Photoshop CS3 will be available in Standard and Extended versions, each one suited for specific market segments.

Adobe Systems made big news recently by announcing that [1] the upcoming Photoshop CS3 will be available in two versions. This is news because, while applications such as Photoshop Elements have been around awhile for non-professional consumers, this is the first time Photoshop itself has been segmented in this way—and unlike Photoshop Elements, the newest Photoshop is for specific professional users. From the Adobe website:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 includes all the features you love in Photoshop CS2, plus many innovative new ones. Photoshop CS3 accelerates your path from imagination to imagery. Ideal for photographers and designers, the professional standard delivers new features such as automatic layer alignment and blending that enable advanced compositing. Live filters boost the comprehensive, nondestructive editing toolset for increased flexibility. And a streamlined interface and new, timesaving tools make your work flow faster. Ideal for photographers, graphic designers, web designers and print service providers.
• The new Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended delivers everything in Photoshop CS3 and more. Render and incorporate 3D images into your 2D composites. Stop time with easy editing of motion graphics on video layers. And probe your images with measurement, analysis, and visualization tools. Ideal for film, video, and multimedia professionals; graphic and web designers using 3D and motion; manufacturing professionals; medical professionals; architects and engineers (AEC professionals); and scientific researchers.

According to the checklist of features on Adobe’s website, it appears the Extended version is pretty much the same as Standard except 3D and motion support with the ability to edit 3D content, painting and cloning on video frames, and new image measurement and counting tools. This last one really intrigues me.

Adobe’s new development of the Photoshop “family” is interesting—[2] take a look here at the webpage Adobe set up to describe how it views its 20-year history. This page was created just yesterday and it also sports what appears to be Photoshop’s new tagline: See What’s Possible™.

After looking over the material, I’ve come up with two predictions about Photoshop CS3:

The beta we’ve been working with for a few months now is what you can expect from the upcoming Photoshop CS3 Standard. If you look at the features, it appears to be pretty much what Adobe describes on its website. Moreover, by all accounts the beta feels pretty solid. I suspect that when Photoshop CS3 Standard is released it will not have many differences from the beta, if at all.

Those who purchase a CS3 suite will be getting Photoshop CS3 Extended. I say this because Extended looks to be geared for creative professionals—more so than Standard—and I find that those who use the Creative Suite are professional users. Prosumers who enjoy taking photos and tinkering with them in Photoshop will not need video and motion tools, but anyone working in a design shop or in-house creative department probably will (and if they aren’t now, they will soon as web and cross-publishing becomes more pervasive). If you plan to purchase the full CS3, expect a copy of Photoshop CS3 Extended to come with it.

It’s an exciting time for Photoshop users!