Product: Adobe Photoshop 5.5
Company: Adobe
Website: http://www.adobe.com
Estimated Street Price: Full Version $609 (Reviewed) - Upgrade $129 (after rebate) to owners of both Photoshop 5.0 and ImageReady 1.0, and $199 (after rebate) to owners of 4.0 and previous versions of Photoshop
Review By: Clifford Palmer, Jr

Photoshop: For The Serious Designer Only

As a complete package, Photoshop 5.5 is excellent.  It adds plenty of new features to the already standard Photoshop 5.0, and ImageReady completes the package by adding outstanding integration (just one click to transfer an image from Photoshop to ImageReady, not bad!) and outstanding web features that match or beat out many of the other leading programs on the market today.

But to all of these features and abilities comes a price.  Photoshop has always been marketed as a professional’s tool, and has always been accordingly priced.  So unless you are seriously considering getting into imaging or web design, then the $609 retail (around $550 street price) price tag might be a deterrent.  Unfortunately, there is no cheap upgrade for those who have Photoshop 5.0 either, you must purchase the upgrade (around $160 street) and then send in a rebate (valid until May, 2000).

Also following the lines of a professional’s tool, some may find Photoshop difficult to use, as many of the features are cryptic and take time to learn.  Fortunately, the help system and manuals provided do a rather good job of teaching the user how to use the many different functions that Photoshop has to offer.  There are also many books that demonstrate different techniques and tricks one can learn to perform in Photoshop.

This site is not related to the Microsoft Corporation in any way. Windows and the Windows logo are trademarks of the Microsoft Corporation. ActiveWindows is an independent site. The information and sources here are obtained from series of hard work & research.