Security firm Secunia has reported a vulnerability with Photoshop CS2 and CS3, whereby a malformed bitmap file (.BMP, .DIB, .RLE) could cause a buffer overflow in the application.  Unfortunately I don’t have more useful info to add at the moment, and I’m heading to Death Valley for the weekend & will be out of the loop for a bit.  I’ll post more details as I get them.  In the meantime, I’d suggest steering clear of files in these formats created by unknown/untrusted parties.  (The good news here is that the formats are pretty uncommonly used in Photoshop, to the point where I can’t remember the last time a customer mentioned them to me.)

I was really pleased to hear film & video peeps’ response to Photoshop Extended last week at NAB, and today we got some more good news: NewBay Media (publishers of Digital Cinematography, DV Magazine, and more) awarded Photoshop CS3 Extended their "Vidy" & "Top Innovation" awards.  Thanks, guys!  Meanwhile Adobe Soundbooth took home DV’s Black Diamond award.

As long as we’re being a little immodest, I’ve seen some other great comments in recent days:

• "It’s simple, really," writes Jim Heid in Macworld. "If digital imaging is an important part of your creative life, you’ll want Adobe Photoshop CS3. The new version provides so many improvements in so many areas that no serious digital photographer, video artist, or designer should be without it" [emphasis added].
• "This upgrade is a no-brainer if you’re a regular Photoshop user," says CreativePro’s Ben Long. "The combination of enhancements to staple features, such as Curves and the Clone Stamp, combined with powerful new additions like the Black and White conversion and Camera Raw enhancements, mean that there’s something for everyone in this update."
• PC World lists Photoshop among "The 50 Best Tech Products of All Time."
• Elsewhere, MacDirectory had this to say about Adobe as a whole:
• "Beyond all the products enhancements and features revealed at the CS3 launch, the one thing that made the strongest and possibly most important impression was Adobe’s attitude. They retained all the enthusiasm and drive of a company that’s battling for market share. They know what their customers need and they deliver that and far more. With each new version, their products are not only richer, but also faster. They are not only a market leader, but remain one of the market’s leading innovators. When Adobe required Macromedia, many of us were concerned that the sudden lack of competition in the electronic design marketplace would lead to a creative lull in product development. Instead, it appears that the energies of two great companies have combined to bring us even more dramatic advancements."
• And lastly, I spied some nice props on the forum : "Chris Cox, I promise you that you will have made a massive contribution to the field of astrophotography with the release of CS3. Your new image stacking + stitching algorithm is going to allow for immense advances in alignment, noise correction, and overall image optimization. This is a hugely powerful tool, and a significant advance over currently available software. I can tell you personally that it will likely save me several hundred manhours of labor per year. Can’t wait to get my hands on a fresh copy. Thanks Chris – this is going to be marked as a watershed moment in astrophotography development."

This all seems to be going over well, according to the analysts at PiperJaffray who surveyed customers at this month’s sold-out Photoshop World. [Via Scott Kelby]

Having worked at a couple of interactive ad shops, I’m always interested in seeing what’s being created these days:

• Pepsi is running a contest to design the next Pepsi can (more info in the press release). Watching the site, my wife remarked, "Now there’s a sound I don’t like to hear in isolation–that wet, pouring sound…"
• Speaking of unique packaging, Nintendo is offering a chance to win custom-painted Wii consoles. [Via]
• How about a scrumptious Whopper?  Er, maybe not: food photography, advertising vs. reality. [Via]
• In response to visual chaos, São Paulo goes ad-free, with eerie results (photo set). [Via].  I’m headed there in two weeks & will keep my eyes peeled for the lack of ads.  In a somewhat similar (but voluntary) vein, Clear Channel is trying out commercial radio without the commercials.
• Lastly, here’s a solid–and I do mean solid–ad for Reynolds Wrap.

By now we’ve probably talked your ear off about the useful things enabled by Photoshop’s layer alignment code–snapping together two or more layers, making it easy to blend group photos, for example; stitching together complex panoramas; and making crisper HDR merges.

After attending NAB this week, however, Photoshop engineer Mike Clifton came up with a crafty (and, to be honest, not "as-designed") use for the Auto-Align Layers command: stabilizing a chunk of video.  First, he shot some deliberately horrible footage out the window on our floor.  He then used Photoshop’s new Import Frames as Layers command* to turn the video frames into Photoshop layers.  Lastly, he selected all the frames and chose Edit->Auto-Align, telling Photoshop to line them all up.  To our surprise, the results are not half bad: check ’em out here (before, after, and cropped).

Now, to be clear, I wouldn’t sell Photoshop as a video stabilization tool, as tools like After Effects are already capable in that regard.  That said, half the fun of building this stuff is in seeing the clever ways people will deploy it, and this strikes me as one of ’em.

*Brought over from ImageReady, actually, but new to Photoshop.

After the, eh, spirited discussion of the Adobe CS3 iconography that ensued last year, I’m a little hesitant to mention the subject again.  That said, designer Adam Betts has posted an attractive set of alternate CS3 icons, free for download.  The imagery is based on the CS3 product packaging, which wasn’t publicly visible when the initial discussion of the icons transpired.  I think they’re rather handsome. [Via Mike Downey]

[Update: Flash PM Richard Galvan points out another set.
[Update 2: My not allowing comments wasn’t intentional; that’s what I get for scrambling to post during a 30-minute layover in Denver… Anyway, comments are open now.]

I’m headed to the airport at 5am Saturday morning (yeah! all glam, all the time, this gig–though I’m not complaining), off to the FITC (neé Flash in the Can) conference in Toronto.  If you’ll be there and feel like talking about Photoshop, Flash integration, or any related topics, drop me a line.  I’ll also be speaking on Monday afternoon, giving an overview of Photoshop CS3.

Adobe has posted a clean-up script for Mac that will remove vestiges of the Photoshop CS3 public beta as well as other pre-release apps.  It’s important to run this script (and not just throw the app folder into the trash!), and/or to use the application uninstaller, before installing the shipping version of CS3 apps.  An equivalent script will be posted for Windows later in the week. (I’m told that tech support is seeing fewer installation problem reports on Windows because people are used to uninstallers on that platform).

I’m attending NAB in Las Vegas at the moment, so staying on top of developments is tricky, but I’ll post more info as I get it.  Thanks for your patience as I work through approving a backlog of comments.

I’m delighted to say that the biggest and best release in Adobe’s history is now shipping!  Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, Bridge, Contribute, Device Central, and Version Cue are now available via the Adobe.com store and can be downloaded in tryout form shortly.  The CS3 editions of After Effects, Premiere Pro, and Soundbooth will be shipping this summer, and they’re available as pre-release downloads from Adobe Labs.

One important note:  If you’ve installed a beta build of Photoshop, Flash, Soundbooth, or other CS3 software, you must first uninstall the app(s) before installing the shipping versions:

• On the Mac, the uninstaller is in Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers.  Note: You cannot uninstall by dragging CS3 applications to the trash; instead, you must use the uninstaller.
• On Windows XP, uninstall via Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.
• On Windows Vista, in the Programs section of the Control Panel, select Uninstall a Program.

If you experience problems with the uninstall or the install, you may need to use the Adobe CS3 Clean Script which will be available within a few days. [Update: The Mac version is available now; Windows is due shortly. –J.]

//na// Whether or not the medium is the message, it certainly influences it.  People love turning computer bits into big physical forms:

• Design Observer catalogs examples of computer GUI made real (masking tape folders, huge scrollbars, etc.).
• The various "Web 2.0" trends are imagined as a supermarket in this clever video. I want to go around saying "Quakr, Quakrrrrr" but I think I’d get kicked out of the house. [Via]
• Thomas Raschke makes groovy wireframe sculptures.
• Speaking of wireframes, British artist Benedict Radcliffe has created an amazing 1:1 scale Subaru Impreza wireframe sculpture.  Not only is it not a Photoshop job; it apparently it even got a few parking tickets!  Via John Peterson, who writes "It’s s ort of an extreme example of the cursor-kite or the giant red Google pushpin."
• And speaking of vehicles, check out this life-size model car.  Having carved myself up plenty while modeling, I fear equivalently large X-Acto knives. [Via]
• And finally, for those of you that love primates and/or small Italian laborers, there’s a 4-storey Donkey Kong made from Post-It Notes. [Via Veronique Brossier]

Who knew that Pantone is into snuff films?  The company has gotten inkthirsty, urging customers to bust caps into outdated formula guides, then rewarding them for their trouble. Whoever creates the best video of colors getting clipped (ba-dum, tssch) will win an iPhone & other loot.  More info is in Pantone’s press release.  Please tell me that someone will get Sean Penn involved…

In more tranquil color-related news:

• Designer Veerle Pieters gives some good advice on picking palettes.
• Tangerine is a little Mac app that provides "a universal color palette system," making it possible to manage and apply color schemes across apps. [Via Bryan O’Neil Hughes]
• Colorstrology aims to pair you with "your personal birth color."  I, apparently, get "Azalea." Meh.  Can’t I get something cool, like Gunmetal, or White Chocolate?
• Color in Motion imagines colors as characters, acting out the qualities of each & giving a little background info.
• KolorWheel turns iPods into color scheme picker.  The idea, apparently, is that you can hold the ‘pod next to an object while picking colors.  [Via]

Now, how can I get Ice-T out of my head?

Who knew that Pantone is into snuff films?  The company has gotten inkthirsty, urging customers to bust caps into outdated formula guides, then rewarding them for their trouble. Whoever creates the best video of colors getting clipped (ba-dum, tssch) will win an iPhone & other loot.  More info is in Pantone’s press release.  Please tell me that someone will get Sean Penn involved…

In more tranquil color-related news:

• Designer Veerle Pieters gives some good advice on picking palettes.
• Tangerine is a little Mac app that provides "a universal color palette system," making it possible to manage and apply color schemes across apps. [Via Bryan O’Neil Hughes]
• Colorstrology aims to pair you with "your personal birth color."  I, apparently, get "Azalea." Meh.  Can’t I get something cool, like Gunmetal, or White Chocolate?
• Color in Motion imagines colors as characters, acting out the qualities of each & giving a little background info.
• KolorWheel turns iPods into color scheme picker.  The idea, apparently, is that you can hold the ‘pod next to an object while picking colors.  [Via]

Now, how can I get Ice-T out of my head?

Hey, you know who’d probably like multi-touch input?  Dogs, apparently.

That video reminded me of a little anecdote: Not long after I joined the Photoshop team, I was treated to the very unique experience of having Jeff Chien and Todor Georgiev (who really should start Todor & Jeff’s Image Science Hut) simultaneously trying to explain high-powered image science concepts in their respective accents (Taiwanese & Russian Bulgarian*, respectively). When I’d fail to grasp what one was saying, the other would get frustrated and break in–not exactly making things better (though not for lack of trying).  I was a little bewildered, bemused, and unable to believe that these guys would spend their time trying to educate me, of all people.

Anyway, Todor started to explain color matching by holding a CD on three fingers, saying, "It is like a table, you see?  You remove a leg, it becomes unstable…" He illustrated his points by explaining the human perceptual system, noting that whereas a person would respond to certain colors, "If I show this to a dog, the dog will not like it. I show it to a fish, the fish will not like." At that point I interrupted to say, "But Todor, we’ve already sold it to all the humans; dogs are our next target market!" "Okay okay," he replied, "You want dog version, I’ll give you dog version…"

So, do be careful what you wish for. 😉

PS–These Reactrix guys (of the dog/ball demo) have an interesting reel on their site, showing more applications of their technology.
* D’oh; Sorry, Todor, and thanks to Marc Pawliger for the correction.

On the insane off chance that you aren’t hearing enough from me already, you can tune into some new podcasts:

• Inside Digital Photo is a new program from Popular Photography & Inside Mac creator Scott Sheppard. In the latest episode (recorded at Photoshop World last week) I spoke with Scott about all things Photoshop, Bridge, Camera Raw, and Lightroom.  Scott also recently spoke with Lightroom peeps Tom Hogarty & George Jardine.
• Tips From the Top Floor is a digital photography podcast hosted by Christoph Marquardt. We chatted today about Photoshop, hitting features big and small & talking a bit about the future. (Look for the various subscription links below the intro text, or click little Play button to listen right on the page.)
• I also spoke with Justin Seeley of PhotoshopQuicktips.com, demoing some of the new CS3 features for a video podcast.  I don’t yet see it on the site, but I’d expect it to appear there soon.

Martin Evening has posted a great intro to using Photoshop CS3’s new Quick Selection tool together with the new Refine Edge* dialog.  He demonstrates using the tools together with a gradient map adjustment layer (a venerable tool that might get some "I-did-not-know-that"’s on its own) to replace the background in a photo.  Additional details, plus his downloadable PDF overview of Photoshop CS3 and Bridge, are on PhotoshopNews.com. [Via]

* What Martin quite modestly doesn’t mention is that it’s because of his urging–and engineer Jeff Chien’s late-stage efforts–that Refine Edge works not only on selections, but on channels & layer masks as well.  Seeing this demo makes me glad he talked us into it.

With all the new products Adobe is introducing, figuring out which Suite configuration(s) make sense based on your needs can be a bit challenging.  The company created a Flash-based app that lets you view configurations according to job function ("I want to make videos, plus print some stuff…"), but I like the way Web developer Mark Eagleton (not affiliated with Adobe) cuts to the chase with his little configurator: pick the apps you want & view the different pricing options for getting them.  Nice, and right to the point. (Thanks, Mark.)   [Via John Dowdell]

PS–No word yet on a CS3 Retroencabulator…

When you talk to loved ones about techy stuff, do you imagine it sounds to them something like this?  The video, pitching a device called "The Retrooencabulator," may or may not be a gag, but it’s brilliant either way.  Now, as I get ready to take a stage at Photoshop World, I can only hope my demo doesn’t sound like so much mumbo jumbo…  [Via Michael Tapes]

The vid reminds me of my first real Web job, when my company was designing a site for Brisk Iced Tea. (Remember those claymation ads?)  I was so proud that I called my folks and walked them through pulling up the site.  Even the most basic terminology can be a problem:

• Me: "Now click the window with Bruce Lee in it…"
• Them: "Oh, there’s no window."
• Me: "What?  I mean, you see Bruce Lee, right?"
• Them: "Oh yes."
• Me: "Okay, now click the window he’s in…"
• Them: "But he’s not in a window, he’s in a temple of some sort…"
• [Continue like this until I finally realize that they’re looking for a literal, physical window, and have no idea what the little box around the Web site is called.  Aaaaand, cut.]

[Update: Okay, it’s gotta be a gag; see also this Chrysler video. Sometimes during a long press tour, PMs will challenge one another to sneak little phrases into their demos (“the ol’ college try,” “gonna end in tears,” etc.), just to keep it interesting. Now I really want to hear Chad Siegel talk about InDesign’s sinusoidal magneto-reluctance…]

//na// Hitting Opt-Shift-Y*, switching to Luminosity:

• Rock and Royal makes crazy bespoke lighting–chandeliers & mosaics as skulls, pistols, globes–you name it. [Via]
• The folks at the Baltimore Museum of Industry really like light bulbs.  I mean, they really like ’em–to the tune of collecting more than 50,000 historic bulbs. Catherine Wagner spent two years in residence there, photographing "A Narrative History of the Light Bulb."  Here’s a small gallery of her images. [Via]
• Enjoy wearing clothes, but wish they consumed more natural resources?  Try Lumigram’s luminous clothing. [Via]
• The crew at Universal Everything created a "software-based realtime wind tunnel" to make bits of light silhouette the new Audi TT. [Via]

* In a blog full of obscure nerdery bits, this is quite possibly the most obscure and nerdy thing I’ve yet said–quite an accomplishment, don’t you think?

//na// Interesting art bits to pass along:

• Most disturbing. Art supply. Ever.: Pencils made from cremated humans.  I have no idea what to say. [Via]
• Less outlandish body art: peeling manuscript as tattoo. [Via]
• Flickr is hosting a photo set on Swiss graphic design.
• Veerle Pieters showcases the tasty illustrations of Catalina Estrada.

As you may or–as seems overwhelmingly likely–may not know, Photoshop ships with a plug-in for reading and writing JPEG 2000-format files.  Compared with the regular JPEG format (technically known as JFIF), JPEG 2000 offers advantages such as support for higher bit depths, more advanced compression, and a lossless compression option.  Adobe developed the plug-in in anticipation of cameras entering the market with native JPEG 2000 support on board.

The thing is, that hasn’t happened, nor have we seen other widespread adoption of the format in places we know Photoshop is being used.  Therefore with Photoshop CS2 we made the call to stop installing the plug-in by default, but to continue making it available via the product CD.  What’s probably not obvious is that existing features keep consuming resources to maintain & test, even if no features are added to them.  As we plan for the future, we need to retire features that no longer make sense & focus instead on capabilities that matter.

So, do you use JPEG 2000?  If so, please give a shout and let us know how & why you use it.

PS–Note that support for JPEG 2000 as a file format by itself & support for the compression options it offers are two separate things. PDF supports JPEG 2000-compressed images, so we wouldn’t remove that support.  I’m just trying to gauge the value of supporting standalone JPEG 2000 reading and writing.

[Update: We’re not planning to change Photoshop’s JPEG 2000 support strategy anytime soon. Thanks for all the feedback. We’ve got what we need, so I’m switching off comments. –J.]

Nerdery for the masses: Oil of Olay taps into the world’s love of Undo in this crafty new ad. [Via]

The piece reminds me of a concept from an ad agency that was pitching Adobe.  They showed a sequence of images of Michael Jackson in reverse chronological order, running from scary-present-MJ to Jackson Five-cute.  The caption: "Multiple Undo."

On a related note,
the crew at PhotoshopCafe had fun creating spec ads for Photoshop.  I really like the Biblical Sampson bit.  "Go ye forth and bringeth down the house," indeed… [Via Colin Smith]