Best photoeditor for PowePC

Adobe Creative Suite CS 3 was the last version for PPC. It is a hassle to get it run on a case-sensitive filesystem. Adobe's programmers were never good. Adobe Lightroom 2 was the last version for PPC, if you prefer that software for fast photo editing.

Aperture is very slow and only "usable" on a dual G5.

powermi said:

thanks for the reply, so is better to leave Aperture apart, and what about pixelmator?

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See this.

mayuka said:

Adobe Creative Suite CS 3 was the last version for PPC.…

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Uhm. No.

I have the Creative Suite 4 installed on a PowerMac G4/450 at work and it was on a G5 until the G5 died. I also have it installed on my 17" PowerBook G4.

We use Photoshop CS4 every day at work. I assure you, ID CS4, Photoshop CS4 and Illustrator CS4 as well as a few other pieces of CS4 run on PowerPC Macs.

And no, they aren't slow either.

In my opinion Adobe Photoshop Element 6 is the last entry level for Ppc mac and work just great!

CS4 is a breeze on my Power Mac G5.

Jessica Lares said:

CS4 is a breeze on my Power Mac G5.

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I second this. The whole CS4 suite in general is great & runs beautifully on a G5. You didn't mention if have a G4 or a G5 PowerMac though - CS4 requires a G5. On the surface CS3 isn't a big step down & would work well on a G4.

Goftrey said:

…You didn't mention if have a G4 or a G5 PowerMac though - CS4 requires a G5.…

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I repeat my earlier statement. I have CS4, including InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4 and Illustrator CS4 running on a 450mhz PowerMac G4 AGP (with 1GB ram) with OSX 10.5.8 Leopard at work AND running on my 1.67Ghz 17" PowerBook G4.

Photoshop CS3/CS4 are the best photo editors for powerpc. CS3 can even run on an ibook G3 with Tiger

eyoungren said:

I repeat my earlier statement. I have CS4, including InDesign CS4, Photoshop CS4 and Illustrator CS4 running on a 450mhz PowerMac G4 AGP (with 1GB ram) with OSX 10.5.8 Leopard at work AND running on my 1.67Ghz 17" PowerBook G4.D

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That's odd - I tried installing it on my 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 & it would straight up refuse to. Every time.

Goftrey said:

That's odd - I tried installing it on my 1.67GHz PowerBook G4 & it would straight up refuse to. Every time.

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Maybe it's the installer?

Were you using a CS4 suite installer? I ask because I didn't. When CS4 came out I went and downloaded every component individually. So, I have installers for InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc. IIRC I think that's why I did individual installs.

There were apps I was not able to install because it requires a G5 processor though and AfterEffects also required something the G5 does not have (forget which at the moment). So, maybe if you were using a suite installer it stopped because one or more (but not all) of the apps required more than a G4?

I used Photoshop CS4 Extended on my G5 and it ran beautifully. I do sort of recall having trouble with the installer refusing to run though, I think it wanted a 2GHz CPU and not a dual 1.8, and I think I ended up installing components individually using Pacifist.

I got CS4 on my quad. And it runs pretty fast and stable.

eyoungren said:

Were you using a CS4 suite installer? I ask because I didn't. When CS4 came out I went and downloaded every component individually. So, I have installers for InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc. IIRC I think that's why I did individual installs.

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Okay. Unofficially CS4 also runs on G4.

If you have it, go with CS4 or 3. However, if you don't, Adobe released CS2 for free a couple months back, and with PowerPC systems this won't cut into their profit margin.

powermi said:

Pixelmator is a complement for PS?

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No, it's not a complement - if anything I'd say it is a promising substitute. But I haven't had the pleasure to play around with it personally yet so I can't say anything about it. I'll be more than happy to hear users thoughts on this software - since I value those higher than a "professional" review. So I'll second your request for thoughts on the matter.

I'm getting more and more pissed at Adobe's business strategies by the day so I want to steer clear of their products. So far I haven't been doing all that great - I'm using Photoshop almost every day.

mayuka said:

Okay. Unofficially CS4 also runs on G4.

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or…I just don't like taking NO for an answer.

There's always a way…unless there isn't and then it's pretty clear.

eyoungren said:

Maybe it's the installer?

Were you using a CS4 suite installer? I ask because I didn't.

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Yes, I was the using the suite installer. That's obviously the issue then. At least now I know I'll be able to knock Photoshop CS4 (the only one I use on a regular basis) on the 'new' PowerBook when it arrives. Thanks for the help!

No way Pixelmator can be considered a replacement for Photoshop, last time I checked, it was no longer development for the PPC, and *still* doesn't even have a magnetic lasso. Even 10.6 has a basic version. Preview.

Jethryn Freyman said:

No way Pixelmator can be considered a replacement for Photoshop, last time I checked, it was no longer development for the PPC, and *still* doesn't even have a magnetic lasso. Even 10.6 has a basic version. Preview.

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I agree. I got the opportunity to try it out shortly after my post and several things were missing. Most of them does appear later on, but by then it's Intel only. For very light work (minor tweaks on images) I'd say it's... okay, but yeah - PowerPC development has ceased so future improvements does not apply. A shame, but understandable!

Pixelmator came out in 2007, so it was way after the Intel transition and therefore PPC support was dropped quickly.

And yeah, it's not a replacement for Photoshop, but it's good for someone who wants a good program that simply isn't gimmicky filters, MS Paint, or with a weird interface like GIMP has.

powermi said:

Hello everyone. i am going to leave one of my powermac just for photo edition, and now i would like to know wich is the software that powerpc users use to recommend. Some people told me to star¡y with PS 3, and pixelmator. Others just to use Aperture.
Any software suggestion for a newbe in photoedition?

thnaks.

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Adobe is giving CS2 away for free.
It's my choice for G3 systems, and it runs like a charm on the early G4s.

http://www.adobe.com/downloads/cs2_downloads/

spyguy10709 said:

Adobe is giving CS2 away for free.

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No. They. Are. Not.
It is NOT free. This is a common fallacy because it was first reported that way.

The link you provide is for registered owners who have already purchased the product and the serials are given there so that registered owners may reinstall CS2 without having to reactivate. Adobe has removed CS2 from the activation servers.

That said however, Adobe seems to be unconcerned about others downloading from that link.