First Look: Inside Photoshop CS3
Posted 03/25/2007 at 1:43pm
| by David Biedny
Bridge Over Troubled Water?
Adobe’s Bridge application has become the launch pad for all media, and the update of Bridge, included with Photoshop CS3, includes some slick tricks. Anyone who’s been using the public beta of Adobe’s Lightroom program will immediately notice that Bridge now looks like a Lightroom Lite, with a dark visual motif that’s easy on the eyes. We love the fact that you can Command-click on multiple images and compare them side by side. And there’s even a handy new magnifying loupe that can be positioned anywhere in the main viewing panel.

Side-by-side comparisons and an integrated loupe tool improve Bridge’s usefulness.
The new "Stacks" metaphor is a helpful way to visually group related images together, to make the most efficient use of interface space—it’s also a feature that Apple Aperture users will be familiar with. The number in the upper-left corner of a stack indicates how many images are in it; clicking on the number displays the stack.

Stacks are a slick way to quickly organize related images.
Though it’s no Keynote, Bridge has a much-improved slideshow function, with a slew of transition effects, expanded timing options, and other little touches that make it quite nice for on-the-fly presentations of your Photoshop handiwork.
Next: Is It Worth the Upgrade?