Home : Adobe : Photoshop : Overview

Overview of Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is a seriously powerful photo and image editing application. Part of the Adobe suite of productivity software, Photoshop is considered by many to be a benchmark in the world of professional digital image solutions.

Let's have a quick look at what Photoshop is, and what it isn't.

Photoshop is Not a Drawing Program!

This is a very common source of confusion and frustration. Although it is possible to use Photoshop to design and construct original graphics, you will find that it is difficult and limited. The reason is that Photoshop is not intended to be used for this type of work. Photoshop is an image editing tool, not a design tool. To create original images, Adobe provides other specialist programs such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Image Ready.

So What Does Photoshop Do?

The real power of Photoshop is in working with existing images. Typical tasks include treating and manipulation, compositing, converting to different formats, printing, etc.

Photoshop is very strong in the world of printed media and is popular with newspapers and other publishers.

Compatibility

Photoshop tends to work well with other applications. As well as integrating seamlessly with other Adobe products (such as Premiere, Illustrator, etc), Photoshop formats are also widely recognised and able to be imported into programs such as Macromedia Fireworks, Corel Draw, etc.

Learning Curve

Photoshop is so feature-rich that it does take a while to learn all the ins and outs. Don't expect to become proficient overnight. However the interface is well set out and quite intuitive.

Price

The target market for Photoshop is the professional world, and this is reflected in the price - it is one of the most expensive packages of its type. Cheaper versions are available (such as Photoshop LE) but lose many of the important features.

Competition

Other popular applications in this market include: