[P1] Photoshop LE vs Photoshop Elements

[George Slusher]

>Can anyone tell me please, what is the difference btwn Photoshop LE 5.0 and
>Photoshop Elements? I know Elements will run natively in OS X which I'm
>using. But other than that, what else is there? I thank you in advance.
>
>
>............................................................................
>Murray E. Milligan,
>Winnipeg, Canada

Photoshop LE is a "condensed" version of Photoshop (PS). It has the same 
interface and structure, but lacks some of the features of the full PS. 
It commonly comes with (or, rather, used to come with) scanners and some 
printers. I think that I have a copy of Photoshop LE 5.0 somewhere, but 
I'd have to install it and check it out to tell the differences between 
it and the full PS, and I'd be comparing it to PS 6, in any case.

I *think* (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that PS LE 5.0 was the last 
"LE" version Adobe produced. More recently, they have produced Photoshop 
Elements, now in 2.0. I don't remember if Adobe ever sold PS LE 
directly--I don't think so. In that sense, it may be irrelevant for you 
unless you already have it or can get it second-hand. (Selling PS LE 
second-hand may be a technical violation of the user agreemen. That may 
require keeping the software with the scanner or printer--usually a 
scanner--that it was bundled with.)

I bought PS Elements at Costco for $79.99 minus a $30 rebate, net $49.99. 
MacZone has it for a net of $89.99 after rebate. I bought it as a gift, 
but am really tempted to keep it! I also got a neat book, "Photoshop 
Elements 2 Solutions: The Art of Digital Photography," by Mikkel Aaland, 
to go with the program as a gift. The book seems to be excellent and 
comes with a CD with tutorials, demos of several plug-ins, etc. From that 
book (my comments are indicated by []):

"For a program that is a fraction of the cost of the world's leading 
image-editing program you'd expect it to have a lot fewer features, 
right? Wrong. Not only does Photoshop Elements include many powerful 
Photoshop tools and features, it actually contains some very useful 
features that are not included even in the latest version of Photoshop. 
These features include:

*  A Photomerge command that seamlessly blends multiple images together 
to create stunning panoramics and composites.

*  Online help that quickly tells you just about everything you need to 
know about tools and commands.

*  Visual cues of the results of different filters and effects so that 
you can see what you'll get before applying the effect. [Actually, a lot 
of PS plug-ins do this.]

*  Round-trip animated GIF capabilities so you can open an animated GI 
and have access to all the frames as layers. [This is neat, as it lets 
you see one frame on top of the other, to see how they change. PS doesn't 
do that and isn't really a very good animation tool by itself.]

*  A PDF slidemaker, so that you can create slide shows viewable on any 
platform and even on PDAs.

Of course, Photoshop Elements is lacking some of the high-end features 
fond in Photoshop. For example, Photoshop Elements doesn't give you the 
ability to work on separate color channels, and you can't work in the 
prepress CMYK mode. [That's VERY valuable for pros who will be sending 
images to a printing shop, but not of much use for most of us.] But 
you'll see througout the book that when a Photoshop feature is missing 
from Photoshop Elements, I've often included a simple workaround."

PS Elements does support many PS plug-ins, of which there are a 
multitude. Some of the more interesting ones are Alien Skin's "Eye Candy" 
and Corel's KPT (Kai's Photoshop Tricks) series. More useful plug-ins 
include Boxtop Software's PhotoGIF and JPEGPro. 

If you already have Photoshop 5.0 LE, you may want to keep it, though I 
don't know if it works in Classic mode under OS X. Otherwise, I'd 
recommend Photoshop Elements rather than getting Photoshop 5.0 LE.

OTOH, there are other programs that cost even less and do about as much, 
though not some of the fancier tricks. Microfrontier's Color It!, for 
example, works very well in OS 9 and is much easier to use and requires 
much less memory and HD space than any Adobe product. Their Enhance adds 
in layers and some other functions for about the same price as PS 
Elements. Both programs can use some Photoshop plug-ins. Neither runs 
natively in OS X, though. Microfrontier also has Digital Darkroom, which 
is very cheap and easy to use.

George Slusher/Eugene, OR
gslusher at rio.com