what are the advantages of Colortone over Photoshop?

[alleycat]

I'm relatively new to Colortone and Photoshop, but I think the powers that be are considering not buying another license to Colortone and instead using Photoshop more since it is less expensive.

Does anyone have any thoughts on if this is a good decision or not?

As usual, thanks for any help!

[haven11]

i think it depends on the work you are doing. could get by with photoshop for most stuff

its a bit dated but it really comes into its own when working with multi channel images. as far as im aware its the only one out there that will give a real visualization of special inks. the correction tools (curves, mixer ect) blow photoshop away, and the cool feature of chaining them together is great.

[David]

Haven11 nailed it with his comments.

Colortone has the best eyedropper (densitometer) I've ever seen. It can read amounts less than 1 percent (which Photoshop cannot do).
Colortone is a little hard to learn, it's got goofy icons for tools (stupid cat in a chair, or chair with no cat).
Great transparency masking, works with Kaleidoscope, just a few things come to mind.


It's a toss up, depends on your workflow. It may be good to keep one copy running for emergency needs.

I'm still waiting on my CT/LP plugin for Photoshop CS3/Intel, so I'm having to use a G4 with PS to do Esko CT edits.

[alleycat]

thanks!

[haven11]

yeah, the interface is "quite goofy" and hard to learn. i think i remember, one of the esko techs mentioning that they dont actually own the code for it, hence why it hasnt been updated. that file selector feels 15 years old!