From TNPC issue #4.13...

PhotoDraw Leaves Door Open for Adobe Elements

by Al Gordon
June 28, 2001

Notice something missing in Microsoft Office XP? Well, actually you probably don't. But those who shelled out for the "Premium" version of Office 2000 may recall a graphics program that Redmond made a big deal out of called PhotoDraw. You, know, the one that Microsoft replaced with Version 2 shortly after O2K's release and was reluctant to give early Office 2000 buyers a free upgrade to? Yeah, that one.

Now it is gone from the Office XP packages, and sources say don't hold your breath waiting for a Version 3. The de facto graphics add-on for Office users has come from Adobe; it's Photoshop Elements:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/413/tr.cgi?al1

It is a solid value at a street price of $80. What's more, there's a $30 rebate for users of the following products. For a list of the products that qualify for this rebate check out my supplemental page:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/413/tr.cgi?alsuppl

The rebate pretty much covers all the main competitive products and the freebies that come with scanners and imaging software.

Up until now, your choices from Adobe were the $600 Photoshop software for graphics professionals:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/413/tr.cgi?al2

If you were upgrading from an older version, say Photoshop 6.0, you could get away for $200:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/413/tr.cgi?al3

Or you could go for the lower-end PhotoDeluxe line with a street price around $50:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/413/tr.cgi?al4

The former was expensive and user-unfriendly. The latter was a mediocre product that seemed designed mainly to avoid taking sales away from Photoshop. A Photoshop Limited Edition existed, but wasn't in wide circulation and wasn't especially attractive.

With Elements, Adobe has struck the correct balance. The price is right, the features are right, and the user friendliness is right. The stuff you don't need in the professional product is out, and Wizards, tutorials, and presets galore are in. I have worked with the full Photoshop in the past and found that Elements not only makes available all the features I actually used, but I actually am getting more out of it that its bigger sibling.

You have access to a wide range or filters and effects, can generate Photoshop format files, and get traditional Adobe graphics quality. Even the most graphically challenged user can do things such as create Web buttons and banners, turn photos into paintings or abstract art, colonize (or de-colonize) pictures, put in text, frames, borders, and so on. There is a very nice batch conversion program for resizing and changing the format of graphics, and a very cool tool for pulling graphics out of Adobe Acrobat .PDF format files.

A nice touch in the interface is a row of tabs on the right of the main toolbar, which open up "palettes" of options. In addition to the usual color, history, and image navigation settings, the palettes include a large collection of filters and a file browser to generate thumbnails in your Windows file folders.

An "effects" palette provides more sophisticated preset design touches, which allow you to frame a picture, make it look like a painting, give it 3D looks, add textures, use gradients--about 60 in all. Another palette is a new "recipes" feature, which is a collection of step-by-step tutorials for design touches that can't be automated. For example, one recipe walks you though the technique for making a snapshot look like an old-time sepia-toned photograph.

Photoshop Elements has Internet update capabilities that extend to additional recipes, effects, and filters as well as the usual patches and fixes. And there are tools for making Web page graphics, buttons, and shapes.

Compared to Paint Shop Pro, which had been my preferred "normal person's" graphics solution, Photoshop Elements produces generally higher quality results and better ease of use, with the additional benefit of compatibility with the graphics industry- standard Photoshop format. However, it does lack Paint Shop Pro's built-in screen shot utility.

With Elements, Adobe has given business and end users a solution that may be as much of a standard for those markets as Photoshop is for graphics professional.

You can reach Al Gordon at:
mailto:al@TheNakedPC.com

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