Vector drawing tools The Photoshop vector tools let you draw crisp-edged shapes of various dimensions and colors. Unlike pixel data, such as a scanned photograph, these shapes are defined using the mathematical principle of vectors, which describe shape, size, and boundary properties of graphics with clean, resolution-independent precision. Photoshop System Requirements Photoshop requires greater system resources than other image-editing programs, primarily because of its sophisticated range of features. To run Photoshop your system must have the following: ■ 128MB RAM ■ 125MB hard disk space ■ CD-ROM drive ■ Monitor with 256-color (8-bit) or higher video card ■ Monitor resolution of 800×600 or greater Photoshop Elements Photoshop Elements is a pared-down version of Photoshop that currently retails for less than $100. It’s considered a mid-level program, aimed at the burgeoning market of scanner and digital-camera enthusiasts. It replaces the old Photoshop LE program. Photoshop Elements lacks some of the more highly technical image-editing and color-correction features you find in Photoshop. For example, you can’t do CMYK color specs and individual color-channel editing. If you have to ask what these features are, chances are you won’t miss them. Photoshop Elements provides a wide range of features at considerably less cost than Photoshop, but its interface can be difficult to navigate. Moreover, it doesn’t have a wide range of project templates and wizards to help you quickly create a finished project. Consider purchasing Photoshop Elements if your needs run primarily toward image-editing rather than cards, calendars, or stationery. It has much of the sophisticated editing capability of Photoshop, at about one-fifth the price. To run Photoshop Elements, your system must have the following: ■ Pentium-class processor ■ Microsoft Windows 98, 98 Second Edition, ME, 2000, or NT 4 ■ 64MB RAM (with virtual memory on) CHAPTER 9: Selecting the Right Image-Editing Program 149 9 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. ■ 150MB hard disk space ■ Color monitor with 256-color (8-bit) or greater video card ■ 800×600 or greater monitor resolution PhotoDeluxe: Offering the Most Basic Features PhotoDeluxe is a simple bundled product that allows you to get a taste of image editing. Many users outgrow it, and opt for a program with project templates and the capability to create sophisticated compositions and Web graphics. In the meantime, however, it’s an excellent introduction. PhotoDeluxe Features PhotoDeluxe contains some basic templates for projects such as greeting cards and calendars, so you can get a feel for using these features. It also allows you to perform basic editing and layering effects, and to upload photos and display them on ActiveShare.com, a website for sharing photos. The chief advantage of PhotoDeluxe is its comprehensive Help menu and simple interface, shown in Figure 9-4. You simply click the My Photos button to access saved photos, and the seven buttons at the top of the screen to access drop-down menus for all the program features. FIGURE 9-4 PhotoDeluxe offers a simple interface and basic features. Drop-down menus display program features. Click these buttons to access menus. 150 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. PhotoDeluxe System Requirements PhotoDeluxe requires relatively minimal system requirements compared to other image-editing programs. To run it, your computer must have the following: ■ Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or NT 4 ■ 32MB RAM ■ 100MB hard disk space ■ Monitor with 800×600 resolution and 16-bit color (thousands of colors) PhotoSuite: Extensive Features and Versatility PhotoSuite gives Adobe products a run for their money. PhotoSuite has lots of image- editing capabilities and features that make it easy to create a wide range of projects, combined with a simple interface. It’s no wonder that it’s currently the best selling image-editing program, and comes bundled with a number of scanners. The PhotoSuite Niche As of this writing, PhotoSuite retails for $49.95 at the PhotoSuite website located at www.mgisoft.com. In addition to the editing and correction tools you find with other image-editing programs discussed in this chapter, PhotoSuite comes with the following: ■ Faux backgrounds and props to allow you to create interesting compositions like the ones shown in Color Insert Pages 1 and 2 ■ Dozens of greeting card, stationery, and calendar templates you can import your own scanned photos into ■ Templates for creating novelty and gag items such as fake IDs, magazine covers, and sports cards with your own scanned photos ■ A special easy-to-apply filter to simulate snow, rain, fog, tiles, crystallizing, and other effects, as shown in Color Insert Page 3 ■ Four different warp features that allow you to have fun with your scanned photos as shown in Color Insert Page 4 CHAPTER 9: Selecting the Right Image-Editing Program 151 9 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. PhotoSuite also has features that allow you to create your own Web pages, even if you have absolutely no prior Web design experience. You can even create animations from a series of photos using the PhotoSuite wizard for creating animated GIF files. PhotoSuite does not have the range of editing and color correction features you find in Photoshop, nor is it designed for extensive and sophisticated Web design. Most hobbyists, however, might not want to take the time to learn to manipulate these sensitive features and find the PhotoSuite wizards and templates a much easier route to accomplishing pretty much the same results. PhotoSuite System Requirements To run PhotoSuite 4 on your system, you must have the following: ■ 32MB RAM ■ 200MB hard disk space ■ SVGA video card ■ Monitor with 800×600 resolution and 24-bit true color ■ 2MB video RAM Other Good Imaging Products Adobe products and MGI’s PhotoSuite are the leading image-editing products both in terms of overall market share and what is most commonly bundled with today’s scanners. There are dozens of other image-editing programs on the market as well. This chapter wouldn’t be complete without the other notable mentions included in this section. Paint Shop Pro: Another Image-Editing Alternative Paint Shop Pro is another robust image-editing program, although it lacks the com- prehensive tools of Photoshop and has nowhere near the number of interesting templates and project wizards of PhotoSuite. Paint Shop Pro retails at an agreeable $109—or $99 if you download it directly from the manufacturer’s website at www.jasc.com. It also offers Web graphics features and a pleasant interface. 152 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Photo Soap: Companion Software to Organize Your Photos Photo Soap is a slightly different type of image-editing program. It’s designed to help you build and organize your library of scanned and other digital images. It addresses the issue that arises when you accumulate several gigabytes of scanned photos on your hard drive Photo Soap includes tools for catalog and album building, as well as a basic array of retouching and editing tools. Photo Soap allows you to view your collection of photos by date, size, content, name, and color. It even includes a handy date-stamp feature not present in most other image-editing programs. If you want to share your photos off line, Photo Soap can print album pages with headers, text, and captions. Photo Soap is a great companion software (or stand-alone program) to organize the legions of photos building up on your hard drive. Photo Soap currently retails for about $20 and has the following system requirements: ■ Microsoft Windows 95, 98, or NT 4 with Service Pack 3 or later ■ 32MB RAM for Windows 95 or 98, 64MB for NT ■ 100MB hard disk space ■ 16- or 24-bit color display ■ 800×600 screen resolution CorelDraw and Photo-Paint CorelDraw is a high-end graphics program, in the same league and price range (now around $500) as Photoshop. It has sophisticated and highly technical editing features, and gets rave reviews for its animation capabilities. Photo-Paint retails now for about $350, and offers a Microsoft Office–style toolbar along the top of the screen. Photo-Paint can handle a greater number of image file formats than Photoshop, including AutoCAD file format. You can learn more about Corel products on the company website, www.corel.com. PhotoDraw Microsoft offers its own image-editing software program, which is currently sold as a stand-alone product for just under $100. PhotoDraw gets rave reviews for its interface, which is designed to be intuitive to Microsoft Office users. It is second only to PhotoSuite in terms of templates and wizards, and offers a sophisticated range of features. CHAPTER 9: Selecting the Right Image-Editing Program 153 9 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. . interface. 152 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Photo Soap: Companion Software to Organize Your Photos Photo Soap is. features. FIGURE 9-4 PhotoDeluxe offers a simple interface and basic features. Drop-down menus display program features. Click these buttons to access menus. 150 How to Do Everything with Your Scanner Please. and simple interface, shown in Figure 9-4. You simply click the My Photos button to access saved photos, and the seven buttons at the top of the screen to access drop-down menus for all the program