Adobe Photoshop CS4

It's almost hard to believe that Photoshop has been around for close to two decades, and to say that it has come a long way from its humble beginnings would be something of an understatement. It's also similarly hard to believe that Photoshop CS3 was only released last year, so what does the CS4 version (11.0 for those keeping track of traditional version numbers), which is now shipping only a scant 18 months later, bring to the table? Let's dive in and find out.

Some caveats

Here's the thing: I'm an interactive designer by vocation--always have been--which necessarily means I'm going to approach this review from that perspective. Photoshop is obviously a useful program for many user types, but I can't pretend that I'm a professional photographer, print designer, medical imaging tech, etc. What I can do is look at Photoshop from as broad a perspective that I can, but it may be highly likely that I won't happen to talk at any length about <insert particular feature you care about here>.

Also, one thing I'm not going to do is run benchmarks, because I'm not sure how relevant they are to a modern discussion of Photoshop. Maybe a decade ago, when we had the PowerPC vs. Pentium smackdown, Photoshop benchmarks meant a great deal, but a whole lot of professional folks today are parked in front of multi-core machines with RAM measured in gigabytes rather than megabytes, so Photoshop can just about universally be described as "fast." There are some definite performance items to mention, most notably the fact that Photoshop CS4 only supports 64-bit processing on Vista x64, but seeing as many users won't find this to be an actual limitation (as per John Nack's blog post from April of this year), I'm just not going to worry about how fast Photoshop happens to run on a machine packing a 2 gHz multicore processor with 2 GB of RAM (just to pick numbers out of the air) on Windows versus the same machine running Mac OS X. Yes, I do realize that some users who work on enormous images as a matter of course may be interested in a full set of benchmarks, but I'm comfortable for our purposes today to figure that Photoshop is plenty fast for a large segment of users without getting into operating system chest puffery.

Lastly, with the exception of the new 3D tools, I'm not going to be diving too deeply into the Extended (read: more expensive) version of Photoshop CS4. So, save for 3D (which, admittedly, is pretty huge in CS4), I'll be swimming in the "both versions of Photoshop" end of the pool.

And, with those weaselly cop-outs behind me, let's break things down into two main sections: overall performance and workflow, and new features.

Performance and workflow

It's hard not to notice the new interface, but for those that need a little more than that, let's just say that Photoshop's interface has received a fairly major revamp. Now, I was all ready to preach to Mac users that while this new doodad known as the Application Frame (fig. 1) is on by default, it's really easy to switch off (as is the accompanying Application Bar; fig. 2) and return Photoshop to a state that many Mac users feel is much more suited to their platform of choice (fig. 3). However, after loading up the shipping versions of various CS4 programs on my Mac, it appears that at some point during the Beta process Adobe made the decision to have the Application Frame turned off by default not just in Photoshop, but in Illustrator and Fireworks as well (the same may be true of InDesign; however, not being a user of that program I can't say for sure). And lest you Windows users think that you're getting away unscathed, Adobe is eschewing the usual system chrome at the top of the window in favor of placing system widgets (minimize, maximize, close) and menu items inline with the Application Bar (fig. 4).

Figure 1: Photoshop on the Mac, Windows style - the Application Frame gives Photoshop a single-window interface.

Figure 2: The Application Bar runs across the top of the interface (Mac on top, Windows on the bottom at a different relative size) and houses commonly used tools and features. It would be nice if you could add your own tools here, but you're stuck with what you're given for this version.

Figure 3: Familiar territory--it's not hard to make Photoshop CS4 look and behave like earlier versions.

Figure 4: No, this is not a repeat of Figure 1, and no, I did not chop off any part of the image--this is Windows, and there is no familiar Windows menu bar chrome.

In any event, I'm already on record as saying that I really, really like the Application Frame on the Mac, and I'm also more than fine with the unconventional window bar arrangement on the Windows side as well. However, I realize that whether or not one takes a shine to either convention is highly subjective, to put it mildly. Regardless of how you may feel about the look of the new interface, there's no denying that it's incredibly flexible. Those Mac users who choose to go with the Application Frame (not to mention all Windows users) will find a cornucopia of options. Individual images can be "busted out" into floating windows (fig. 5), tabs can be displayed in a variety of layouts through the Arrange Documents command (fig. 6), and the workspace can be manually dragged around to create custom layouts. Additionally, palettes can be docked inside the Application Frame or left to float (fig. 7). In short, the interface works wonderfully, and is definitely well-suited to today's big/multiple monitor setup.

Figure 5: Go nuts and mix floating windows with tabbed ones.

Figure 6: Open files can be arranged in a variety of ways through a simple dropdown menu in the Application Bar.

Figure 7: Palettes can be strewn about all willy-nilly if that's what floats your boat.

This may be a good point to talk about Configurator, an Adobe AIR-based app which has the potential to radically change the way you work with Photoshop (and, hopefully, the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite apps in future versions) by allowing you to create custom panels, and, by extension, your own custom interface layout. So, for example, if you have a very specific workflow (airbrushing, forensics work, 3D, whatever), you can actually begin to re-shape the interface to be, as Adobe describes it, everything you need and nothing you don't. It works like this: after downloading and installing Configurator (which should be available as a separate download from the Adobe Labs site shortly after the general availability of Photoshop CS4), you launch the program and are presented with the Configurator interface. From there, you can simply drag and drop items into your custom panel (fig. 8). Such items include any selection from the toolbar, any command in a menu, scripts (either from the built-in Photoshop actions or JavaScript), even Flash SWF files and video. Once created, you can install your panel into your local version of Photoshop (fig. 9), or package it up to share with or distribute to others. Configurator panels can be treated like any other panels in Photoshop and fully work with Workspaces, so hopefully you can begin to see the promise here--being able to tailor the Photoshop interface to your exact specifications is huge, and hopefully this represents a technology we'll see much, much more from in the future across the Adobe lineup.

Figure 8: Configurator lets you create custom panels for Photoshop, which is great, but you'll soon find yourself wanting to be able to create panels for all the CS4 apps.

Figure 9: The so-called Greatest Panel, running alongside all the native ones in Photoshop.

Back to Photoshop itself, Adobe has also revamped the display engine by allowing it to offload processing tasks to the GPU via OpenGL, and the improvements are definitely noticeable. Gone are the days when strange zoom percentages (e.g., 66.7%) looked funky; rendering is now smooth at any magnification. Photoshop CS4 also throws a dash of physics into the mix, allowing you to use the Hand tool to "throw" the image around the canvas (this feature can be disabled if you find it annoying). Zooming into and out of an image is now smooth as butter, with an animated transition keeping the eye focused as the zoom happens. The same transition is invoked by clicking and holding on an image with the Zoom tool, allowing you to zoom into and out of an arbitrarily set magnification. Lastly, the new display engine enables a completely new tool, one which devotees of the venerable Wacom tablet are sure to love. I'm speaking of the Rotate View tool, which allows you to skew your canvas to an angle of your choosing (fig. 10). From there, everything you do conforms to that new angle, from making simple rectangular selections (fig. 11) to painting on an image.

Figure 10: The Rotate View tool shows you a compass depicting how much you've rotated the view of your source image. You can even choose to apply the rotation to all open windows.

Figure 11: Once your image view has been rotated, tools such as the selection marquee are also rotated to match.

While some of these additions via OpenGL may sound gimmicky, these new features actually feel quite natural, allowing you to better focus on where you are inside of an image. And if you're worried about performance, don't. Even on my main machine, a consumer-level MacBook, many of the GPU-enabled features rendered very smoothly and quickly on the integrated Intel graphics chip. The 3D features on a less-capable GPU are another matter, but we'll table that for the moment.

A couple other quick-hit items worth mentioning in this section before moving onto other items of business:

• Photoshop CS4 now paints a grid onto your image at extreme zoom levels (fig. 12), showing you an exact breakdown of where each pixel "lives."
• Some of the core keyboard shortcuts have been remapped by default, a development which may or may not be good news to Mac users. These changes mean a better fit in with other default Mac OS X shortcuts, but at the expense of keystrokes which are muscle memory for long-time Photoshop users. For example, Command+~ now cycles through open documents, while Command+1 shows an image at 100%. While the changes are aces by me, I remind those who are set in their ways that Photoshop CS4 retains the ability to set and change keystrokes, so you're by no means locked into anything here.

Figure 12

New/improved/enhanced features

Once you peek under the covers, there really is a pretty good amount going on in this upgrade in terms of new features, and while they're not all bombshells, there certainly is a nice assortment. The first feature of note is an enhancement to an existing set of features, and while this change encompasses two separate functions, the fact that they've been given identical treatment leads me to lump them together. I'm referring, of course, to the fact that adjustments and masks now live in their very own non-modal panels (fig. 13), which marks a huge leap forward in how you access and work with these features.

Figure 13: On the right, the Adjustments panel, complete with presets; on the left, the Masks panel, featuring interactive controls for both bitmap and vector masks.

This is pretty big--in both cases, you have the ability to quickly create and change adjustments and masks in a non-intrusive (not to mention non-destructive) manner. Even better, the Adjustments panel specifically adds a slew of presets, enabling quick starting points for Levels, Curves, and others.

Another new feature that is rightfully getting a lot of hype is Content-Aware Scaling (fig. 14), and it works exactly as advertised (with a caveat). Take an image with separate sections you'd like to preserve, activate Content-Aware Scaling, and Photoshop scales down just the portion of the image that can effectively be "discarded," leaving things like, say, people, blissfully unsquished. The caveat I alluded to is that while this all may seem like magic, it may surprise some to learn that no, leprechauns and fairy dust were not used in the creation of this feature, so beware that certain images just aren't suitable for use with Content-Aware Scaling. However, between the default settings, the ability to protect areas of the image via masks, and the skin tone protection toggle, this is a truly useful feature with huge time-saving potential.

Figure 14: Thanks to Content-Aware Scaling, the wall and shadow get a much-needed squishing, while the actor in the foreground remains in his pristine squishless state.

Let's shift to the 3D tools in Photoshop CS4 Extended. New features abound here, and the result makes the Extended version worth a long, hard look if you have some 3D needs but want to stay in a program and workflow you're already comfortable with. Let's just list them off, because there's a lot of stuff, and I want to get you all home before dinner:

Paint and merge. You can now paint directly on 3D models (fig. 15), as well as merge any image layer onto a model the way you would in 2D space.

Figure 15: Using just the regular brush tool, you can paint on a 3D object (left), with the texture as painted shown on the right.

Layer-to-shape. Starting from an existing image layer, you can use the 3D menu to wrap an image around any number of predefined shapes (cube, sphere, etc.; fig 16).

Figure 16: Take a simple image of rendered clouds, wrap it around a sphere (top), and you get the exciting result shown on the bottom.

Fool the eye. 3D in Photoshop means more than the virtual space in the machine--in addition to the classic red/blue 3D like the 50s movies, you can also set up images to do that cool interlaced lenticular 3D effect like the stuff you got on those coins found on the bottom of Slurpee cups back in the 80s.

Meshes. The 3D menu includes a handy command which lets you take an image and create a 3D mesh from it, which is perfect for things like visualizing map data (fig. 17).

Figure 17

Re-use in AE. 3D content you create in Photoshop can be imported directly into After Effects CS4, should you find yourself limited by the motion graphics tools Photoshop provides.

Simple card effect. What would an Adobe 3D implementation be without POSTCARDS IN SPAAAAACCCCEEEE! After Effects has it, Flash now has it, ditto for Photoshop (fig. 18). Snarkiness aside, it's a much better way to do simple perspective transforms than eyeballing it with the 2D perspective tools.

Figure 18

Video layers and 3D properties. Video layers can now be used as textures on 3D models, which, combined with the ability to transform 3D properties in the Animation panel, gives you pretty good options for creating 3D scenes and animations entirely in Photoshop.

It should be clear by now that 3D had been seriously beefed up, and for me, it's something of a revelation. 3D in Photoshop isn't new, but CS4 is the first version where it's really starting to come into its own. I've used Newtek's LightWave 3D for much of my 3D needs, but there's a middle ground for which adding LightWave into the mix has just proved impractical. It's fantastic to be able to handle some of the simpler stuff (like wrapping an image around a sphere or cylinder or just being able to add some perspective to a 2D image) directly in Photoshop in the flow of what you're already doing, rather than having to break stride and switch to another program.

The last thing I'll say about 3D is a warning: you do need a fairly capable video card in your machine to really take advantage of the 3D features. While my not-terribly-new nVidia card in my FrankenPC handled Photoshop's 3D features with aplomb, the same was definitely not true on my early 2008 MacBook with integrated Intel graphics. I'd be willing to bet that the newest MacBooks with the nVidia 9400M card will do fine, but the only way to be sure of that is to actually try it out. Anyone feel like sending me a new laptop?

So that's the big stuff, but a few other useful items of note get the dreaded bullet point mention:

• Photoshop (as well as the rest of the CS4 suite) now supports screen sharing directly through Adobe's ConnectNow technology, which is built right into the application
• The dodge, burn, and sponge tools have been re-worked and now boast more natural results
• A new set of soft-proof selections can simulate how your images will look to colorblind viewers
• The auto-align and auto-blend tools have been updated, enabling things like cleaner panorama stitching and combining images to simulate expanded depth-of-field

While there are more features, you get the idea. I wouldn't go so far as to say that there's something for everyone, but there is definitely some meat to this upgrade.

Is it for you?

While Photoshop CS4 packs some very nice and welcome new features and enhancements, it isn't a huge release when you look at it purely in those terms. With the exception of the new 3D features, which only applies to the Extended version, Photoshop CS4 seems to be mostly about refinements rather than groundbreaking new features. Now, there definitely is hugeness in the workflow, interface, and performance enhancements, but such releases have never been historically been referred to as "sexy," and may not be upgrade-worthy. On the flip side, if you're a professional, and the new interface and workflow looks good to you, it may save you a huge amount of time over the life of the release, and thus pay for itself in those terms fairly quickly.

So it's time for the bottom line. Speaking as a long-time Photoshop user who has skipped an upgrade or two over the years, CS4 is definitely one I would jump on. Personally, I love releases that are full of polish and workflow improvements, so Photoshop CS4 is a winner in my eyes. I can't express strongly enough how much I love the new interface, the new 3D tools nicely fill a gap in my arsenal I've never been able to satisfactorily address otherwise, and the non-modal Adjustments and Masks panels are big, big improvements. Plus, at least for how I use Photoshop, CS4 has the distinction of being one of those rare programs that I don't have any major glaring issues with. Sure, the drop shadows added to the image borders bugs me (you can turn it off), and I wish you were able to tab over to the pulldown menus in places like the Image Size and Canvas Size dialog boxes on the Mac, but pretending these are anything other than minor quibbles would be a waste of time. As for ratings, as a new purchase, it's hard for me to give Photoshop itself anything other than a Strong Buy rating. It's Photoshop, for Pete's sake, and it hasn't yet managed to collapse under its own weight and history. As an upgrade, it may not be so clear cut. If you're happy with CS3 (or earlier), your current version does what you need it to do, and there's nothing here that will help you, I can't tell you to blindly upgrade. However, I've already weighed in that there is solid stuff here, so as an upgrade it also earns a Strong Buy rating. Of course, there's the bundle factor in play as well--Photoshop is a big part of many of the CS4 Standard and Premium bundles, so the question I'm asking this time around is this: does the product in question add to the upgrade value of a bundle, or does it seem like filler? The answer here is the former, as Photoshop CS4 sports enough refinements to push it into solidly positive territory. While Photoshop CS4 may not be one of those milestone releases that we'll all point to years down the road and say, "yup, that was a huge one," it's definitely a rock-solid addition to the annals of Photoshop.

Photoshop CS4 is shipping now, with new copies priced at $699 for the Standard version and $999 for Extended. Upgrade pricing is as follows:

• Photoshop CS or later to CS4 Standard: $199
• Photoshop CS or later to CS4 Extended: $349
• Photoshop 5 or 6 to CS4 Standard: $599
• Photoshop 5 or 6 to CS4 Extended: $899

You read that right: dig out those copies of Photoshop 5, y'all, 'cause they're worth a cool Benjamin! Photoshop CS4 Standard is also available as part of the CS4 Design Standard bundle, while Photoshop CS4 Extended is a component of the Design Premium, Web Premium, Production Premium, and Master Collection bundles. Check Adobe's Web site for bundle pricing information and upgrade eligibility.

Filed under: Review on October 23rd, 2008
Tags: Adobe, CS4, Photoshop

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