Software Review:
Adobe Photoshop 5.0 beta
Part 2
By Chris Cosden
Finally, the "Freedom to Experiment"
This involves dragging the layer in question to the trash, switching back to the type tool (if you've chosen another tool), clicking on the image again, and retyping the text or choosing another font, then confirming your choice with "OK." This process, though not particularly difficult, is time-consuming and repetitious, especially once you've gone through these steps five or six times.
In Photoshop 5, you simply double-click the type layer you wish to change, edit the type in the text field and click "OK." Your newly formatted type replaces the old text. You can also now choose a color for your type in the text input box. Sound good? It is.
Get Back To Where You Once Belonged
Another long-awaited feature for Photoshop veterans is multiple undos. Long have Illustrator users enjoyed the freedom of following their creative muses, comforted by the fact that they could simply undo each step until they eventually reached a blank document again.
Now Photoshop users can enjoy the same freedom to screw up, or "experiment," if you prefer. In fact, Photoshop 5 goes a step further in introducing a "history palette," which records every change made to a document.
To travel back in time, you can either issue the computer users' mantra of "control-z" repeatedly ("command-z" on the Mac platform) or simply locate the point you wish to return to in the history palette and "click" there you are. The number of undos at your command is limited only by the amount of scratch disk space you have. Jules Verne would be proud.
The addition of a "history brush" tool allows you to combine different past steps in interesting and sometimes bizarre ways. With this new tool, you can actually paint the effects of a prior state onto the current image.
This article first appeared in April, 1998.
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