The Register hosts a Q&A with Photoshop co-architect Russell Williams about how the team changed its ways in the CS3 development cycle, making product quality paramount, improving the team’s work/life balance (i.e. fewer "Photoshop widows/-ers" who never see their loved one), and yet still delivering a rich set of features.  In brief: rather than building all the features up front, then spending the rest of the cycle fixing them, the team moved to a more incremental development model, insisting that bugs be fixed as we went along (not allowing them to build into a late-stage "bugalanche").  The article is a good read if you work in product development, or if you just want some inside geekery on how this stuff gets done.

Russell addressed the engineering side, so I thought I’d add some product management perspective.  Overall I’m pleased with how things have gone, but no approach is perfect, and it’s worth noting some of the challenges we faced. [Continued in this post’s extended entry]

Continue reading →

I wonder if that statement will sound laughably outdated someday.  Until then, the new 416MP scanning back from Better Light is mighty impressive. According to CNET, each 2-minute exposure generates a 794MB file that can provide 300 pixel-per-inch resolution for a poster measuring 34" x 45"–all for a cool 23 grand.  Put that in your Flickr account and smoke it. [See also 160 megapixels or bust.]

I wonder if that statement will sound laughably outdated someday.  Until then, the new 416MP scanning back from Better Light is mighty impressive. According to CNET, each 2-minute exposure generates a 794MB file that can provide 300 pixel-per-inch resolution for a poster measuring 34" x 45"–all for a cool 23 grand.  Put that in your Flickr account and smoke it. [See also 160 megapixels or bust.]

Adobe is announcing today that there will be two editions of Photoshop CS3–Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended. From the press release:

In addition to the highly anticipated Photoshop CS3 software for designers and professional photographers, Adobe will also deliver Photoshop CS3 Extended, a completely new edition of Photoshop which allows cross-media creative professionals to stretch the limits of digital imaging. Photoshop CS3 Extended includes everything in Photoshop CS3 plus a new set of capabilities for integration of 3D and motion graphics, image measurement and analysis. Photoshop CS3 Extended also simplifies the workflow for professionals in architecture, engineering, medical and science.

Now, because the products haven’t been formally introduced yet (that’s what the March 27 event is all about), I can’t get into a lot of details about the features (or price, or Suite configurations).  But I can pass along what’s in the press release:

• Film and video specialists can perform 3D model visualization and texture editing, paint and clone over multiple video frames.
• Animators can now render and incorporate rich 3D content into their 2D compositions.
• Graphic and web designers can create an animation from a series of images – such as time series data – and export it to a wide variety of formats, including QuickTime, MPEG-4 and Adobe Flash® Video*.
• Architects, medical professionals and scientists will enjoy increased support for specialized image formats so they can easily view, annotate, and edit images in their native format.
• Scientific researchers can create animations from medical images for presentation purposes, and architects can make accurate measurements of objects in their 3-D images.

So, in a nutshell, Photoshop CS3 Extended includes everything that’s in Photoshop CS3, plus support for 3D, video, and measurement.  The point is not to turn Photoshop into After Effects, Premiere, Maya, etc.  Rather, the idea is to extend what you can do with the application, being smarter and more flexible about bringing in 3D and video, letting you use Photoshop’s unique painting and compositing tools in new ways.  It allows Adobe to address specialized needs in a way that was never practical in the past, with a one-size-fits-all Photoshop.

About the name:

• The products are called "Photoshop CS3" and "Photoshop CS3 Extended."
• There is no "Photoshop Standard," and there is especially no "Photoshop Pro," "Photoshop Advanced," "Photoshop Premium," or the like.

Why is the name a big deal?  Simply put, we don’t want to express or imply
the message that Photoshop CS3 isn’t advanced or pro, or that "This extended version is the one everyone
would get, if only money were no object."  The standard version of Photoshop will be the right choice for many people.  Extended is there for people with specific needs, who want to push the tools & their skills in new ways. 

What do you think?  I’m extremely excited about this evolution in the history of Photoshop, and I wish we could give you a demo of exactly what’s coming, but we’ll be there soon enough.

–J.

[Update: A bit more info has been posted on Adobe.com.]

* This relies on Flash Professional being installed, as it supplies the FLV codec.

"Step 1: Make a SWF of a box…"

Adobe has posted a little teaser site, complete with a short video (no, not that video)…  [Via] In <cough> completely unrelated news <cough>, the company has announced that we’ll be announcing (not shipping) the CS3 product line on March 27th.  (I’m just relieved that neither Justin Timberlake nor the producers of SE7EN seem to be involved.)

Heh–I enjoyed reading this bit in Scott Adams’s FAQ, passed along by Photoshop engineer John Peterson:

Q. Do you still draw the comic on paper?

A. Most cartoonists still use paper, at least for most of the work. They typically finish it off on Photoshop after scanning the inked work. Photoshop might be used for the lettering (using a font of your own handwriting) or adding shading and effects.

About 2 years ago I had some hand problems (from overuse) and switched to drawing directly to the computer, which is easier on my hand. I have a computer monitor that allows me to draw directly to the screen (as opposed to a tablet on the desk). It’s the 21SX by Wacom. It cut my production time in half. It’s different from drawing on paper, and there’s a learning curve of a few months to get it down. But once you do, it’s amazing. I use Photoshop for the entire process now. Then I hit a few keys and e-mail it
to United Media.

The ability to erase pointy hair in the real world is still pending. 😉

//na//

• This Lego rendering of MC Escher’s Relativity is a grand slam on the geek meter–and just about the coolest thing I’ve seen all week. See also the artists’ treatment of Escher’s Ascending and Descending. [Via]
• Thomas Raschke makes excellent wire frame sculptures–kind of the old Adobe Dimensions come to life.
• Michael Salter is all about styrofoam sculptures, large and small. [Via]
• Dig the bloopy shapes and shifty eyes of Brendan Monroe’s wooden sculptures. [Via]
• I found myself really enjoying the colors & characters in Oliver Jeffers sketchbook (top item, left column). [Via]

//na//

• This Lego rendering of MC Escher’s Relativity is a grand slam on the geek meter–and just about the coolest thing I’ve seen all week. See also the artists’ treatment of Escher’s Ascending and Descending. [Via]
• Thomas Raschke makes excellent wire frame sculptures–kind of the old Adobe Dimensions come to life.
• Michael Salter is all about styrofoam sculptures, large and small. [Via]
• Dig the bloopy shapes and shifty eyes of Brendan Monroe’s wooden sculptures. [Via]
• I found myself really enjoying the colors & characters in Oliver Jeffers sketchbook (top item, left column). [Via]

In discussing non-destructive JPEG editing in Lightroom and Camera Raw, I mentioned that it’s possible to convert JPEG files into DNG–a format previously limited to raw data from camera sensors.  Why do the new tools allow this, and why might it be useful?  Here’s some perspective from Tom Hogarty:

It’s been almost a year since Lightroom introduced the ability to convert TIFF and JPEG files to the Digital Negative (DNG) format. This does not mean that Adobe is magically converting output-referred TIFF/JPEG files into mosaic data that has all of the flexibility of native raw files. These converted JPEG/TIFF files are not raw files at all.

So, why allow the conversion?

As Lightroom and now Adobe Camera Raw provide non-destructive editing of JPEG and TIFF files, the DNG format offers benefits as a non-destructive editing format in addition to its position as a raw standard. DNG is designed to efficiently store the XMP metadata block and image preview associated with a non-destructive edit. As non-destructive editing capabilities grow, the DNG format has the architecture required to grow with those capabilities regardless of the source format. For example, a JPEG image converted to DNG and non-destructively edited three different ways will be able to store three sets of editing instructions and three distinct previews for each edit.

Does this lessen DNG’s position as a raw format standard? Absolutely not. The core of public DNG specification is a standard method of storing and describing raw data. Most recently, Leica and Pentax have joined the ranks of camera manufacturers supporting DNG files natively and there are a substantial percentage of professional photographers converting their proprietary raw files to DNG for workflow or archival purposes.

So, editing a JPEG in Lightroom or ACR, then making it into a DNG, allows you to create an envelope that packages up the original bits, the editing sauce, and a rendered preview that any application can see (i.e. DNG = before + after + settings).  And, unlike a regular JPEG that contains editing data, a DNG isn’t going to be mistaken for any old file.  It stands out as something with special editing properties.

Having said all this, converting JPEG to DNG is useful, but it’s not a panacea: it makes files larger (at least for now), and it’s not something I think everyone should run out and do.  (I haven’t found a need to do it myself.)  It’s an option, however, and one that could grow more useful in the future.

//na// Some great animation & motion graphics bits have crossed my path recently:

• After blowing minds with their Crazy video last year, Gnarls Barkley now does the Zelig mockumentary thing in Smiley Faces.  (Dig Baron von Counterculture’s Groovy Purple Dirigible.) Brilliant, and painfully catchy.
• Design shop Foreign Office shows off the in-movie ads & graphics they created for Children of Men (one of my favorite films last year).  State-sanctioned suicide never looked so good. [Via Marc Pawliger]
• The beautiful HP "Hands" campaign continues with this lovliness featuring Brazilian author Paulo Coelho.  People ask me why I work on Photoshop, what I dream of for the future. This vision starts to hint at it. [Via]
• Hand-focused, but on the other end of the tech spectrum, check out the amazing VW Phaeton "What the Hands Can Do" ad. [Via]
• Similarly human-powered & great: the Human skateboard.
• I could really go for more Kirin craziness in this job (being, as I am, disrespectful to dirt). [Via]   Oh, haven’t had enough yet?  Try Fruity Oaty Bars (see also behind the scenes on that one).  That should do the trick.

//na// Some great animation & motion graphics bits have crossed my path recently:

• After blowing minds with their Crazy video last year, Gnarls Barkley now does the Zelig mockumentary thing in Smiley Faces.  (Dig Baron von Counterculture’s Groovy Purple Dirigible.) Brilliant, and painfully catchy.
• Design shop Foreign Office shows off the in-movie ads & graphics they created for Children of Men (one of my favorite films last year).  State-sanctioned suicide never looked so good. [Via Marc Pawliger]
• The beautiful HP "Hands" campaign continues with this lovliness featuring Brazilian author Paulo Coelho.  People ask me why I work on Photoshop, what I dream of for the future. This vision starts to hint at it. [Via]
• Hand-focused, but on the other end of the tech spectrum, check out the amazing VW Phaeton "What the Hands Can Do" ad. [Via]
• Similarly human-powered & great: the Human skateboard.
• I could really go for more Kirin craziness in this job (being, as I am, disrespectful to dirt). [Via]   Oh, haven’t had enough yet?  Try Fruity Oaty Bars (see also behind the scenes on that one).  That should do the trick.

By now you’ve probably seen a whole bunch of stories about how Adobe is planning to put a version of Photoshop online in the next six months or so, based on remarks from CEO Bruce Chizen.  Here’s the original CNET story, as well as a distillation of the quotes from Bruce.

I view this evolution of Adobe imaging as a logical (and exciting) extension of what we’ve been doing for several years.  The company recognized that one size doesn’t fit all, and that it’s possible to leverage core imaging technology & experience to build a variety of related solutions.  That’s what has led to Photoshop Elements (starting with core PS editing, removing pro-level complexity, adding hobbyist-oriented creation & sharing tools) and Photoshop Lightroom (leveraging Camera Raw, metadata, and workflow experience).  A Photoshop-branded online editor lets us start bringing the tech to new customers–much like the new Adobe Remix reaches new customers using Adobe Premiere technology.

To set expectations properly, I think it’s important to mention that by "Photoshop-branded" we don’t mean the professional version of Photoshop.  The tools being discussed here are targeted at the consumer market–especially all the people using social networking and media sharing sites.

Exciting times are ahead.  And meanwhile, we’re working hard to keep opening doors to the online world in Adobe desktop apps. The upshot is that Adobe imaging technology can migrate to the Web, and the Web can transform and enhance desktop tools.

A number of photographers have written in this week, asking for details about how customers of Pixmantec’s RawShooter Premium (which Adobe acquired last summer) can get a free copy of Lightroom.  Lightroom Product Mgr. Tom Hogarty posted a brief FAQ a few days ago that address these questions. For convenience I’ve reproduced it here:

Q: When will Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 be available for RawShooter Premium customers?
A: The Photoshop Lightroom offer email for RawShooter Premium customers will be distributed by February 23rd with instructions on how to obtain a free downloadable copy of Lightroom 1.0.

Q: Can RawShooter Premium customers get started with Photoshop Lightroom before receiving the offer email?
A: Yes, please download the 30-day trial version of Lightroom. The offer email will provide instructions on how to obtain the serial number that will license the trial version of Lightroom.

Q: Where can I find documentation for Photoshop Lightroom?
A: Tutorials and documentation for Photoshop Lightroom can be found in the Adobe Design Center.

Q: Who do I contact if I don’t receive an offer email by February 23rd?
A: If you are an owner of RawShooter Premium (RawShooter Essential users do not qualify for this offer) and you do not receive an offer email by February 23rd please contact Adobe Customer Service in your region for further assistance.

Q: How can I convert my RawShooter Premium settings to Lightroom or Photoshop Camera Raw compatible settings?
A: A free settings conversion tool will be posted on Adobe Labs on March 5th for use by RawShooter Premium customers.

Hope that helps,
J.

A couple of interesting Web-centric conferences are coming up this spring, and ways to save money registering each have popped onto my radar.  I’m passing along the info in case it’s of interest:

• Web Design World San Francisco runs March 26-28th at the Moscone Center.  I’ll be presenting a half-day workshop called Photoshop CS3 Bootcamp.   If you register by the end of day Feb. 28 (i.e., Wednesday), you’ll save $200; use code SPNAC.
• On the other side of the country, the new DX3 Conference (Design/Deploy/Develop, organized by Lynda.com) is due to hit Boston May 15-18. Register by March 24th to save $200, and use code
  FAL628BS to shave off another $100.

By the way, on a Lynda.com-related note, the folks there have just posted 6.5 hours of training on Lightroom, presented by Chris Orwig.

Heh–if that doesn’t get your parental antennae buzzing, I don’t know what will. ;-)  I got a kick out of seeing these characterizations of Adobe, spied by John Dowdell, in a pair of articles:

• "In the software world, if Oracle Corp. is the monster truck of corporate acquirers, showily flattening competitors as flash pots explode," writes Olaf de Senerpont Domis, "Adobe Systems Inc. is the humble minivan, patiently trundling from point A to point B."  I think there’s some truth in that.  Headquartered in unassuming San José (the minivan of cities), Adobe doesn’t do a lot of the chest-thumping I see from other companies–a modesty I’ve always appreciated.  And having (grudgingly) swapped a Miata for a minivan during college, I can tell you: respect the van.
• "Going forward, the Gartner trio predicts, Adobe will promiscuously embed collaboration features across its product lines," reports Stephen Swoyer.  Facilitating collaboration has been a passion of mine for a long time (e.g. getting feedback tools into Photoshop’s Web gallery engine in CS1; embedding Flash in Photoshop CS3), and we’ll keep cranking away, but now it sounds so much more… salacious. 😉

When the Adobe-Macromedia deal was announced, a designer remarked, "Adobe will make Macromedia grow up, but Macromedia will take Adobe out clubbing."  So, we may be rocking a minivan here, but you know there are hydraulics under there…

I’ve come across some crafty ideas from the automotive world, visualized in Photoshop, 3D, and sheetmetal:

• BMW tweaks nature to demonstrate why they don’t do front wheel drive.
• Volkswagen drives home their power-to-weight ratio in this series of GTI ads (see larger).
• Vive le blur: Recent design school grad Ian Hart created some rather excellent Ford Mustang ads as a student project. He writes, “Constructed from GE Lexan EXL semi-transparent resin, the billboard accurately blurs the scene behind it regardless of day, weather or season.” [Via]
• Peugeot & Microsoft challenged designers to devise cars of the future, and you can see a gallery of the winners here.  Peugeot will build the winning entry as a full-scale concept car, and MSFT will feature a drivable version of the car in one of its Xbox 360 games.
• No Photoshop necessary: Automotive artist Billy Gibbons (aka one of the bearded dudes from ZZ Top) has created the weirdly wonderful Bus Ball [Via].  It reminds me in some way of Heatherwick Studio’s groovy rolling bridge (video).

That’s the subject of an interesting illustrated essay on Slate this week.  A father/son team of photographers has been accused of ripping off the work of another shooter–apparently after first calling him for advice on vantage points, film, etc.  The essay talks about ways photographers have played off & riffed on one another’s work over the years, even to the point of reproducing it wholesale (e.g. Sherrie Levine photographing Walker Evans’ famous Depression-era prints–making her an "appropriation artist").  At what point does homage cross the line?  It’s interesting food for thought.

Side note: I do have to ask what, exactly, makes this photo so special?  Maybe if I weren’t totally insecure about what I shoot, I could let this go, but…  I’d like to be enlightened about why a photo like this one is considered gallery-worthy.  It makes me think of that empty plinth getting mistaken for the actual artwork.

The new issue of Computer Graphics World features an article from Adobe VP of engineering Dave Story, discussing the origins of the Healing Brush*.  He writes,

The inspiration for the Healing Brush came from something you might hear in a Physics 101 lecture: When you place a piece of metal on a heated surface, heat diffuses through the metal until it reaches a steady state. But what does heat diffusion have to do with pixel restoration? More than you might think.

Dave mentions Poisson image editing and the Laplace equation, but overall he keeps the discussion out of the techier weeds.  If you eat that stuff for breakfast & want something more bracing, you could try this math-heavy 1-pager on covariant image reconstruction from Todor Georgiev, who is featured in Dave’s write-up.

*On the off chance you’re unfamiliar with this technology, here’s a PDF for background on the Healing Brush.

Adobe Proxy, the quarterly design magazine from available in PDF format, has been rethought and relaunched as–dramatic flourish —Adobe Magazine.  The new (historic) name should make the publication easier to find, and the format & content have been revised for easier browsing.  From the mag:

Many of you told
us you don’t have time to read the
magazine cover to cover. That’s
why we’ve designed all articles in
the new Adobe Magazine to give
a quick shot of inspiration and
instruction. You’ll see innovation
in the fields of photography,
publishing, interactive, and video,
and you’ll get specific details on the
techniques and software features
used to create it.

You can download the current issue (cut & curled by guest designer Josh Berger of Plazm), as well as sign up for notification of upcoming issues. The mag is also available in French and German. [Update: I’ve added links to French and German. The UK sign-up page, which lists other countries in the popup, is here. I believe the main page will be updated with these links.]

The long-standing Photoshop actions system (which debuted in PS4) makes it pretty easy to record a series of commands, then play them back.  Photoshop scripting (intro’d in PS7) lets developers do much more sophisticated automation, but it needs to be written by hand and is consequently much harder to create.  Thus there’s been a demand for a system that would let users use conditional logic in Photoshop (e.g. processing an image one way if it’s taller than it is wide, and another if it’s wider than it is tall), but without having to learn/write scripting.

To fill this gap, scripter Andrew Hall has created Photoshop Commander, a free add-on designed to put fairly sophisticated automation tools into the hands of non-programmers.  He explains,

Photoshop Commander is a Photoshop Script for CS2 and CS3 that creates powerful programming capability in Photoshop, using simple dialogs that anyone can work with and understand. Photoshop Commander provides a comprehensive easy-to-use menu system that allows non-programmers to create sophisticated workflow automations all without the need to understand a single line of programming code.

The script (which is free and is being released under the Creative Commons license), and a heap of accompanying Flash tutorials can be downloaded at
http://www.ps-scripts.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1363.

If you check out the first 10 minutes of the tutorials you will get some idea of what it can do and how it works.

Check it out, and let Andrew know what you think (via the comments section of the download page).

The long-standing Photoshop actions system (which debuted in PS4) makes it pretty easy to record a series of commands, then play them back.  Photoshop scripting (intro’d in PS7) lets developers do much more sophisticated automation, but it needs to be written by hand and is consequently much harder to create.  Thus there’s been a demand for a system that would let users use conditional logic in Photoshop (e.g. processing an image one way if it’s taller than it is wide, and another if it’s wider than it is tall), but without having to learn/write scripting.

To fill this gap, scripter Andrew Hall has created Photoshop Commander, a free add-on designed to put fairly sophisticated automation tools into the hands of non-programmers.  He explains,

Photoshop Commander is a Photoshop Script for CS2 and CS3 that creates powerful programming capability in Photoshop, using simple dialogs that anyone can work with and understand. Photoshop Commander provides a comprehensive easy-to-use menu system that allows non-programmers to create sophisticated workflow automations all without the need to understand a single line of programming code.

The script (which is free and is being released under the Creative Commons license), and a heap of accompanying Flash tutorials can be downloaded at
http://www.ps-scripts.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1363.

If you check out the first 10 minutes of the tutorials you will get some idea of what it can do and how it works.

Check it out, and let Andrew know what you think (via the comments section of the download page).

It’s all about the ducats: Today’s NY Times features a photo of artist (er, medallic sculptor) Joseph Menna using Photoshop and a Wacom Cintiq pressure-sensitive monitor to create a portrait of George Washington, along with a story about how the Mint is planning to issue $1 coins that feature images of dead presidents.  Nice to see Photoshop being used to design currency outside of a dorm room (oh!).

Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies*.
Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain…

You know what’s wonderful about Spain?  This is the kind of thing you see out your bedroom window.  Know what’s less great?  One look is all you get–the rest of the time being booked solid. (If you think I talk a lot here, try 7 hours’ worth yesterday.) You can take the Hyatt out of the boy, but you can’t take the boy out of the Hyatt–literally.

Still & all, it was great to spend a day chatting with & teaching a boatload of authors & trainers from around Europe.  A bit selfishly, I love the fact that Spanish seems to be less widely studied here than English, German, or French.  For once, my poquito of high school Spanish let me avoid feeling like the monolingual ugly American in the room.  In fact, in a jewelry store in Barcelona I observed a German guy awkwardly telling the shopkeeper that he, uh, didn’t speak Spanish.  "Hah hah, my Teutonic amigo," I thought, "We’re in the same barco now, eh?  Más o menos?" And now I’m flying home at last, so you can be done with my little travel anecdotes (well, almost; a few photos are yet to come).

[Apropos of nothing: the flight attendants on Spanair are decked out in rather deviant-looking black leather gloves.  (Spanish gloves of Spanish leather?)   You could be forgiven for thinking you’d wandered into a Eurythmics video.]

*Note: Management reserves the right to substitute a gaggle of pasty software-folk in lieu of said fair ladies.  No warranties expressed or implied.  Vaya con Dios.

Okay, maybe not fame, but how about $1000 or a copy of Creative Suite 3?  Those are the prizes (5 of ’em) being raffled to folks who help Adobe improve our Web tools by the Adobe user research team.  They’re using a technology called ClickStream (more about them & their privacy policy) that records how often menu items, tools, etc. are used in each application, from which we can gain insights into what’s important & should be improved.  If you’re interested, please see the note below from researcher Sharma Hendel.  Cash and software aside, I think it’s a great (and pretty painless) way to help improve the tools that thousands of people use every day. [UPDATE: Sorry, I didn’t notice that participation is limited to US residents. Lame, but I guess doing business across borders is harder than it should be. –J.]

I’m a user experience researcher with the Flash & Dreamweaver teams and I’m looking for Flash and Dreamweaver users to help us out with a massive project.  If you’re a regular Flash or Dreamweaver user and would like to help out, please check out the information below. 

This is a product improvement study with folks who use Flash or Dreamweaver several times per week. The project entails downloading and installing a small program that anonymously collects information about the features you use in Adobe products and other applications. All eligible participants will be entered in a prize drawing either $1000 or one of 5 copies of Creative Suite 3 (to be released later this year).
 
If you are interested, please take this survey to determine eligibility.  Then download the ClickSight™ software – a program developed for Adobe by Clickstream Technologies. (Mac Users: Currently, ClickSight runs only on Windows PCs.  We will be conducting a Mac-based study later this year.  If you are a Mac user and would like to be involved, please email info@clickstreamtech.com).

Thanks!  You are helping make our Web applications even better!

Sharma Hendel (shendel at adobe dot com)
User Experience Team

Okay, maybe not fame, but how about $1000 or a copy of Creative Suite 3?  Those are the prizes (5 of ’em) being raffled to folks who help Adobe improve our Web tools by the Adobe user research team.  They’re using a technology called ClickStream (more about them & their privacy policy) that records how often menu items, tools, etc. are used in each application, from which we can gain insights into what’s important & should be improved.  If you’re interested, please see the note below from researcher Sharma Hendel.  Cash and software aside, I think it’s a great (and pretty painless) way to help improve the tools that thousands of people use every day. [UPDATE: Sorry, I didn’t notice that participation is limited to US residents. Lame, but I guess doing business across borders is harder than it should be. –J.]

I’m a user experience researcher with the Flash & Dreamweaver teams and I’m looking for Flash and Dreamweaver users to help us out with a massive project.  If you’re a regular Flash or Dreamweaver user and would like to help out, please check out the information below. 

This is a product improvement study with folks who use Flash or Dreamweaver several times per week. The project entails downloading and installing a small program that anonymously collects information about the features you use in Adobe products and other applications. All eligible participants will be entered in a prize drawing either $1000 or one of 5 copies of Creative Suite 3 (to be released later this year).
 
If you are interested, please take this survey to determine eligibility.  Then download the ClickSight™ software – a program developed for Adobe by Clickstream Technologies. (Mac Users: Currently, ClickSight runs only on Windows PCs.  We will be conducting a Mac-based study later this year.  If you are a Mac user and would like to be involved, please email info@clickstreamtech.com).

Thanks!  You are helping make our Web applications even better!

Sharma Hendel (shendel at adobe dot com)
User Experience Team

• The Jeep Waterfall is a totally fantastic, “3,000 valve, 20-pump contraption” that essentially prints images onto falling water–much as an inkjet would onto moving paper. The eye-popping video is well worth a watch.
• Taking a similar concept in a horizontal direction, the AMOEBA device uses wave generators to print letter & pictures on water. Each one is visible for just a moment, and a new one can be shown every 3 seconds. There’s a brief video of the device in action, but I find the still image is more impressive. [Aside: I think my life would be greatly enriched by a background audio track of breathless Japanese narration.]
• If that $10k/gallon inkjet business has gotten you down, you might like hearing about the ZINK inkless printing system. It promises a zero-ink printing process by embedding dye crystals in the paper itself. [Via the Elements team]
• ToughPrint promises waterproof inkjet paper, suitable for making, say, a map, then taking it hiking in the rainforest (as one does). [Via]

For more printing goodness, see previous entries.

• The Jeep Waterfall is a totally fantastic, “3,000 valve, 20-pump contraption” that essentially prints images onto falling water–much as an inkjet would onto moving paper. The eye-popping video is well worth a watch.
• Taking a similar concept in a horizontal direction, the AMOEBA device uses wave generators to print letter & pictures on water. Each one is visible for just a moment, and a new one can be shown every 3 seconds. There’s a brief video of the device in action, but I find the still image is more impressive. [Aside: I think my life would be greatly enriched by a background audio track of breathless Japanese narration.]
• If that $10k/gallon inkjet business has gotten you down, you might like hearing about the ZINK inkless printing system. It promises a zero-ink printing process by embedding dye crystals in the paper itself. [Via the Elements team]
• ToughPrint promises waterproof inkjet paper, suitable for making, say, a map, then taking it hiking in the rainforest (as one does). [Via]

For more printing goodness, see previous entries.

No no, they don’t, really! Actually, the folks I’ve met seem quite fond of it, especially when given a taste of what’s planned for the upcoming release. That said, my heart skipped a beat when I opened a design mag in Amsterdam yesterday and read the headline, “Cursus: Adobe Dreamweaver.” “Oh man, these guys must think the Adobe-MM integration is going sour,” I thought–then quickly pulled it together. “Cursus,” I learned, are “courses.” So, may the Netherlands be full of cursus for Dreamweaver for years to come!
Here in Milan (yet another place I’ll see exclusively from the window of a cab; 20 hours from wheels down to wheels up), I’m talking up multimedialità (such a nice sound); learning that Nack, Germany really does exist (nestled in Rheinland-Pfalz, says Thorsten Wulff); and finding out that my surname is a common first name in Cambodia (hello, Nack Ath). Sorry; so much for not making this As the Nack Turns…

Some good bits from the world of motion graphics:

• Carlo Giovani has created a beautiful little stop-motion animation using his 3D paper models. [Via]
• Ever since seeing Kyle Cooper (creator of the SE7EN titles, among other things) speak at Cooper Union several years ago, I’ve had a new appreciation for intro title sequences in movies.  "Forget the film, watch the titles" is right up my alley.[Via]
• Along similar lines, check out 10 Kick-A Opening Credit Sequences. [Via]
• File under "More corporate weirdness-for-weirdness’-sake": GE has evidently commissioned Little Samurai, a fun bit of beautiful animation that must be (?) theoretically related to lightbulbs, locomotives, nuclear power, or some other GE endeavor.
• If Jill Greenberg’s simian science tripped your trigger, you might enjoy the creepy Basement Jaxx Where’s Your Head At video.

Some good bits from the world of motion graphics:

• Carlo Giovani has created a beautiful little stop-motion animation using his 3D paper models. [Via]
• Ever since seeing Kyle Cooper (creator of the SE7EN titles, among other things) speak at Cooper Union several years ago, I’ve had a new appreciation for intro title sequences in movies.  "Forget the film, watch the titles" is right up my alley.[Via]
• Along similar lines, check out 10 Kick-A Opening Credit Sequences. [Via]
• File under "More corporate weirdness-for-weirdness’-sake": GE has evidently commissioned Little Samurai, a fun bit of beautiful animation that must be (?) theoretically related to lightbulbs, locomotives, nuclear power, or some other GE endeavor.
• If Jill Greenberg’s simian science tripped your trigger, you might enjoy the creepy Basement Jaxx Where’s Your Head At video.

Heh–I got a kick out of checking out the latest download stats for the Photoshop public beta.  In the first month and a half of the beta’s availability, Adobe Labs has served up
364,491 unique downloads, including 22 to tiny Chrismas Island–not bad for a place with a population of 1,600!

Being (still) somewhat jetlagged, these little bits keep me laughing.  File it alongside seeing Harvey Keitel scream "Donnez-moi un croûton!!" (Tuesday, Paris), watching South Park dubbed into German (last night), and hearing Adobe Web tools evangelist Greg Rewis declare today, during a demo in Munich, that although customers thought that "Fireworks ist tot.  Nein! Fireworks lebt!!"  (Any grammatical/transcription errors are mine, not his. :-))

Heh–I got a kick out of checking out the latest download stats for the Photoshop public beta.  In the first month and a half of the beta’s availability, Adobe Labs has served up
364,491 unique downloads, including 22 to tiny Chrismas Island–not bad for a place with a population of 1,600!

Being (still) somewhat jetlagged, these little bits keep me laughing.  File it alongside seeing Harvey Keitel scream "Donnez-moi un croûton!!" (Tuesday, Paris), watching South Park dubbed into German (last night), and hearing Adobe Web tools evangelist Greg Rewis declare today, during a demo in Munich, that although customers thought that "Fireworks ist tot.  Nein! Fireworks lebt!!"  (Any grammatical/transcription errors are mine, not his. :-))

Last week Ralf Berger, co-creator of Photoshop’s Vanishing Point tool (and formerly eng. manager for LiveMotion), asked me whether Photoshop offered a way to clean up files by deleting empty layers.  I knew that the Layers palette fly-out menu contains a command to delete hidden layers, but not one for blowing away those with no pixel content.  After a nudge towards the Photoshop JavaScript guide (installed in the application folder, btw), Ralf whipped up this script for deleting blank layers.  I’m posting it here in case it’s useful. (You may want to right-click/Ctrl-click the link to download the script, then put the file into your Photoshop folder under Presets/Scripts.)

On a related note,
I came across a Trevor Morris’s trove of handy-looking little scripts.  And for more PS scriptiness, including a good discussion forum, check out PS-Scripts.com.

Microsoft & Adobe have been working together on a plug-in that will offer support for HD Photo (née WMP*–Windows Media Photo), the new Microsoft-developed imaging format, in Photoshop.  HD Photo offers advanced compression (both lossless & lossy) and improved dynamic range relative to the standard JPEG format.  Timing won’t permit us to have support into the CS3 box, but we’ll find a way to get it out there.  My manager Kevin Connor noted,

"What’s good about HD Photo is that it was designed specifically for digital photography, with a good understanding of how digital photography usage is evolving," Connor said. "It will certainly take time for HD Photo to be as broadly accessible as JPEG–if it ever is quite that broad–but there can be reasons even today why a consumer might prefer to use HD Photo."

As with JPEG2000, which Photoshop began supporting in 2003, our goal is to ensure that support exists in Adobe apps ahead of customer demand.  That way, as images begin appearing, you’ll be good to go.

*The new name is far nicer, no?

Greetings from snowy Sweden (-9° C & loving it!).  I arrived last night with Caleb Belohlavek, a director on the Suite team, to start a series of visits with the press: nine cities in two weeks (gah!).  I want to keep this blog focused on Photoshop, photography, design, and the like, not making it into "As the Nack Turns."  That said, in case you see posts filed at 3am, or lighter posting until mid-February, you’ll know why. For some personal bits from the trip thus far, read on.

Stockholm is gorgeous ("the Venice of the North," they say), and from the moment we landed I was charmed to see an old Volvo 240 wagon soldiering on down the taxiway.  I’m having fun with the language–because hey, who doesn’t like a nice voiceless dorso-palatal velar fricative, not to mention A’s with stylish headwear?  I especially enjoy the process of inserting the word "kronor" into progressively more absurd contexts ("Oh man, I slept weird on the plane & now my kronor is out of whack…")–but that could be the jetlag talking.  By watching English-language shows with subtitles, I’ve picked up the words "funkinga" (“funky”; thanks, James Brown retrospective), "narko" (“dope,” via Deadwood clip), and "dog" ("dead," via WWII documentary).  Maybe I’ll pick up tips from some local bloggers; er, maybe not.

I got to walk around and take some snaps–at least until my cold camera started throwing an error message.  Not wanting a repeat of last year’s snafu, I stuffed the cam into my jacket, and later at the hotel I let my memory cards warm up at their own pace. Fortunately only one or two shots seem to be MIA, but I continue to doubt the robustness of digital cameras (or at least mine) in the cold.  If you’d like to see the shots (featuring the world’s coldest pizza), they’re here.

Tomorrow is all about work, then off to London and endless city-hopping.  For now, though, take it from me: reindeer is delicious. 🙂

Good news from the plug-in developer front: onOne software has announced that a beta of Geniune Fractals is available in beta form, and that it’s compiled as a universal binary that runs natively inside Photoshop CS3 on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs. The beta also works with previous Photoshop and Photoshop Elements versions for Mac and Windows.  To try it out, you need to request access via this form.  Additionally, onOne has announced that they’ll be offering free compatibility updates to their other plug-ins (MaskPro, Intellihance, etc.).

If you’re a developer and want to make your Mac plug-ins Intel-compatible, please check out the CS3 mini-SDK.  And please let us know if you need folks to test your new code; we’ll be happy to spread the word.

Apropos of our friends up the road:

• Icons as icons: Greek designer Charis Tsevis has created a Heroes of the Electronic Revolution series, in which he depicts Steve Jobs as a mosaic of icons (Illustrator 10 makes a nice skin tone, evidently).  Check out the full-sized version to see the details.  Maybe we can get icon-Steve together with glyph-John Warnock. 😉
• Apple, via Photoshop: Worth1000 is running a contest to depict the next Apple product.  I’m kinda partial to the iHop ("Jump Around"). [Via]

Apropos of our friends up the road:

• Icons as icons: Greek designer Charis Tsevis has created a Heroes of the Electronic Revolution series, in which he depicts Steve Jobs as a mosaic of icons (Illustrator 10 makes a nice skin tone, evidently).  Check out the full-sized version to see the details.  Maybe we can get icon-Steve together with glyph-John Warnock. 😉
• Apple, via Photoshop: Worth1000 is running a contest to depict the next Apple product.  I’m kinda partial to the iHop ("Jump Around"). [Via]

In case you couldn’t attend last week’s Photoshop User Group meeting in San Jose–or if you did attend but just don’t want the dream to end*–you can check out the session online (recorded with the help of Acrobat Connect–neé Breeze) here.  After an initial two minutes of futzing around with the technical setup, Dr. Brown’s antics run for an hour or so.  Because of the length of the recording (note to self: next time don’t simply shut the laptop, or you will record 10 hours’ worth of silence), it may take a little time to start streaming.

If you have suggestions or requests for future PUG meetings, feel free to post them here or drop me a line directly.
[* Results may not be typical. No warranties expressed or implied. Your viewing pleasure may vary.]

• Put down the gat, pick up a brush: Rappers now battle with Photoshop, not guns.  (More Healing Brush than Slice Tool–I can dig it.)
• Liberty rocks on in this statue-remixing contest on Worth1000.com [Via]
• The Hard Rock Cafe had a similar, if slightly edgier, idea.
• Speaking of remixing, Pioneer has introduced the DVJ-1000, a turntable that lets DJs scratch with video DVDs just as they would with music on vinyl.  "Digital video scratches, loops and instant cues are all possible," they proclaim. I’d love to see a video demo of this thing in action. (Maybe it’ll pop up at a future Flashforward or the like.) [Via Jody Rodgers]

Photoshop’s Contact Sheet plug-in is, to be charitable, a little long in the tooth.  Therefore scripter X Bytor has stepped into the breach with ContactSheetX, a script that’s freely downloadable from SourceForge & that works in CS2/3.  Among other things, the script supports page numbering, more flexible font selection, and the ability to use templates. Features, screenshots, and other details are in this PDF, and there’s a forum for asking questions & requesting enhancements. X thanks the photographers at The Icon and Warner Bros. for support and funding of this project.

Fresh off his jam-packed presentations at Macworld last week, Adobe’s own Russell Brown will be presenting the Photoshop CS3 beta tomorrow night, Jan. 16, at Adobe (map). As usual with these Photoshop User Group meetings, Pizza and drinks kick off at 6:30pm, and the presentation is due to start at 7pm.

If you plan to attend, please shoot an RSVP mail to Dan Clark (dan at weinberg-clark com) so that we can order the right amount of chow.
To park
underneath the Adobe building, use the Almaden Avenue entrance, under
the East Tower. If the security guard at the parking entrance asks for
an Adobe contact, use my name. Hope to see you there!

//na*//

• "To what question is the answer a £68,000 Volkswagen?," quipped British journalist Jeremy Clarkson.  I have similar thoughts about the Mathmos Airswitch–a light that can be turned on/off and dimmed/brightened by the proximity of your hand.  Then again, it’s kind of cool for its own sake. [Via]
• Designed by the same folks at two create, the 3D drawing pad looks pretty fly (tough to tell without using it, of course).
• Nanda’s Clocky is an alarm clock that not only rings, but also runs and hides to force you to get up. [Via]
• Forget Dogs Playing Poker; how about fish playing horns?   (And apparently someone decided that a fish does need a bicycle.)
• Ten bucks gets you a set of plastic spoons that change color in your microwave when your food reaches 120F–kinda great, although Gizmodo foresees dire results. [Via]   The invention made me think of that unfortunate Genera Hypercolor clothing from the ’80s; Googling for it led me to discover temperature-sensitive Eclipse wall paint. (How does $349 per gallon grab you?)
• Geostationary Banana Over Texas is, if nothing else, aptly named. The site’s navigation sucks, so here’s a photo.  (Speaking of bananas, how great are these Japanese juice boxes?) A bit closer to earth, if only in terms of practicality, C|NET talks about proposals for flying power generators; see images.

[* Non-Adobe. Some folks like the non-Adobe-heavy bits I post here, while others couldn’t care less.  Others, you’ll certainly want to skip this one. 🙂 For the record, I do think this stuff is relevant for this blog, as I view design+technology as inherently Adobe-related.]

//na*//

• "To what question is the answer a £68,000 Volkswagen?," quipped British journalist Jeremy Clarkson.  I have similar thoughts about the Mathmos Airswitch–a light that can be turned on/off and dimmed/brightened by the proximity of your hand.  Then again, it’s kind of cool for its own sake. [Via]
• Designed by the same folks at two create, the 3D drawing pad looks pretty fly (tough to tell without using it, of course).
• Nanda’s Clocky is an alarm clock that not only rings, but also runs and hides to force you to get up. [Via]
• Forget Dogs Playing Poker; how about fish playing horns?   (And apparently someone decided that a fish does need a bicycle.)
• Ten bucks gets you a set of plastic spoons that change color in your microwave when your food reaches 120F–kinda great, although Gizmodo foresees dire results. [Via]   The invention made me think of that unfortunate Genera Hypercolor clothing from the ’80s; Googling for it led me to discover temperature-sensitive Eclipse wall paint. (How does $349 per gallon grab you?)
• Geostationary Banana Over Texas is, if nothing else, aptly named. The site’s navigation sucks, so here’s a photo.  (Speaking of bananas, how great are these Japanese juice boxes?) A bit closer to earth, if only in terms of practicality, C|NET talks about proposals for flying power generators; see images.

[* Non-Adobe. Some folks like the non-Adobe-heavy bits I post here, while others couldn’t care less.  Others, you’ll certainly want to skip this one. 🙂 For the record, I do think this stuff is relevant for this blog, as I view design+technology as inherently Adobe-related.]

From Victor Allen at Juxt Interactive: "I’m going to wait for the iPhone Shuffle. You just clip it to your ear and call people at random."  Hah!

Hopefully I’ll get to walk the floor at Macworld today. I’m excited that the new AirPort base station can hook up to a hard drive to enable wireless backup, though I’m annoyed that it evidently doesn’t support the Apple-developed (and JNack-purchased) Firewire standard. Adobe-wise at the show,

• Russell Brown is showing good bits from Photoshop CS3 in the Adobe theater
• Tim Brook notes that the company is now shipping Flex Builder for the Mac
• Chad Siegel and I will be showing Photoshop CS3 beta and giving an InDesign CS3 sneak at the Apple store at 3pm today
• Finally, I don’t know what all will be shown from the upcoming video Production Studio, but I caught a 20-minute demo from Bob Donlon yesterday, and I can tell you hands-down it was stupid cool. Apparently there will be some demos at the Adobe booth; I’ll try to post details on timing if possible. If you care about digital video at all, or just about beautifully integrated Mac software, you’ll want to check ’em out.

If you’ll be in San Francisco this week, we’d love to see you at the Adobe booth at Macworld (starting tomorrow).  I’ll be booth-babing Thursday and Friday afternoons 1-4pm ("Does this tradeshow shirt make my app look big?"), and on Wednesday afternoon from 3-4pm I’ll be presenting the Photoshop CS3 beta at the Apple Store in SF.  I’ll be joined by InDesign PM Chad Siegel, who just may have some Intel-native page-layout kickassery to show.  (Okay, it’s more than "may.")  Hope to see you one place or the other.

[Update: Whether at home or in person, you can play the Macworld Drinking Game.]

Photographer Stephen Johnson has created BruceFraserLegacy.com, a Web site for gathering info about our departed friend.  Bruce’s wife Angela writes, "This site is a work in progress, so keep checking for new additions. If you feel you’d like to add something, please let Steve know (steve at sjphoto dot com)."  The site links to numerous photos, including some sparkling eclipses that Bruce captured.

If you happen to be attending MacWorld this week, you’re invited to attend a celebration Bruce’s legacy at an upbeat, inspirational multimedia event on Wednesday Jan. 10 (full details at PhotoshopNews.com).  Graham Nash and single-malt Scotch will be on hand.  I think Bruce would raise a glass in approval. 🙂

It’s alternately funny, sad, or both when companies struggle to play against type & redefine their brands.  During my first month at Adobe, I got a horrible sunburn as I stood for hours on a pier in San Francisco, passing out Razor scooters and "Splatterpunk" temporary tats to 13-year-olds at the X Games.  "And this will help LiveMotion succeed… how, exactly??," I thought as I slowly carbonized like a pig on a spit.  While Macromedia was releasing killer ads, Adobe was buying magazine spreads featuring a dude snowboarding down a volcano. Yeesh…

Microsoft is now making some interesting efforts to redefine its image.  Last year saw the hilarious and dead-on "Microsoft iPod" self-parody video, and now they’re getting way out there with Clearification, a site chiefly featuring the brilliantly stony ramblings of Demitri Martin. Somehow, on some level, the site is theoretically related to Vista.  Somehow.  Anyway… [Via]  Elsewhere they’ve posted the slightly incomprehensible MsDewey.com (hey, the world loves attractive women) [Via], not to mention an online comic book about Office. [Via]

And now Kodak–evidently mad as hell & not going to take it anymore–has released "Winds of Change." In it a distinguished looking gentleman proceeds to flip out Howard Beale-style, going off about how the company isn’t "playing grab-ass anymore."  It’s kind of great, and judging from the number of times I’ve seen the link sent around this week, it’s doing that whole viral thing.
[Via Ben Long, Katrin Eismann, and others]

Slightly related: Slate ad critic Seth Stevenson slags the Intel Core 2 Duo ads: "[They] feature perhaps the least-hip hipsters I’ve ever seen. What are these people wearing? Denim culottes? Green velvet suit vests? A snap-brim hat with a feather in the band? They look like they’re in a high school ska band. Word of advice, Intel: Do not attempt to make computer processing chips cool. It’s a losing battle." (Hey now; you just need some toasted bunny suits…)

Ah, well; no one gets out alive. :-)  At the end of the day, at least none of us have assaulted U2 in the name of celebrating banking services.  (Excuse me while I go wash my brain…)

Two scientific/technical imaging entries today:

• Teacher/researcher/photographer Tracy Anderson has posted a beautiful gallery of close-in photography.  Highlights include Scotch tape ripping, Velcro being pulled apart, and the trappings of an Amazon warrior squirrel. [Via]  See also a nice infrared shot from Tracy.
• A Fox News helicopter captured this rather spectacular video of a Russian rocket body bursting into flames as it re-entered the atmosphere over Denver.  The story is here. [Via]

This is the season of lights, so it seems fitting to illuminate some recent finds:

• United Visual Artists has created Volume, a super-cool interactive installation that "responds spectacularly to human movement, creating a series of audio-visual experiences." Tons of great photos are on their site (note the little slideshow controls under the main image), and you can see the movement in this video (also in high res from Motionographer). [Via]
• The Orb is a high-speed glowing sculpture, formed by 64 LEDs spinning at 1600 RPM. [Via]
• Architect Rand Elliott has been commissioned to create POPS, a 66-foot, LED-clad pop bottle that will sit alongside Route 66. Metropolis Magazine has the story, along with shots of Elliott’s work, including a wireframe of POPS and the 100-foot-high Beacon of Light at the Oklahoma Health Center.  See also shots of POPS being erected. [Via Jack Liggett]
• Closer to earth but still fun, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is made of Christmas lights [Via]