- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 13 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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19 out of 26 people found this review helpful
2.0 stars
"Interface is still stone-age..."
Pros: Powerful, flexible
Cons: Requires huge and/or multiple monitors
Summary: Although I have yet to upgrade to CS2, the editor's review appears to confirm a glaring weakness in Photoshop's interface I've experienced in CS1. Many of Photoshop's features can only be accessed via space hogging palettes. One must keep many palettes open simultaneosly in order to work efficiently, which uses up a huge amount of screen real estate. Having a second monitor, or huge screen is almost a must.
In comparison to other apps today, this is absolutely stone-age. The workflow in apps like Corel Photo Paint is much faster and easier. Although highly detailed palettes are available, most functions are available in a dynamic, changing tool bar whose contents change depending on the tool currently active. I find working in Corel to be faster, more efficient, and generally more pleasant than Photoshop, which is exceedingly klutzy in comparison.
Even the toolbars themselves are far more space efficient in Corel. Related tools, such as lasso, rectangular, and irregular masking tools, are all nested under one master button. Hit that button and all the masking tools unfold into view. After selecting a specific tool, the button collapses again.
In Photoshop, virtually every tool has it's own dedicated button, permenantly taking up a chunk of screen space. This further contributes to a large, cluttered and space-hogging toolspace.
In terms of editing features, the Adobe team has provided an impressive product with few competitors approaching its capabilities. If they could just bring their antiquated, inefficient interface up to twenty-first century standards, there would be little else one could ask for.
- 5 replies to this review
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I have to state an error in my original answer. Most of the time Photoshop doesn't cover the screen completely. It sometimes seems that way. Sorry for the error. I was getting AE and Photoshop intertwined.
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I know this is probably an old post, but I've been working with Photoshop since the early 90's. I used to love Adobe's interface, their floating palettes, and the way that all their software had similarities. Now, the whole screen is covered up. You can't see anything but Photoshop running. I could see it if this was an animation program or an editing system, but it's impractical.
There are buttons that open up so that they do other things. That is fine. I'm on Mac, and found that CS2 always came up with an error message when it boots on my G5, but not on my Intel MacBook Pro. I've reinstalled it, but it has always been that way. (The G5 is a dual proc 2.7 gHz machine). The PS browser app always crashes when opened, but works fine on the Intel Mac. Odd. Other than that, the app seems to work fine but the interface has become clunky, and that was the best thing about Adobe apps in the past. Photoshop still, in my book, is the best image app out there, even with its problems. -
This is the first Photoshop product i have used but i have had experience with most Corel products and i have to say the interface is better than any Corel product i have tested. In the beginning my screen res. was set to 800x600 but when i changed it to 1024x768 it worked perfectly. May i also add that this is only product i have bothered to buy after using the trial version.
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Photoshop has it all. Comparing Corel Paint 9 is not really fair as Paint is so much more limited... If you want easy to use and access items on Photoshop it is very easy to custom add in the 'actions palett'...Sure, Photoshop will always have a learning curve but CS2 narrows it a bit. But with all Photoshop has to offer it will always be that way. The nice thing is even a beginner can use it now and learn at his own pace... And once you begin to learn you reap huge rewards...
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the interface in photoshop is really an stone age interface, we hope that adobe inprove this!, also i recomend add a tool to make lines in freeform mode.. thanks!
Adobe Photoshop CS2:
