Adobe Photoshop is so dominant when it comes to print and Web-based bitmap-editing that, in many ways, it has come to define the whole field. Almost every professional designer has the program in their toolkit so, by its nature, each new release redefines the boundary of whats creatively possible. As such, expectations are always high, and its easy to feel a sense of anti-climax when the product finally ships. The good news is that with version 6, Adobe has pulled out all the stops and no-one is likely to feel disappointed.

The fact that this release represents a radical overhaul is immediately apparent on loading. The Photoshop interface has hardly changed throughout its history until now when Adobe has finally provided a context-sensitive toolbar. Users are no longer expected to simply know that holding down Shift with the Marquee tool will add to the current selection, while Alt will subtract. Now they can set the selection mode in the toolbar along with all the other relevant parameters, such as feathering and anti-aliasing. In Free Transform mode, the toolbar becomes live so you can enter precise positions, widths, heights, angles and skews, and then choose to accept or reject the change with the Cancel and Commit commands at the end of the toolbar.

The difference is immense. Where in the past Photoshop seemed to be hiding power from users, its now constantly prompting and enabling. This is most apparent with the toolbars drop-down lists. With any tool thats based on presets, such as the Paintbrush or Pattern Stamp, the toolbar lets you choose from a dedicated drop-down panel of preset thumbnails. Whats more, if the option youre looking for isnt there, you can use the drop-down panels own palette menu to load a new set with a single click. Photoshop even provides a dedicated Preset Manager where you can control your libraries of swatches, patterns, brushes and so on from a single, central location. In the past, I doubt whether ten per cent of users had ever looked beyond Photoshops default presets now theres no excuse.

The toolbar isnt the only interface change, Adobe has also rethought its use of palettes. Its added a Reset Palette Locations command to immediately regroup and return palettes to their usual position. Even better is the Palette Well, an area to the right of the toolbar. By dragging palettes onto the Well theyre automatically minimised to just their title. Click on the title and the full palette reappears: make your selections and then click elsewhere and the palette minimises back down to its title. This is ideal for palettes that you only want temporary access to though only if youre running the program on a screen larger than a resolution of 800 x 600 pixels.

The toolbox has also been given a makeover. Fundamental options such as the Crop tool have been promoted to their own slot, while less frequent options such as the Measurement tool have been demoted to become fly-out alternatives. In the process, Adobe has taken the opportunity to add text to distinguish between fly-out icons, to indicate areas that are about to be cropped with a colour overlay, and to provide a new Perspective cropping option that simultaneously crops and straightens distorted image areas.

Other minor interface changes are numerous. You can now change the current image measurement system on the fly by right-clicking on the rulers. Alternatively, you can just mix and match units by, for example, specifying a marquee thats 1 inch wide and 85 pixels tall. When opening files you can also now browse preview thumbnails in the dialog. In fact, this proves disappointing as the view is limited to just three images at a time, and multiple image management still needs addressing along with interface customisation.

Layers

The area of the Photoshop working environment thats used more than any other is the Layer palette, so its no surprise that this has been given a complete overhaul. At the top of the palette are new command icons to let you lock the Layers transparency, pixels, position or everything. At the bottom are new icons to let you quickly add Layer masks, effects and adjustment Layers. Where appropriate, these offer drop-down alternatives so you can add a new channel mixer adjustment Layer, or drop a shadow Layer Effect with just two clicks.

The biggest change in Layer handling is the lifting of the previous limit of 99 Layers per image. As Layers have become so central to photo-editing this change is crucial, but it means that organisation can become a headache. The new colour coding of Layers helps, but Adobe has also come up with a more fundamental solution Layer Sets. These work as folders into which you can drag and drop existing Layers. You can then click on the drop-down arrow next to the Layer Sets name to expand or collapse the list of Layers it contains. Even better, you can treat the set much like a Layer itself, so that you reposition multiple Layers simultaneously or temporarily hide or lock all contained Layers, or change their overall opacity, blend mode and so on.

The handling of adjustment and Layer Effects has also been drastically improved. Photoshop now marks off each adjustment Layer with its own icon so it can be instantly recognised. You can also use the new Change Layer Content command to swap between adjustments without losing any Layer mask that youve created. The changes to Layer Effects are even more comprehensive. As you add these to a Layer, theyre now automatically listed under the Layer name so that you can instantly see which effects are in operation. You can also now toggle effects on or off, either globally or individually. Alternatively, if you dont need this level of control, you can always collapse all effects down to a marker icon. Best of all is the ability to instantly copy existing effects from one Layer to another by dragging.

Photoshop 6 also adds a new range of Layer functionality. There are new Satin and Stroke options for creating metallic and outline effects to add to the existing drop shadows, glows and bevels. Then theres a new category of content Layers with fill, gradient and pattern variations. These are applied as either Layer Effects or adjustment Layers, so that applying a semi-transparent gradient fill as an adjustment tints the entire underlying image whereas applying it as an overlay effect limits the content to the current Layer. The effect is non-destructive so you can always change a content Layer by double-clicking on it in the Layer palette and choosing a new option. And effects can be combined so you can create a unique fill based on a semi-transparent gradient overlay on top of a pattern.

Another change to Layer handling shows how usability and functionality can work hand in hand. Whenever you apply a Layer effect this is now managed in the new Layer Style dialog. This one dialog gives you instant access to each of the ten Layer Effects, including the new content overlays. For each effect the control is extraordinary. The Shadow effects, for example, now add spread and noise parameters to the existing angle, distance, size, colour, opacity, blend mode and contour. The real beauty though, is that you can now easily experiment with multiple effects and save collections of settings as Layer styles. These are then quickly accessible from the dialog either as thumbnails, previews or as named lists. Best of all, you can instantly apply the styles to any selected Layer from the new floating Styles palette.

Shapes

The combination of unmatched creative power, professional control and ease of use in Photoshops new Layer handling is amazing, but the biggest surprise is yet to come. Photoshops huge strength has always been its pixel-based bitmap handling, but with version 6 the program branches out into completely new territory to offer resolution-independent and fully scalable vector-based shape Lay