| | |  | Marvel & Other Comic Books | Home » » Adobe Photoshop CS4 Upgrade [OLD VERSION] | | | | | | | Description: | | Upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS4Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS can upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS4 for special pricing. Licensed owners of Photoshop CS3 Extended, Photoshop CS3, Photoshop CS2, or Photoshop CS are also eligible for special upgrade pricing to certain editions of Adobe Creative Suite 4. Top reasons to upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS4 Adjustments panel
Simplify image adjustment by easily accessing every tool you need to nondestructively adjust and enhance the color and tone of your images; on-image controls and a wide variety of presets are also included in the new live and dynamic Adjustments panel. Masks panel
Quickly create and edit masks from the new Masks panel. This panel offers all the tools you need to create editable pixel- and vector-based masks, adjust mask density and feathering, easily select noncontiguous objects, and more. Enhanced auto-alignment of layers
Create accurate composites with the enhanced Auto-Align Layers command. Move, rotate, or warp layers to align them more accurately than ever before. Or use spherical alignment to create breathtaking panoramas. Enhanced auto-blending of images
Easily create a single image from a series of shots that have different focal points with the enhanced Auto-Blend Layers command, which smoothly blends color and shading and now extends your depth of field, automatically correcting vignettes and lens distortion. | | | Features: | |
• Adobe Photoshop CS4 software offers improved access to its unrivaled power with the new more intuitive Adjustments and Masks panels, which put image-editing tools at your fingertips
• Accelerated graphics handling delivers incredibly smooth painting, panning, zooming, and canvas rotation
• More powerful compositing, enhanced color correction, and many more improvements help you work more efficiently than ever before
• Be more productive by taking advantage of smooth integration with other Adobe software and enhancements that leverage the power of today's faster graphics processors
• Bring your vision to life with industry-leading tools that let you enhance images and create composites that help meet your highest standards
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 7.9 inches | | Product Width:
| 5.7 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.7 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.6 pounds | | Package Length:
| 7.8 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.75 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.73 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.6 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 40 reviews |
| | | System Requirements: | | | Platform:
| Windows Vista / Windows 7 / Windows XP / Windows | | Media:
| DVD-ROM | | Item Quantity:
| 1 |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 40 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
95 of 97 found the following review helpful:
 Warning: extreme performance issues for someNov 13, 2008
By Larry Feign
"writer, cartoonist and disappointment to his mother"
Warning before upgrading from an earlier version of Photoshop: Download the trial version first. Many many people, including me, are experiencing major performance problems related to the new use of the graphics card GPU. Huge lag when drawing or moving windows around, brush cursors disappearing, buggy color management and many other issues which make this release unusable. Disabling GPU acceleration, or trying some of the other workarounds suggested by Adobe, improve performance but not completely.
Not everyone is experiencing this problem, and I'm sure eventually Adobe and the graphics card makers will come up with a solution. But for now, you should first check the Adobe site to whether your graphics card is on Adobe's list of tested hardware (mine is, but I have the performance problems nevertheless), make sure all your drivers are the latest ones, and either try out the trial version first or wait until you see that Adobe has released a patch.
68 of 70 found the following review helpful:
 Great new features, but requires some heavier hardware...Nov 10, 2008
By B. T. Denyer
"Web designer"
** UPDATE VIDEO CARD DRIVER:
Right off the bat I had a problem with my brush cursor only showing 1/4, 1/2, and even sometimes only a 1/5 of the cursor when I zoomed in. Found out from Adobe that I needed to install the latest video card driver. I had done this only a few weeks before the program was installed, but went to the EVGA site and re-downloaded the driver and re-installed it. It fixed the cursor problem upon restart. No mater what, go to your video card's website and download the latest driver, even if you think yours is updated.
** GPU and OpenGL Features and Limitations in Photoshop CS4:
Upon start-up, PS asks if you want to go to this website to review the tasks CS4 asks of the video card. I HIGHLY recommend you review it:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb404898
Very smart in how they are now tasking the video card to offload some of the processing from the CPU. If you turn off the GPU processing support (edit > preferences > performance) you will notice a small drop in performance. Read the list on the website above and you will see why you need a good fast Video card.
** 3D FEATURE NOW ADDED TO PS!:
We now have a powerful 3D rendering feature, just like Illustrator does. (But, not so powerful if you video card is lagging behind.) Turn off GPU processing, and use a weak CPU and you will find yourself making coffee during 3D rendering.
** WORKS WITH CS3:
I have both CS3 and CS4 installed at the same time. No problems using both, only you can't use them at the same time.
** NEW USER INTERFACE... UGLY:
I don't know whw picked the font for the UI in CS4, but they should never be in charge of that part again. Horrible chunky font used throughout the interface. Why change from CS3? And the pallets are squared off. CS2's pallets were so nice; why change?
** Tabs and Arrange Documents:
Kind of like Dreamweaver, PS now has a tabs layout where you can see all of your open projects. So, no more hidden windows behind your project, for they are all lined up along the top of the workspace.
Arrange Documents feature: You can now quickly arrange your open projects with the click of a button at the top menu. It even has "Match Zoom", "Match Location" and "Match Zoom and Location". Cool.
** SMOOTHER:
Zooming in and out (Ctrl-/+), moving the workspace (Spacebar+click) and menus opening and closing are all smooth. Almost like a Flash-menu in the way it works.
** NO FILTER UPDATES / ADDITIONS:
As another user mentioned, we see no real additions in the bundled filter category.
** SMALL DETAILS:
Some of the small things I noticed so far:
1) PS now allows you to select "Zoom Clicked Point to Center" much the same way InDesign does automatically. Nice!
2) you can 'flick' the workspace around (called "Flick Panning"). In CS3, the workspace moved, but it certainly didn't slide to a stop as if it were floating on an air hockey table. (just a cool thing, but not a program improvement.)
3) you can assign colors to the menu options. So, now your "Save as" menu item can be green or red, and so on, if you want. You can assign a color to any and every menu item, even remove some from the list.
4) the Tools pallet stacks more items under one button (i.e. Crop and Slice tools are under the same button.) This is to accommodate the new 3D buttons on the Tools pallet.
5) I notice more changes in the "image" drop-menu than others. The 'auto' controls have moved, and some are now in the pop-up window (i.e. "auto levels" is now in the "levels" pop-up window. We now have "auto tone", "auto contrast" and "auto color" one level up from where they were before.
6) They moved the one button I used the most, Screen Mode (F), from the Tools pallet to the top. Oh well, "F, F" it is, until I get used to the new button placement.
I don't notice it taking up any more memory at idle that the CS3 edition did. It also doesn't seem to have the dreaded memory leak that plagued CS3's Photoshop. If it does, I don't notice it.
I'll keep updating this as things arise. Overall, the program works well, and has yet to crash on me.
21 of 22 found the following review helpful:
Caution - Software still buggyDec 19, 2008
By BostonAaron
I took the suggestion of others and downloaded the trial version before purchasing and I'm glad I did. Installed on a 2.4 GHz dual processor Windows XP computer with 3+ GB of memory this CS4 is noticeably slower than CS3 during panning, zooming and other graphics functions. (probably need a graphics board upgrade, I guess, but you would think that the software would detect my configuration and at least not degrade things) And it appears to be buggy, with several cliches including not always updating the icons in the layers pallet and not always updating the photo after making modifications. Also, for some reason, the wheel on my mouse no longer makes the photo zoom in and out as it does on earlier versions of Photoshop - and it's a microsoft mouse - never had problems before. Of course it may be user error and I suppose I ought to be thankful that the software installed without problems. Perhaps when I get more used to some of the differences I'll be happier and actually purchase the upgrade but I think that Adobe needs to patch this product first.
If you really need some of the functions of this upgrade, such as RAW for a newly introduced camera, then I can see trying to use this product, bugs and all. But if you are just planning to upgrade for upgrade sake I would recommend waiting until more users indicate that this program is ready for prime time. I know that's what I'll do.
Update: Under CS4 preferences I found a place where I can select using the scroll wheel to zoom so that problem is fixed. But the issues about updating the photos and layer icons still exist even after I made sure that I am not using any GPUs (Graphics processing units) so any issues regarding hardware and drivers should not be present. Too bad since the Adobe site does show some interesting improvements in CS4 over CS3. Hope they release their revision soon. Meanwhile I'll continue with CS3.
Second Upgrade: I've had much better luck with this product lately. First, on one of the user forums I discovered that those with the Nik software plug-ins were having troubles like I've described but that Nik had released a fix. I use their products and installed their updates, eliminating many, but not all the issues with disappearing icons, etc. Then I called Nik and they gave me a work-around for the remaining issues. I felt that CS4 still runs a bit slower than CS3 but I bought the upgrade and later I purchased an Nvidia 9500 GT graphics card (inexpensive but it works with Photoshop CS4). I've been using CS4 for about a week now and believe that there are some nice new features. Many of them are in camera RAW (not helped by the graphics card) which is now a more full featured editor with selectible adjustments. Scott Kelby's new CS4 book really emphassizes Camera RAW as the main photo postprocessing software and it seems that Adobe is probably going to put more development work here. In photoshop itself the adaptive scaling is also a nice feature as is the preview in the clone brush. All in all CS4 has some non essential new features (unless you shoot in RAW with a camera not supported by CS3) but once you get used to these going back to CS3 feels restrictive.
26 of 30 found the following review helpful:
 CS4 Upgrade??Dec 16, 2008
By Kynn V. Schulz
You'd better download a test drive from Adobe first and see if this works. 1) took two days to get it installed. finally had to copy DVD to the hardfile and then start install. 2) Install completed, but now the brushes don't work at all.. My system meets the requirements per the box. I have Pentium 4 3.2ghz, 2g RAM, gobs of open hardfile space, but it appears my video card may be inadequate. I've read the Adobe forums for help, but it appears this is a wide spread problem and a new video card MAY fix it, but not for sure.. There was even suggestions in the Adobe forum about doing a scratch install!! I didn't feel like spending another $150 on a new video card in the hopes of it working, or spending a week reinstalling windows and all my apps, so I've returned CS4.. I'll wait till the dust settles before getting this upgrade.
8 of 8 found the following review helpful:
Worthwhile UpgradeJun 18, 2009
By mhnstr
I am an amateur photographer who competes in competitions internationally. Years ago, I only used Photoshop to make small tweaks to my photos like shadows and highlights. However, these days, judges expect the photographs to be technically perfect. I have been using both Photoshop CS2 and Lightroom 1 for several years now to perform the manipulation. By using both Adobe applications, I had good success with the images, but still had difficulty in targeting specific areas of the photograph to make changes. I actually preferred to use Lightroom because there was a clear list of the changes that you had made so that you could change the saturation, for example if you didn't like the effect. In Photoshop CS2, if you closed the file, you lost all record of what adjustments you had made unless you wrote them down.
I upgraded to Photoshop CS4 four months ago and really regret that I didn't upgrade a long time ago. The jump from CS2 to CS4 is huge because you now have adjustment layers at your disposal. The adjustment layers combined with masks allow you to make changes to specific areas of your images and the adjustments are changeable. You can close and open the file and all of your adjustment layers are still there and editable. You also have access to smart filters which allow you to apply adjustments such as shadows and highlights that you can later go back and change if you like. The only downside is that when you save the layers in a TIFF or PSD file, the file size can become quite large (I have files with dozens of adjustment layers that are in excess of 1Gb in size).
The only downside to the upgrade is that it is a memory hog. Your combination of graphics card, disk space and RAM will affect the performance of the software. My graphics card was fast a few years ago, but not up to Photoshop CS4 standards. I have 2 Gb or RAM in my laptop and so I am heavily dependant on scratch disk space. I attach a 250 Gb external drive to my computer and tell Photoshop to use it as scratch space. By doing so, I can avoid problems like the lag that others have written about. There may be other fixes as well, but this is what works for me.
Photoshop is the industry standard and the upgrade or new version is not inexpensive. However, in my opinion the layers and the ability to edit them in CS4 were definitely worth the cost of upgrading if you are using Photoshop CS2 or lower. I certainly recommend the upgrade. I also recommend the training offered by Lynda.com, or the Lynda DVD's (Photoshop CS4 for Photographers is one of the titles) to learn about the new features of Photoshop and how to use them. Great training for the beginner or the more advanced user.
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