Posted by Gary.Gy
in
F1
on Thursday, November 11, 2010
After 4 years of hard working, Red Bull Racing, finally, got their first World Constructors’ Championship. Congratulations, Red Bull!
The Brazilian GP was not as brilliant as Korean GP. It was sunny in San Paulo and that means the race will be not so uncertain because of the weather. But after all, this race was not boring too much.
The final result is as follows:
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1h33:11.803 2. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 4.243 3. Alonso Ferrari + 6.807 4. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 14.634 5. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 15.593 6. Rosberg Mercedes + 35.300 7. Schumacher Mercedes + 43.400 8. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap 9. Kubica Renault + 1 lap 10. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap 11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 12. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1 lap 13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1 lap 14. Massa Ferrari + 1 lap 15. Petrov Renault + 1 lap 16. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap 17. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari + 1 lap 18. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps 19. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps 20. Glock Virgin-Cosworth + 2 laps 21. Senna HRT-Cosworth + 2 laps 22. Klien HRT-Cosworth + 6 laps
It is interesting to see that the pole position holder Nico Hulkenberg ended his race at the 8th position. In fact, I prefer to give this phenomenon an explanation that FW32 is not powerful enough.
A historical day of Red Bull Racing-Renault
Every one of RBR was too exciting to remember their biggest threat: Fernando Alonso, the leader of Drivers’ Championship.
But it doesn’t matter, Red Bull harvested, finally.
We can still remember the weak team called Spyker-Cosworth owned by Ford. In 2004, when Red Bull Austria decided to stop the sponsorship of Sauber and bought Spyker. In 2006 they also decided to purchase another team Minardi. Nearly all the people thought that Red Bull will not be as smooth as in WRC in the field of F1. Because the brilliant teams all come from the manufacturers like Ferrari and McLaren. But Red Bull stuck on this sport and in 2006, they found someone to change their position.
That guy was Adrian Newey, the top designer of F1. On this planet, only one guy can do better than him, but that man is a legend and now he has retired—Rory Byrne, the former chief designer of Scuderia Ferrari, and the designer of invincible F2002 and F2004.
So, after 4 years of hard working, Newey finally got the key to the victory, his brilliant talent finally changed the map of F1.
In season 2009, RB5, without DDD, without KERS, could catch up with incredible BGP001 which was equipped with DDD and totally wiped F60 and MP4-24 which equipped with KERS. This phenomenal season of Red Bull totally shocked the audience and the other constructors, a new era had come.
2010, they got it.
But it does not mean the end of the war, Fernando Alonso still leads the board.
What can they do, please pay attention to the final round of this season—Abu Dhabi GP.
Another thing is very interesting. If Mark Webber got the 1st place, he will be only 1 pt after Fernando, which meas a great convenience to the pursuit of WDC, but RBR did not use the team order. So, Ferrari, don’t be evil, the motto of Google should be learned by Domenicali.
Ferrari: Still hold the advantage
Although Fernando Alonso only got the 3rd place, he still leads the board of WDC, which means he is in great advantage in the pursuit of WDC in Abu Dhabi.
Started at the 5th place, and behind Lewis Hamilton, everything is not so smooth. Especially the engine catastrophe—this word may a bit exaggerative. But Fernando Alonso must take care of his engines carefully, very much. That’s the reason of his bad FP performance. He gave up further FP because of the engine.
Since the competition will continue in Abu Dhabi, Fernando will not be too worry about it.
Another interesting thing is that, if Mark get the 2nd , Seb get the 1st and Fernando get the 5th in Abu Dhabi, they will have the same pts.
Williams: the first pole in the recent 2 yrs
No one expected that Nico Hulkenberg would got the pole.
The fact is that, Williams has not got pole in the recent 2 years since the retire of Ralf Schumacher. But Nico Hulkenberg broke it yesterday.
He was faster than any one on the track for over 1 sec. That was phenomenal because there’s no doubt that RB6, F10, MP4-25 and even W01 and R30 are much faster than FW32, but Hulkenberg got it. It totally shocked me, I admit. Hulkenberg is really performance perfectly in that qualification.
Nealy all the posts about the qualification of Brazilian GP used the word “surprisingly”. Yes, this young German driver has never so good on the track.
But in the race, things were different.
The 4 drivers behind him were all WDC pursuits, they are equipped with strong engines and powerful vehicles.
Sebstian Vettel the 2nd , Mark Webber the 3rd , Lewis Hamilton the 4th and Fernando Alonso the 5th. Just in the start lane of Interlagos Circuit, a terrible pressure towards Hulkenberg started.
Even before the 1st courner, Seb got Hulkernberg and before 3rd courner, Mark did it. Then, Nando and Lewis. Unfortunately, Lewis made a mistake and Fernando got him in the 4th courner. 1 lap later, Fernando Alonso got Hulkenberg.
This was inevitable, I thought.
Hulkenberg made himself one of the top drivers in the GP.
The championship pursuit: still not certain
Who will be the WDC of this season?
Weirdly, it is still uncertain, like season 2008. But remember, in 2008, there are only 2 WDC pursuits—Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton. But this year, there are at least 4. The map of F1 WDC pursuit is still full of uncertain.
Posted by Gary.Gy
in
F1
on Tuesday, September 7, 2010
With the changing weather, the Belgian GP turned out to be a breath-taking GP and series of events happened one after another. Like the Belgian GP several years ago, today's race is still astonishing.
Track Review: Spa-Francorchamps
Spa-Francorchamps Circuit is admired by lots of top drivers including Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Ayrton Senna. Although Raikkonen was not here this year, the Belgian GP 2010 is still a classic.
This circuit is the longest on in the calenda and that make the GP only last 44 laps. The 7km long circuit is built among the mountains in the southen Belgium. This is regarded as one of the most important circuits nowadays.
The most famous place of the circuit is the Eau Rouge Chicane, where the driver will experience the 5G of acceleration. After the Eau Rouge, there can be a 24-seconds full power straight lane and that is perfect for the functioning of F-Duct. Then, the Les Combs Chicane starts the complex 2nd section, where there are full of fast courners one after another.
The 3rd section is mainly made up with fast lines and two slow courners: Bus Stop Spoon and after the starting grid, there is the La Source Hairpin.
This time, the comette widened the grass land on the left of La Source because they believe that they can be used to improve the speed when reach Eau Rouge and influence the position before Les Combs, just like Raikkonen did last year. This kind of behavour is no longer allowed this year.
Statistics
After an astounding GP, the result came out as this:
Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Pts 1 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 44 1:29:04.268 2 25 2 6 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 44 +1.5 secs 1 18 3 11 Robert Kubica Renault 44 +3.4 secs 3 15 4 7 Felipe Massa Ferrari 44 +8.2 secs 6 12 5 14 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 44 +9.0 secs 8 10 6 4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes GP 44 +12.3 secs 14 8 7 3 Michael Schumacher Mercedes GP 44 +15.5 secs 21 6 8 23 Kamui Kobayashi BMW Sauber-Ferrari 44 +16.6 secs 17 4 9 12 Vitaly Petrov Renault 44 +23.8 secs 23 2 10 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 44 +34.8 secs 12 1 11 22 Pedro de la Rosa BMW Sauber-Ferrari 44 +36.0 secs 24 12 16 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 44 +39.8 secs 16 13 17 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 44 +49.4 secs 11 14 10 Nico Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 43 +1 Lap 9 15 5 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 43 +1 Lap 4 16 19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 43 +1 Lap 13 17 25 Lucas di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 43 +1 Lap 22 18 24 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 43 +1 Lap 20 19 18 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 43 +1 Lap 15 20 20 Sakon Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 42 +2 Laps 19 Ret 8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 37 Accident 10 Ret 1 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 15 Accident 5 Ret 21 Bruno Senna HRT-Cosworth 5 Suspension 18 Ret 9 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 0 Accident 7
In the qualification in Saturday, Michael Schumacher was pushed back for 10 positions because of the rude defence in Hungarory GP against Rubence Barichello. But he managed to ended his race at 7th position.
The great moments
Barichello's terrible 300th GP
Because of the bad start of Mark Webber, he dropped to 6th nearly immediately. The terrible start gave great chances to the drivers behind him. But the weather is so strange that some parts of the circuit are raining but the others are dry. At the end of the fist lap, Barichello badly hit into Fernando Alonso and retired. Alonso managed to go by back to the track and join the race again.
That means, Barichello's 300th GP, ended in less than 1 lap.
Vettel: Bad Luck with me
Vettel is not in fortune today.
Because of the bad track condition caused by the sudden rain, his car went out of control and hit in to the radiator holder of Jenson Button's MP4-25 and give Jenson a retirement. He was told to make a drive-through.
Some 20 laps later, his car wiped Sutil's car's front wing into craps. His rear left tyre was blown. He had to make a pit stop again.
Fernando Alonso is not in status today
Fernando Alonso started his race at 10th position and once he went to 8th. But his race was not good at all.
At last, his car went out of control and crash into the wall. The suspension was ruined. His car was just on the track and that start the SC, just several laps to the end of the race.
Hamilton: 5mm to RET
During lap 32, it started to rain.
McLaren decided to confirm the weather and told Lewis to hold for a lap.
Just in that lap, his car went out and was only 5mm to the wall when he successfully turn the car back to the track.
Posted by Gary.Gy
in
F1
on Wednesday, August 18, 2010
There have been 3 GPs and during all those qualifications, Red Bull Racing catch all the pole positions, which is really astonishing.
Yesterday, on the Catalunya Circuit, two bulls push ahead and got the 1st and 2nd grid, easily.
Mark Webber was really fast, he was 0.8 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who will start the race at the 3rd position.
Another piece of news came from MGP. Michael Schumacher beat his teammate Nico Rosberg for the first time this season. He got the 6th grid, 2 positions ahead of Nico Rosberg.
According to the intelligence from Pitpass, Formula 1 is seriously considering to change the power pack of F1 into 1.5L, turbo charged, L4 engine.
To many Formula1 fans, the “turbo-charged times” between 1977 and 1988 was the most brilliant age in the history of F1. The ultra-fast speed pushed F1 to the top of motor sports.
But over 1100 horse powers made the beast to fast and dangerous. FIA started to apply technical restrictions to turbo charged engines and finally in 1989 turbo charger was banned.
But 21 years later, when the motor sports pay attention to the ecological problems, the constructions and engine manufacturers have started to discuss the possibilities of 1.5L L4 turbo charged engines’ return to F1. It is believed that it can attract more sponsorships and what’s more, some large automotive manufacturers will be persuaded to attend to F1.
Most of the constructors support this decision while the most in-fluency team Scuderia Ferrari go against turbo charger.
Compared to the boring GP Bahrain, yesterday’s race could be called a classic.
Because of the small rain on the morning yesterday, the Albert Park Circuit was a bit damp and cold. It was a bad news for the drivers but a good news for us Formula Fans, because the race would be unpredictable.
Result
Classified
Pos Driver Team Time 1. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1h33:36.531 2. Kubica Renault + 12.034 3. Massa Ferrari + 14.488 4. Alonso Ferrari + 16.304 5. Rosberg Mercedes + 16.683 6. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 29.898 7. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 59.847 8. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:00.536 9. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 1:07.319 10. Schumacher Mercedes + 1:09.391 11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:11.301 12. De la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari + 1:14.084 13. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 2 laps 14. Chandhok HRT-Cosworth + 4 laps
World Championship Standings, Round 2
Drivers: Constructors: 1. Alonso 37 1. Ferrari 70 2. Massa 33 2. McLaren-Mercedes 54 3. Button 31 3. Mercedes 29 4. Hamilton 23 4. Red Bull-Renault 18 5. Rosberg 20 5. Renault 18 6. Kubica 18 6. Force India-Mercedes 8 7. Vettel 12 7. Williams-Cosworth 5 8. Schumacher 9 9. Liuzzi 8 10. Webber 6 11. Barrichello 5
Teams& Drivers
Red Bull Racing-Renault: Totally Tragic
During the qualification on Saturday, Red Bull prooved that they are one of the best constructors among the teams currently on the track. Sebstian Vettel hold the pole position while his teammate, Mark Webber, got the 2nd place in his homeland.
But their luck during the race was extremely bad. The brake system of Vettel’s car failed in lap 27. His car rushed into the sand pit and got stuck. It was the 2nd time he retired from a race for mechanical problems in this season. Of course you should remember that there are only 2 passed races of Season 2010. We have to say that Vettel, please belive in Brother Spring!(A popular joke in CN, the guys who believe in Brother Spring, well, what I mean is Yuchun Li, will have the best luck).
Though driving in home GP, Mark Webber did not maintain the advantage over the others during the race.
1 lap after Jenson Button changed his tyres, Webber decided to run on a set of soft tyres. But it was too late. Red Bull’s strategy was completely wrong. Especially when Lewis was on his personal showcase.
When Webber came out from the pit, he started his painful fight against Lewis, until the crash in the last 2 laps.
Luckily, both of them stuck on the race. But Webber made another mistake again—there were only 1 lap left, he ran to the pit and changed the front wing. But on the contrary, Hamilton finish the race 6th with a terribly damaged front wing and slightly damaged right rear suspension.
McLaren-Mercedes: celebration!
Jenson Button prooved that his last world championship was not just because of a fast car with his victory in Melbourne.
He chose the 1-pit-stop strategy, and ran on a set of soft tyres for 51 laps! It was totally unbelievable! Parly because of the relatively low track temperature but Button’s skills to protect the tyres are more important.
Jenson was not only lucky but capable.
Jenson Button's Win
But on the contrary, Lewis Hamilton, although with astonishing performance yesterday, he got only 6th, with heavily damaged front wing and right rear suspension as a result of the crash with Webber.
Maybe influenced by the ticket on the Saturday, Hamilton was far away from fast enough during the qualification. His start position was only 11th.
Then his personal showcase started. He over take on after another and he was the 3th in lap 32 and tried to challenge the position hold by Robert Kubica. But he failed because of the perfect defense of Kubica.
Though he was not on the winners’ platform, he still gave as an unforgetable race.
Scuderia Ferrari: a wise choice
Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa was not so friendly.
In lap 18, Felipe Massa met with some troubles with his rear suspension or tires. His rear tires were flipping badly and it cause some troubles to his lap time.
Fernando Alonso, was just as amazing as Hamilton. He had a terrible start and in just several seconds, his position dropped from 3rd to 22nd. It should be admired that he did not give up. After a series of crazy taking-overs, he was just behind Massa, who was struggling the bad conditions of his car.
Generally, Massa should let Alonso take his position. But he did not. This behavior was badly unwelcomed by the fans.
I was glad to see that Alonso did not try to compete with Massa. Instead, he stay behind and defend Hamilton for Massa. With his efforts, Ferrari got a 3-4 win, and still lead the construtors’ championship board.
Mercedes GP: Noting…
A 6-7 qualification again.
Except for the damage Michael Schumacher met in the start, nothing to say… really nothing.
GP Malaysia: will it be still a shock?
I really hope so.
After a boring start of Season 2010 in Bahrain, we finally come up with a wonderful race. Then what will GP Malaysia look like?
The first race of Season 2010, Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, was on last weekend.
Although the IPv6 connection was not as fast as before, I stuck on the race, for 2 hours. After 49 laps of racing, the result is double red vehicles– Scuderia Ferrari got a 1-2 win, finally.
In fact I used to guess that Nico Rosberg would win. But after the qualification, the prediction had been in vain. Sebstian Vettel got the first pole position this year. Filipe Massa the 2nd and the 3rd is Fernando Alonso.
But in the race, I have to say, it is really…Mmm…BORING. QUITE BORING.
Formula One used to always made me excited. I like the roaring of engines and the feel of speed. What’s more, the astonishing strategy, just like what Ferrari and Michael Schumacher did at the GP France of Season 2004.
Nothing was found in GP Bahrain of Season 2010.
The final result was as following:
1. Alonso Ferrari 1h39:20.396 2. Massa Ferrari + 16.099 3. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes + 23.182 4. Vettel Red Bull-Renault + 38.713 5. Rosberg Mercedes + 40.263 6. Schumacher Mercedes + 44.180 7. Button McLaren-Mercedes + 45.260 8. Webber Red Bull-Renault + 46.308 9. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes + 53.089 10. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth + 1:02.400 11. Kubica Renault + 1:09.093 12. Sutil Force India-Mercedes + 1:22.958 13. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 1:32.656 14. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth + 1 lap 15. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth + 1 lap 16. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari + 3 laps 17. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth + 3 laps
It is a pleasure that after several year of “RED DOOM”, double red cars are seen, finally.The 1-2 win is a good start for S.F..
Scuderia Ferrari: No Pains No Gains
It was an exciting day for the Tiofsis all over the world. After the painful season 2009 and the terrible failure of F 60, Stefano Domenicali made a wise decision last year. S.F. stopped the improvement of F60 and took all the strength in developing a competitive car for next season.
It is a bad news for the drivers, especially for Kimi. Before he goes to WRC he had to leave a pitiful season for his fans. But the result is acceptable. S.F., finally got a beautiful 1-2 win on the opening ceremony of Season 2010.
That’s it.
Ferrari's 1-2 Win
I do not know what’s Michael’s feelings. After all, he was used to be always on the top, accompanied by Rubence Barichello.
After all, Ferrari got what she wanted last year. Domenicali achieve the victory with a cost of half a season.
But problem still existed. Filipe Massa’s car got some trouble during the race.
McLaren: Still Influenced by MP4-19/20
The design of MP4-25 is revolutionary. And the performance during the winter test is amazing. The speed is just awful. When he took over Vettel, although Vettlel’s car has some problems with its exhaust system, the difference of speed was astonishing.
But it was a tragedy when Lewis Hamilton reported that his car has something on the rear. That means except Mercedes GP, all the top constructors has one car running on the track injured. But the real tragedy is that Mercedes GP did not got a good result .
Lewis Hamilton finally got the 3rd while Jenson Button got only 7th. That’s just explain how Jenson got the WDC last year–a good car is the point, compared to his skill.
McLaren Pit Crew
It is reported that when Lewis was informed that he would start the race at 4th he said that he was “astonished”. Well, it seemed that he did not have so much confidence on MP4-25.
I’m impressed that the Team Pricipal Martin Whitmarsh pointed out the race was lack of attraction. This is a piece of really objective comment.
Mercedes GP: You Let Me Down
Before the race, I made a prediction that Mercedes GP would win the race. That’s because Nico Rosberg was the fasted in free practice. Although Nico is called “Practice Prince”, well, I think that’s because for a long time, Williams is not a competitive team. But this time, Mercedes has one of the best cars.
I believe in Ross Brown. But he had not recognized it yet.
Nico in the race
Then… What was about Michael?
In fact, well, although I am a Tifosi, Michael Schumacher did got the 6th, 44s behind Fernando.
It is not a performance of the king of F1. But you should recognize that he is 41 years old. It is his victory that he came back and successfully finished the race. What’s more, he got some points. That’s enough. DO NOT GIVE SO MUCH BURDEN ON HIM.
In fact Michael himself was very happy and satisfied with the result.
Michael Schumacher after the race
The new constructors: Painful Memories
Only 2 T127 cars finished the race in the new constructors. HRT, BMW Sauber and Virgin were all DNF.
It is a pleasure for Tony Fernandes. Although without any points.
Most of the problems are about the engine. I do not know whether Cosworth still has the ability to develop a Formula 1 engine.
I still remember the golden days when Cosworth DFV ruling the race. But this year, it seems that Cosworth is absent-minded.
HRT DNF
How to save F1?
When I watch the race, I communicated with some fans in a chat room of Sina F1. They all said that they were a bit sleepy.
No strategies, no take-overs. The drivers just run one lap after another on the track. Just like what does F1 like in the eyes of a F1 rookie.
The 1-stop rule was a sleep bomb. The technical standard make it quite difficult to take over, just like the report from Michael.
New rules or some changes on rules should be made to stuck the audience. Or the race will be really in danger. After all, the audience is the meaning of the existence of F1.
Photoshop has been a part of every web designer’s life since they picked up their first mouse.
On February 10th, 2010, Photoshop turns twenty. To mark this anniversary, we’ve come up with an article that takes you through the evolution of Photoshop from its modest beginnings as a bundled program sold with scanners to its current version.
For each version and major feature listed, we couldn’t help but think “did Photoshop ever exist without that feature?”.
Some of the minor details are fun too, such as the one-liner Easter Eggs that Photoshop developers hid in some versions and the fact that the most current versions of Adobe Photoshop CS are equipped with anti-counterfeiting measures for multiple world currencies.
Please join us in thanking the Knolls and Adobe for making all of our lives more awesome, every day.
Photoshop: Origins
One of the most impressive things about the company is the fact that one gifted family, consisting of an engineering prof, a PHD engineering student, and a talented special effects whiz working at Industrial Light and Magic came up with the core idea of Photoshop.
Thomas Knoll, the PHD student, is still heavily involved with Photoshop years later.
Glen Knoll was a college professor with two sons and two hobbies; computers and photography.
He had a darkroom in his basement, and an Apple II Plus that he was allowed to bring home from work.
Thomas Knoll adopted his father’s photography habit throughout high school, while his brother, John Knoll, purchased one of the first Macs available to the public.
Fast forward to 1987: Thomas Knoll was a PHD student studying Engineering at the University of Michigan. His brother was working at Industrial Light and Magic.
Thomas Knoll wrote a subroutine for a program to translate monochrome images on his monitor to grayscale.
The successful subroutine led Knoll to create more and very soon he had a number of processes for achieving photographic effects on digital images.
After his brother John saw what Thomas was doing, he recommended that Thomas turn what he was doing into a full-featured image editor.
The combination of Thomas’ programming abilities with John’s pragmatic design background led to a collaboration between the two brothers to develop more processes and improve on the initial application.
Even though the process led to interruption in Thomas’ thesis work, the brothers released “Image Pro” in 1988.
John suggested that they begin to sell Image Pro as an application.
Within six months, the brothers had a partnership with a company that manufactured scanners, Barneyscan.
They purchased 200 copies of the program to ship with their scanners.
They called on Supermac and Aldus, but were turned away at both, a move that Aldus would come to seriously regret.
Shortly after, the Knoll brothers struck gold when they won over Adobe management with their product, and formed a licensing partnership with Adobe that was to launch their software and Adobe into the stratosphere.
In February of 1990, Adobe 1.0 was released.
This video, shot in January of 2010, is a great interview with John Knoll about the early days of Photoshop:
Photoshop Through the Years; Version Changes
We’ve included major changes within each version and some minor ones. This is meant to be a fun stroll down memory lane rather than a complete version catalogue.
If you have a particular version change that got your hackles up or a feature that you’d to mention, feel free to add it to the comments section.
1990 – Photoshop 1.0
John Knoll, Thomas’ brother, wrote “special effects” for the program which were frowned upon by Adobe staff as being too “gimmicky”. Thomas and John found a way to sneak them into Photoshop as plugins, giving rise to what is now a huge cottage industry in add-ons to the popular program.
John and Adobe staff constantly pushed Thomas to make improvements until the final product shipped.
The first version of the Photoshop splash screen features just four Photoshop programmers. In subsequent versions, more and more names are added to the list. In more recent versions, a limited number of Adobe VIP’s appear in the splash screen.
1991 – Photoshop 2.0
Photoshop 2.0 included the Path feature, which allowed users to trim around an object easily and to save that path for future use. This feature was added by a second engineer, Mark Hamburg, that Adobe hired to work on the application.
Up until 2.0, Thomas Knoll was the only engineer working on it. Adobe called Mark the “Path Man”. 2.0 also featured rasterizing for Illustrator files, support for CMYK colour which led to widespread Photoshop adoption by the printing industry, and the Pen.
Photoshop 2.0 also required 4 megabytes of RAM to run rather than 2, which really helped program stability.
Photoshop 2.5, released in 1992, was notable for being the first release for the Windows operating systems.The code had to be completely changed in order to accomplish this goal which meant that the first effort was slow going.
16-bit file support and palettes were added to this version as well. The initial Windows release had a “memory bug”, a bug which actually saw Mark Hamburg offer to make house calls. The patched version was released as 2.5.1. Filters got their own menu in 2.5 as well. The workspace shot below is of Photoshop 2.5 for the Mac.
1994 – Photoshop 3.0
The big story for Adobe Photoshop 3.0 was layers. Layers were and are a lifesaver for any marginally complex design.
Prior to their introduction, designers would save different versions of designs so that they could go back and grab them if needed; layers made this practice redundant.
Layers are individual slices of the image that go together to make the final “sandwich” of the image. Different images, such as those used in the image above in the 3.0 splash screen, are assigned their own layers, making it easy to work on those images without tampering with other areas of the image.
Thomas Knoll, the original creator of the program, was responsible for their development. Other engineers made improvements in the program’s performance with Power Mac chips and bringing the Windows version up to the same level as the Mac version. Tabbed palettes also had their debut in 3.0.
Adobe engineers included Adobe Transient Witticisms (ATW) with this version. They were little Easter Egg funny one-liners that would appear only when you pressed obscure combinations of keys.
1996 – Photoshop 4.0
Adjustment layers and macros were the two most notable features of Photoshop 4.0.
Adjustment layers allow the designer to apply one effect to a group of layers. Macros, or actions in Photoshop speak, allow you to map a series of commands to one command. This allows you to perform the same operation in much less time if you have a bunch of images to work on.
The most important change to 4.0 was the unification of the user interface with other Adobe products, a feature which Adobe has stayed consistent with right up to present-day incarnations of the program. This meant a less steep learning curve for Adobe products, a blessing for those who got their start with Photoshop 4.0.
Loyal users of Photoshop were not amused with the redesign, the common question from the community being “Why did you break Photoshop?”.
1998 – Photoshop 5.0
The two most important features released with 5.0 were editable type and the ability to undo actions multiple times in the “History” palette.
Previous versions of Photoshop allowed text to be added, but the fuzzy rasterized type didn’t make for pretty magazine mastheads or decent web menus. This was a huge step forward. Multiple undos via the History palette were very helpful, especially since designers were starting to use the new Adobe tools for increasingly complex designs.
Color Management made its debut with 5.0. Like other major changes to Photoshop, it was greeted with equal parts of praise and condemnation. It allowed colors to be managed natively within the application rather than relying on third-party tools that had been used, a huge improvement.
However, it also automatically converted the colors when opening files, a “feature” that engineers quickly eliminated after multiple user complaints. The magnetic lasso tool debuted in 5.0, making selecting areas of an image to work on much easier.
1999 – Photoshop 5.5
Photoshop 5.5 featured the huge time saver, “Save For Web”. This feature allows those who choose it to save the image in a preset specifically designed for web use which allows the user to adjust image quality to achieve a smaller image.
Version 5.0 had failed to take the Web into account with all of its other major feature changes on the table. It was also bundled with ImageReady, a standalone program that was purpose-built to edit web graphics.
Most of the features of ImageReady were later incorporated into the full version of Photoshop and the idea of a simpler program was reborn eventually in the form of Photoshop Elements.
2000 – Photoshop 6.0
The layer styles panel made working with layers even easier in Photoshop 6. Vector shapes were also added in this release; the ability to draw vector shapes such as arrows into a bitmap was lauded by users.
There was also a new custom shapes palette that allowed the user to draw using vector shapes rather than just using lines. Text could also now be typed directly onto a picture, rather than being typed first into a text box.
Multi-layer functions made their first appearance with version 6.0. The Blending Options dialogue was also introduced which made blending various elements of an image much easier. 6.0 separated the crop tool from the marquee tool, making it that much easier to get to this commonly used command.
2001 – Photoshop Elements
With the increasing complexity of the tools available to users, Photoshop was risking losing a significant market share that didn’t understand or need some of its more advanced tools.
In order to combat this, they released Photoshop Elements in 2001. The new product was a success, and designers continue to recommend it to clients for simple image resizing and other non-design tasks.
While its current interface, shown below, isn’t intuitive for those trained in traditional Photoshop, it is highly usable and labeled clearly for the average user. If there are any problems with it in terms of functionality, the simple answer is to upgrade to the full-featured Photoshop.
2002 – Photoshop 7.0
Version 7.0 introduced the healing brush and text that was fully vector-based. More importantly to veteran users, it introduced a new file browser that let designers easily pore through folders to find the graphics that they wanted.
Files within a folder could be renamed using Batch Rename, plus a bunch of other helpful commands that made working with a high volume of files much easier.
Workspaces could also be created and saved, allowing you to save your file locations and groups for future use.
The brush palette also featured a number of changes, including the new healing brush tool, patch tool, and the ability to create custom brushes. Spell check and a find/replace feature rounded out the updates to the text tool.
A number of enhancements were also included for web use, including the addition of rollover effects for images and a web gallery feature.
One of the most important upgrades was under the hood; 7.0 was optimized for use with Mac OS X, virtually eliminating crashes in the middle of working on large files. The tool presets palette let users program presets for commonly performed tasks, increasing efficiency.
2003 – Photoshop CS
Photoshop CS was the first to employ the CDS (counterfeit deterrence system) which recognized and refused to allow duplication of paper currency.
Scripting support for various web languages, including JavaScript, was also new to this release.
Layer groups were introduced with this version, which allowed various layers to be grouped together for effects to be applied to some and not others.
Improvements to the File Browser made images easier to work with, and the 16-bit and better large file support made CS much easier to work with for designers who constantly worked with larger images and photographers.
2005 – Photoshop CS2
The red eye removal tool, previously exclusive to Elements, was popular enough to make an appearance in the core version of Photoshop. Smudging options and the ability to select multiple layers also added to the functionality of Photoshop.
The Vanishing Point tool allowed users to edit images in perspective. The largest moment of panic when upgrading to PS2 came for most when they tried to find the Paint Bucket tool, which had been classified under the Gradient tool. There were other significant changes to the UI that prompted one writer to put out this “Where’s My Stuff?” column.
Layers and the layers palette were other areas of note. The “links” column was removed because CS2 included a link button rather than the small chains beside each layer. The “Smart Object” feature was introduced, which allows the user to scale a layer up without significant loss of quality.
2007 – Photoshop CS3
A faster load was probably the most noticeable feature of this 2007 release. It included fine tuning to a number of its existing tools rather than focusing on new ones.
The most notable new feature was graphic optimization for mobile devices, a feature which many web designers focusing on mobile design were thankful for. This version also saw significant feature updates to Adobe Camera RAW, a Quick Select tool, alterations to core commands like Brightness and Contrast and Black and White conversion.
CS3 shipped in Standard and Extended editions. The Extended version was intended for high end video and scientific users. Improved performance for Intel-based Macs significantly improved the speed of Photoshop, while Windows users also enjoyed performance upgrades. The new Quick Selection tool put the rest of the selection tools in Photoshop to shame with easy object selection with one or two strokes.
Cloning became easier in CS3 with the birth of the Clone Source palette which increased the options available to the Clone Stamp tool in an easily accessible palette.
2008 – Photoshop CS4
The smoother pan and zoom allowed for fast drill down on the areas of an image that you wanted to look at. Prior to this, there was a lag time of a few seconds (depending on your system) if you wanted to zoom in or out on an image.
The Masks and Adjustments panel was added, making working with masks easier. CS 4 also dealt with edges on masks more effectively. Colour correction took a huge step forward with this release.
The user interface was significantly simplified in CS4. The support of tabbed documents made it much easier to use and the main tools were added to the title bar for easier access. Quick access for common actions was made available in the panel area.
Where Are The Knolls Now?
Thomas Knoll Thomas was the lead developer of Photoshop right up until CS 4. He now leads up the Camera Raw plugin for Photoshop, which allows Photoshop to develop a smooth handshake between different models of camera raw image formats.
John Knoll John is still employed by Industrial Light and Magic as a Visual Effects Supervisor. He was the Visual Effects Supervisors for the recent efforts on the first three Star Wars prequel films. He also supervised work on two Star Trek movies, Star Trek episodes, and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Glenn Knoll Their father is a teacher at the University of Michigan in the Engineering Department.
Let’s all get together to wish Photoshop a Happy Birthday!
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