Cider Press review - Photoshop 5.5 Review: Part Three

Photoshop 5.5's Save for Web command is a powerful feature, but it's not the only new web-related feature or enhancement available in Photoshop 5.5 proper. Adobe has also updated the Photoshop Color Picker and the JPEG Export Filter, and added a new Web Photo Gallery feature. In addition to these enhancements, Adobe has also added Contact Sheet and Picture Package features. Professional photographers and print and web designers who work with numerous photos will benefit from the three latter additions.

Web-Enhanced Color Picker. Photoshop's Color Picker through version 5.0 was not at all web-friendly. Values for 4 color spaces were displayed, but only RGB was useful, if users did the math. Web safe colors are relegated to multiples of 51 (51, 102, 153, etc.) in each of the Red, Green & Blue spectrums. The LAB, HSB and CMYK color values were useless for selecting web safe colors. Of course, the Custom color button loaded other color systems, unrelated to the web.

To work around this problem, savvy designers changed the Color Picker preference in Photoshop to use the Apple Color Picker instead of Adobe's. The Apple Picker allows users to select HMTL and web safe colors, and lets users sample colors from any visible area of their monitor by holding down the OPTION key and using the eyedropper that appears to sample any desired color. Checking the Snap to Web Color option converts any sampled color to the nearest web safe equivalent. The Apple Picker also displays the hexidecimal values of the selected color.

The Apple Picker was an excellent alternative to the Photoshop Color Picker for web work, and will inevitably remain the Color Picker of choice for many web designers, for a single reason. Photoshop's updated Color Picker will not allow colors to be sampled outside open and visible Photoshop documents. This feature has not been available in any Photoshop Color Picker, and so another feature can be added to the Photoshop wish list. If a color is not available in an open and visible Photoshop document, it cannot be sampled with Photoshop's Color Picker. If it's available in a browser window, it cannot be sampled with Photoshop's Color Picker. If it's in the MacOS Finder, it cannot be sampled with Photoshop's Color Picker. This limitation is the only weakness of the Photoshop Color Picker. Users who frequently sample colors from other web sites may continue to use the Apple Picker for convenience.

Despite the inability to sample colors outside of open and visible Photoshop documents, Photoshop 5.5's updated Color Picker still serves many web designers well. Two new features have been added to the Photoshop Color Picker. Both might have been borrowed from the Apple Picker. In the lower left hand corner of the updated Photoshop Color Picker, users can now check to display only web safe colors. This causes the color display to band into available web safe colors within the selected hue. The second new web feature in the Color Picker is a hexidecimal display below the RGB display. Now colors are also shown in their hexidecimal values, in addition to HSB, LAB, CMYK and RGB values. Of course, there was no reason to change the Custom color button, so it remains unchanged from version 5.0, providing access to 9 other ink systems, including Pantone Coated and Uncoated ink systems.

Updated JPEG Export Filter. The JPEG Export Filter in 5.0 offered only 2 areas to set export options. The Image Options area allowed users to select from Low, Medium, High and Maximum quality, or to fine tune the Quality with a slider. Each of the presets corresponded to 1, 3, 6, and 8 on the Quality slider respectively. Each value represented 10%, 30%, 60% and 80% regarding Quality. The higher the value, the better the quality. The other export option, Format, allowed users to select from three formatting methods for JPEGs. The default method was Baseline (ÒStandardÓ), which was compatible with all browsers which supported the JPEG format. The next method was Baseline (Optimized), which usually provided for a slightly smaller JPEG but was not supported by all browsers. The last method to choose from was Progressive, which allowed an image to be progressively displayed from low resolution to full resolution in several passes. With this last method, users could select whether the JPEG would be fully displayed after 3, 4, or 5 passes. Progressive JPEGs, however, were compatible with yet fewer browsers than Baseline (Optimized) JPEGs. HTML editors might also be added to the list of incompatible software. Claris (now FileMaker) HomePage 3.0, for example, does not support Progressive JPEGs, and thus does not preview them. There are likely other HTML editors that didn't support Progressive JPEGs. Modern web editors, however, support Progressive JPEGs, including Dreamweaver 3.0, GoLive 4.0, and Freeway 3.0.

In contrast to Photoshop 5.0's JPEG Export Filter, Photoshop 5.5's JPEG Export Filter sports several new enhancements and additions. The only options in the JPEG Export Filter which has not changed from 5.0 are Format Options. The Format Options still provide users with a choice between Standard, Optimized and Progressive JPEGs. The first enhancement users will notice in the new JPEG Export Filter is the ability to Matte an image, a feature borrowed from the Save for Web command. It performs in the same way here as in Save for Web. Since the JPEG format does not support transparency, if there are any transparent areas in the image being exported, those areas will be filled with the Matte color. The default Matte color is white. However, there are 4 additional options available in the Matte Pop-Up here which are not available in Save for Web. As in Save for Web, users can select Black or White or Custom to open the Color Picker, the equivalent to choosing Other in Save for Web. But in the JPEG Export Filter, users may also select from the Foreground Color or Background Color, displayed in Photoshop's Tools Palette, or select from either 50% Gray or Netscape Gray, which is about 25% gray. The selected Matte will then fill the backgound, coloring transparent areas and tinting semi-transparent areas.

A second but lesser difference users will note in the updated JPEG Export Filter is an increased range in Image Option, from 10 to 12. In the new range, 12 corresponds to what used to be 10, and 1 and 0 represent new low-quality compression levels. These numbers no longer equate to percentage as they had in 5.0. Users may still select from Low, Medium, High and Maximum presets for convenience. Two new and long-over-due additions to the JPEG Export Filter have finally been made. The first is that users can now Preview the effects of their compression and quality choices by simply checking the Preview box. The image displayed in the Photoshop window is immediately updated to reflect how it will appear if saved with the current options. The second addition, available only when Preview has been enabled, displays 2 useful pieces of information for web developers. 1) The file size of the image when saved with the current settings. 2) The projected download time at either 14.4, 28.8, or 56.6K. The file size is immediately updated as quality and format options are changed. Likewise, the projected download time is updated when the modem speed is changed in the pop-up menu. Despite the important additions to Photoshop 5.5's JPEG Export Filter, users will likely prefer the Save for Web command for its ability to compare GIF and JPEG settings side-by-side.

Web Photo Gallery. The Web Photo Gallery is a great benefit for photographers or designers who need to show a large number of photos or images to clients. Instead of manually scanning, scaling, laying out and linking a folder of photos and images in a web editor, the Web Photo Gallery automates this process, saving the designer or photographer hours of tedious, repetitive labor. The Web Photo Gallery imports a folder of images; creates either Small, Medium or Large thumbnails as directed; creates taglines from filenames if desired; copies and resizes the images to Small, Medium, Large or custom percentage; adjusts Quality of the copied images by the same methods as the JPEG Export Filter and Save for Web feature; writes an HTML page to display the thumbnails generated by the Gallery; and links these thumbnails to pages which contain the resized images for enlarged viewing.

The Web Photo Gallery is incredibly easy to use. The dialog box lets users specify the source folder, specify or create a destination folder, name the Gallery (the default name is Adobe Photoshop 5.5 Web Photo Gallery), identify the photographer (or designer/agency), date the Gallery (the default is the date the Gallery is generated), determine size of thumbnails, elect to include the names of the images beneath the thumbnails, and optionally decide the final reduction and quality of the Gallery images themselves. The resulting Gallery is an HTML thumbnail page with the title of the Gallery in bold at the top, the photographer's name below the title, and the date the Gallery was generated. The Site Name, Photographer and Date information may be left blank as desired. If all 3 of these fields are left blank, only thumbnails are displayed.

Several questions arise the first time the Web Photo Gallery is used. Which format(s) should images be to turn them into a Web Photo Gallery? Should they already be GIF or JPEG? Must images be scaled and prepared for online presentation before using Web Photo Gallery? Are the original images changed at all, or are they simply copied to generate thumbnails and resized images? How big are Small, Medium and Large thumbnails? Are all resized images turned into JPEGs? Are the output files organized into files and folders? How large in overall size is a gallery? What does the resulting gallery look like? How is it navigated? Can a gallery be updated? Unfortunately, most of these questions are not addressed in the User Guide Supplement which accompanies Photoshop 5.5. Fortunately, no review of this feature is complete without addressing them.

Which format(s) should images be to turn them into a Web Photo Gallery? Should they be GIF or JPEG? Images to be turned into a Gallery can be any format Photoshop 5.5 supports. There are a mixture of file formats in the Samples folder installed with Photoshop, including TIFF, GIF, animated GIF, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop documents. For good measure, I also threw in some PICTs and a couple of hi-resolution CMYK images. All were processed and deposited into a Gallery.
Must images be scaled and prepared for online presentation before using Web Photo Gallery? Are the originals changed at all, or are they simply copied to generate thumbnails and resized images? Images do not need to be scaled or prepared for online presentation before being placed into a Gallery. The Web Photo Gallery works with whatever images are available in the source folder, even hi-res CMYK images prepared for traditional offset printing. The images in the source folder, the original images, are not altered in any way during the Gallery process. They are copied and both reduced into thumbnails at Small, Medium or Large as directed and resized to a percentage of their original size. Each image in a gallery is resized at the same percentage. For example, a 2700x2700 pixel image will be resized to 1350x1350 at Medium (50%) size, and a 400x400 pixel image in the same gallery would be resized to 200x200. Galleries can also be remade at any time to change the thumbnail and resize options. Old files will be overwritten.
How large are Small, Medium and Large thumbnails? Are all resized images turned into JPEGs? Thumbnails are proportionally sized to the maximum width if they are wider than they are tall, or to the maximum height if they are taller than they are wide. A Small Thumbnail, for example, might be scaled to 50x50, 50x42 or 36x50, depending on the proportions of the original image. A Medium Thumbnail, likewise, might be scaled to 75x75, 75x64 or 53x75, depending again on the proportions of the original image. A Large Thumbnail, finally, might be scaled to 100x100, 100x94, or 83x100. The maximum size for a Small Thumbnail is 50x50; a Medium Thumbnail 75x75; a Large Thumbnail 100x100. All thumbnails and resized images generated by Web Photo Gallery are JPEGs regardless of the format of the original images.
Are the output files organized into files and folders? How large in overall size is a gallery? Photoshop processes all the HTML and images for a Gallery, then opens the Gallery into the user's default browser. Completed Galleries are structured like most web sites. A single HTML thumbnail page, named index.htm, is generated and placed in the root of the selected destination folder. A single text document, named UserSelections.txt, which stores the numeric settings used for that Gallery, is also generated and saved in the root of the destination folder. Three folders, called thumbnails, images and pages, hold thumbnails, resized images and HTML Gallery pages. The overall file size of any Gallery depends upon the number of images in the gallery, the size of the thumbnails, and the size of the resized images. The test Gallery, containing 19 images, weighed in at 522K. Another test Gallery, containing 27 images, weighed in at only 272K.
What does the resulting gallery look like? How is it navigated? A Photoshop Web Photo Gallery resembles most image galleries already on the web. A header which contains the name of the Gallery, the Photographer and the Date appears at the top of every page in the Gallery, as long as these fields are completed at the time the Gallery is generated. Only the fields completed when the Gallery is generated appears in the header. The index page displays thumbnails of the images in the Gallery in a single table. The thumbnails are organized alphabetically from left to right, top to bottom. To view a larger image, users click the thumbnail or name of the image they wish to view at the larger size, and the page containing the larger image loads into the same window. The Gallery header appears at the top of the page. Below the header are navigation arrows which point left, up and right. The left arrow takes visitors to the previous alphabetical image in the Gallery. The up arrow takes visitors back to the thumbnail page. The right arrow takes visitors to the next alphabetical image in the Gallery. This navigation scheme is simple, elegant, friendly and effective.
Can a gallery be updated? Easily. Users need only drop other images into the same source folder and target the same folder for the Gallery. Photoshop then generates only thumbnails and images for the new images and updates the index page, dropping the new thumbnails into place alphabetically in the index table. Images can be added to a Gallery at any time. Of course, selecting a new source folder overwrites the old Gallery with a new Gallery. The keys to updating a Gallery is to use the same source folder and the same destination folder. If either the source or destination folder changes, an entirely new Gallery is created.

Photoshop's updated Color Picker and JPEG Export Filter provide additional support for creating and generating images for the web, while the new Web Photo Gallery command automates what was once a repetitive exercise to display a table of images to visitors or clients. This feature gives photographers and designers acceptable control over the final quality of the images in any Gallery for selection and proofing purposes. As long as the designer or photographer is cognizant of file size and download time, Photoshop's Web Photo Gallery command can save them hours of work while providing a Gallery their clients or visitors can easily and quickly view with any web browser across the internet.

Stay Tuned: Part 4: Photoshop 5.5's Contact Sheet and Photo Package Features

Mike Swope is publisher of inetreviews.com, a site that will shortly be launched and also the vice-president of MacWichita Macintosh User Group in Wichita, KS. He runs his own graphics design business, Swope Design, that provides professional and affordable graphic design, printing, and consultation services/training to businesses, organizations and individuals.