My favorite software


Here’s a little something new I haven’t really done in these pages before: a software review. Sure, we’ve talked a little about software in passing; Norton Anti-Virus good, Norton System Works bad, Windows Millennium from Satan. But I haven’t really come out and said “I’ve tried this software, go out and buy it.” But today I will.

Adobe products have been around a long time, and they’re almost universally great. PageMaker is a page layout program, and the one used by our very own editor. I use it too when designing brochures and signs and the like. Illustrator is another fine Adobe product, and sees much use by graphic designers and printers. Photoshop is a standard image manipulation software that’s extremely powerful. I use Photoshop for just about everything. Need to update my ad for the Midcoast Review? Photoshop. Need to make a navigation button for a Web site I’m designing? Photoshop. Got a digital image that’s too big to email, or perhaps has a touch of redeye? Photoshop.

Have I mentioned I like Photoshop?

Oh, wait, there’s one thing I don’t like about Photoshop: the price. The latest version of Photoshop is selling right around $600. Now, unless you’re a pro photographer or graphic designer or artist, you’re not going to drop six bills on a piece of software that you’re going to make a cool “We’re closed on Columbus Day” sign. It’s just not cost effective. So instead, you might find a, oh, how do I say this, a… a… an off-site back-up copy of a friend’s that you just happen to store on your machine. Admit it. You’ve done it. I’ve done it. Most of us have a piece of software on our computer that we didn’t pay for. (Though I must say that Midcoast Internet did in fact buy the copy of Photoshop loaded on my Windows machine here at the office.) But aren’t you sometimes tinged with guilt? I know I am. And, if this software was a little cheaper, I’d be happy to pay for it, but I just can’t justify that much money for my business.

Well, feel guilty no longer!

Adobe has a product called Photoshop Elements. For about a year I’ve been hearing good things about this product. The review generally went like this: “It does 90 percent of what Photoshop does, but for a lot less.” But since I already have Photoshop, I had no real need to try it. Until recently.

I was doing some consulting for a local doctor who wants to take digital images in the OR, and then transfer them to his computer for study, posterity, and the occasional presentation. But he also might need to email some of these images. We’ve talked before about email. He wasn’t going to be sending these multi-mega-pixel images via email—they’re just too big. So he needed some software to make the images smaller, and suitable for emailing. But he’s also a bit of a photographer, and just bought a digital single lens reflex camera. It’s not some point and shoot thing, but a real 800-pound gorilla of a camera. So he also wanted powerful software to take care of those shots too. But does this Doc really need $600 worth of Photoshop? Enter Photoshop Elements.

Adobe provides a free 30 day trial of Elements. It’s a big download—over 100 megabytes. (Dial-up users, get one of your friends with broadband to download it and burn it to a CD for you.) But with my trusty MIS wireless, it was just a cup of coffee away. (Speaking of coffee, have you tried Rock City’s Dark Star? Yum!) (Ed.—Can’t get through the day without it.) Anyway, installation was easy. Time for a test drive.

If you’re familiar with Photoshop, then you’ll be able to get around Elements pretty easy. The option for adding a drop shadow (which I use frequently for web graphics) was a little buried, but it’s there. Also present was the “clone” tool. Cloning allows you to add more leaves to a tree easily, or make that pile of fish look bigger. There’s a new redeye tool—and that’s noticeably lacking in Photoshop 7. In Photoshop, you fix redeye with a paintbrush, or by removing the red hue from the pre-selected area of the eye. In Elements, it’s just a click away.

Elements had a former life in a product called Photoshop LE. Those people who were used to Photoshop didn’t like LE too well. There were some essential tools left out of the LE version. Like Layers. For those of you not familiar with Photoshop at all, let me explain. Have you ever seen how old time animators worked? They had sheets of clear plastic, and would draw the background on one, then draw other things on other sheets, put them over the first sheet, and then add another sheet with Bugs Bunny on top. Then they could make Bugs move, but not disturb the background. That’s how Photoshop works: in layers. Your text can be moved separately from your background which can be moved separately from your image. Well, Photoshop LE didn’t work that way. Once you put down text on an image, it either stayed there, or you erased it. You couldn’t move stuff independently. Well, Photoshop Elements isn’t that way. You do work in layers, and that adds so much more flexibility.

Seems like a lot of good going on. What’s the bad?

Well, here’s what I’ve found so far. In the full version of Photoshop, when you add a drop shadow, you have complete control over that shadow: how thick it is, how dark, and how far away it stretches. In Elements, there are about a dozen preset choices.

Same goes for adding any of the effects—there are presets with limited customization.
Text manipulation is also hamstrung in Elements. In Photoshop you can adjust text kerning (how close letters are to each other) and line spacing (how close together two lines of text are). Not so in Elements. In fact, Elements won’t even word-wrap for you. You have to enter line returns manually, just like on a typewriter. Want a new line? You have to hit return. For me, that’s a real pain, as I use text a lot. But there’s something that helps take the sting out. The price!

List price on Photoshop Elements is about $100. That’s a lot less than Photoshop. Amazon.com had it for $89.95, plus $60 in rebates! At $30, it’s a steal. And, you won’t have to steal your friend’s copy! I say it’s worth the $100, but see if you can find it with the rebates.

Bill Batty, Jr. is the Director of Public Relations and Marketing for Midcoast Internet Solutions and the drummer for five midcoast bands including Blind Albert and Three Button Deluxe. Contact Bill by email: <bbatty@midcoast.com>. You can see photos of his newborn twin sons, Nathaniel and Matthew, at www.billyrhthm.com.

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