'s Painter boasts. But Version 3.0 secures Photoshop's position as the best all-around image editor on both Macintosh and Windows platforms for users who need strong prepress tools.
Adobe Photoshop 3.0's single most important improvement is object layers. Although the layers don't work exactly like the layers in Micrografx's Picture Publisher, the two products both do essentially the same thing. So you can now use Photoshop 3.0 to create an image of many objects, each independently editable. Because the objects reside in separate layers, the changes you make need not affect the underlying image until you're sure you have the result you want; then you just apply the changes to make them permanent.
Photoshop 3.0's availability on both Mac and Windows platforms, with the two versions nearly identical in both form and function, saves users retraining costs. We examined both Adobe Photoshop 3.O Windows and Adobe Photoshop 3.0 Macintosh for this review; all scores apply to both versions unless we state otherwise.
Features
Photoshop users will find that the new version contains many important improvements, including several new color-correction tools. For instance, the product contains a new color replacement utility and a CMYK preview.
At first glance, Photoshop 3.0's interface looks very much like Photoshop 2.5. It has the same menu bar at the top and a status line at the bottom; the program's cleanly designed black-and-white toolbox floats in the middle. As with previous versions, you can easily...