December 8, 2001

1:30 PM

Photoshop XDon't know if this has been posted yet, but for all you OS X users, looks like Photoshop 6.5 is close to going native! Check out the screenshot!
posted by dilokiam (21 comments total)

This is what I have been waiting for. Looks like I will finally make the switch to X.1!
posted by thirteen at 2:02 PM on December 8, 2001

From the article: The development of PhotoShop 6.5 is advancing rapidly and a beta is planned to be seeded in the coming months.

Ouch! That doesn't sound nearly close enough. At best, we're talking beta in January, final in March.

Also, that screenshot looks about 1/10 as impressive as the Office v.x screenshots I've seen; It's just the same old Phostoshop, just now on X. All in all, that's probably a good thing; Artists tend to be a little, uh, rigid about their working environment.
posted by boaz at 2:06 PM on December 8, 2001

If photoshop ever ports to Linux, I'm there. As a designer, Office X looks like a candy-colored pipe dream to me, which isn't attractive. Maybe the AOL crowd will like it, but I'd almost rather have a very plain interface, rather than insane microsoft clutter.
posted by SpecialK at 2:14 PM on December 8, 2001

yes i think its really ugly.
posted by c at 2:29 PM on December 8, 2001

the buttons in the panel do not need to be shiny-candy like.
posted by panopticon at 2:59 PM on December 8, 2001

Maybe this is a really silly question...

all those little palette windows have a drop shadow. lets say you position the windows a bit akwardly, and the drop shadow falls on the color swatches window. wouldn't you be seeing the wrong colors all the time?

(no i'm not an OS X user, nor am i trying to troll)
posted by slater at 3:04 PM on December 8, 2001

I don't know if anyone's seen Illustrator 10 but the icons are *completely* different in style compared to the AI9/PS6 series. Embossed and airbrushed rather than draw, I hope this doesn't cross over into Photoshop, altough from the screenshot that's what seem sot be happening.
posted by jedrek at 3:05 PM on December 8, 2001

boaz: Actually, the beta came out a month ago. I wish I knew more about it, but my beta-testing friends take those silly little NDAs very seriously.
posted by Monk at 3:06 PM on December 8, 2001

That's good to hear, Monk. I assume the article's talking about a public beta, which will probably be pretty close to completion.

As for all the candy-haters; there's an option (under System Preferences > General) to switch from 'Blue' to 'Graphite' appearance. This will drain all the color from all the standard widgets for a more 'professional' appearance.
posted by boaz at 3:50 PM on December 8, 2001

Thirteen: booting Classic (OS9) from within OSX is pretty hassle free, and the overall experience is much better (since the mail clients, browsers, etc. are all already there). I run Photoshop & Illustrator 9 from Classic and it's fine. (I had almost given up on the MacOS in general b/c I couldn't stand how slow and crashy it was — I can't recommend OSX.1 enough: it's like a whole new computer.)

With RAM as cheap as it is (I just picked up a 512MB SO-DIMM (!) for my G3 Powerbook for US$75 and desktop RAM can be had for close to half that price) I'd say go OSX.1 as soon as you can. It took me 25 minutes or so to install over 9 and I've had zero hassles.

And for those who don't like Aqua: give it a try. It looked silly to me as well, but in practice I find it much more effective. (Only big complain about the OSX experience is the lack of a true "hide all" command as in Windows — having the Finder windows pop up as soon as you click on the desktop is really irritating).
posted by sylloge at 4:08 PM on December 8, 2001

word of warning: adobe's notorious for pushing software to market way too early. illustrator 9 for mac was crashy as all hell, 9.01 was better, 9.02 fixed almost everything. i'm waiting until the .01 patches are public before migrating entirely to photoshop 6.5
posted by patricking at 4:33 PM on December 8, 2001

so other than a port to OSX, what changes are there to warrant a numbering bump from 6 to 6.5?
posted by panopticon at 7:10 PM on December 8, 2001

My experience is the same as sylloge's. 13, with that big gig of RAM you should do well with Photoshop in OS X. Plus (big plus) if Photoshop ever crashes, that's all that crashes (maybe the classic environment), not the whole machine. That has been a huge benefit of OS X for me.
posted by rodii at 7:27 PM on December 8, 2001

anti-aliased drop shadows and soft fuzzy windows with fake scanlines should make pixel-perfect art editing a snap!

i hope they have added sound effects for the brushes, like in Super Mario Paint.
posted by kevspace at 7:59 PM on December 8, 2001

This screenshot is a fake.

I know this for a fact, but I can't say how I know. Photoshop on X is coming, but this isn't it.
posted by joemaller at 8:41 PM on December 8, 2001

Kevspace: you think it would be easier if they produced a new version for System 6? Or are you more into Fisher Price People and the Blue Everythings? If you're worried that the bright colors on your screen will make people think you're a "pussy", there's always Gimp on KDE (note that you can run both of those on an OSX machine as well ...)
posted by sylloge at 8:47 PM on December 8, 2001

I'd almost rather have a very plain interface, rather than insane microsoft clutter

Brings to mind that spoof from some time ago of MSWord 3210.123 (or some other outrageous future version number) which had the screen filled with every possible tool button leaving only a single line of screen space for entering text.
posted by HTuttle at 11:10 PM on December 8, 2001

I'd almost rather have a very plain interface, rather than insane microsoft clutter

To do this in Photoshop, hit the Tab button.
posted by panopticon at 11:27 PM on December 8, 2001

Faking Photoshop screenshots in Photoshop. How delicious.
posted by smackfu at 7:11 PM on December 9, 2001

This screenshot is a fake.

I know this for a fact, but I can't say how I know

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Say no more.

Looking back, the fact that the palettes looked identical to 6.0 should have made me suspicious instead of disappointed.
posted by boaz at 7:42 PM on December 9, 2001

Just as a follow-up, Here's some better looking screenshots. I'm not sure if they're real either, but at least they're faked better if they're not.
posted by boaz at 1:29 PM on December 11, 2001