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Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Software for Digital Image Editing

By David Peters

It is easy to see why Photoshop is considered to be the premier image-editing software available today. The Photoshop program contains exceptionally sophisticated effects that in the past would have taken a great deal of time and effort to achieve and condenses the steps to reach these effects to only a few simple clicks.

Photoshop does come with a price tag that some may consider high, especially when there are freeware editors available, but with the wide expanse of features it offers, it is considered a vital program for anyone working with any graphics medium from print to the web and even to movies and television.

This has resulted in the vast number of less expensive competitors (although none are really considered to be contenders), plus the piracy of the Photoshop software itself. In measures to counter this, a simplified version of Photoshop known as Photoshop Elements was introduced which has proven to be a perfect tool for beginners.

From where did Photoshop make its meteoric rise? The program was first developed in 1987 and was released on the market in 1990. Adobe has made sure to stay on top of advances since especially in relation to hardware power and has revamped Photoshop accordingly. Even now, to get the most out of the Photoshop program, you should invest in as much RAM as possible for your computer.

It is not just Adobe's efforts that have got Photoshop where it is today, however. The program's plugin architecture has allowed there to be are all sorts of plugins available for more advanced work, including some plugins that actually cost more and do more than the program itself.

Due to this feature, Photoshop is many times used in the same way as Windows, in the manner of a platform. It would be a major endeavor to get these plugins to operate with any other software program, making the competition futile for those depending on a plugin.

Photoshop for Windows and Mac OS (both OS 9 and OS X) are available today. For those wanting to use it on Linux, you will have to use Crossover Office, Codeweavers' program that permits some Windows software to operate on Linux, but it will be quite slow.

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