possible to buy just ImageReady?

[madmac]

hello,

I am wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to purchase just Adobe ImageReady? That is all I need, and I really don't have $600 to throw out on Photoshop just to get ImageReady.

So far I haven't been able to find anywhere you can buy it by itself. Does it maybe come packed with a little bit cheaper package than photoshop?

[tedster]

From what I read at Macromedia, ImageReady is "fully integrated" with Photoshop. I take that to mean that it uses so many of the core Photoshop routines that it cannot stand alone.

[Ryan8720]

Why would you want just ImageReady?

[Hawkgirl]

Does it need to be ImageReady? What are you looking to do - animate GIFs? If that's what you need, there are other packages out there that will do the trick for you. You can find a good list here: [webmasterworld.com...]

[sun818]

For cheaper, you can buy an older version of PhotoShop 5.5 on places like eBay. Or you can also try a place like craigslist which is frequented by graphic designers.

[madmac]

I like ImageReady because it saves images for the web very nicely... Thats all I create graphics for... no not animated GIFs... just optimized GIFS & JPEGS... its does a better job (small file size, high quality maintained) than any thing else I have tried... My photoshop trial will expire soon, but I don't use photoshop at all and can't see spending $600 just for ImageReady. Also the Mac <-> PC gama convertor in ImageReady is very nice and very handy.

[mivox]

Have you checked Adobe's online store? They might have some kind of 'downscale' bundle that included ImageReady.

If not, I'd also recommend getting v.5.5 or v.6 on eBay. Then, not only do you have a full version of the software, including ImageReady, but you can upgrade at a discount in the future. :)

Make sure you buy at LEAST v.5.5 though, as that's when ImageReady was introduced.

[madmac]

didn't see anything at the Adobe store that was also bundled with Imageready...

thanks, I'l check eBay... with v7 and now the new version (CS or something?) coming out, hopefully I'll be able to pickup version 6 for pretty cheap (even new pretty cheap I'd think).

[BlobFisk]

I like ImageReady because it saves images for the web very nicely...

Isn't that just a nicer view of Photoshop's "Save For Web"? Which in v6 also handles slices...

[madmac]

Bob, I don;t know... I also have created dropletts for Image ready to resize and optimize images for our catalog...

so I really do not need Imageready... I need something that will optimize images for the web with high quality and allow batch processing with a droplett type implementation. I am still looking, but ImageReady seems the best in this area... I think Adobe really missed out not releasing it as a seperate program as well. Not everyone needs a $600 application to create their web graphics.

[mivox]

Isn't that just a nicer view of Photoshop's "Save For Web"?

If I'm not mistaken, the "Save for Web" command is actually handled through ImageReady's back end stuff... Not sure though.

But the two programs are really tightly integrated. I wouldn't be surprised if ImageReady kinda 'disappeared' into PhotoShop completely.

[pageoneresults]

ImageReady's back end stuff...

Yes, when you save for web from Photoshop, ImageReady is launched.

ImageReady is far superior to any other tool we've tested in regards to optimizing, slicing and outputting the optimized sliced data complete with CSS. Earlier versions of ImageReady do not have the CSS option.

No, you cannot purchase ImageReady as a stand alone product.

P.S. Last time I looked at Adobe's site, you could not find anything specific for ImageReady, they don't even promote it, or at least at that time they did not.

[tedster]

If you buy an old version of Photoshop, you should be aware of a few things.

ImageReady as it came with Photoshop 5 was not quite as good at jpeg compression as the current version. For that matter, the same was true for Photoshop 6. Until version 7 of PS was released, I could always beat ImageReady with Fireworks. I also had to keep a few utilities around that could rotate or crop jpeg's without needing to de-compress/re-compress, thus accenting the artifacts.

But with the current version, Adobe has really taken the brass ring.

[Agitprop]

If you are a Mac user then BoxTop Software has a bunch of PhotoShop plug-ins for gif and jpeg optimization, as well as a great animated gif standalone application. I've been using their ProJPEG and PhotoGIF compressors for around 5 years (through various upgrades) and they still beat Adobe 5.5, and 6.x by miles...

Not sure on compatibility with PhotoShop CS as they haven't yet announced an upgrade path.

p.s. Buying ImageReady 1.x or 2.x was an easy way to get a registered free upgrade to PhotoShop 5.5 for around $75 (offer long since expired)