Photoshop’s 20th Anniversary
Posted in Design, on February 25th, 2010 by Carlos.
I missed the boat on this post by about 8 days, but I still felt it necessary to give recognition to the one piece of software that is responsible for jump starting my hobby/job/career. Before Photoshop I dabbled with Paint Shop Pro, and other shareware programs (anyone remember Neopaint for DOS?). The moment I started using Photoshop though, I was hooked for good.
Photoshop turned 20 on February 19th. I turned 30 almost a month before. I started using Photoshop in 1996 (version 4.0). I’ve therefore been using it for nearly half of my life. And boy have I been using it. What started as a obsession creating random patterns using the clouds, distort and of course, the lens flare filters (see above), evolved into professional use for manipulating photos, or designing websites. I still find time to use it for comedic purposes, one of Photoshop’s many hidden talents (see below – in case you aren’t familiar, those two are Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae of the Canadian Liberal Party). It truly is a versatile product that allows you to create pretty much anything under the sun.
Although today’s iteration of Photoshop is far from perfect (CS4 can be easily called bloatware), I still find that it is unmatched in its versatility and power. Just the other day, I gave Pixelmator another shot. It’s a beautifully designed graphics program for the Mac that looks stunning. Regardless of the shiny exterior, I still found it lacking in several departments (drop shadows need to be created manually, no CMYK support, etc.). I do hope Pixelmator and other competitors do step up to the plate to give Photoshop a run for its money, but they do have a way to go before more graphics pros make the jump. Maybe I’m just use to Photoshop in my workflow, but I don’t really see me dropping it cold turkey any time soon.
Adobe has put together a commemorative site celebrating Photoshop’s 20 years. They have a nifty timeline that walks you through the many iterations of one of history’s most celebrated pieces of software. Go check it out!
If you’re a Photoshop user, what version did you first use?
No Comments »