Photoshop for Mac OS X: Which version is the best for me? Help!

Question

I need Photoshop for my iPhone game development and I use Mac OS X.

All I have to do actually is to cut out Objects from JPEGs and convert them into an PNG with alpthatransparency for the iPhone, so that they look nice in my layers.

But I don't understand all the photoshop products Adobe offers. There is Photoshop 7, and there is Photoshop CS3. Is that both the same thing?

I only need Photoshop, don't need all the other stuff like Flash or Illustrator in a huge Package. Really just Photoshop. And don't want to spend a thausand dollars on that.

I'm not a student, so I need a "full" package for commercial use. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

If you're doing iPhone development, I assume you're on an intel mac and running leopard. This pretty much requires you to use Photoshop CS3 (which is, if the version numbering were consistent, Photoshop 10). Version 7 was released for a much older version of OS X when when macs shipped with power pc processors.

In this case, CS3 is a newer version of Photoshop 7. Same capabilities, but evolutionary feature enhancements, plus compatibility with intel macs and leopard. Also don't forget that the most recent version of Photoshop is CS4.

Since it sounds like your needs are very few, if budget is a concern, there are some very good alternative software packages you might try:

• GIMP (free, but not Mac native: www.gimp.org)
• Pixelmator (Mac native, about $60: http://www.pixelmator.com/)
• Graphic Converter (Mac native... very mature feature set, about $50: http://www.lemkesoft.com/

Both Pixelmator and Graphic Converter offer free evaluation periods.

Answer 2

I need Photoshop

Do you?

Photoshop is the bitmap graphics editor That People Have Heard Of, but it is far from the only one, and may well not be best-suited to you.

All I have to do actually is to cut out Objects from JPEGs and convert them into an PNG with alpthatransparency

Yeah, I don't think you really need something as heavyweight and complex as Photoshop for that. You could try one of the simpler bitmap graphics apps without having to spend hundreds of dollars. For example on Mac, Seashore is free.

There is Photoshop 7, and there is Photoshop CS3. Is that both the same thing?

CS3 is a newer version of the same package as 7. They changed the version numbering for fun and confusion (but mostly fun). Don't get 7, it's outdated and incompatible with newer Macs.

Answer 3

Previous versions of Photoshop are orders of magnitude faster than each subsequent version. Honestly, I can get by completely in Version 7.0. Version 5 is slumming a bit, but I can do it.

Your needs are simple enough to get by with Gimp, as suggested above. If you have an earlier version of Photoshop, however, I'd highly suggest using it instead, but only if you already have it.

The myth about software is that you need the latest & greatest. This simply isn't true. Photoshop perfected image editing more than a decade ago. This doesn't simply fade away. You can't & won't use the latest & greatest features until you master the basics.

Gimp or an earlier version of Photoshop will get the job done for what you need. Don't buy the Ferrari if all you need is a Civic.