Adobe Photoshop CS

But this flexibility and control fades into insignificance when compared to the most exciting new feature in Photoshop CS: Layer Comps. Using the new Layer Comps palette you can instantly record the current combination of layer visibility, position and appearance, including blending and effects, and this appears on the palette list. You can then change any of these properties to create completely new looks and store any that you might like. You can then quickly cycle through each of your alternative designs or output them all as individual files or as a multi-page PDF. In many ways the Layer Comp palette acts like the History palette, enabling you to take snapshots of your work, but the real beauty is that the different states are saved with your file and so remain permanently available. Compared to the old process of saving multiple versions, and then trying to keep them in synch, this is absolute bliss and will encourage far greater creative experimentation.

Photoshop CS also sees an improvement to the handling of text layers. Adobe says that Photoshop CS now shares the same underlying typographic engine as Illustrator. In practice the difference isn't that obvious as the core handling of fonts, spacing and so on is largely unchanged. But what it does mean is that the text layers imported into either program remains fully editable. In fact you might well not need to use Illustrator at all as the shared engine also allows Photoshop CS to offer the most requested new feature of them all, text on a path.

Another new feature that was undoubtedly high on the wish list is the new PhotoMerge command. This takes multiple sequential photos and then applies perspective adjustment, cylindrical mapping and advanced blending to produce a single seamless panoramic image. The end results can't compete with dedicated stitching software, but they aren't bad. There's also an option to leave each image as a separate layer so that you can blend manually, but it's very rare that this will be your best option.

When it comes to output, Photoshop CS sees no major changes to its print dialog or capabilities. However the Picture Package command for combining multiple images ready for print has been thoroughly overhauled and now lets you interactively edit layouts to precisely control position and spacing. And you can now send your photos and packages to online printing and sharing services directly from within Photoshop CS. The Web Photo Gallery command has also been given a makeover with a range of new professionally-designed templates and the option to collect end-user feedback by e-mail. And of course, for the most advanced web image control, Photoshop CS includes a new version of ImageReady (see boxout).

And finally, Photoshop CS offers a range of new PDF-based functionality. You can save images directly to PDF format while retaining all functionality and take advantage of new PDF 1.5 features such as JPEG2000 compression and advanced security. The fact that there's no option to view or hide Photoshop layers within Acrobat 6 as there is with Illustrator was originally a surprise, but largely makes sense as layers in Photoshop are rarely used to organize separate image versions. Instead Photoshop CS offers script-based commands to copy all layers, or more usefully all layer comps, to separate pages within a single PDF. In the same way you can copy multiple images to a PDF presentation and set up optional page transitions to create an emailable slideshow. Best of all, when dealing with multiple images to create presentations, packages or galleries, you can now select and order your images directly in the File Browser.