The latest incarnation of Adobe's flagship image-editing application, Photoshop CS2 ($599 direct, $149 upgrade) is packed with a variety of dramatic and practical enhancements. Perhaps the most exciting new feature is Vanishing Point, a filter with simple tools for drawing grids to define perspective planes in your image. Once Vanishing Point understands the image's angle of perspective, it can automatically distort a layer to match the scene. This makes it a cinch, for example, to map text or images onto the sides of buildings perfectly.
Even better, Vanishing Point features a clone stamp tool that works within the established perspective. Imagine a photo of a skyscraper shot from the ground; Vanishing Point could clone windows from the bottom floors onto the upper floors of the building, scaling down the clones in perfect perspective. Once you wrap your head around this tool, it's an invaluable asset.
Smart Objects are another breakthrough feature. Designate a layer as a Smart Object, and you can scale that layer down nondestructively, preserving the ability to restore the layer's original size at any time with no loss in quality. Make copies of a Smart Object, and the copies will be updated to reflect any changes you make to the original object. Imported vector art from Illustrator can also be made a Smart Object, allowing for lossless resizing. There are significant trade-offs—for instance, you can't apply filters to Smart Objects—but layer styles, blend modes, opacity changes, and most distortions are permitted.
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