Adobe Photoshop CS2 software is the world-standard image-editing, photo-retouching, and Web graphics program that lets you create high-quality digital images. The Photoshop CS2 program is virtually the same on either Macintosh or PC platforms. It combines a full range of selection tools, painting, drawing and editing tools, color-correction tools, and tremendous special effects capabilities. Photoshop CS2 offers more support for web graphics, a color correction brush (red eye plus), and many new painting and web support features.

Along with Photoshop is the Web utility program ImageReady CS2. This is a special graphics editor that allows you to convert and optimize graphics for web use and other purposes. ImageReady provides improved optimization and animation, as well as new advanced Web layout features, and creative tools to create special Web design effects such as slicing, rollovers and animation

Bitmaps versus Objects
Many image programs can be defined as “paint” programs, in which you draw a line, and the program converts this line to tiny square dots called “pixels.” Each pixel conforms to one “bit” of data. The painting itself is called a “bitmapped image.” Some examples are PC Paintbrush, Paintshop Pro, Superpaint, PixelPaint and Color It. Other graphic applications such as Adobe Illustrator and Freehand, Canvas, CorelDraw and others are in the category called drawing programs. Drawings comprise “objects” which are independent, mathematically-defined lines and shapes. For this reason, drawing programs are sometimes referred to as “object-oriented” or “vector-based.” Photoshop has both.

Painting and drawing applications have their own good and bad points. A paint program offers a direct approach to creating images. For example, while many Photoshop features are very complex, and require some time and practice to master, its basic painting tools are very simple to use. You simply draw and erase until you achieve the desired effect. Additionally, each of Photoshop’s basic paint tools are fully capable of being customized. So you, in effect, have access to an infinite variety of crayons, watercolors, pastels, colored pencils, airbrushes, etc. — all of which are completely erasable.

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