For many years Photoshop supported a “No Color Management” printing mode.  Unfortunately the option caused user confusion, and it was difficult for Adobe & Apple to continue supporting.  In the course of modernizing Photoshop’s foundations (moving to Cocoa, 64-bit, Quartz, etc.) in CS5, we dropped this feature.

There are, however, people who need to print without color management. They print color targets which are then used to generate printer profiles for new printer/paper/ink combinations. These users range from printer manufactures to third-party ink suppliers to power users like Andrew Rodney who supply their own high quality profiles.

Therefore we’ve created the Adobe Color Print Utility, a simple app designed solely to enable printing without color management.  This way we’ve been able to simplify the Photoshop printing pipeline (both in terms of user experience & code maintenance) while offering power users a needed tool.  Please see the tech note for more application details.

Answer: You’d have something like the just-released GridIron Flow 2.0.  It can save your butt, for free. Why would you not start using it immediately?

The company has radically redefined what was already a unique & very powerful piece of software, enabling file sync & collaboration on top of automatic versioning.  Oh, and instead of costing a couple of hundred bucks per seat, it’s now free (!), with paid upgrades if you need more capabilities.  Read on for details.

I praised Flow 1.0 as being like an airbag, staying out of your way until it saves your bacon–by automatically versioning your files (think realtime Time Machine, with beautiful Adobe integration).  Trouble is, because the app is so unique, it’s sometimes hard for people to wrap their heads around & pay for up front.

The barrier to entry, however, is now zero.

The free product, Flow Essentials, tracks all files in a creative project and displays them in a visual map. You can now define projects and identify teams of people that will be part of the workflow. Flow 2 Essentials enables realtime collaboration, enabling users to add notes to nodes on the map, and to send emails (linking recipient to the node on that map) to the team or a subset of the group. The map allows you to see who worked on each asset, the size of the asset, and any attached notes.

This is all provided, along with 4GB of online Overflow storage (the Dropbox-style part), for free.  Unlike Dropbox (of which I’m a fan, by the way), Flow doesn’t require moving assets into specific folders; you can move and rename them while staying synced.

They also offer three premium services, each for $10/month per user, or $20/mo./user for all three (no contract required):

1. Time Manager allows you to review the time you have invested on each asset, and provides a control feature to allow amortizing total time across multiple projects. It also displays percentage of time spent in each creative application and offers a manual entry mechanism that allows you to include time that is not file based (e.g. design & client meetings, phone calls, etc.).
2. Versioning enables automatic file versioning & allows you to lock, delete, branch or drill down on any specific version. Versions are saved locally by default.
3. Overflow shares not only the asset but versions of that asset as well. The premium service adds 50GB to the 4GB of storage provided for in Essentials.

Why am I promoting this app?  Do I or Adobe get some kind of kickback for sales? Nope. It’s just that having been a Web designer in a big agency, I know the pain of lost/overwritten files & the drag of filling out timesheet.  What’s it worth to help fix those problems?  More than the cost of a few coffees a month, I’m guessing.

If you take Flow for a spin, please share your impressions via the comments.

One, I can’t tell you how badly I wanted to do computer animation in my youth.  An Apple IIgs ad featuring a rocket blasting off nearly made my head blast off.  Two, it’s hard to imagine that the app below predated Flash by just five years (FutureSplash by less).

[Via]

On a related note, I was struck by David Pogue noting today, “Think of all the commonplace tech that didn’t even exist 10 years ago: HDTV, Blu-ray, GPS, Wi-Fi, Gmail, YouTube, iPod, iPhone, Kindle, Xbox, Wii, Facebook, Twitter, Android, online music stores, streaming movies and on and on.”

Previously: Old-school imaging: Warhol on the Amiga.

Leo Bridle & Ben Thomas labored for 9 months to create their all-analog “Train of Thought“:

As often happens, I found the making-of video (in this case involving some Photoshop plus what one imagines were a heck of a lot of papercuts) even more interesting:

I know it’s small potatoes* in the big scheme of things, but I’m always proud when I hear about Adobe improving its environmental impact.  I just saw an internal note about some changes happening this month:

• Eliminating bottled water from all break rooms and kitchens
• Adding dual-flush toilets to restrooms to increase water efficiency
• Moving to paper towels with 100% recycled content
• Offering soy milk and organic, fair-trade coffee in break rooms
• Replacing compact fluorescent lamps in elevator lobbies

Previously: Adobe HQ gets fuel cells, windmills, more efficient HVAC.

*free-range, no-kill, locally grown, hemp-infused, patchouli-scented small potatoes, perhaps

Well, I’ll be damned. From tonight’s show, I’m told:

[Via Winston Hendrickson]

Customers in North America can get the new Photoshop Elements 9 for $49 until Tuesday afternoon:

Offer ends November 30, 2010, at 5:00 p.m. PST. When purchasing through the online Adobe Store, you must enter offer code SAVE2010 in the shopping cart prior to checking out when prompted to do so. To purchase by phone, call 800-585-0774 and mention offer code SAVE2010. Savings are limited to one discount per product per customer.

PS–Sorry if I just embedded Voices Carry in your head.

When you say, “600 ft. of knitted tubing powered by a pump located in the backpack,” I say, “Christmas for Margot!” Well, perhaps not, but Charlie Bucket is onto something pretty rad. (Instead of resorting to the opposing cliches of either silver body suits or post-apocalyptic ripped sweaters, why don’t movies depict more visually active clothing in the future?)

More info is on what gets my name for URL o’ the year, CasualProfanity.com. [Via]

Cross-browser testing tends to suck, and the Adobe BrowserLab team is working to make it better.  If you’re interested in hearing their thoughts and providing feedback, please check out the BrowserLab Team Blog.

“So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.” 🙂  Check it out.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the Adobe TV team is working to add support for non-Flash-enabled devices (leveraging the HTML5 Video tag).  In the meantime the YouTube channel provides an alternate way to access many of the same clips on those devices.

You can now download a Mac preview version of Audition, Adobe’s pro audio editor that was formerly Windows-only.  According to the Adobe Labs page,

Adobe Audition for Mac brings modern audio post-production to the Mac platform. Familiar tools for audio editing, multitrack mixing and recording meet improved performance, greater workflow flexibility, and new features such as native 5.1 surround support and new effects. Plus, the best-of-breed audio sweetening and restoration tools in Audition make it easy to clean up production audio.

Check out the product page for an FAQ and more.

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius

Taking it to heart,
J.

Cross-browser debugging: the eternal joy!  Things can at least suck less with the help of Adobe BrowserLab.  A live Q&A is going on today at noon Pacific:

Learn how Adobe BrowserLab, an Adobe CS Live service, solves this problem by showing you how your web pages look on popular browsers and operating systems – without having them installed. You’ll learn how to preview your content and use the various diagnostics tools that help you pinpoint issues.

[time zone converter]

In case you’re in San Francisco and feel like joining us:

We are pleased to have visual effects artist Lisa Yimm return for another great presentation.

Join Lisa for a walk-through the workflow and creative possibilities available with Red Giant Software’s Magic Bullet PhotoLooks 1.5 and Photoshop CS5.

PhotoLooks is a unique set of color-correction and image enhancement tools that can speed up your workflow and spark your creativity with built-in presets that help you easily achieve some of today’s most recognizable film and television “Looks” like CSI:Miami, The Matrix, and Band of Brothers.

The event starts at 6:30.  Please RSVP & get other details here.

Hope to see you there:

Bryan O’Neil Hughes will present “Hidden Gems”, showing lesser known features and workflows in Photoshop CS5. Michael Lewis will give an introductory talk about tips and techniques for shooting DSLR video, useful accessories, advantages/disadvantages of different cameras and file formats, getting the files into a computer, and a very brief look at project workflow and editing.

We’ll have pizza and drinks at 6:30, and the meeting will start at 7:00, in the Park Conference Room of Adobe Systems’ East Tower, 321 Park Avenue, San Jose.

Please see the Evite for details & to RSVP.

Here’s a little something to cleanse the palette from all the Flash/HTML5/etc. bits.

The other day designer Khoi Vinh remarked on his young daughter’s iPhone fascination, lamenting the lack of a toddler mode that could do things like override the home button. Like many parents I know, I’m in just the same boat, as our two toddlers abscond with & modify my phone and iPad.  I can’t offer a lot of tips, though I heartily recommend the fun little audio app Bebot.  15-mo.-old Henry now drags me the tablet demanding “Bebop, bebop!”

On the Mac, however, I’ve found a very winning combo: Alfred (a Quicksilver-style launcher utility) plus AlphaBaby, a shape, letter, and sound generator–both free. I feel like a missile defense system, where milliseconds of reaction time make all the difference between success & disaster. The Alfred/AlphaBaby combo means that I can simply hit Opt-Space, then type “A” to select AlphaBaby and launch it. Unngh, in your faces, little dudes! 🙂

Hope that’s of use to someone. Any other advice and suggestions are welcome.

Lots of interesting info will be forthcoming in Adobe’s keynote presentations today & tomorrow.  I’ve had a little hand in whipping up some cool stuff for today, and I’m looking forward to seeing other secret sauce unveiled.  Check out the sessions live:

Welcome to the Revolution
Monday, October 25, 9:30 am-11:30 am PDT (convert time zone)

We are in the midst of a revolution across a variety of screens, new input methods, new formats, and new distribution models. Join Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch as he shares insights, future perspectives, and plenty of demos.

 

User Experience: The Next Generation
Tuesday, October 26, 10:00 am-12:00 pm PDT (convert time zone)

User expectations and experiences are evolving rapidly, and Adobe has long taken the lead in creating the tools and services to design for the future. Join us to be inspired (and, yes, entertained) as we show you the future of building interactive and engaging experiences in ways you’ve yet to imagine.

“Qualities of PSD include supernatural powers of imagination and an overwhelming desire to constantly make the world more beautiful.” Heh heh–really cute stuff:

Props to the crew from Hyperakt. [Via Tobias Hoellrich]

The folks at Aardman Animations have created “the world’s smallest stop-motion animation character,” filming the results using a Nokia N8 paired with a microscope:

The making-of video (in which After Effects makes a little cameo) is fascinating:

[Via]

I know that it sometimes seems that Photoshop and Fireworks are at odds (at least per comments left by passionate Fireworks users anytime I ask about PS & the Web), but it really is a great app.  If you’re free today and want to learn more, read on.

Join David Hogue for Ask a CS Pro: Fireworks CS5 for Designers & Developers, today at 1pm PDT.  If you are new to Fireworks, just upgraded from an older version, a developer who uses it for image slicing and optimization, or a designer who uses other tools and wants to know what Fireworks is all about, join us for an interactive online discussion where we will highlight some of the new features and lesser known features of Fireworks.

If you’re a recent college grad (undergrad or graduate studies), and if you’ve got solid chops working with graphics processors, check out this job description (for Seattle or the SF Bay Area).  Believe me, there’s no shortage of interesting stuff on which we can collaborate.

Put your finger to the corner of your mouth: The Photoshop Facebook page has passed one miiiillion fans.  (You hear the footsteps, Bieber? We’re coming for you, haircut.)  Adobe director Maria Yap talks about how the page has quadrupled in popularity since last summer, adding:

We hope you’ll join us throughout the week for some fun and giveaways as we celebrate YOU. Today, leave a comment below answering the question, “If we could make one improvement to Photoshop specifically for YOU, what would it be?” We’ll pick 5 random people from the comments to receive a free copy of both Photoshop and Lightroom as a thank you for your dedication. [Note: Please submit the comments via the FB page, not via this post.]

Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm, support, and passionate feedback!

Crazy. According to Flash evangelist Ted Patrick,

At Adobe MAX 2010, Leonard Nimoy will be joining us as Host for MAX Awards and Sneaks. Given his presence at Sneaks, the team is going all out. We have 10 amazing sneaks from Adobe research labs, Colin Moock is hosting Star Trek trivia with Megaphone between Awards and Sneaks, there are some fairly serious costumes in development, and it is sure to be a great time.

In response, Adobe’s Russell Brown–who you will have no trouble believing already had a Vulcan get-up just lying around–writes,

In honor of Mr. Nimoy attending the show, the crazy Russell Brown of Adobe will make an appearance as a Vulcan on Tuesday, October 26th. Look for Mr. Brown at the show!

Adobe MAX is just a few weeks away.  I many other Adobe people are working away on cool stuff to show there, so I hope you can make it.  Photoshop PMs Bryan O’Neil Hughes & Zorana Gee will be presenting Photoshop CS5, so read on for details of what they’ll be showing (and when).

Continue reading →

Adobe keeps taking steps to make its San José headquarters more energy efficient.  Following the installation of toddler-delighting windmills earlier in the year, the company has installed a set of fuel cells:

Adobe’s ‘Bloom boxes’ are expected to generate approximately 30 percent of the energy required to power the three San Jose headquarters towers. Using the fuel cells, Adobe expects to reduce its carbon footprint by approximately 121.5 million pounds over 10 years, which is equivalent to taking 1,810 compact cars off the road annually.

Cool.  Here’s the full press release.

Video expert Richard Harrington will be presenting an Ask a CS Pro session this Friday, October 1st, at 10am PDT covering the use of Premiere Pro & Photoshop CS5 Extended for DSLR video shooting. Richard knows the ins & outs of video in Photoshop (yes, there’s video in Photoshop), so expect to learn some new ways of working.

Just look at this dog video. Just look at it. 🙂

Someone once said that OK Go is a bunch of video artists masquerading as a band. I think that about nails it. More info is on the band’s site. [Via Margot Nack]
[Update: Gizmodo has more making-of info & pictures. “12 trainers, two furniture movers, 12 dogs, one goat, 38 buckets, and a bunch of furniture…”] [Via]

If you’re interested in details on Dreamweaver CS5’s new HTML5 support, check out this session with Web developer David Powers, this Friday, Sept 24th at 11am PDT.

A few years ago I posted what turned out to be a popular article on “What’s the story with Photoshop & multi-core?”  In it Photoshop architect Russell Williams explains, in accessible terms, some of the challenges involved in splitting up processing tasks across processors/cores.

Now Russell has sat down with Intel architect Clem Cole for a deeper discussion of Photoshop & scalability.  They cover everything from the early days of DayStar multiprocessor systems (did I just move some dust in your brain?) to the latest developments around GPUs, OpenCL, and more. [Via Dave Howe]

That’s one impressive launch-time improvement:

I’m a pissed-off Web designer at heart.  I came to work at Adobe because I was sick of software getting in the way of my ideas, and rather than just bitch about it, I wanted to try making things better.

Now there’s an opening for a new Sr. Product Manager, Web Design.  Job description highlights:

As the Web Design Product Manager, you are responsible for defining and managing Adobe’s efforts to enable designers to create websites and online businesses. You must have a deep understanding of the design market, web workflows and a passion for creating great products. […]

You know the ins and outs of web and design workflows, products and related technologies.[…] You are the product champion, an effective evangelist with the ability to inspire others with your vision. At the same time, you must be able to recognize a good idea and act on it, regardless of where it came from. […] Ultimately, you are decisive, care about the details, and are not afraid to lead. If you don’t like to be the center of attention, you need not apply.

I know the new product that’s in development, and it’s cool.  If, like me, you love the Web & want to improve the way visual people create for it, and if you’re up for living in Seattle, drop these guys a line.

Heh–fun from our friends at Chopping Block:

Matthew Richmond shares some details about the project on the team blog.

Interesting:

Minimal additional details are on Engadget. [Via Foster Brereton]

From Adobe Creative Suite User Group of San Jose organizer Sally Cox:

Join us online for our new webinar series, starting with “Photoshop: From the Ground Up – Part 1” on September 23, beginning at 6 pm. All levels of expertise can benefit from this free series.
These online meetings will cover all major aspects of Photoshop, beginning with the basics. Continue reading →

A reader recently asked whether there’s a running list of lens profiles (enabling automatic correction of distortions) included in Lightroom 3.x & Camera Raw 6.x.  Why yes, yes there is. [Via Tom Hogarty]

• As President Obama announces the official withdrawal of US combat forces from Iraq, the NY Times presents an interactive photography retrospective, Drawing Down and Moving Ahead in Iraq.
• The Denver Post starts with images of the withdrawal, then moves back to feature photography from the course of the war.  Rough and gripping, and essential to remember.

Super cool street art from Joshua Allen Harris:

[Via Ellis Vener]

Camera + computer + 830 wood blocks = groovy.

Here’s more info on the project. [Via]

If you’ll be in Vegas next week and want to give me a piece of your mind, bounce ideas back and forth, etc., please let me know.  I arrive Wednesday afternoon and fly out on Friday.

The Retouch Artists Photoshop Speed Test is being updated to a new version (2.0) in the near future.  Test creator James Alexander is looking for beta testers both to test the action and to provide times for the site’s baselines. Testers need to have standard stock configuration of current Apple machines that are currently being sold on Apple.com.

If you’re interested, please send an email with your system specs. James notes that he welcomes suggestions on what to include in the test, regardless of whether you’re currently able to perform testing.

Should be a good session:

Learn about the new features of Photoshop CS5 and get your questions answered in the upcoming Ask a CS Pro Session with Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes. Join us this Friday Aug 20th at 12 noon PDT!  RSVP here.

That the session will be recorded and posted to the Creative Suite Facebook page soon after the event, alongside recordings of the previous sessions.

Tangentially related: I need to make time soon to help you get to know Photoshop PMs Bryan, Zorana Gee, and Pam Clark better.  More to come.

Tom Hogarty & Bryan O’Neil Hughes are leading a photowalk this next Saturday. Slots have filled up fast, but a few should still be available. Check out the event details if you’re interested.

The 10.6.4 update to Snow Leopard introduced some conflicts with Photoshop and other applications that leverage graphics hardware.  The just-released Snow Leopard Graphics Update should help address these problems.  If you apply the update and continue to have trouble in Photoshop or other Adobe apps, please let us know.

Finn’s watching this with me, saying “What is *that*, what is *that*?” I’m not sure I can answer, but Felix Thorn sure makes some interesting stuff.

[Via]

This one’s admittedly esoteric, but potentially interesting.

Adobe Drive lets Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign work more easily with asset management systems.  A preview version of Drive 2.0 for CS5 is ready for download from Adobe Labs, enabling you to:

• Open and save files directly from the CMS/DAM server
• Enter check-in or version comments
• View multiple versions of managed files
• Browse/search the CMS/DAM server for assets based on metadata

The interesting part is that Drive connects with third-party systems that support the CMIS standard.  I don’t have more details at the moment, but I’d like to see working with Photoshop and Subversion et al. made simpler.

Designers & illustrators sometimes ask how to get their work featured on Adobe posters, etc. Here’s one opportunity:

Win $2000 + a copy of Adobe® Creative Suite® 5 Design Premium software (MSRP US$1899) if your design is chosen the winner in the Threadless t-shirt design competition. Just use your design talents to create a tee inspired by the MAXtopia theme for Adobe MAX 2010. Contest ends August 29th, so don’t delay.

The purpose of the submissions relating to this promotion is to create a stand-alone design inspired by the challenge, not a brand tee. Your design should not have brand names or logos on it.

Visit the Threadless site for rules & other info–and good luck.

As part of our family Egg:Basket Concentration Regimen 2010, I’m delighted to say that my wife Margot Liggett Nack has accepted a program management job at Adobe.  (Maybe the talk about Adobe being the second-best tech company to work for* finally wore her down.) She’ll be joining the digital video group in a few weeks to build… The Future (more details later).

As my friend Adolfo notes, “Now Adobe has 50% market penetration among Nacks (or Liggett-Nacks).” Two down, two to go.  In any case, welcome, hon!

*Curse your free food, Google!

Tomorrow at Adobe’s San Francisco office, Adobe evangelist Jason Levine will be showing the “Fundamentals of Working With DSLR Video;” please see the sign-up page and the notes below for more info.  If you can’t wait or can’t attend, you might want to check out “Getting Started with Premiere Pro CS5,” a recorded demo/Q&A session with filmmaker Dave Basulto.

For Jason’s session:

Learn the fundamentals of working with DSLR footage natively inside Premiere Pro, After Effects, and Photoshop. From basic import, creating sequences, adding effects and transitions, all the way through export. We’ll also cover questions regarding transcoding footage and using DSLR video with green screen.

Prior to Adobe, Jason was a full-time recording and mastering engineer, working in studios coast-to-coast, engineering hundreds of recordings from Classical to Country, Rock to Reggae. In 2008 alone, Jason presented to over 75,000 people from San Francisco to Singapore, Amsterdam to Auckland, and everywhere in between.