Re: Photoshop 5.5

[Russell Williams <williams@Adobe.COM>]

In answer to a few of the Photoshop 5.5 questions.

1. There are no changes in the color management. In particular, ColorMatch
and Wide Gamut working spaces are still included, and Adobe gamma doesn't
need to be re-run. You will need to re-set your preferences within
Photoshop. If you set your color preferences the same in 5.5 as in 5.0.2
you should get exactly the same output.

2. We recommend that you not install on top of 5.0.2 (we generally
recommend that you never install over a previous version). Instead, install
in a new folder. Then copy over any third party plugins.

I do not know of any disaster that will happen if you install 5.5 over
5.0.2, but you will not necessarily be able to run 5.0.2 after you install
5.5 over it (because some of the new plugins are not compatible with the
old program). If anything goes wrong with the installation of your new
version, you don't want to have screwed up your previous version. That and
the fact that the installer has gotten confused in the past when it finds
unexpected files present while installing are the reasons that we don't
recommend ever installing on top of a previous version.

3. Aside from the features that have previously been mentioned here there
is a "feature adjustment" (OK, bug fix) in 5.5 that may be of interest to
those of us who work with big files and keep adjustment layers on them. It
used to be that when reading adjustment layers (especially all white ones),
we did all kinds of unnecessary work that we now skip. For a 50MB file
(just coincidentally, a typical size for an 11X14 print off my Epson EX),
the times work out like this on my G3/300 at work:

       no adjustment layers   3 adjustment layers
PS 5.0.2       4.8 seconds        14.7 seconds
PS 5.5         4.8 seconds         5.3 seconds

4. There's no general way to turn the profile embedded within a file into a
working space, unfortunately. If it's one of the working spaces Photoshop
knows about, you can set the profile mismatch handling (in File->Color
Settings->Profile Setup) to "ask when opening" and note the name in the
dialog that pops up when you try to open a file. Click "don't convert" and
then change your working space to match. If it's a "custom" profile, you're
out of luck. By the way, we can't generally let you work in any space that
happens to be in a file, because some profiles are one way only -- a
printer profile only needs to be able to convert colors from the working
space to the printer profile, and a scanner profile only needs to be able
to convert colors from the scanner profile to the working space. A working
space profile has to be one that is two-way -- you have to be able to
convert colors into the working space and out of it. So not every profile
that might be embedded in a file can be used as a working space. Isn't
color matching fun? (joke)

As a photographer, I want my colors right. As an engineer, I'm more
interested in making it easier for users to get them right. I believe (and
it's reinforced by the posts on this list) that the biggest problem right
now isn't improving the best attainable color match, but improving the ease
with which ordinary users can get a good match.

Cheers,
Russell Williams
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