Software Product Review: Adobe Photoshop 5.5 / WebDeveloper.com ®

Adobe Photoshop 5.5

Advanced Features of ImageReady

Slicing Tools for User-defined Slices

Creating intricate tables is as simple as a click and drag using the Slicing tool. ImageReady automatically slices and assigns areas not chosen by the user to complete the table dicing. Then it writes the HTML and exports it to a file for you! What could be easier?

Want More? Powerful JavaScript Rollover Effects

Complex rollover effects are a snap in ImageReady. ImageReady's built in Actions will add instant rollover effects creating interactive buttons for an entire navigation system in a matter of minutes! And again, it will write the HTML and the JavaScript; no need for you to write a single line of JavaScript code! Make some changes to your buttons after you've saved the HTML file? Not a problem, the Update HTML feature is all you need to put a new image and updated HTML at your fingertips. ImageReady has even integrated an easy "view in browser" feature to make checking your work easier.

Animations

Adobe, not to be left behind in the race to conquer the Web (or at least the developers behind the Web), has included a powerful animation tool with this release.

You can create a multiple frame animation using the Animation and Layers palettes. Frames may be edited, copied and pasted, flattened into layers and arranged into a new sequence. Layer changes may be applied to single or multiple frames. Set the delay value for each frame individually or as a group, rearrange frames, add or delete frames, and optimize the animation all from within the Animation Palette.

The bonus in this package is Tweening. Tweening (derived from "in-betweening", the traditional term describing this process), automatically adds a series of frames between two existing frames. Tweened frames may be edited individually after they are created or additional frames may be added by applying the Tween function yet again between two of the existing Tweened frames.

In our example, we added our two original images, the gorilla and the zebra. The Tweening function added the frames between the two originals, creating the smooth transition from one image to the other.