One of the most prolific and exponentially valuable Internet tools is Adobe’s Photoshop software. But this software has more far reaching possibilities than the normal industrial uses it sees now. Presently, this software is used in web design and graphic creation business fronts, especially online. But what OTHER industries and professions can benefit from Photoshop?

Well, one of the most obvious ones is businesses that produce graphic designed items. These can be things like tee shirts, coffee mugs and other personalized or gag items. Customers or clients can send in their own photo and ask for it to be “enhanced” in a certain way. That is especially useful since not everyone knows how to use Photoshop that way.

Another one is graphic web design or personalized social networking page templates. Imagine having a picture of yourself or your kids as your MySpace profile page background. In the area of web design, the possibilities are truly endless with Photoshop. These folks can create page templates, buttons or any type of graphic that people are in the market for.

But there are some industries that can benefit that you may not have thought of. The add-ons that exist for Photoshop make it a widely versatile tool for manufacturers of machinery parts and service repair manuals. Since the graphics are loaded into Photoshop as a non-graphic format, the possibilities are limitless as to what can be done with them.

For instance, using Adobe’s Fireworks add on, graphics can be given life and become animated at a level not seen before. Images can be loaded from CAD software, brought into the Photoshop program and then turned in a real time environment. This essentially gives the item a 3 dimensional feel and view. In the area of parts and repair manuals, this can be extremely helpful since the finished pages can be saved as an Internet file and posted for repair technicians to view online from anywhere in the world.

Some of the software add ons even allow you to create a moving real time animation of a repair procedure, step by step. This is a huge benefit to companies that run service personnel overseas when questions come up. Time, money and prestige are saved as a result.

Photoshop can even be a benefit to video game walk through writers. A screen shot can be taken of progressive screens and captioned with instructions or helpful information. Novice players can suddenly play like world-class pros in a fraction of the time without the frustration of the learning curve. For this, they are willing to pay and pay handsomely.

As you can see, Photoshop can be used in many industries and the uses are only limited by the user’s imagination. Many Internet marketers have used Adobe’s PDF format for many years to display information to customers. It really is surprising that so few of those people took advantage of Photoshop’s full capabilities. Animations, colored fonts and hyperlinked text or graphics are all possible inside the Photoshop software and it can be a benefit to YOUR business. All you have to do is try it and see.

Discover how to use the special features in Adobe Photoshop CS4 to create award winning graphics from an experienced professional. Get high quality training on the Adobe CS4 Creative Suite. http://vpclasses.com

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As with any thing practice is the most important factor to becoming better at things you don’t know or think are too hard. Try not to become intimidated and don’t be scared to try new things and experiment. Someone renounced once said that learning from errors is the key to being successful.

While Photoshop may be a lot more application than you need to resize an image, it is an of utmost importance to learn because it is a common method in digital media advances. Why would you want to resize a photo in the first place? There are lots of reasons, but the most well known is to make pictures fit on pages or print .

Ok, as for the practical steps involved in changing the size of your picture here they are:

1. Open Photoshop and the photo you wish to enlarge.

2. Once you have your image open navigate your computer mouse to the toolbar that runs along the top of your screen and click the “Image”.

3. Once you make a click the “Image” from the toolbar, the menu will appear. Select from the drop down menu “Image Size”. A popup window should appear with the images properties.

4. At first, for our intents and purposes we only want to focus to “Pixel Dimensions” in the poped up window. You will see that you can control the wideness and height of the image in the window. You should also see a drop down for selecting “pixels” or the “percent”. Ensure pixels is the selected unit in both the width and height attributes. Picture elements, Pixels, are little dots of color that constitute the photo. If you ever look at print material under a lens you will notice that the image is constituted of tiny spots of color. These little dots of color are similar to what pixels are in a picture.

5. Okay. Let’s pretend that the picture you opened up at the beginning of this tutorial is huge, something like 2000 px wide by 1600 pixels in height and we want to size the image to fit on a page. Most web urls are somewhere around 800 pixels wide by some custom height. The height is random because it is correlated to how much content shows on the page. Let’s say that we want the image to take up about 0.5 the width of the page. To fulfill this we would change the px width value from 2000 to 400 pixels ( is 1/2 of 800 pixels, the wideness of the web page). Ensure that the “Constrain Proportions” setting is checked so that the proportion between width / height is preserved and the picture does not become distorted.

6. Click on “OK” and write the newly sized version of your picture.

You’ve just resized your first picture using Photoshop and are now a lot more advanced. Congrats you are on your way to becoming a Photoshop expert.

Alex Don writes about image resizing for the company Reshade . Reshade focuses on online image resizer applications and offers a free online image resizer and also a commercially available photo enlargement software.

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Adobe Photoshop is the leading graphic application used in digital image editing, web graphics, prints and other multi media requirement. Photoshop is widely-used by millions of graphic artists, web developers, photographers, as well as ordinary people. Because of the popularity of the software, it has been accepted as a print industry standard.

Most likely, posters, magazine covers, book covers, brochures, and ads have all been created or edited with Photoshop. With the powerful tools that Photoshop offers, there are a lot of features that can be used to create, even the most complex digital art in a breeze.

One of the great features of Photoshop is that it consists of a user-friendly interface that is very easy to navigate. Tools are organized into groups of palettes, which you can customize according to your working preference. It also comes with shortcut keys that you can use to quickly apply commands or switch on or off a group of tools.

In addition, Photoshop comes with a sub program called Adobe ImageReady. This added program is basically used to create graphics and is enhanced for web design purposes that greatly reduce the file size in making a certain website faster to load. GIF files can be reduced as small as 10 to 50% with its compression abilities. The software is also capable of making animated graphics or GIF. With Adobe ImageReady, you can design interactive JavaScript rollover without the need of writing any programming code. Simply slice the image and link rollovers and create different variations of slices.

All products of Adobe Systems support layer effects. When working with Photoshop and ImageReady, you can easily apply effects to an image or text like drops shadows, inner and outer bevels and other layering effects. A great advantage of working with layers is that you can preserve the original state of an image while manipulating another version of it through another layer. You can add as many layers as you want depending on your needs. These layers are independent of each other, meaning, if you edit one layer for instance a layer of text, it does not affect any other layers.

Photo editing or photo manipulation is a difficult task without the right tool. But with the use of Photoshop, you can easily edit a photo in lesser time and little effort. Photoshop comes with powerful tools that can be utilized to perform photo-editing tasks.

You can crop or resize pictures without losing the quality of an image. Also, you can easily remove the background with an eraser tool. With Adobe Photoshop, it is easy to select precise parts of an image with the use of the magic wand and lasso tools. The software also comes with tools like: brightness and contrast, color balance, hue and saturation, levels, curves, and many more which are useful in enhancing or changing the color of an image.

Also the software comes with a variety of built in plug-ins that can be used to apply variations to your designs. Some of these plug-ins are custom brushes, filters, effects, and many more.

Adobe Photoshop is integrated with the other softwares of Adobe Systems. Photoshop shares the same user interface like in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects. With the integration you can work seamlessly and produce great work results.

This software has also the capability to utilize color models such as lab, RGB, CMYK, binary bitmap, grayscale, and duotone. It also supports vector and raster formats such as: .PNG, .EPS, .GIF, Fireworks, .JPEG and lots more.

The latest version of Photoshop is the Photoshop CS3. The latest version offers additional enhanced features. Some features include the application of non-destructive filters and the new selection tools such as the Quick Selection and Refine Edge.

With all the great features that Photoshop offers, you can do any work of graphics that you can imagine. You can create outstanding graphics without limiting your boundaries.

For more information on Photoshop please visit our website.

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The immediate difference any Photoshop user will notice after upgrading is the user interface. A major component of this change is the new application bar. The application bar ties all elements together in a frame rather than leaving them floating as in previous versions. It’s designed for better organization of your documents while in use. Old habits die hard, so this may be off-putting for some. For those people, an option to disable the application bar is included.

Photoshop CS4 also supports Flash Panels, which are third party add-ons that function like the native panels in the program. It comes with two by default, and there are a number of user-created ones available as well. This gives you some flexibility to customize your own user interface.

CS4 adds some more interface bells and whistles. It supports OpenGL for the interface, making for smoother scrolling. It also makes using tools, handles, and buttons smoother and easier. If your computer’s video card supports OpenGL – and if your computer is even even somewhat new, it does – you can expect a smoother user experience than ever before in Photoshop.

Beyond interface, CS4 has added a number of new features and functions. Several tools have been revamped. The Clone tool now gives you an overlay option for greater accuracy and ease of use. New features have been added to the layer mask and adjustment layers. Layer alignment has been improved as well. Burn.

Perhaps the most talked about feature is content-aware scaling. Unlike regular scaling, which just re-sizes an image simply attempting to keep quality defects to a minimum, content-aware scaling lets you change the composition of an image. You could put two people closer together or farther apart, or even make your picture wider or taller. It goes beyond the scope and purpose of resizing or scaling and assumes a compositional purpose.

One of the biggest overhauls came in the use of 3D in CS4. Before, the 3D functions in Photoshop seemed like they were targeted toward people with experience in 3D modeling and design. Those people are the most likely to already have their own options for 3D, so the people who would benefit most from 3D functions in Photoshop were often left in the dark. Photoshop CS4 brings with it more robust and easier to use 3D.

Overall, there were a lot of meaningful upgrades put into Photoshop CS4. CS3 users should find the newer version easier to use in some significant ways. If you do a lot of composition work or the tool improvements are things that would save you time and effort, it would be worthwhile to upgrade.

Discover how to use the advanced features in Adobe Photoshop CS4 to create award winning graphics from an experienced professional. Get high quality training on the Adobe CS4 Creative Suite. http://vpclasses.com

Copyright (c) 2010 Mandi Pralle

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Photoshop

This digital software will allow you to draw digitally. It has many tools that will allow you to draw, paint, erase and create shapes. Get started initially with common shapes like a rectangle, circle. You can elaborate on these shapes and use your imagination to create drawings. You can begin withdrawing flowers, trees and other simple pictures. As you progress you will also be able to draw portraits and other intricate things.

Tool for drawing

Your primary tool for drawing would be the mouse. However, now a digital art tool called the WACOM tablet is also available that helps you to draw.

Brush: You will have to experiment with the correct brush to determine the best applicable for you. You have the option to change the size, type and behavior of the brush that you choose.

Eraser: Ditto like the brush, you have the options to choose from a set of erasers from the software. Even this has the option to change the size, type etc.

Burn tool/Dodge tool: With the Burn tool you can make your colours to appear darker. Conversely, you can choose the Dodge tool to make the colours to appear lighter.

Layers: This is one of the most unique tools in digital drawing which is not available in physical drawing. This function allows you to draw in layers. This can be explained like this – it is a transparent cell that allows you to work on every layer in such a way that you can either allow a layer to interact with the other layer or vice versa.

As you move towards drawing intricate things you can make use of the following options:

Grids: Using grids will help you to capture the drawing cleverly and easily. It will enable you to check proportions and placements etc.

Shading: Shading can also be used here like in physical drawing. It gives your photograph the characteristic of a physical drawing.

Colour: When using colours, you need to take care that you make use of realistic colours.

Adding a Background: Giving a background to your picture is quite important. It helps you to give a story to your picture.

The most important feature of drawing digitally is that it gives you a chance to enhance your subject. It helps you to correct and add more to features. Sometimes, this can make your subject look unreal; therefore you need to take care that you do not take away the essence or personality of the subject in the drawing.

Conclusion

Drawing is an art and doing it within a digital ambit it gives the artiste the freedom to experiment and do a lot more with its subject. It is good if you try to learn about art before starting with digital drawings.

I Askd.com offers a large variety of information – from how to draw a rose to how to draw fire.

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For the purpose of this article, we’ll be describing the transition from graphic file creation in Photoshop to published web content. These graphic files, be they gifs or jpgs, are manufactured at your "Photoshop factory" so to speak, and transported to your host server. There, they are available in a specified place on the "shelf" for your web page’s html code (or php, or whatever you are using) to be plucked off and fitted into the correct spot on the site when it is accessed. You can think of this transporting or "uploading" of files as a railroad taking the parts to the assembly plant (your web hosting server).

Since this article doesn’t cover Photoshop image manipulation, we’ll assume that your pictures are ready to go. You have two options here, depending upon whether or not Adobe Bridge is installed on your machine. If it is, you may upload your images from there. To do so, first make sure that your service is discovered by opening the Tools menu in Adobe Bridge. Under Photoshop Services you will see Automatically check for services. If Photoshop Services isn’t there, open your Bridge CS3 Preferences, and highlight "Startup Scripts". Check the checkbox that says "Photoshop Services", click Ok, then restart Bridge. You will now be able to upload.

The other option is to disregard Adobe Bridge altogether and use another program to upload them. Uploading files to your website is virtually the same regardless of what type of files they are. Normally some program that uses "ftp" (which stands for File Transmission Protocol) is used to transmit your files to the host server. There are several available, but a reliable and free one is "FireFTP" which is an add-on utility for the FireFox browser. It uses an intuitive web interface which looks something like a split file browser with arrows in the middle that point both left and right. The left side is your computer, and the right side is the ftp host.

To install FireFTP, simply open your FireFox browser, go to the "Tools" menu and click "Add-ons". A window will pop up that lists several recommended add-ons. If FireFTP isn’t listed there, then click on the link at the bottom of the pop up window that reads "See All Recommended Add-ons". This will open either a new tab or new window (depending on your FireFox settings) that takes you to the add-ons site for Mozilla. FireFTP will be listed there. Click on the FireFTP link and follow the instructions. Once installed, the FireFTP Add-on will appear under the "Tools" menu. It is assumed that the reader already possess knowledge of their FTP server login and folder structure.

Once you have created a profile in FireFTP for your server login, simply click on the files on the left hand side of the browser window, choose where they’re going on the right hand side, and hit the green arrow pointed to the right. It’s that simple.

Discover how to use the special features in Adobe Photoshop to create award winning graphics from an experienced professional. Get high quality training on the Adobe CS4 Creative Suite. http://vpclasses.com

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Let’s take a look at the differences between Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Firstly, for those of you who don’t know what Photoshop is all about – it is a product of Adobe, a photo editing software and tool. Photoshop is very advanced when put to comparison with other photo editing software. Its sister software is Photoshop Elements, which is in actual fact a tuned down version of Photoshop. It doesn’t have the expansive features of Photoshop, but for this reason it is also considerably lower in price – about 1/6th.

So the main difference between the two programs is what they are capable of – Photoshop being far more advanced with its tools and features. The second most notable difference is the cost. In Photoshop for example, you are instantly upgraded to the full color management tool which is otherwise far more simplistic in Photoshop Elements.

For professionals in particular, they desire the CMYK color models which are needed to print their photos off in the highest of quality – a feature that only exists in Photoshop. Furthermore, Photoshop is able to generate images by using more than one exposure with its high dynamic range. Then there is the advanced text formatting which allows Photoshop users to get creative with the text layout on any given photo image.

It could be said that the idea behind Adobe’s Photoshop Elements was to reach out to those people who are more casual photographers and without much knowledge on the activity of photo editing. This is currently quite a large percentage of the population. The people who fit into this category would have no desire to learn the in-depth features of Photoshop and would probably never use it to its full capacity. Some of the typical things that the average user will be looking for is a tool to get rid of the evil red-eye in photographs and a simple interface to get photo-editing done quickly and with ease.

There are more differences still between the two packages – the more advanced Photoshop can be expanded as and when the user feels fit. Plug-ins are available for a lot of forward-thinking technologies and Photoshop is no exception. The possibilities to update the software and enhance its features are never ending – a real bonus to the professional photographer who wants to stay on top of the game.

So to sum all of this up:

· Photoshop is like the full version and Elements is simplified to give easier usage to amateur or casual photographers.

· Photoshop Elements is a 1/6th of the price of Photoshop

· Photoshop Elements have simplified settings such as an Automatic red-eye removal and the Cookie Cutter.

· Photoshop has High Dynamic Range and CMYK, whereas Elements doesn’t.

· Photoshop has advanced color management, Elements is far more simplified.

Unless you are a professional in the field of photography then you would probably be best off starting out with Photoshop Elements which is great value for money. If you find that you want to improve your photo editing skills later down the line then you can always upgrade to Photoshop.

Your designs can be award winning creative masterpieces that don’t have to take forever to create when you know HOW to use the right tools effectively. Learn more about the Adobe Creative Suite. http://vpclasses.com

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One of the most flexible image and photo editing software programs on the market today is the widely popular Adobe Photoshop. The name itself is instantly recognizable on the web, and it’s used by people from hobbyists to website designers to professional photographers. So why is Photoshop so popular with practically every group of people? Well, for one, it’s extremely flexible and can be customized to be the perfect tool for any project, large or small.

For example, Adobe Photoshop supports a variety of different image formats. There are dozens of different image file formats, and they differ in terms of compression techniques, the way in which they represent image data, and what Photoshop features they support.

One of the oldest, most common, and most widely-supported file formats for images is the BMP, or bitmap file format. BMP files support the bitmap, RGB, grayscale, and indexed color modes. BMP files tend to be larger than other formats, especially in higher color depths, owing to their lack of compression. This makes them relatively unsuitable for display on web pages, but since no image data is lost to compression, BMP files can be a good format for print media.

Named for the Joint Photographic Experts Group, the group that created the standard, the JPEG format is very common for photographs. It uses lossy compression, which sacrifices some detail for a smaller file size. Photoshop allows you to control the level of compression versus quality when saving a file, and at maximum quality, a JPEG version of an image can be virtually identical to the original, uncompressed version. JPEG files in Photoshop support the CMYK, RGB, and grayscale color modes, but do not support transparency. The JPEG format is ubiquitous and the relatively small file size of JPEG images has made them very common on the Internet.

The other quintessential online image format is the Graphics Interchange Format, or GIF. This format is used mainly for non-photographic images. GIF files use support transparency, and use lossless LZW compression, so image data is well-preserved. However, GIF files are limited to an 8 bit color space, meaning a palette of 256 colors out of the RGB color space. While making the format generally disfavored for photographs, when it comes to simple images like buttons, the GIF format’s small file size makes it one of the most commonly used on the Internet.

Finally, one of the most popular image file formats among graphic artists and publishers is the Tagged Image File Format, or TIFF. TIFF is a bitmap format, and is supported by virtually all image editing software programs across most platforms, as well as by many scanners, faxes, and optical character recognition programs. TIFF files are extremely flexible, and in Photoshop, support virtually every color mode, transparency, layers, and other features, as well as bit depths of 8, 16, or 32 bits per channel. If you’re working on a page layout or just need a flexible, capable format which is sure to work between multiple artists on different platforms with different image editing software, TIFF can be extremely useful to you.

Photoshop supports all of these formats and many more. Each format has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are better for working with photos, and some are better for simpler images and diagrams. Whatever the project you’re working on, there’s probably a format out there just right for it, and chances are, it’ll work in Photoshop.

Your graphics can pop, and you don’t have to take forever to create them when you know HOW to use the right tools effectively. Learn more about the Adobe CS4 Creative Suite and Adobe Photoshop. http://vpclasses.com

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If you are one of the Adobe Photoshop beginners, there is good news! Learning how to use Photoshop to cutout pictures is not very difficult to learn, and with a little practice it can be mastered to help you make amazing photo artwork. If you have tried your hand at photo cutouts, you may be wondering what the tips and tricks are to get rid of jagged corners and rough edges to your cutout images. Why do the images in all the professional photo artwork look so smooth?

For the Adobe Photoshop beginners (Photoshop Elements included), let us start with the basics – and there are certainly enough basic tips to get you going without any super advanced techniques. For Photoshop cutouts – such as a person – from an image, you will want to use the lasso tool. There is a basic lasso tool, a magnetic lasso tool, and a polygonal lasso tool. For precise photo artwork cutouts, we will disregard the basic lasso tool and focus just on the magnetic and polygonal lassos. I primarily use the polygonal lasso but the magnetic is great if your image has very defined borders (against the backdrop) and if you do not want to spend a lot of time for cutting out images. It will attract itself to what it can see as the edge of your preferred cutout image, based on contrasting colors and shapes.

So are you ready to make photo artwork with Photoshop cutout techniques? With your image selected, zoom in to a range of around 150-300% so you can clearly see the image to be cutout. Select the polygonal lasso tool and take your time to select points around the edges of your image. For example, on a person take extra time around the face, ears, fingers, etc. When you get all the way around the image, connect the last point with the first point until the cutout is selected. This is where many people are left with jagged edges in their artwork. Right-clicking will give you many different options and a "Layer via copy" will create a new Photoshop cutout layer with exactly what you cutout (often with a few rough corners.) Instead, an easy way to create a smooth photo cutout is by using the feathering technique.

Selecting the Feather option will bring up an option of how many pixels you want to feather – or blur – around your selection. How precise you want your photo cut out and the size of the image will determine how many pixels you want to choose, and experience will help you to know (remember you can undo any action quickly!). After you feather, you can then use the "Layer via copy" action. If you are Photoshop beginner, try this technique and use a feathering of about 2-10 pixels and look at the result. Chances are it will be a smooth cutout that can be part of your new collage, illustration, or photo artwork.

Feathering is an integral part of skills needed for Adobe Photoshop beginners and can be used for cutouts, blending images, and combining photos. This basic technique for mastering the essentials of Photoshop cutouts is very simple and can be added to by a variety of techniques that you can explore at your own leisure. Once you know the fundamentals behind photo cutouts and feathering, you will learn to have all sorts of fun creating photo artwork in Photoshop!

Michael is the creator and owner of CustomPhotoCollage.com. A longtime Photoshop expert, Michael creates unique, personalized photo collages at http://www.CustomPhotoCollage.com.

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Photoshop has long been the industry standard professional digital image manipulation program. It fact it would be hard to get a job as a graphic designer if you didn’t have experience using Photoshop.

So lets explore the new features in Photoshop CS4 and then decide whether for $199 it’s worth upgrading from CS3 to CS4. If you are still working on an older version of Photoshop such as CS2 or CS then I would definitely recommend upgrading. This article is going to focus on the top 5 new features in Photoshop CS4.

1. Smoother panning and zooming and fluid canvas rotation

Working with bitmap images often involves editing pixel by pixel. The smoother zooming feature will give you much more control as you zoom in and out of your bitmaps. Plus the new rotation feature is very cool and is a huge improvement on the somewhat clumsy rotate image handles. I give these new features 9 out of 10.

2. New Adjustments Panel

This panel contains some of the most commonly used color and tone correction tools. Tools, which Photoshop users use every day such as Levels, Curves and Hue & Saturation are now all located on this single panel. Photoshop allows you to edit in a non-destructive mode using an Adjustments layer. Even though this feature is not new per se, this new Adjustment panel makes it easier to work with many of these stable Photoshop tools. I give this new feature 5 out of 10.

3. New Masks Panel

This is a very cool new feature. The new Masks Panel is really powerful and it gives you full control over both pixels and vector masks. You can adjust mask density and feathering, easily select non contiguous objects, and much more.

You can still create layer masks in the old fashioned way but this new panel is much more powerful and will make learning masking easier for new users of Photoshop. I give this new feature 8 out of 10.

4. Content-Aware Scaling

This is my favorite new feature in Photoshop CS4. This new and revolutionary Content-Aware Scaling feature is used when re-sizing images. Users can select an area of an image that you do not want to lose when resizing and Photoshop will protect it, by removing other areas first.

Content-Aware Scaling automatically recognizes skin tones to keep people from being squeezed when you resize an image. So as you resize an image, people in the picture may move closer together or further apart, but they will remain properly proportioned whilst the background changes. I would have to give this feature a 10 out of 10.

5. Many enhancements

My final new feature is really just a whole bunch of cool improvements to existing features in Photoshop CS3. These include: 1. Improved color correction with re-engineered Dodge, Burn, and Sponge tools 2. Improved auto-blending of images. 3. New preview feature on the Clone Tool. 4. Better raw image processing. I give these new features a 7 out of 10.

So in conclusion, Photoshop CS4 introduces some very new and exciting features such as fluid canvas rotation and content-aware scaling, a few new panels such as Mask Panel and Adjustments panel which help to improve your workflow, and a whole bunch of enhancements to existing features.

Overall I would have to say that $199 investment to upgrade is a no-brainer. Enjoy!

Billy Gee is a director for Training Connection, an Adobe Certified Training Center based in Chicago and Los Angeles. “We specialize in providing hands on Real World Photoshop training classes.” For more information about our Photoshop courses, please visit http://www.trainingconnection.com

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