April 18, 2002 - According to Gartner analyst, Charles Abrams, Adobe’s announced Macintosh OS X version of Photoshop 7.0 was a smart move. Abrams offered Gartner’s first take on the subject. “This announcement will benefit enterprises using Photoshop, the most important and widely used image-editing program. (Gartner estimates that Photoshop has achieved $200 million in annual sales.) Photoshop 7.0 offers significant image editing and workflow upgrades, including: * A file browser to visually browse and retrieve images * Web output enhancements * Autocolor command for enhanced color correction * A customizable workspace “Also, for the first time, Photoshop 7.0 offers separate versions supporting Mac OS X and Windows XP (it supports older Mac and Windows versions as well). It offers significant graphics support for OS X and XP, which are relatively new graphic arts platforms. Photoshop 7.0's support for Mac OS X is important since page layout mainstay QuarkXpress and other dominant graphics arts applications have not yet announced OS X support. OS X support may give Adobe's competitor to QuarkXpress, InDesign, a competitive edge although it remains an emerging product. “Photoshop 7.0 also features Adobe's eXtensible Metadata Platform (XMP), an XML-based collaborative publishing framework. XMP provides Adobe applications and workflow partners with a common XML framework that standardizes the creation, processing and interchange of document metadata. Metadata figures as increasingly important in all types of publishing. Documents containing metadata can greatly increase the utility of assets in collaborative production workflows. “Photoshop users should evaluate upgrading to 7.0 to take advantage of new graphic and workflow capabilities. Customers that delayed upgrading to Macintosh OS X and Windows XP because of lack of third-party vendor support should evaluate Photoshop 7.0's new capabilities against new third-party products specifically designed to work with the new OSs. Customers of other Adobe products should consider adopting Adobe's XMP platform for collaborative production workflows.” Gartner, Inc. is a research and advisory firm that helps more than 11,000 clients understand technology and drive business growth. Gartner's divisions consist of Gartner Research, Gartner Consulting, Gartner Measurement and Gartner Events. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and consists of 4,300 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants in more than 90 locations worldwide. The company achieved fiscal 2001 revenue of $952 million.