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 Adobe Photoshop Elements used to be the somewhat neglected baby brother of Photoshop—born with good genes but not quite living up to its potential. Despite an extensive help section, it was more like a truncated version of Photoshop itself, arranged the same way, just missing some tools. The latest version, 3.0 ($90 Mac, $100 PC), however, is a program in its own right: classed-up, streamlined, and a pleasure to use, with all the great Adobe math to back it up.
Elements 3.0 is a lot more helpful for the new user than its predecessor, and it starts you out with a much less crowded and easier-to-read interface. The tools are bigger and more colorful and there are icons for everything—icons that simplify, rather than obfuscate, by actually representing their action.
The new version offers two editing modes: Standard and, for new users, Quick Fix. In both modes the toolbar hangs out in a single row on the left—Quick Fix shows you only Crop, Magnify, and Red-Eye Removal tools; Standard still contains all the big ones—Dodge, Burn, Clone, etc.—but they’re docked for simplicity. When you’re in Quick Fix mode, you can adjust color cast, highlights and shadows, and choose the intensity of the auto adjustments—that’s about it. It won’t be long before the user masters this mode and is ready to toggle to Standard.
Standard mode includes a simplified version of Photoshop’s layers that’s easier to understand and conquer. Plus, there’s a know-it-all version of the Healing Brush, which works like a clone stamp but requires no sampling, that fixes pimples and dust with equal aplomb. The sharing works great, too: you can send elaborate HTML e-mails without knowing anything about HTML, transmit to a mobile device even if you understand squat about resolution or resizing, and, most important, burn to VCD to make slide shows that will play on most DVD players. And, of course, all those neat card and calendar projects that no editor/organizer would dare leave out.
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