Photoshop 7 Arrives at Last

Adobe announced that Photoshop 7 is now shipping for both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X. Like a top-billed band arriving late to their gig, Photoshop 7 is perhaps the most anticipated Mac OS X software upgrade. Fortunately, it offers more than just Mac OS X compatibility: a new Healing Brush tool makes repairing damaged photographs vastly easier than previous versions; a File Browser provides a method of tracking and navigating images; new painting tools provide better brush and pen strokes; and there’s even a spelling checker to help locate the typos that invariably show up during projects (like spelling the band’s name wrong on the tour t-shirts). Photoshop 7 costs $600, or $150 if you’re upgrading from a previous version. The program requires a PowerPC processor, Mac OS 9.1, 9.2.1, or Mac OS X 10.1, 128 MB of RAM, and at least 120 MB of hard disk space; of course, with Photoshop you’re advised to max out all of the preceding minimum requirements to the best of your budget and ability.