Continuing a popular series, Photoshop PM Bryan O’Neil Hughes shows off another handful of the small but hopefully welcome changes we’ve been making in Photoshop:
Bryan and I sat down with Deke McClelland & Colleen Wheeler to chat about these changes and more in a new episode of Martini Hour.
For previously posted info, see the JDI category I just set up on the blog. The embedded video above is kind of small, so you may want to view it in fullscreen mode or via its Facebook page.
super simple super cool super smarts
Wasn’t saving the default for a layer style a feature that used to be there?
[Not to my knowledge. –J.]
Personally, I find that copy and pasting a layer style is what I use mostly.
How about seeing some of these “JDI” things fixed in an 11.1 release rather than “CS5/12.0” ?
[I see you’ve copied and pasted your previous comment. In any case, isn’t it reasonable to charge a fair price for improvements? Additionally, due to the way Adobe does its accounting, we can’t give away improvements for free. (It’s the same set of rules that dictate that Apple must charge for things like enabling 802.11n support in a given piece of hardware, even though the hardware already had the capability built in. Trust me, it’s arcane and complicated.) –J.]
Tried to listen to the Martini Hour podcast but gave up after a few minutes because the underscoring made it so difficult to hear you and Bryan. (And such tuneless music to boot.) As I get older, more and more I find myself not simply disagreeing with some people’s creative choices but completely unable to fathom how they could have made those choices in the first place. Screwing up an interview with distracting music would be example #2; #1 is reserved for rap music.
Too bad, because I’m sure you were witty and wise.
I’m with Brian: the damn always-on background music on Deke’s Martini podcasts is (A) senseless (B) disturbing — especially for folks like myself, who have a hearing deficiency. So, while I think Deke is both cool and knowledegable, I cannot, sadly, listen to his Martini podcasts.
The interview was really great, but unfortunately I agree that the “background” music was way too loud. And the problem is even worse if English is not your primary language (as in my case). Even with all of my concentration it was really hard to understand some phrases.
Very nice stuff, as Bryan said they are little items that will really help for many using Photoshop all the time.
Well done, of course now we all want them ASAP, you guys still on track for your typical 18 month release cycle?
John, it is absolutely right that Adobe charges for improvements, but possibly they should be proportional to the level of improvements themselves rather than be considered a brand new release all the time.
[I think the idea of doing smaller, cheaper updates is appealing. On the other hand, I don’t really hear people saying they wish that Adobe updated (and charged them) more frequently. Adobe apps get used by a lot of large companies, and rolling out frequent updates (even frequent bug fix updates) can be disruptive and expensive for them. –J.]
Honestly the argument that you guys do accounting in a certain way, so people have to pay even for fixes is a bit naive.
[How is it naive? And I’m not suggesting that people pay for fixes (which can indeed be distributed without charge). I’m suggesting that they pay for enhancements. –J.]
That said, Photoshop CS5 is going to be just 50$, right? Adobe talks so loudly about Flash CS5 but zero about the rest, I guess this is going to be another version we can safely skip unless interested in a new artistic branding, a new set of colorful icons and maybe a new windowing system?
[It’s amazing that every time we disclose something small about a new release, someone jumps to the conclusion that that’s all there is. This happens literally every time, so it shouldn’t bother or surprise me, yet somehow it always does. –J.]
Please leave Apple alone when it is not absolutely necessary, iPhone 3G went out with no MMS support and other stuff even if hardware was already supporting it, they upgraded and fixed the OS for free (and they keep doing it), so nitpicking on Apple side is not always a very smart way of presenting Adobe reasons.
[I’m not “nitpicking” Apple at all. I’m simply giving another easy-to-remember example of a US-based company bound by certain accounting rules. The reason they can keep upgrading the iPhone for “free” is that they’re getting revenue via subscriptions. That’s different than how they account for the iPod Touch, and thus they have to charge for the same enhancements when delivered to the Touch. –J.]
Maybe you guys can copy their accounting system?
[Trust me when I tell you that I have no say in how Adobe does its accounting. –J.]
A step in the right direction for styles… but I think having the ability to also save a style as a ‘class’ which will automatically update objects to which it is applied when the class is updated would be huge.
Sorry John, but the production values of the video are so bad, that it is almost unwatchable even at full screen. The drop down menus are unreadable. Compare it to the help videos from kelbytv.com, it comes off looking like something produced by a grade school student. Hard to get excited about a video that’s just trying to get by. Absolutely no Wow factor. I would have expected much more from the resources on hand at Adobe.
believe it or not the simple “save as” in original folder would save me so much time over a week or so. It’s a pain to have to navigate through folders trying to get to where the original file is.
Yeah you’re definitely getting old!
Is that a Windows thing? Its been a while since I did much content creation on a PC, but a Save As.. on the Mac always offers the original location first. (not trying to start a “I’m a Mac/You’re a PC” thing – just surprised by this).
That must be a pain in the butt.
Bryan O’Neil Hughes is a great man.The interview was really great, but unfortunately I agree that the “background” music was way too loud.Really a educative and informative post, the post is good in all regards,I am glad to read this post
Really a educative and informative post, the post is good in all regards,I am glad to read this post
weider x factor
The ability to save layer style defaults will be really handy. Layer styles seem really important to those mocking and designing web and app interfaces.
As much as big features look good on the side of the box (“INCLUDES 3D HAT!”), it’s the smaller fixes and tweaks I’m most looking forward to in Photoshop CS5.
Please, more small improvements!
A suggestion: The layers palette is where a lot of Photoshop users spend a lot of their time. I’m certainly no exception.
Previous JDIs have mentioned (optional) not adding “copy” when duping layer names and being able to multi-select layers and change opacity for all at once (hopefully that extends to blending mode too).
What I’d really love is anything that makes working with 100s of layers easier. I have some documents here with well over 1000 layers. I think that kind of thing is common for app UI design.
Layer palette suggestions:
– Auto renaming text layers so the name always matches their text.
– A keyboard shortcut for duping groups. Command-J works for layers, but doesn’t for groups. Would be great if it did.
– Searching/filtering similar to the search in iTunes (imagine being able to type a couple of letters to find all the layers you’re after, then being able to multi-select them and make changes to all).
Also, I get caught out by this all the time, even though I know it happens:
http://adobegripes.tumblr.com/post/394573461/cs4-ui-ok-so-you-want-to-click-on-that-optimize
[Yeah, that’s changed. I never agreed with the CS4 implementation. –J.]
Good luck with CS5!
No problem with that, but in practice, Adobe often charges for fixes.
For instance, there was a bug in Illustrator CS3 that caused it to stop saving files if Zune or Windows Media Center was run on the system… which was a huge inconvenience. Adobe had a knowledge base article saying they were aware of the bug and were working on a fix. I waited for a very long time. And, sure enough, the fix arrived: CS4, at a cost of $599 for the upgrade.
So, really, Adobe IS suggesting that users pay for fixes. (Don’t get me wrong, I understand why, but don’t say that’s not the case.)
One feature I use always in Photoshop is Duplicate, Image Size and Canvas size, and is a real time saver having there in the right click menu over the top of the image window. In CS4 it dissappeared. Now there is no menu at all when I right click there, in the top of the window while the image is not docked and if is docked it still there are not this useful to options.
Bringing back this menu would be a fixing in CS4 or a feature for CS5? It is possible to recreate this menu using some scripting, so I can restore it?
Thanks for this blog and congratulations on the launch of CS5. 🙂
Luis, this feature, which was in the Windows version only, is in CS5. There’s not way to add it to the Image Window in CS4 via a script, but you could create a panel using Configurator that has those commands you use most often front and center in your CS4 UI. http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/configurator/