To CS4 or not to CS4

[Frank Lopes]

Within the context of the kinds of things that we do around here, what is your opinion:

Should one jump to Photoshop CS4 or stay with CS3?

[mistermonday]

Hi Frank. I think you need to go through the new features and ask yourself if there are new features that will really bring significant enough value to your workflow to justify the $199 upgrade cost (there is a 15% discount if you happen to be a member of NAPP).
For me, a couple of them were worth the price.
The mask panel (and its ability to modify a layer mask with an improved Color Range Selection), the Adjustment Panel, Content Aware Scaling, and the addition of a Vibrance Adj Layer inside PS were the prime ones that all add considerable value to photo editing and retouching. The new Panels are more than just aesthetic enhancements - they provide additional functionality. There are a bunch of neat enhancements to camera raw like the Neutral Density Filter, and Post Crop Vignetting. Those who are solid Tablet users will find some very nice enhancement to the Tablet interface. Printing command module has also been improved.
I believe the Trial version of CS4 will be available very soon. If you aren't sure, you can always take it for a test drive.
Regards, Murray
I believe the trial version

[crazyfly1]

I've seen a training video on the content aware scaling, to me that alone is worth the upgrade. Think if it were a plug-in filter for $199, depending on the work you do you might consider it.

[lkroll]

I saw that same video CF and probably will splurge for this feature too. I will only get the poor man's version (if you think $199 upgrade is poor that is) since I don't ever plan on doing any of the 3D stuff and Liquid Re-scaling (Content Aware Scaling) is too cool a feature not to have, and a realtime preview is just too important to me.

[Frank Lopes]

Adobe, when they announced the CS4 release, made a big deal out of the fact that they had worked very hard to make even current features, easier to find and/or use.

Have you had the opportunity to play with it?
What are your views?
Do those changes make it easier?

[skydog]

Any one have any comments about the suite version of CS4 that includes indesign, illustrator etc. Unfortunately I bought the CS3 package this past summer and I can't just upgrade photoshop..I must upgrade everything at $599.

[Eduardo Bahia]

Anyone here knows anything about troubles using CS4 on XP Sp2?
I installed it on my pc but it just don`t open....

[rogleale]

Well worth the upgrade in my opinion. Apart from all the improvements in CS4 itself, and I really like the new 'Adjustments' panel with the easy masks, Bridge is now a capable browser, fast, and no more the 'clunkey' thing it used to be. I particularly like the full screen mode when browsing. Click on a thumbnail to select it - hit the spacebar - and there it is in fullscreen mode! And you can still click on that to zoom in more - or hit the spacebar again to go back to thumbnails.

Roger

[rogleale]

Originally Posted by skydog

Any one have any comments about the suite version of CS4 that includes indesign, illustrator etc. Unfortunately I bought the CS3 package this past summer and I can't just upgrade photoshop..I must upgrade everything at $599.

Hi Skydog,

Are you sure about that? Have you actually asked the question of Adobe? I am not an owner of the whole suite so I tend to gloss over comments which concern it, but I think that I saw a post on John Nack's blog that CS4 could be upgraded on its own. Must be worth putting the question.

Roger

[cricket1961]

Skydog

Adobe will let you sidegrade over, but you might lose your full suite package upgrade.

Chris