Manage updates with the Download AppAdobe Photoshop CS2
Manufacturer: Adobe Part number: 23102149
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- If you're a professional or ambitious amateur digital artist, we highly recommend Adobe Photoshop CS2.
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CNET editors' review
Adobe Photoshop CS2 price range: $1,299.95
- Reviewed by: Daniel Drew Turner
- Edited by: Robert Vamosi
- Reviewed on: 04/21/2005
- Released on: 04/21/2005
The good: Supports Camera Raw 3.0, DNG, and 32-bit HDR--all vital to pro photographers.
The bad: Advanced features require top-end hardware.
The bottom line: If you're a professional or ambitious amateur digital artist, we highly recommend Adobe Photoshop CS2.
User reviews
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Interface is still stone-age...
by dtews4 on April 25, 2005
Pros: Powerful, flexible
Cons: Requires huge and/or multiple monitors
Summary: Although I have yet to upgrade to CS2, the editor's review appears to confirm a glaring weakness in Photoshop's interface I've experienced in CS1. Many of Photoshop'...
Summary: Although I have yet to upgrade to CS2, the editor's review appears to confirm a glaring weakness in Photoshop's interface I've experienced in CS1. Many of Photoshop's features can only be accessed via space hogging palettes. One must keep many palettes open simultaneosly in order to work efficiently, which uses up a huge amount of screen real estate. Having a second monitor, or huge screen is almost a must.
In comparison to other apps today, this is absolutely stone-age. The workflow in apps like Corel Photo Paint is much faster and easier. Although highly detailed palettes are available, most functions are available in a dynamic, changing tool bar whose contents change depending on the tool currently active. I find working in Corel to be faster, more efficient, and generally more pleasant than Photoshop, which is exceedingly klutzy in comparison.
Even the toolbars themselves are far more space efficient in Corel. Related tools, such as lasso, rectangular, and irregular masking tools, are all nested under one master button. Hit that button and all the masking tools unfold into view. After selecting a specific tool, the button collapses again.
In Photoshop, virtually every tool has it's own dedicated button, permenantly taking up a chunk of screen space. This further contributes to a large, cluttered and space-hogging toolspace.
In terms of editing features, the Adobe team has provided an impressive product with few competitors approaching its capabilities. If they could just bring their antiquated, inefficient interface up to twenty-first century standards, there would be little else one could ask for.19 out of 26 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Even better now!
by kayo38 on June 8, 2005
Pros: Bridge really does make sense!
Cons: Only 2 (solved) and dropping the rating system.
Summary: I was initially shocked and grateful I had kept Photoshop CS on my machine. However, as I went through a tutorial at lynda.com, it all made sense. I recently ...
Summary: I was initially shocked and grateful I had kept Photoshop CS on my machine. However, as I went through a tutorial at lynda.com, it all made sense. I recently downloaded the trial version of GoLive CS2, and between that, Illustrator, and Acrobat, you can work much smarter, not harder. As for the complaint about Bridge being slow, there is a tip in the User Forum about this and I don't find it a deterrent as my preference is to open Bridge with Photoshop.
I like the new features for Camera Raw since I do 85% of my digital shooting in Raw and there's a lot of work eliminated in the first step of opening the image in terms of options available for correction.
I was leery of SmartSharpen, but by George, it does work - I used my methods and compared them to SmartSharpen, and for all intents and purposes, this does do a bang up job.
The other problem I had was unrelated to Photoshop - Nikon overrode PS for opening a Raw file, but again, a trip to the User Forum provided a quick answer and fix.
I have found that the User Forums are much more useful than the info Adobe provides and the solutions work 99% of the time without having to place a call to Adobe (but their service is very good - for a price!).
I don't think the folks at Adobe intended this program to be run on antiquated machines, so if you're at the upper end of the limit, there will be problems with sluggishness, etc., in which case you should forget using it or upgrade to a newer system. I own a web design business and have tried just about everything - Photoshop cannot be beat with respect to achieving high quality images, consistently (believe me I receive some pretty bad scans and digital photos!).9 out of 9 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Serious workflow issues
by asmodeus224 on January 27, 2006
Pros: Multi-select layers, perspective cloning, smart layers
Cons: no more tick boxes for quick linking/unlinking layers, 'merge linked' function now gone
Summary: CS2 has a great many new features that will make users happy - however the new link system is a major headche that cancels out ANY improvements made. Linking layers ...
Summary: CS2 has a great many new features that will make users happy - however the new link system is a major headche that cancels out ANY improvements made. Linking layers used to be a matter of swiping the cursor along the tick boxes in the layer pallette....it is now a function that requires a user to go to the keyboard and 'shift-click', 'command-click' or 'shift-command-click' in order to selct multiple layers and then forces the user to go to the newly created 'link icon' at the bottom of the pallette in order to link layers. Does this sound easier? no, in a typical production enviornment it will result in hundreds of extra clicks and motions across a project. Do not simply upgrade to CS2 without test driving it first - the shortcoming in the new system will become evident quickly and will result in sticking with CS1. I moved back to CS1 after a week trying to get used to CS2's linking system. It is terrible.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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absolutely spectacular
by moj5556 on October 5, 2005
Pros: everything you need in a photoshop
Cons: can crash if you launch it , then switch to another task to quickly
Summary: adobe photoshop cs2 is a big upgrade from cs and 7.0, because it has way more features for your favourite photoshop
Summary: adobe photoshop cs2 is a big upgrade from cs and 7.0, because it has way more features for your favourite photoshop
1 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Perfect program, still best in the world.
by Grungerz on July 16, 2008
Pros: Good interface, powerfull image editing tools, animation tools
Cons: obviously price. Terribly overpriced product.
Summary: In my opinion Adobe Photoshop CS2 is the best image editor in the world. Its features are simply ingenious, its tools so powerful...
There is no doubt, Photoshop is still ...Summary: In my opinion Adobe Photoshop CS2 is the best image editor in the world. Its features are simply ingenious, its tools so powerful...
There is no doubt, Photoshop is still the best image editor in the world, and it just keeps improving... -
The best image editing software so far!
by Shiningblade on October 31, 2005
Pros: Everything
Cons: nothing at all, i have been using this for a long time now.
Summary: There is absolutly nothing wrong with this software. the only way it could get a weak rating, is if the user doesnt know how to use it.I use Photoshop ...
Summary: There is absolutly nothing wrong with this software. the only way it could get a weak rating, is if the user doesnt know how to use it.I use Photoshop all the time for all sorts of image editing things, and its absolutly perfect. There are so many things u can do with this software.
You can even go online and find tutorials to do various things on photoshop, and people create actions, which you could download and use to your advantage. i love photoshop CS2 and i would recommend it to everyone. -
Total Disaster
by CS2SUCKS on September 24, 2005
Pros: None, except when the Noise Reduction works
Cons: Everything, makes me activate registration every time I use it
Summary: This program has been a total disaster. My computer is up to date, and free of viruses and spyware. I am an advanced Photoshop user since PS 6. The first ...
Summary: This program has been a total disaster. My computer is up to date, and free of viruses and spyware. I am an advanced Photoshop user since PS 6. The first time I tried installing it the CD would make my system crash because of a setup.exe file. I spent more than 1 hour with tech support trying everything possible to install it to no avail. Finally I figured out on my own that it needed an internet connection to install. Once it was installed it was a disaster. I moved a few 70MB files in Bridge and there was an error that permanently deleted the files from my system, I searched and they are no longer on my hard drive. I uninstalled the program and reinstalled it and the problems continue. Now EVERY TIME I open up CS2 it gives me a message that says my "license configuration data is no longer usable and I need to activate it". Luckily it works after I activate it online, but what about when I am not near internet access. I strongly recommend skipping CS2 and waiting until CS3 comes out. This program has way too many bugs and Adobe knows all about it.
Updated
Spent another hour with tech support trying to figure out what's wrong, searched hard drive for some missing file, no LUCK. Will call tech support again on Monday, if it doesn't work I will sell my CS2 Premium on Ebay to highest bidder, Not satisfied with tech support when they just have me disable the AntiVirus and Norton programs. I think it's all B.S.2 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Great Improvements
by ogman on August 18, 2005
Pros: Easier than ever, great tutorials for beginners
Cons: There are none....it's Photoshop!
Summary: Still the best!
Summary: Still the best!
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Installer - didn't
by Borus on July 31, 2005
Pros: Good software if it works
Cons: Installer crashed - educational prices too high.
Summary: I purchased this program and the install would not work on my computer. I rang the support and they were quick to respond but when the problem could be solved ...
Summary: I purchased this program and the install would not work on my computer. I rang the support and they were quick to respond but when the problem could be solved with a couple of tries they were quick to blame my hardware. I was told that they don’t support AMD chips (I have an Ath64 3500+). I asked for a refund and was told that adobe can’t honour their warrantee for computers with AMD chips. I said I wanted that in writing signed by someone with the authority to make that statement – they gave me a refund. I have since got a trial version which installed and ran fine so it wasn’t the software it was the installer. I have Photoshop 7 which I really like a use a lot but I don’t think I’ll upgrade now. I agree with the other comment about the interface – it is a bit clumsy. It’s also really bad in a teaching environment as no two computers are the same. It would be great if you could have a standard layout that it goes to every time it is opened as an option. Also Corel Photo-Paint uses the scroll wheel as zoom and it zoom in on your pointer. Once you get use to moving around your document this way Photoshops interface seems very clumsy. I would highly recommend Corel-Photo-Paint - having said that I do prefer Photoshop.
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Addition of Features Previously Available in Camera RAW
by One Old Jedi on May 20, 2005
Pros: Exposure adjustment, Enhanced Camera RAW
Cons: Bridge is extremely slow loading under Windows, No RAW Update for PS CS
Summary: Much like the computer gaming industry has driven the development of better, faster, more powerful video cards, digital photography is driving Photoshop...and fortunately Adobe is listening.
Although the interface ...Summary: Much like the computer gaming industry has driven the development of better, faster, more powerful video cards, digital photography is driving Photoshop...and fortunately Adobe is listening.
Although the interface hasn't changed much, if at all, Photoshop remains the industry standard.
Some of the best items in the latest version include Lens Correction, Smart Sharpen, 32bit image support, and Exposure adjustment. Additionally, Camera RAW provides more control features, and (at least for me, the algorithms used for Auto Color appear to provide a better result.
If you're using one of the newer DSLR's, CS2 should be a mandatory part of your workflow
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Adobe
- Part number: 23102149
- Description: Adobe Photoshop CS2 software, the professional image-editing standard and leader of the Photoshop digital imaging line, delivers more of what you crave. Groundbreaking creative tools help you achieve extraordinary results. Unprecedented adaptability lets you custom-fit Photoshop to the way you work. And with more efficient editing, processing, and file handling, there's no slowing you down.
General
- Packaged Quantity 1
- Category Creativity application
- Subcategory Creativity - graphics & image editing
- Language(s) English
- Localization North America
- License pricing Standard
- Localization English
Software
- License Type Complete package
- License Qty 1 user
- License Pricing Standard
- Platform Windows
- Min Supported Color Depth 16-bit (64K colors)
- Distribution Media CD-ROM
- Package Type Retail
System Requirements
- OS Required Microsoft Windows XP SP1,
Microsoft Windows XP SP2,
Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4 - Peripheral / Interface Devices Internet connection,
CD-ROM - System Requirements Details Pentium III - RAM 320 MB - HD 650 MB
Product series
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Manufacturer: Adobe
Specs:
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Manufacturer: Adobe
Specs: Creativity application,
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Manufacturer: Adobe
Specs:
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Adobe products on Shopper.com
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- Manufacturer:Adobe
- Address:
345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704 - Phone: 1800-585-0774
- Fax: 1-408-537-6000
