PhotoShop

Art Production Tool

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html

Overview

• Photo retouching, image editing and colour painting software.
• Creates bitmap images.
• Can output bitmap images with resolution-independent text and vector shapes in the same file.
• Can be used to create original or composite artwork (collages, photo montages) for print or multimedia.
• Most scanning software is accessible direct from PhotoShop.
• Simulates traditional fine-art techniques such as dry and wet brush effects, pastel and charcoal.
• Produces Adobe PDF files.
• The colour-correction tools can be used to improve the color, contrast, and dynamic range of any image.
• Can be used to automatically assemble multiple images into a seamless panorama using Adobe Photomerge.
• Can be used to create video-specific graphics.

Linked Software:

Illustrator
PhotoShop has limited text manipulation tools. Use Illustrator to create logos and main heading titles and import into PhotoShop.

Director
Director has a very limited internal paint program. Use PhotoShop to create images and graphics.

Flash
Bitmaps can be imported into Flash, however limit their use, as they will add substantially to output file size.

Technical Terms

Bitmap Graphics:
Also called raster images. These images use a grid of small squares, known as pixels, to represent graphics. Each pixel in a bitmap image has a specific location and colour value assigned to it. Bitmap images are not resolution independent.

Vector Graphics:
Are made of lines and curves defined by mathematical objects called vectors. Vectors describe graphics according to their geometric characteristics.

A vector graphic is resolution-independent - that is it can be scaled to any size without losing its detail or clarity.

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