Adobe Photoshop 4.0

Author:

Adobe Systems, Inc.

Publisher:

Adobe Systems, Inc.

Type:

Applications

Category: Visual Arts & Graphics

Shared by: MR

On: 2014-04-14 23:03:26

Updated by: eep

On: 2024-02-14 17:53:38

Other contributors: InkBlot

, DanielSalas

, Amid

, that-ben

, VincentGR

Rating: 8.67 Clarus

out of 10 (3 votes)

Rate it:

Year: 1996

What is Adobe Photoshop 4.0?

Adobe Photoshop 4.0 for Macintosh 68K + and PowerPC is an image editing software that was released in 1996. It was designed to work on both the 68K processor-based Macintosh computers as well as the newer PowerPC-based models. This version of Photoshop introduced a number of new features and enhancements, including a new color correction tool called "Curves," improved support for layers and masks, and better handling of text and vector graphics.

One of the notable features of Photoshop 4.0 was the addition of "Actions," which allowed users to automate repetitive tasks and create custom workflows. This version also introduced support for the new Photoshop Plug-in architecture, which allowed third-party developers to create add-ons and extensions to expand the software's functionality.

Photoshop 4.0 was a significant improvement over previous versions of the software and helped establish Photoshop as the industry standard for professional image editing. Its compatibility with both 68K and PowerPC Macintosh computers made it accessible to a wider range of users.

It’s been two years since Photoshop has had a major upgrade, five years since the program jumped more than half an integer. Adobe Photoshop 4.0 is in many ways the least significant major upgrade to Photoshop ever, but what has changed will dramatically improve the way you use the software.

To many users, many of Photoshop 4’s strengths initially will appear to be weaknesses, managing to both disappoint and frustrate veterans of version 3.0. The toolbox has been reorganized, and along with it, the standard key commands used for manipulating selections. For example, command-Y now selects the Pencil tool rather than the Type tool, and switching between Layer and Mask for editing is now done by pressing command-backslash for the former and command-grave/tilde for the latter. Many of the tools remain the same, but in place of the old “Option-click to switch” method of changing tools in each slot, the more practical, Adobe Illustrator-like “pop-out tools” are used. Illustrator users will also find the new key commands enticing; jumping between the two programs is even easier. For instance, the command key now always accesses the Move tool (analogous to Illustrator’s Selection tool). Shift always adds. Option always duplicates. The relearning curve is steep but short, and after a few hours of muttering and undoing, you’ll find that the new setup is more convenient and practical. To make the transition a wee bit smoother, different cursors (which, despite their small size, accurately convey what will happen when you click/drag) appear when you hold down the different modifier keys with each tool.

In addition, Adobe replaced the basic, simple, yet useful Commands palette with a much more powerful, but complex, Actions palette. In the palette you define an “action” — multiple commands to be executed with one key-stroke (or button push). This palette, however, isn’t as intuitive or editable as most users will expect. It records most common keyboard commands and menu choices, along with dialog hox settings and button pushes, but not tool usage and selections (sets of predefined actions can be found on The Disc). You can work around this, though, by inserting a stop in an action; you then select an area, and the action will continue. It’s not scripting, exactly, but is terrifically useful. For example, all the steps that go into making a drop shadow can be grouped as one action. You’ll still have to make a few selections during the process, but the action automates the majority of filtering, layering, and more. A Batch feature applies an action to a folder of images, but this, too, is limited. You can’t automate selections or closing while in dialog boxes (when Printing, for example). Still, Photoshoppers have been waiting for even a hint of these features for a long time.

The menus also have been changed, with a brand-new Layers menu and loads of reorganizing in the others. The menus have needed an update since version 2.5, so now the changes are much more drastic than if Adobe implemented the modifications incrementally. And Adobe seems to have listened to users; many desperately needed key commands that had been “missing” from previous versions — such as Save As, Feather, Page Setup, and Paste Into — are now in place.

Adobe seems to have focused on fixing the previous version and improving existing features. New features include a unique and powerful watermark feature (see Digital Watermarks, p68), multi-color gradients, and an end to “fixed” zoom levels; version 4.0 supports zooming to such odd views as 101, 63, and 259 percent.

Power users and novices alike will love the new Layers capabilities, from the much improved redraw speeds to the hterally hidden Big Data feature. Layers have always been a favorite feature, because they provide a form of unlimited undo and endless adjustment, even to saved and reopened images. Adobe has made Layers much more usable and integral to Photoshop by automatically creating new layers instead of floating selections for several activities, such as pasting and creating text. Big Data is Adobe’s term for keeping all the pixels in a selection, even when those pixels move off the edge of the document. For instance, if you select all, move the selection to the left and up, and then deselect, pixels appear above and to the left of the edge of the document. Selecting that layer again and dragging down and to the right will reveal the “cropped” pixels. Previous versions of Photoshop would have lost the pixels when you deselected.

Another powerful enhancement to Photoshop’s layering scheme is Adjustment Layers, which provides a method for applying a certain image adjust feature (such as Levels, Hue and Saturation, or Curves) to one or more layers. Basically, if a layer is “below” (using the Layers palette hierarchy) an Adjustment Layer, it is affected by the changes in that Adjustment Layer. If it’s above, it isn’t affected. So, you’re able to change aspects of different layers individually, or in groups, and if you don’t like what an R-channel tweak did to the type but love what it did to the photo in another layer, it’s a simple matter of dragging layers around. The wonderful thing about Adjustment Layers is that the adjustment can be modified at any time, so if you lightened an image too much with a Levels Adjustment Layer, you can doubie-click that Adjustment Layer and tweak the Levels settings.

The most enticing new feature may be the grids and guides. Visible (on-screen only), snap-to grids can be set to custom spacing and colors, and can be pulled out from the rulers at any time. These two sorely needed features finally provide an accurate method for precision adjustments and drawing, or even layout, within Photoshop.

Another winning new feature is a little Navigator palette, similar to but better integrated than Extensis’s freeware PhotoNavigator plug-in. Adobe’s Navigator palette can serve as both a small preview window and a way to move around a zoomed-in document without the frustration of scroll bars or the push-push-push method of the Hand tool.

Web designers will appreciate the new integrated 216-color Web palette for exporting GIF89a images for Web pages. No longer must you cobble together browser-safe CLUTs. The palette is simple to use, too: When you convert an image to Index mode, “Web” is one of the choices.

Photoshop 4 also includes the recently “acquired” Aldus Gallery Effects plug-ins, giving you 48 new filters. Longtime users will see many familiar categories and several new ones, including Artistic, Brushstrokes, and Texture. Some of these filters are reminiscent of features in Fractal Design Painter; Photoshop’s Stained Glass filter, for example, produces an effect analogous to Painter’s Mosaic (compensating for differences in media) , though Stained Glass is far easier to use.

Photoshop 4 also sports a new look. Although it’s got the typical “middle of the ’90s” 3D gray appearance, it also has a sterile, high-tech feel. Closer inspection of the pixels reveals that the grays are lighter than the Microsoft 50 percent, and the whites are a bit dim. Even the highlights on the buttons have a subtle, professional feel, without even getting a little Kai-ried away.

Two downsides to the new Photoshop are that it isn’t much faster overall (although working with multiple layers is particularly zippy) , and that it still uses a zillion times more RAM than most people can afford, especially when working with large images. Photoshop still doesn’t support many functions that the high-end competitors — Live Picture’s self-named Live Picture and Macromedia’s Xres — offer, namely multiple undos. Yes, if you want to undo more than one step in Photoshop, you still have to choose the Revert option. However, the new layering scheme results in a system that lets you undo activities by removing or editing layers, and Adjustment Layers is a virtual undo nirvana.

The bottom line is that Photoshop 4 is a very solid upgrade from version 3 that fixes many of the irregularities of previous versions. The truly new feature set is slightly weak for a full number upgrade, but the enhancements to existing features more than overcome a lack of brand-new capabilities. If you have the patience to relearn some portions of Photoshop, you’ll greatly benefit from this upgrade.