Gaming Recommended PhotoShop version...?

[Splych]

There is Photoshop CS2, CS3 and CS4 Extended. I honestly, don't know which one to install... I can't really tell much of a difference, and I want one that is easy to use and also has many features =]

I used to have CS3 and CS4 Extended, but am still curious to know which one is the easiest to use out of the 3?

Oh and also, any tutorials for signature making? I haven't used Photoshop in months, so I forgot everything and what ever I make probably sucks

 

[Seven]

CS3. Unless you want to go into the entire technicalities of jumping from CS3 to CS4 (look at the changes from CS3 to CS4 here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop), then CS3 is all you need. It's also really easy to install, so...

 

[Joe88]

PS 7

 

[RupeeClock]

Tons of people still use Photoshop 7, because the core functions and performance are as good as they get.

Personally I would suggest Photoshop CS3 for these reasons:

CS2 is nice but lacks one or two features
CS3 is great, the interface works nicely and it has some useful features that CS2/7 don't
CS4 is a fucking mess, new interface that only hinders to be honest and hits performance hard

CS4 fucked up a lot of things actually, Photoshop, Flash, Premiere, etc.

 

[Cermage]

I personally use CS3, CS4 interface is too blocky for me. The only reason i probably stick to cs3 is because when i was using photoshop actively, i made the jump from cs2 to cs3. i still haven't used cs4 enough to like it most likely.

as for sigmaking, i can help out here and there. i used to be quite active in that area, though havent visited the "scene" for nearly 2 years now. i'd have no clue what styles/tools are popular. before i left there was a huge push in tablet orientated work, intense lighting and smudge tool.

also i wouldnt jump straight in tutorials, about 90% of the tuts floating around are all old boring and out of style techniques, if you end up wanting to chase sigmaking/large pieces and try for a more a graphics orientated site, you're first critique would either be a flame at how bad you're skills are (depending where you go, there are some pretty arrogant people in the community, sig making especially) or just telling you to look up tuts. My advice would either a) play around in photoshop a lot get a feel for the interface, where everything is, what each tool does, what filters do what, what balancing you can do e.t.c at first the photoshop ui is pretty intimidating, but after messing around a bit you get used to it. or b) see if you can get yourself an active friend in the community who can guide you through some basic steps. you'll get much better, faster if you have someone to guide you through.

 

[juggernaut911]

MSPAINT.EXE

I use PS:CS4.

 

[chA1nBull3t]

When I first tried out CS4, it was hella buggy. With the new GPU "enhancement", a lot of slowdowns and other graphics oriented problems brewed. They have since fixed it in their 1.01 (i think?) patch but all in all, I still prefer CS3.

The interface is more familiar to me and it's a lot more stable. I forget what goodies CS4 has but there haven't been many things that I've been too keen on using. There are some things that help for multitasking but those are the only essential things I've come by.

Depending on what you're doing in the gfx field, CS4 may/maynot be useful for you. I personally moved back to CS3 since I'm a lot more comfortable with it.



Off topic(kinda):
CS5 looks like it has some amazing things though. Sampling and cutting out images looks to be a lot easier and the blending tool that mixes colors together will be an amazing godsend for digital painters. However, that's not going to be released until late 2010 D:>.

 

[Satangel]

I use CS4, but it doesn't really matter if you're not such a hardcore user.

 

[Raika]

Use CS3.

 

[Cyan]

I'm using photoshop 7.
All the adobe CS products includes the macrovision spyware "safecast" which can prevent the computer to boot (specialy on RAID and using TrueCrypt), as it write a signature in the boot disk sector.
Uninstalling CS does not remove the signature.

quotes from a newsgroup:
"Each time Photoshop is started, SafeCast takes an inventory of the machine it's installed on, and will refuse to load the application if it decides too much has changed."
"The cracked ISO file posted in various places on Usenet does not stop the signature from being written, but after the modified files are copied into the installation folder, the signature is no longer checked, nor is it ewritten. Absolute sector 32 can be overwritten and CS still starts and works normally."
"System admins who are working with multiboot systems or custom boot loaders should install their other OSes only after both Windows and CS are installed. If another operating system or a custom boot loader writes to sector 32, CS will no longer start. In this case, the cracked version of CS is the only available workaround."

I like this one

"Also, those who wish to completely backup their drives will need to use Ghost's "forensic copy" option, by specifying the "-id" switch on Ghost's command line. Note that a standard disk or partition image backup will _not_ copy the SafeCast signature, and if the disk or partition is restored to another physical drive, reactivation of CS will still be required...".


I'm on Raid5, I don't want to try it, even if I don't use trueCrypt.
I just don't like DRMs like softwares, the "Adobe LM Service" can be deactivated, but it re-enable itself when running CS product.