It has been several months since I upgraded. I am using Photoshop 6 all the time now and only use Photoshop 5.5 on a Windows 95 system used exclusively for scanning, but have not removed 5.5 from any machine.

Having the Navigator/Info/Options panel on top requires a wide monitor. Most graphics professionals have one, but few laptops are as wide as large desktop monitors. I use Photoshop "in the field" since examining digital images with Photoshop, on a laptop, reveals any hidden "surprises", before you get back to the office. While some digicams provide preview modes, none are as useful as seeing the image in Photoshop. The "wider" requirement might be a good reason or excuse to get a new, larger monitor.

Brushes and I tolerate each other. Using a pressure sensitive stylus does help having to change brushes so often. I also wish I could control the ordering of my brushes better. Now all the new brushes are at the bottom and the defaults are at the top requiring me to have to scroll back and forth or create duplicate brushes. In 5.5, a changes to a brush would replace that brush, now a new brush is created.

Crop tool is much nicer with shading instead of thin lines. I darkened the default shading from 25% to 100% black. Now I see the actual cropped image in a field of black. Not being able to see some any of removed area might not work for everyone, but I feel it saves time. (I mention this because I met someone who didn't know they could modify how dark the shading would be.) No more undoing and having to recrop again.

I would rather put the Crop tool back with the select tools and keep the Measuring tool fully exposed.

Text manipulation in Photoshop was apparently difficult for some in previous versions. I got along with it before and still do.

Web Gallery is now really more powerful. I would still like even greater control of page layout, but this feature is really improved in only one release. Anyone who hasn't tried this feature really NEEDS to try it.

I haven't used ImageReady as much as I used to, but it has been rumored that ImageReady's features will be completely integrated into the next version of Photoshop (no more switching back and forth between programs). This switching didn't cause trouble for me, but if you had a large file and limited memory, it could slow down your workflow.

That's it for now. My opinion remains unchanged - I still highly recommend this upgrade.

March 2002 review update

June 2001 Review

Copyright © 2001 Rick Smith All rights reserved.