Adobe Brings Photoshop To Mac OS X

Adobe Systems Apple Computer

The upgrade, from Photoshop 6.0, stands to give a big boost to the OS X platform. Since OS X's release last March, many end users and solution providers said they would wait for compatible versions of key third-party software--notably Photoshop and Microsoft Office--before migrating to the new Unix-based Mac OS. But more than 2,500 OS X-native applications are now available, according to Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple. In November, Microsoft shipped an OS X-native version of Office, called Office v. X, and now Adobe said it plans to release Photoshop 7.0 in the second quarter of this year.

On Monday, Adobe also began shipping GoLive 6.0, its Web authoring tool, and LiveMotion 2.0, its Web graphics and animation software. Both upgrades add native OS X support.

Photoshop 7.0, which also supports Microsoft Windows XP, incorporates OS X's Aqua interface and includes an array of new features. A new Healing Brush is designed to improve retouching of images, enabling users to remove dust, scratches, blemishes and wrinkles while preserving shading, lighting, texture and other image attributes. A new File Browser helps users quickly locate, organize and visually manage images plus view Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) information from digital cameras, including date captured, exposure settings, and creation/modification dates.

In the area of visual effects, Photoshop 7.0 offers a new Painting Engine for creating custom brush presets, simulating techniques like pastels and charcoal, and adding effects such as grass and leaves. What's more, a new Pattern Maker plug-in can let users craft patterns such as rocks and sand, and an enhanced Liquify plug-in is designed to sharpen control over image warping with zoom, pan and multiple undo capabilities, Adobe said.

Photoshop 7.0 also includes an upgrade of Adobe's Web image editing module, ImageReady 7.0. The new version features output enhancements that allow users to apply extra compression to images without tainting the quality of text and vector shape layers, as well as to exercise more control when applying transparency to Web page elements, according to Adobe. The upgrade also supports the WBMP format to optimize image display on PDAs and other wireless devices. And for interactive authoring, ImageReady 7.0 allows all slices, rollovers, image maps and animations in one palette and features an expanded set of rollover types to help create more effective navigation bars, the company said.

In addition, Photoshop 7.0 integrates with AlterCast, Adobe's dynamic imaging server software that shipped in late January, plus supports Adobe's XMP (Extensible Metadata Platform) framework for standardizing content creation and processing across publishing workflows.

Photoshop 7.0 has an estimated street price of $609, and the upgrade for registered users is $149, according to Adobe. GoLive 6.0 and LiveMotion 2.0 both have an estimated street price of $399 for the full version and $99 for the upgrade.

The upcoming release of Photoshop 7.0, plus the availability of GoLive 6.0 and LiveMotion 2.0, expand Adobe's OS X-native lineup, which includes Acrobat Reader, After Effects, Illustrator and InDesign.

Adobe may have Mac users in its sights with a new promotion aimed at rival Quark. At the Seybold 2002 New York conference last week, San Jose-based Adobe launched a $3.25 million branding campaign targeting Manhattan's lucrative advertising, design and publishing market. As part of the effort, dubbed "Tools for New Work," Adobe began offering $300 rebates to customers that upgrade to its InDesign 2.0 pro desktop publishing software from versions 3.0 or higher of Quark's QuarkXPress package. QuarkXPress 5.0, the latest version of Quark's page layout and Web publishing system, doesn't include native OS X support. The Denver-based company, however, said on its Web site that an OS X-native version of QuarkXPress is under development.