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kent m · May 27, 2002, 04:19 AM

This is not the best way to begin an observation but I am astonished by the design decisions being made at Adobe these days. I've been using photoshop professionally almost daily for years, most recently at one of the top visual effects companies in the world, and the latest changes in the tools and UI of PS has left me gasping with disbelief. This program is becoming LESS usable, not more so. A few thoughts are listed below, and if anyone can enlighten me regarding the thought process behind these things I would be happier than I am right now, after using PS7 for the last week or so...
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Quick access to custom Brush Sizes: I can no longer set my own brush sizes when I change brush size using the "[" & "]" keys. This decision has been ceded to the program and the only increments I can choose from - Without Creating A New Brush - are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40 & etc. What if I want my brush sizes to be 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 22, 34, 53? What now? Do I make a new brush preset of each increment? For Hard and Soft brushes? And for each custom brush I may make? Oh, but then this won't work because as soon as I hit the "[" or "]" key the brush size immediately jumps back to 10 or up to 20.

Why can't I design my OWN brush size/increment palette like was once the case? What is the logic behind not allowing the "[" & "]" keys to select brushes from the palette of presets? Why not allow the user to set their OWN increments instead of forcing an arbitrary system onto them?
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Brush opacity/dynamics: Why is the brush opacity now linked to the brush presets? Is each brush size is an independent Tool now? Why is it even necessary to link the dynamics with the brushes at all? All we need now is for each brush preset to be set with it's own colour setting and that will advance the concept to the next logical step. These changes are making using the brushes less intuitive and intuitable than they have ever been. The new changes to the brush system in the previous two versions mean that I now have more trouble quickly accessing brushes than I have ever had before, and there is not even the recourse to revert to the previous style.

Why has the program never allowed a simple hotkey to toggle opacity on/off these dynamics? Does no one but myself (and everyone I speak to who uses the program) want quick access to these changes of brush state? When I'm painting I want an immediate access of control, I don't want to have to go searching out a little check box somewhere on a palette, or hidden under a pulldown menu. Why is has this never been made possible? And why is it now getting harder to manage brushes. I want quick access to my tools and I don't want to think about what I'm doing, I just want to do it.

The recent change to the "Brush Presets" palette is at least an admission that the previous design attempt of having a pulldown menu for the "brush Dynamics" was a failure. But the solution that is now being attempted is incredible in it's unusability.
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Transform: Is now drawing the handles of the Transform OFF the working window, if the image being transformed is larger than the working window! This means that if I paste a large image into a small document I have to actually ZOOM out before I can do anything with the image! What is the logic behind this? The old system of placing the transform handle always in the document window meant that the handles were always easily accessible. ...I heard a rumour that the Transform behavior was reverting back to what it had been 5.5, but...?
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Icons: What's the advantage of the new bubble wrap icons styles? The new icons are less legible than the original Susan Kare icons (http://www.kare.com/) and irritatingly turn colours on mouseover. Why the cutsey colourings on mouseover? What do the colours relate to? Why does the "Soften" brush turn blue? Why does the "Move cursor" go pink? This makes no sense, and seems to only have been done for the momentary "wow" factor on the part of the ui designers, it in no way adds to the useablity of the Tools palette. But if you like that, here's a thought: in the next version of PS have the little icons in the Tools also EXPAND on mouseover, you know, like the dock. Wow, now wouldn't THAT be cool?
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Why is there no workspace concept like there is in Illustrator - where the document window sits within a larger 'workspace' and can be repositioned anywhere within this workspace, at any resolution? In PS the only way I can often view an edge of a document window is if I zoom out, making detail work impossible..
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If anyone can enlighten me as to what the prevailing philosophy is behind the recent design decisions I would very much like to hear. Additionally, if any of the PS designers wish to send me informative mail, or even scorn, please do so - I've worked with programmers to develop plug-ins and apps and am familiar with the processes and requirements of doing so.

KM
<a href="http://www.kentmatheson.com" target="_blank">http://www.kentmatheson.com</a>

Mediaman_12 · May 27, 2002, 07:24 AM

I can't answer any of your questions/queries, but I will add another.
The Crop tool, why does it now 'snap' to the edge

.
Want to crop that tiny white, unsharp edge from around your scan, the crop tool used to be exelent for this, now because it snaps up to the edge, you have to do it using the artwork size box and plenty of trial & error.

The Crop tool shall now be hearbay known as the 'Crap' tool

phobos · May 27, 2002, 04:04 PM

Yes photoshop has it's flaws.I get annoyed by simmiliar small problems but that's life.
I don't like the snapping of every object you put near the end of the document.It's annoying beyond belief.
I don't like ... oh well I think I'll stop.
Yes adobe seem to fix some problems with the new versions and screw some other things. For example double clicking now on the name of the layer you can rename the layer like you could until Photoshop 6.In photoshop 6 you would get the effects dialog.
I can't really guess what people at adobe are thinking when they build new versions.But at least they are not Quark....

atomium · May 27, 2002, 10:52 PM

Can agree with almost all of these complaints. But about the Crop tool...

Menu Bar --> View --> Snap To --> Document Bounds

If you otherwise need the Document Bounds snap to be on...
Holding Command + Shift and dragging the sides of the crop selection will keep from locking to the edge of the image. Quirky in it's implementation. Will also cause the proportions to be constrained if you drag a corner box. But better than nothing.

-atomium

anarkisst · May 30, 2002, 09:46 AM

Ya know?... I am having a real problem with PS 7. Lots of changes (as you stated above). I am in the Pen Tool and when I am clicking it to create a path it is doing what Illustrator has done before...adding a fill as I go along making a CLIPPING PATH? Alright, shouldn't argue...I get all my Abobe (and most software) products for free...wouldn't pay a cent to these con-men. They do this to addict ourselves to their software. You need it? We'll "upgrade" (**** more things up and add useless GUI features)...PAY UP.

Well, GOLLLLLY! I found out that as default(????!!!) it is set on that fill option. Had to click on the "Paths" button in that "New and Improved" Task Bar in PS 7

...more like P.O.S. 7.

Sorry, but they are better off sometimes leaving well enough alone.... <img border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" title="" src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" />

[ 05-30-2002, 10:55 AM: Message edited by: anarkisst ]

ford prefect · Jun 2, 2002, 07:53 PM

Hmmm. I like Photoshop 7. Whenever I think newer versions of anything are crappier than previous, I spend some time with the new version, then revert back. It doesn't take long to realize that the newer versions are almost always better than the older. (With the exception of Illustrator, I like 8, but it doesn't run in OS X, so I guess Illustrator 10 is my favorite version)

Photoshop is the best software for what it does. Try using the Gimp. or Paint Shop Pro. You'll crawl back to P.S. As for new features, yeah, they have to add new features to get people to upgrade. Otherwise they would have to go to a "Software by Subscription" model. Yuck. No one is forcing you to upgrade. You can run classic if you really want to. If I wasn't running OSX, I'd stick with PS6.

sushiism · Jun 3, 2002, 09:01 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Icons: What's the advantage of the new bubble wrap icons styles? The new icons are less legible than the original Susan Kare icons (http://www.kare.com/) and irritatingly turn colours on mouseover. Why the cutsey colourings on mouseover? What do the colours relate to? Why does the "Soften" brush turn blue? Why does the "Move cursor" go pink? This makes no sense, and seems to only have been done for the momentary "wow" factor on the part of the ui designers, it in no way adds to the useablity of the Tools palette. But if you like that, here's a thought: in the next version of PS have the little icons in the Tools also EXPAND on mouseover, you know, like the dock. Wow, now wouldn't THAT be cool?
<hr /></blockquote>The greyscale -> colour icons are kinda a windows thing, they're everywhere on that, and I suppose they changed them to match with the new bubbly look of x/xp