Photoshop: Changing The Way We Make And See Images

Photoshop has become the standard of the industry when it comes to graphics and digital image editing. When we speak of power, versatility and innovation, very few programs can hold a candle to what Photoshop is capable of doing. Its commands and tools are so easy to learn that even beginners can use this program without the benefit of a formal class.

Photoshop (also known as Adobe Photoshop) was created by Adobe Systems and was intended at first for image editing for paper printing. It wasn't too long before it was used to create and edit images to use for websites.

The best thing about Photoshop is not only the integrated tools and devices you can use to tweak images and create your own, but because of the flawless interaction of its commands and tools. Given one image, you can do virtually anything you want with the confidence that Photoshop tools will follow your command and produce an edited picture the way you want it to appear.

Export-ready
When it comes to exporting its images, Photoshop allows seamless program shifts among other Adobe software used in image editing, authoring and animation such as Adobe Illustrator, ImageReady and After Effects. Photoshop files (.PSD or Photoshop document format) may be manipulated to produce special effects such as adding textures and changing backgrounds. Non-linear editing is also a breeze.

Another advantage of Photoshop is that it can work with several color models such as RGB, CMYK, Lab, Bitmap, Duotone and Grayscale. This allows any user a lot of flexibility in terms of image editing, giving him the power to play with every type of photo image there is.

The newest version of Photoshop is v. 10, also known as CS3. It's integrated with Adobe Creative Suite, hence the 'CS'. The most popular, though is the CS2 which was made available in 2005. It has successfully integrated new tools and former plugins like color replacement, warping and multiple-layer select.

How it has changed the industry
When it comes to image post-production, Photoshop has given professionals and amateurs a magic wand with which to alter and improve images. Since the advent of digital photography in the 90s, Photoshop has been the standard with which photographers improve finished photo quality.

Photoshop is also changing the art scene, allowing artists to create original pieces or artwork using program tools. Photoshop artwork has appeared in books, comic books, architecture designs and more notably, in special-effect films.

Photoshop has become so popular that the word 'photoshopping' has already ingrained itself in our vocabulary. Photoshopping has actually made careers, fed media frenzy, made paparazzis happy and changed the way we see things, often literally. In pop culture, Photoshop in becomingly increasingly prevalent, appearing in almost every other photo for image-hungry consumers to devour. The irony is, Photoshop is so popular that images have to appear that they haven't undergone tweaking in order to be declared as Photoshop-perfect.

Cracking the Photoshop Easter eggs
As with some of the most popular software, Photoshop comes with a few Easter eggs, hidden gems of humor and help tips that can be accessed with a few strokes of the keyboard. The first ones came with Photoshop v. 2.5 and subsequent Easter eggs have appeared with every version that came along. The latest Easter eggs are with the CS2 (the Adobe SpaceMonkey) and CS3 (the Adobe Red Pill).

Photoshop may be used by Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Mac OS X. Linux users can use Photoshop v. 9 and lower.