Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2005 11:10 pm Post subject: Downgrade from Photoshop 6.0 to Elements?
I have a question regarding software. I currently have Photoshop 6.0, but it's reaching the end of its days in XP. I am considering buying Photoshop Elements as a replacement, but I want to confirm that I will be able to use it for most of what I do right now and would appreciate any thoughts/feedback.
Even though I currently use 6.0, I typically only scratch the surface of that version. I'll take an existing image or photograph, add layers above and below, use opacity on the various layers, add text and various basic effect filters (eg. blur) and the occasional color gradient and balance edits. Then, I save the original layered psd file for future reference and export additional copies as gif's and jpg's. How much of this can I do in Elements?
A;so, will I be able to open 6.0 psd's and work with them as normal in Elements?
Again, any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated. Thanks much.
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 1478
Location: Swansea UK
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:05 am Post subject:
Well I haven't elements 3 but as you can do all those things in elements 2 I cant see there being a problem, it supports layers, the gradient tool is there, you can add text, and save as PSD.
As for being able to open your old PSD's as far as I know photoshop is compatable with all the earlier versions, but 6.0 may not open things from the latest version (although I suspect it will open them)
Wayne
Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Posts: 1090
Location: Florida PS Version: CS OS: MS XP
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 5:20 am Post subject:
What does "6.0 reaching the end of its day in XP" mean?
Elements is a very good program I tested it for a freind it does pretty much "everything" you could want from a photoediting program and a lot of one click fixes like PaintShop...PaintShop has a lot of goodies to.
I think most people would benefit more from having Elements / Paintshop then Photoshop.
PS's has too steep of a learning curve for the casual user...and not ver intuitive...but once you've spent you life learning the little beast and own every help book in the world, everything else seems messed up..lol
If you're using photoshop 6.0, then be sure to update it to 6.0.1. As far as photoshop 6 reaching the end of it's day with xp, I use 6 every day with xp pro, and love it. Never used elements though, but if 6 does everything you need, then why spend the money on elements? Just some "food for thought". _________________ All gave some, some gave all.....Lest we forget that war produces veterans, wounded both mentally and physically, and it is our job to help them now, as they have already helped us all in ways we will never know, and in ways that we take for granted every day.
stevealmighty, I did use 6.0 with XP Pro for about a year or so, but, within the past week or so, some update to the OS or other software effectively hosed it, where it opens but becomes far too slow to use, and it appears from Task Manager to be leaking a lot of memory. I updated Acrobat recently--I wonder if there's some compatibility issue there. I tried doing a System Restore to the last time it was working, but still had the same problems. I sort of concluded that the likelihood that Photoshop 6.0 would continue to work in XP Pro decreases with each passing day, so it may be a matter of getting Elements now or in a few months. I wanted to make sure that Elements was the right purchase for me, given what I use Photoshop for. I definitely think that statement about 6.0 having way too much for the casual user is definitely true--I use it for making web pages and graphics, but I'm not a graphic designer and probably only use about 5% of the full program's capability.
stevealmighty, I did use 6.0 with XP Pro for about a year or so, but, within the past week or so, some update to the OS or other software effectively hosed it, where it opens but becomes far too slow to use, and it appears from Task Manager to be leaking a lot of memory. I updated Acrobat recently--I wonder if there's some compatibility issue there. I tried doing a System Restore to the last time it was working, but still had the same problems. I sort of concluded that the likelihood that Photoshop 6.0 would continue to work in XP Pro decreases with each passing day, so it may be a matter of getting Elements now or in a few months. I wanted to make sure that Elements was the right purchase for me, given what I use Photoshop for. I definitely think that statement about 6.0 having way too much for the casual user is definitely true--I use it for making web pages and graphics, but I'm not a graphic designer and probably only use about 5% of the full program's capability.
Hmmm...wow, that's very odd that it started to fail performing like it did. Are you running SP2 on your OS? SP2 was suppossed to fix some memory leaks that Windows had, but I've never really heard of Photoshop 6 having memory leak issues, and it's on 4 computers here at work. Also, you said that you've udated Acrobat. Is acrobat something that you use often? If not, try uninstalling it and see if Photoshop picks back up (process of elimination). I didn't see, did you update your version of Photoshop to 6.0.1? I've found it better to download it from a 3rd party site (trusted site) and then install it. I've run into problems when updating directly from Adobe. You can do a google search on the 6.0.1 update.
I must agree with what photoshop does, it's degree of difficulty to learn, and how much it does as compared to what you (I) do with it. I use it soley for editing photographs, and have just started scratching the surface for what it can do for the web. I'm not sure about Elements, but the other folks here know what they're talking about, and wouldn't steer you wrong. My best advice is that if you do end up getting Elements, then I'd try to figure out what was wrong with Photoshop, and fix it. Then, keep Photoshop 6.0.1 on your computer, and install Elements. This way, you could use both programs. Do you ever use image ready, or is that program no good for what you do?
Oh, and I had to LOL at your "hosed" comment!!!!! _________________ All gave some, some gave all.....Lest we forget that war produces veterans, wounded both mentally and physically, and it is our job to help them now, as they have already helped us all in ways we will never know, and in ways that we take for granted every day.
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