Confusion on Photoshop editions

Hello,

Excuse me if this the wrong place to post this.

I'm interested in buying photoshop and joining in all the fun. Not only for my use here in SL but for my Daughter, who is just entering High School, has been drawing anime for years and is intertested in scanning in her line drawings and doing the coloring in a professional manner.

I'm confused about the different versions/editions that Adobe has available. What version would you recommend? Additionally, where is a good place to order it online?

Thank you in advance.
CS

Well right now you have two options in my opinion. The full version and the half version. The latest full version is called CS2, but you're talking $600+ for it. This is why Adobe started releasing half versions of PS called "Elements" in the stores, to cater to the people who don't have the money. Elements is probably $100-200, but it is missing a lot of features found in the full version.

The question is, which is right for you.

Now if all your daughter wants to do is what you list, then the Elements version will suit you nicely in my opinion. Most retail software stores sell Elements (but most do not carry the full version, I presume because it just sits there on the shelf with the higher price tag.) Check adobe's website to see if maybe they're having a sale on them, but I doubt it.

Hope this helps!!

E

Elements is great value as it does almost all of what CS does (I use both).

I don't know all the differences, but I noticed Elements doesn't have the pen (bezier line) tool for creating paths... if I was doing cell shading of the kind often found in anime this is likely something I'd use. Just a thought.

Buy a copy of photoshop 7 from e-bay for next to nothing.

I recently went back to this version and its incredibly faster than CS or CS2.
These newer versions will will bloat out your computer and dont have that many extra features.

Hi Ciera. Welcome to SL.

If you have the money, I'd highly recommend going with the full Photoshop, not Photoshop Elements. PSE can do a lot for the money, but it's also lacking a tremendous amount of professional tools. It's not really precise even to call it a version of Photoshop. More acurately, it's a sister program. It has some of the same core functions, but its intended purpose is entirely different. It is tuned to focus almost solely on (amateur) digital photography, not on other types of artwork. It's missing the higher end features, and its interface is "simplified" (which basically means a lot of features are hidden for some silly reason).

That doesn't mean PSE can't be used for other things besides photography; it certainly can, but its "simplification" often forces you to do things that are very complicated in order to bypass the interface to unlock its hidden capabilities. Many things that are very simple and quick to do in Photoshop take a long time to do in PSE, as you have to employ clever work-arounds, rather than taking a direct route, and a lot of things simply can't be done at all.

If all you want to do is SL stuff, then PSE would work for you (although there would still be certain things you'd have a hard time doing), but given that your daughter has artistic asirations, fluency with Photoshop is an investment in her future. It is THE industry standard for image manipulation.

Since you said she wants to do the colorization "in a professional manner", it's essential that she use professional tools. Sure, she could get away with using something less, but she won't develop the habits that go with using what the pro's use, and that could be a handicap for her later on. (And by the way, it's certainly not the case that Photoshop is the only tool used in the anime industry, but Photoshop is pretty much where everything starts. It is the most essential piece of software to know how to use for any industry that involves visual arts.)

There are lots of tools in Photoshop's arsenal for illustration that are either not present or are hidden in PSE. Layer masks and channel masks come to mind immediately, as does the previously mentioned pen tool, among many others. The most important difference in my opinion though, given her interests, is color space. PSE is intended for RGB work, which means it's really only good for screen images. Print images need to be in CMYK color space, or else they won't print accurately. PSE has no direct way to work in CMYK mode, and it would be a real shame for your daughter to spend hours coloring one of her drawings just so, and then have it look completely different when she prints it out.

That's really just the tip of the iceburg. If you want to do some more research on the subject, here is a pretty good listing of some of the key differences between PSE and PS. Graphicsoft.about.com is a great resource for stuff like this.

To summarize, if price is a big concern, PSE is incredibly powerful for the money. However, if you can afford Photoshop, it's worth every penny and then some. As you have a daughter who's an aspring artist, I'd highly recommend making that investment for her if you're able.

If your daughter is in school she probably qualifies for Educational pricing. That way she gets full versions of legal software but at a very steep discount in many cases.

Example: MS Office Pro for $199, Corel Painter IX full edition $99, Windows XP Pro Upgrade $99, etc..

Check online through educational resellers or if you have a university near by find their book store, which often also sell software and see if they have what you need at educational prices. Sometimes places like Bestbuy also carry some educational software. Typically when you buy educational software there will be a form that needs to be filled out and your daughter will need to have her student ID in hand.

I just checked my local University bookstore and they sell Adobe Creative Suite CS2 for $399 (http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/) and Adobe Photoshop CS2 9.0 standalone for $299.00.

-Alan

I'd also like to add that CS2 has many, many features that 7 does not have.

Many of them are hidden in the menus and things, so they're not that obvious. But, IMHO, this is the largest leap since the introduction of Layers, (back in PS3, I think.)

Also, if you can afford the extra hundred for the full Creative Suite, go for it! It not only has Photoshop, but Illustrator (which is a Vector program, and might be better for Anime shading,) GoLive (for making websites - it's what I use for mine,) InDesign (a page layout program that will allow her to make killer reports and papers,) Acrobat Pro (for pdf files with bookmarks and things,) and a better Bridge than you get without the Suite.

For just $100 more, it's an incredible value.

I wish I had the full Suite; but I've gotten all the parts except InDesign as stand alones, and there's no upgrade path from there to the Suite. Sigh.

And remember, you don't need to purchase an Adobe product to make images! If you are just getting started there are free or very cheap alternatives, such as GIMP. I'd suggest starting on those until you reach the limits of the tool, and then consider buying the full photoshop CS2 or an old copy of Photoshop 7.

You might also want to look at Corel Paint Shop Pro X

I use it for all my stuff and there is a demonstration version ( 30 day trial ) at www.corel.com

Although PS is an excellent image editor, do consider that it may not be the best at drawing and colouring manga and anime. Do get your daughter to give other tools such as Manga Studio or Project Dogwaffle a try.

Manga Studio
http://www.e-frontier.com/go/products/mangastudio

Project Dogwaffle
http://www.squirreldome.com/cyberop.htm

You may want to get her a graphics tablet to go along with whichever software you choose. It is essential for digitally colouring in comics.