Adobe Photoshop Elements 1 & 2

Adobe Photoshop Elements software was originally released in 2001. It is a powerful image editing package aimed at the consumer market, significantly less in cost than Photoshop, but robust none-the-less. The program is based on and built over the same engine as Adobe's Photoshop. Elements is a full-featured image editing program in its own right, and delivering quite a lot of editing punch. Coupled with Hidden Power tools and techniques, Elements 1 & 2 have image editing capability that can rival Photoshop's for a fraction of the cost.

What is new in Elements 2.0:
As with the first edition of Elements, the program contains some great features for those seeking to correct and enhance their digital images. This includes a list of hundreds of features found in the best editing programs in the class, and the class above. Released in 2002, this package expanded somewhat on the original success of Elements, adding more ease-of-use features such as:

• Import and edit photos from digital cameras, CDs, and scanners.
• Quickly fix image problems or damage, like removing red eye, cropping and color correction.
• Automatically create seamless panoramas with Photomerge.
• Organize, browse, rotate, and rename photos in the File Browser.
• Apply instant effects like frames, edges, drop shadows, and more.
• Automatically compress photos and attach them to e-mail messages.
• Create instant web galleries from your photos to share your images.
• Create PDF Slideshows to share with anyone.
• Print multiple photos in different sizes easily with Picture Packages.
• Design unique greeting cards that combine images and text.
• Apply amazing special effects by following tutorials right in the program, with Recipes.

If you are not decided about whether Photoshop Elements is the right image editing program for you, you may want to have a look at the following article: Photoshop vs. Elements

Hidden Power and Elements 1 and 2
While development for Elements 2 was underway at Adobe, Hidden Power was being born. Inways to powerful features hidden below the surface of the program were uncovered by Richard Lynch, and the first of his books was proposed to several publishers. Sybex took up the challenge, and Hidden Power was born. Though the book was written almost entirely using Elements 1.0, the release of Elements 2.0 came right about the time the book was being completed, so all tool installation and functions were checked, and the book was released with the minor difference of installers for Elements 1 and 2.