The ability to crush a JPEG down to 60% quality while keeping it looking decent? That was the skill that separated the amateurs from the pros. Modern Photoshop has AI that can generate mountains and remove ex-girlfriends from vacation photos. CS3 had the Clone Stamp and a lot of patience.
The icons were clean. The tools were easy to find. You didn’t need to watch a YouTube tutorial to figure out where Adobe hid the "Save for Web" feature (it was exactly where it belonged). Speaking of which, CS3 defined the early social media and blogging era. If you were running a MySpace layout blog or a gaming forum signature shop, you lived in the Save for Web dialog. Photoshop CS3
If you’ve been in the creative industry long enough, you remember the moment you installed . The ability to crush a JPEG down to