The Photoshop Digital Imaging Editing Software
Author: David M Peters
It is easy to see why Photoshop is considered to be the premier image-editing
software available today. The Photoshop program contains exceptionally
sophisticated effects that in the past would have taken a great deal of time and
effort to achieve and condenses the steps to reach these effects to only a few
simple clicks.
Photoshop does come with a price tag that some may consider high, especially
when there are freeware editors available, but with the wide expanse of features
it offers, it is considered a vital program for anyone working with any graphics
medium from print to the web and even to movies and television.
This has resulted in the vast number of less expensive competitors (although
none are really considered to be contenders), plus the piracy of the Photoshop
software itself. In measures to counter this, a simplified version of Photoshop
known as Photoshop Elements was introduced which has proven to be a perfect tool
for beginners.
How did Photoshop get into this dominant position? Well, development started
in 1987, with the first release in 1990. Since then, Adobe has been improving
the software continuously, constantly taking advantage of advances in hardware
power. Even now, to get the best performance out of Photoshop, you should buy as
much RAM as you can afford.
It is not just Adobe's efforts that have got Photoshop where it is today,
however. The program's plugin architecture has allowed there to be are all sorts
of plugins available for more advanced work, including some plugins that
actually cost more and do more than the program itself.
In this manner, Photoshop is frequently used in the same aspect as Windows as
a springboard. It would be a tremendous endeavor to get these plugins to run
with any other software, making competitors essentially ineffective to those
using a plugin.
Photoshop for Windows and Mac OS (both OS 9 and OS X) are available today.
For those wanting to use it on Linux, you will have to use Crossover Office,
Codeweavers' program that permits some Windows software to operate on Linux, but
it will be quite slow.
