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Program overview for PSE3 including ease of use, system requirements, cost, notable features and things that are not included in Elements but are available in Photoshop.

Photoshop Elements is a scaled down version of Photoshop, which means that the software is less expensive than Photoshop but it also has a simplified interface and fewer overall functions.

Ease of Use – PSE is requires medium effort to learn and use. Most likely if you’ve never used PSE or PS before, you will not be able to dive right in and digi-scrap with PSE without working through some tutorials, taking a class or reading a book.

System Requirements for PSE3
Windows

• Intel® Pentium® III or 4 (or compatible) 800MHz or faster processor
• Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional or Home Edition with Service Pack 1; Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or later
• 256MB of RAM (512MB or more recommended)
• 800MB of available hard-disk space
• Adobe Reader® 6.0.1 and Microsoft DirectX 9.0 software (included on application CD and installed if not already present)
• Color monitor with 16-bit color or greater video card
• 1,024x768 or greater monitor resolution
• CD-ROM drive

• PowerPC® G3, G4, or G5 processor
• Mac OS X v.10.2.8 or v.10.3
• 256MB of RAM
• 200MB of available hard-disk space
• Color monitor with 16-bit color or greater video card
• 1,024x768 or greater monitor resolution
• CD-ROM drive

Features –

• Photo corrections There are several automatic corrections that can be applied to a photo to fix contrast, brightness, red eye, or color shifts. You can also make photo corrections yourself including adjusting the image’s levels.
• Photo Organizer Now all the features of PS Album are included in the PC version of PSE. The Organizer allows to catalogue your pictures, add tags and captions and search your pictures by date, directory, tag or captions.
• Brushes PSE comes with a great selection of brushes. You can load brushes created by others in PS or PSE and you can create and save your own brushes.
• Filters These built functions can transform your images by adding a blur, a texture, distorting shape or artistic style.
• Layer Styles add bevels, shadows, textured effects to your images that are continually adjustable.
• Selection Tools There are a variety of selection tools that allow you to select and work on a portion of your image.
• Custom Shapes PSE comes with a wide variety of shapes the you can use as embellishments in your layouts
• Cookie Cutter Any of the custom shapes can be used to crop a photo or layer.
• Actions PSE can play actions that were previously created with Photoshop but not all actions will work correctly.

Trial version available through Adobe.