Category Archives: CS5

Photoshop Automator Actions enhanced, revised for CS5

CS5

Author, photographer, and scripter Ben Long has revised his popular set of Automator Actions for Photoshop:

Version 5 brings compatibility with Photoshop CS5, as well as the final release of the CS4 actions… The new Diptych and Triptych actions automate the process of creating two-up, and three-up layouts. With full control over margins and spacing, diptych and triptych creation has never been easier.

The new Contact Sheet action replicates most of the functionality of the Contact Sheet script that is available as an optional install from Adobe. Of course, the advantage of having such power within Automator is that you can now automate the production of your contact sheets. Contact Sheet produces a PSD (either flat or layered) and gives you the option of displaying up to two lines of metadata beneath each thumbnail.

The free bundle includes 41 actions for day-to-day automation needs, and a $20 Pro bundle that includes 95 actions. The two packages are available for Photoshop CS4 and CS5.  Check out Ben’s site for download links & details. [Via]

 

Controlling Adobe apps' network connections

CS4, CS5

I know exceedingly well how sensitive people are about their software making connections to the net, and that’s perfectly reasonable.  In Photoshop CS4 & CS5, you can choose Preferences->Plug-Ins, then uncheck “Allow Extensions to Connect to the Internet.” If you’re a system administrator & want more control over how and when Adobe apps can connect, these tech docs may be useful to you:

Photoshop CS5 update (12.0.1) now available

CS5

Nothing matters more than stability & performance. I’m glad we can report that based on crash reporter statistics, Photoshop CS5 is more than 10 times as stable as CS4* (that is, it generates fewer than one-tenth as many crash reports). That’s not yet good enough progress, however.

Accordingly, Adobe has released an update for Photoshop CS5 (Mac | Win). You can also get the update by choosing Help->Updates from within Photoshop.

The Adobe Photoshop 12.0.1 update addresses a number of high priority bugs with 64-bit Mac, Performance, User Interface, Type, Content-Aware Fill, HDR, 3D, Painting, GPU and Liquify. The most significant fixes in the Photoshop 12.0.1 update include the following:

 

  • A number of issues that could cause slow performance have been addressed.
  • Top crashers found in the field have been addressed.
  • 3D refractions, Ray Tracing and IBL workflows have been improved.
  • Out of memory error opening some TIFFs has been addressed.
  • A crash in Content-Aware Fill has been addressed.
  • Font related crashes have been addressed.
  • A number of user interface and workspace issues have been fixed.
  • A number of painting-related problems have been addressed, including video layer issues.

 

We also addressed several issues that were result of the major architectural changes on the Mac side in the move to Cocoa/64-bit:

 

  • Right-click correctly selects the layer clicked on in the context menu.
  • Right-click to bring up the brush picker displays the picker under the cursor on the correct monitor.
  • Slow performance when using the Liquify filter has been fixed.
  • An issue where menus become disabled has been fixed.
  • Scrolling speed using Apple Mighty and Magic Mouse mouse wheel has been improved.
  • Double-clicking the document title bar now correctly minimizes the document.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when generating font previews. Note: We continue working with Apple to address remaining issues related to fonts and font caches. For info on those issues, use the Troubleshooting Fonts in Photoshop CS5 tech doc here.
  • Fixed an issue with batch processes on open documents.
  • Droplets are now Intel-native to improve compatibility in 64-bit mode and to remove the requirement to run droplets using Rosetta.
  • Fixed an issue where a white pixel would show up on screen after invoking certain dialogs.

 

Windows-specific issues of note:

 

  • Fixed an issue running on older AMD processors that prevent Photoshop from launching. (Application failed to initialize properly (0xc000001d))

 

The team thanks everyone from the community who helped us identify issues and test several of the fixes prior to the 12.0.1 update being released.

 

* Comparing 11.0.0 (CS4) to 12.0.0 (CS5) during the equivalent period following initial product availability

Adobe MAX, Russell Brown, coming in October; register now

CS5

Adobe MAX is returning to Los Angeles, CA Oct. 23-27 and registration has just started. Early bird discount pricing gets you $200 off the full conference pass price if you register before 8/15/2010. Check out the schedule at a glance or browse the more than 300 sessions planned.

Of special note is the Russell Brown@MAX lab, a three-day, hands-on course that brings together top art directors, designers, illustrators, and photographers to learn new techniques with Photoshop CS5. According to the event site,

Starting with photographic portraits we will turn reality into renaissance. Participants will unleash the powerful combination of cameras, computers, and Adobe Creative Suite® 5 software to produce an original artwork on canvas.

Hope to see you there.

New 64-bit Exposure 3 twice as fast in CS5

CS5, Lightroom

The folks at Alien Skin have released Exposure 3.0, a 64-bit-native plug-in that faithfully emulates the look of numerous film stocks & techniques. According to the company, “Exposure 3 in Photoshop CS5 is over twice as fast as Exposure 2 in CS4 on the Mac and about 30% faster on Windows.” The plug-in has also been updated to work beautifully with the new Lightroom 3.

Check out the product site for feature details, some neat interactive examples and much more info.

Adobe Lens Profile Creator updated

CS5, Lightroom, Photography

The Adobe Lens Profile Creator, a free utility for creating lens profiles that work in Photoshop CS5, Lightroom 3, and Camera Raw 6.1, has been updated to fix a couple of bugs and improve batch processing. You can download the update from Adobe Labs, and you can read more details on the product user forum. [Via]
Update: In case you haven’t seen the lens correction tools in action, or if you’d like more info on how to use them, check out this brief overview from Julieanne Kost:

The spinning progress indicator in Photoshop CS5

CS5, User Interface

I’ve heard a number of questions about the new spinning progress cursor (screenshot) that Photoshop CS5 uses. The cursor simply replaces the 1984-vintage MacApp watch cursor (non-standard in Cocoa), for which Apple provides no modern replacement on OS X.

Pierre Igot and others are mistaken in thinking that the CS5 cursor is an alternative to (or, more damningly, an attempt to hide) the “spinning beachball of death.” Photoshop uses the beachball when it’s warranted–i.e., when the app is unresponsive. (The beachball is provided by the OS when the app doesn’t process user interface events fast enough.) It has always used the watch cursor in other cases, where the app is busy performing a task but isn’t locked up, and where the task should be done shortly.

Let’s say we’d (inappropriately) started using the beachball in all cases where we’d previously used the watch cursor. Though it would have no impact (positive or negative) on performance, it would have a big impact on perceived responsiveness, and we’d start hearing “CS5 locks up all the time!” This would be especially profound given persistent misperceptions (arguably deliberately cultivated) of what 64-bit means.

Let’s say that instead of using the watch cursor, we’d pop up progress bars all the time, where none existed in the past. Same result: same performance, unhappier customers.

Let’s say we’d stuck with the 1984-era watch cursor (which I saw pop up the other day in Safari). We’d hear “Look, PS is still Carbon/32bits in places!” You don’t think so? I actually have commenters claim that the all-caps text in iTunes (and previously Finder) is somehow due to Carbon. (And arguably, given the decline in society’s use of wristwatches, I can imagine catching flak about relying on a floppy disk-like anachronism.)

We gave this issue a lot of consideration, and ultimately there wasn’t a perfect solution, so we chose a route that modernized the app UI without misusing standard Apple UI or misrepresenting app responsiveness. Maybe it’s something we can improve in the future, and we’re certainly open to feedback.

Of course, the real issue here has very little to do with one cursor vs. another. It has to do with a question of whether Adobe builds “real” Mac software. We do, and we’re making more progress all the time. There’s a lot of detail to unpack here, and being on the road, I can’t get into all of it now. I’ll try to do so soon, and in the meantime you might want to see my thoughts about platform consistency.

CS5 enterprise deployment tool now available

CS5

The Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition offers a customizable way to wrap Creative Suite applications as MSI or PKG for silent deployment via industry standard tools. It’s now available for download.

If this kind of thing is up your alley, see also the Adobe installer team’s blog. The CS5 installers continue to make good progress in raising customer satisfaction while driving down support calls, and the installer team welcomes your feedback.

Pixel Bender comes to CS5, adds Oil Paint filter

CS5, Pixel Bender

I’m pleased to announce that the Pixel Bender Gallery plug-in for Photoshop CS5 is now available for download from Adobe Labs. Key points:

  • It runs filters really, really fast on your graphics card (GPU)
  • The plug-in is not one filter, but rather a harness into which you can drop Pixel Bender files (.PBK and .PBG)
  • Pixel Bender also runs cross-platform in After Effects & Flash Player 10
  • The filters people write for Flash will also work in Photoshop

In addition, the plug-in now includes a very cool Oil Paint filter that produces some painterly results (see this pair of screenshots), nicely complementing all the painting enhancements in Photoshop CS5.

The plug-in is essentially the same as the version that was available for CS4, but it has been revised for CS5 & 64-bit Mac compatibility. Here’s a one-minute demo movie that shows the plug-in in action. You can download additional filters from the Pixel Bender Exchange, discuss PB authoring in the user forum, and use the Pixel Bender Toolkit to create your own filters.

GPS Data panel now available for CS5

CS5

We’ve just posted a GPS Data panel (download for Mac, Win) that extends the File Info dialog in CS5 applications (Photoshop, Bridge, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, and InDesign). The panel (see screenshot) offers a simple way to see parameters like latitude, longitude, and altitude.

Installation notes:

  • On the Mac, make sure you install into the main Library path, not the user-specific one. (Somehow I often stumble on that one.)
  • Please make sure that the package files (“bin” and “manifest.xml”) go into a folder called “gpsData.”

Adobe/Wired digital viewer for iPad coming soon for all publishers

CS5, Mobile, Tablets

I’ve written previously that Adobe is not in the Flash business, or the Photoshop business, or the PDF or HTML5 business. Rather, it’s in the solving customers’ problems business, and any given technology is just a means to an end. Today you’re getting more proof.
As you may have seen last week, Adobe and Wired Magazine have collaborated to bring a richly interactive version of the magazine to iPads. Here’s a 1-minute demo:

I received quite a few questions about how regular Creative Suite customers can tap into these capabilities. Today Adobe announced that the ability to target the digital viewer technology it created for Wired will be made available soon on Adobe Labs. According to VP Dave Burkett,

“We aim to make our digital viewer software available to all publishers soon and plan to deliver versions that work across multiple hardware platforms. It’s safe to say that if you are already working in InDesign CS5, you’ll be well on your way to producing a beautiful digital version of your publication.”

Check out Adobe’s Digital Publishing Platform pages for more background & details.
InDesign CS5 adds a bunch of simple, powerful tools for adding animation and interactivity to documents, and it can export those documents in a number of formats. That is, you can choose PDF, Flash, AIR, XML, etc. based on the needs of your project. Apple blocked AIR conversion on iPads, so Adobe simply built an alternative way to view the content.
It isn’t about one runtime/format vs. another; never has been. It’s about getting results.
PS–I’m really hoping that my inner cynic is wrong, and that this post doesn’t draw a bunch of counterproductive neener-neener jeering from Apple zealots. It would be so, so refreshing to hear instead that people are focused on what benefits them, and that they actually prefer cooperation & pragmatism to ideological finger-pointing.

The Knowledge panel arrives in Photoshop CS5

Configurator, CS5, User Interface

Sometime in the last 48 hours, your copy of Photoshop CS5 quietly sprouted some new functionality. We hope you like it, and we’d love to get your feedback.

Adobe is now delivering the Knowledge panel for Photoshop (see screenshots). This tool delivers interactive step-by-step guidance, walking you through some 70 tutorials written by expert authors. Unlike other tutorials, these can drive Photoshop: clicking links executes commands in PS (e.g. clicking “File->New” brings up the New Document dialog box).

To try out the new panel, make sure you’ve logged in using your Adobe ID and password (click the little “CS Live” icon in the upper right corner), then look for Knowledge under Window->Extensions. You may need to quit & relaunch PS after logging in. (Details below.)

So, why is this important?

In brief, it lets the community make Photoshop smarter & easier to use, leveraging the Web inside the app.

I’ve long been frustrated that Adobe applications–like most large, powerful apps–simply throw the user into the deep end of the functionality pool. Very little in the interface suggests how pieces can or should be used in sequence to achieve a goal. The apps are highly flexible & very general, but users tend to suffer from “the paradox of choice.” They know the app is capable of X, but they don’t know how to do it, and they may feel foolish & resentful.

I’ve long thought we could do better, and last year I presented some ideas for a more task-based Photoshop UI. As I wrote then, we had two goals:

  • Present a more streamlined interface (“everything you need, nothing you don’t”), showing only the tools and commands that are relevant to the task at hand
  • Present best-practice guidance on how to accomplish specific tasks (“not just yet another way to do something, but the *right* way”)

The Knowledge panel delivers on the second of these. Our plan was to deliver it together with a complimentary Toolbox panel (screenshot), tying the contents of both to workspaces. That way, when you’d click “3D,” Photoshop would not only rearrange your existing panels; it would also present just the tools needed for 3D work (plus contextual information), as well as step-by-step guidance on completing common 3D tasks. The same would go for painting, Web design, etc.

Unfortunately we ran out of time to deliver everything in the box. Thus we’re delivering the Knowledge panel as an update, and if you’d like to check out the (somewhat unpolished) Toolbox panel, you can download it here. The Knowledge panel auto-installs in English only, so if you’re using another language version of PS but would still like to use the panel, please grab it and install it. Relaunch Photoshop after installation, and then look under Window->Extensions for each panel.

Both panels were built in Configurator, so you’re welcome to grab the source files to see how they were made. I plan to post details soon on how to drive Photoshop from HTML. I hope to see many authors enhancing Photoshop in this way.

Because of the way the CS5 dev cycle played out, this release offers us a chance to test drive these enhancements without making them a marquee feature. We’re eager to hear what you think. Is this stuff useful? Should we take it further? Please let us know. [Update: here’s a very quick poll.]

Thanks,
J.

PS–I’m incredibly grateful to the many authors (too many to list here) who contributed content, to the Adobe Learning Resources folks, and to Victor Gavenda and the excellent, patient folks at Peachpit who really tied the room together.

Using Mixed Case panel titles in Photoshop CS5

CS5, User Interface

The ALL CAPS panel tabs in CS4 and later are one of the more polarizing aesthetic details of the applications. If you’d like to change Photoshop panel tabs to Mixed Case, grab this plug-in (Mac) or these registry entries (Win).

On Mac drop the plug-in into the “Adobe Photoshop CS5/Plug-ins” folder; on Windows double-click the “DisableUppercaseTitles_ON.reg” file.
[Update: You can do the same in InDesign CS4/CS5. Colin Fleming writes, “Create a folder, name it ‘noallcaps’ (one word, no spaces, no caps), put this folder in the InDesign application folder–done!”]

Genuine Fractals goes 64-bit, CS5-native

64-bit, CS5

The hits keep coming:

Owners of Genuine Fractals 6 can download the free update from onOne Software’s website... “My experience with Genuine Fractals running on Photoshop CS5 is that it is considerably faster due to the fact that it now includes 64-bit support,” says Douglas Dubler, a leading fashion, beauty and fine art photographer. “I make big prints, starting at 30×40 and 360 DPI, and so the time savings when I work with these large files is substantial using this newest release. It’s a big advantage.”

Workspace import/export script for Photoshop

CS4, CS5

I sometimes hear requests for an easier way to migrate one’s settings from one version of Photoshop to another, or to share settings among users. To that end, Photoshop engineer Tai Luxon has whipped up a little script you may find handy:

I wrote a script to enable simple importing and exporting of Photoshop workspaces. This is a side project with limited testing, so the usual disclaimers apply. It should work in both CS4 and CS5 (although it is a little more robust in CS5), so you can use it to migrate workspaces from CS4 to CS5 in addition to using it to enable easier sharing of CS5 workspaces between machines/people. Please let me know of any snags that you run into and if this is useful.

To run the script, choose “File->Scripts->Browse…” from with Photoshop, then browse to the script’s location on disk.
[Update: Tai has revised the script to deal with an issue related to invalid font styles, and I’ve posted the revision at the link above.]

CS5 compatibility news about DeNoise, PixelNovel

64-bit, CS5

Topaz has revved their DeNoise plug-in to version 4.1. According to their press release, improvements include:

* Complete 64-bit CS5 compatibility on both Mac and Windows.

* Greatly improved processing speed for Mac – 100% increase for many configurations.

* Better color handling – improved color edge recovery, new Clean Color slider.

* Interface and preset improvements.

Meanwhile the guys at PixelNovel are revising their version-control system (see previous), rewriting it using Adobe Flex and offering better integration with the Photoshop interface. A beta version should arrive in roughly two months. See their site for more details.

Tools to unlock Photoshop's new painting chops

CS5

The new painting features in Photoshop CS5 are incredibly powerful, but the app interface doesn’t provide much guidance as to what to use & when. Fortunately some painting experts have stepped up to the challenge.
Adobe’s Russell Brown has used Configurator to create a Painting Assistant panel that steps you through common tasks in converting a photograph into a painting. Here are a demo video and the panel installer.
Meanwhile painter John Derry is offering an excellent set of Artists’ Brushes, together with a texture library & six video tutorials, for $19.95. Maybe the idea of paying for content seems weird, but this is really well crafted, well vetted material that can make a big difference in what you’re able to accomplish with the tools. Check out the preview video for a sample of the tools & the techniques John shows.

Configurator 2.0 is here!

Configurator, CS5, Suite Development

I’m delighted to announced that Adobe Configurator 2.0–now supporting both Photoshop CS5 and InDesign CS5–is available for download from Adobe Labs.

I characterize Configurator as a “bag of Legos,” letting you remix any/all of the tools & menu items in each application. The idea is to simplify the app interface by making it present “everything you want, nothing you don’t”–and to do it in a democratic, community-driven way.

Highlights in Configurator 2.0:

  • Support for HTML content (thanks to WebKit being embedded in CS5) that can drive the host app (running menu items, actions, and scripts, and switching tools). If you can create simple Web pages, you can create interactive CS5 tutorials.
  • Support for containers (groups switched via tabs or menus, and accordions)
  • Improved layout controls
  • Support for popup windows. These can contain HTML, video, and/or other panels.
  • Localization support (e.g. create a panel in English & have it auto-switch to translated text strings, changing button sizes as needed)
  • Numerous “JDI”-style enhancements (e.g. being able to hide the script/action icon on buttons)

I’ll try to put together a nice, polished little demo soon. In the meantime, if you’re willing to suffer through my scintillating, “wizard of aahs” public speaking style, you can check out this demo I did for developers last month. (Skip right past the first 5:40 or so.)

I’m adding some fairly detailed notes & tips in this post’s extended entry. For that info, read on.

Continue reading →

64-bit/CS5 news from Alien Skin, Imagenomic

64-bit, CS5, Lightroom

The folks at Imagenomic have released a new 64-bit Mac version of Portraiture for Photoshop CS5:

This new version adds native 64-bit support for running Portraiture from CS5 on Mac OS X (10.5/10.6 – Snow Leopard), and complements Imagenomic Plug-in support for 64-bit Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems, which were released in 2009. This new Portraiture Plug-in update is being provided free of charge to registered users of the Portraiture Plug-in for Photoshop edition, and can be downloaded directly from Imagenomic’s website.

Meanwhile Alien Skin is working on a major update to Exposure, their plug-in for recreating classic film looks digitally. According to their site,

Exposure 3 will be out in late June!… There are some frequently requested technical features in this upgrade, including Lightroom and 64-bit Photoshop CS5 support. The user interface has been completely rewritten and one result is that the preview updates much faster now.

Dreamweaver adds HTML5 chops

CS5, HTML5

Hey, did you hear the one about how Adobe hates hates hates HTML5, and how the only thing that matters to the company is the advancement of Flash (to the exclusion of everything else)?

I have, and the story is stupid, lame, and inaccurate–always has been. But honestly, talk in either direction is cheap, and I think people want to see “a little less conversation, a little more action.“

To that end I’m very happy to see the Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 HTML5 Pack made available for download. According to the development team:

  • The HTML5 Pack extension includes new code hinting for HTML5 and CSS3 elements to enable Dreamweaver users to easily make use of new HTML5 tags.
  • The extension also includes WebKit engine updates and improvements to support video and audio in Dreamweaver CS5’s Design View and Live View.
  • New CSS3 capabilities users can more easily design multiscreen web pages, with previews of how they will render across multiple browsers and devices.

To see the features in action, check out this demo from DW engineering manager Jorge Taylor:

You can also download a free 30-day trial of Dreamweaver CS5 here.

Talking JDI, CS5, and more on Martini Hour

CS5

In the second part of our conversation with Deke & Colleen (see previous), Hughes & I talk “JDI” and more. As Colleen writes,

Deciding to upgrade isn’t just about wanting the state-of-the-art features. Sometimes, it’s those improvements to everyday tools that make your day-to-day work go more smoothly. Oh sure, it’s fun to play digital Stretch Armstrong with pictures of your friends with the Puppet Warp. But it’s also a downright relief to finally be able to simply drag-and-drop an image into a Photoshop composition.

Check out the regular or high quality streams.

Optional plug-ins available for Photoshop CS5

CS5

We’ve posted various optional plug-ins for Photoshop CS5 for Mac and Windows:

  • Picture Package (ContactSheetII)
  • Extract (Windows only*)
  • Pattern Maker
  • Photomerge UI (for interactive panorama creation)
  • Web Photo Gallery (WebContactSheetII) plus presets
  • Script for Layer Comps to Web Photo Gallery
  • Texture presets for Texturizer
  • TWAIN

Additional file formats:

  • Alias
  • Electric Image
  • SGIRGB
  • SoftImage

* Cocoa-related changes mean that Extract doesn’t run on OS X in CS5. Refine Edge in CS5 should now be able to address the image extraction needs for the vast majority of people who previously used Extract.

Camera Raw 6.1 comes to Labs, adding lens correction

CS5

Camera Raw 6.1 is now available in preview form on Adobe Labs. The release improves performance & fixes a crashing bug on OS X. The release includes camera support for the following models:

  • Canon EOS 550D (Digital Rebel T2i/ EOS Kiss X4 Digital)
  • Kodak Z981
  • Leaf Aptus-II 8
  • Leaf Aptus-II 10R
  • Mamiya DM40
  • Olympus E-PL1
  • Olympus E-600
  • Panasonic G2
  • Panasonic G10
  • Sony A450

Release notes courtesy of the Lightroom Journal:

  • Camera Raw 6.1 includes new lens correction functionality that can apply profile-based corrections to accommodate geometric distortions, chromatic aberration and lens vignette effects. Manual corrections for geometric distortion as well as vertical and horizontal perspective transforms are also available. A handful of lens profiles are included for automatic correction and more can be created by the community with the Adobe Lens Profile Creator.
  • This release addresses a bug on the Mac platform that could cause Photoshop CS5 to quit unexpectedly when opening a file in the Camera Raw 6.0 plug-in.
  • This release contains performance enhancements designed to improve the responsiveness of the controls and the scrolling mechanism relative to Camera Raw 6.0.
  • The camera support provided in this release was previously provided in the Camera Raw 5.7 plug-in update with the exception of the Olympus E-600 which is new to this update. Please read this post for an explanation of why redundant support has been released.
  • Please provide feedback on the Camera Raw plug-in on the User-to-User forums.

Vector painting hotness in Illustrator CS5

CS5, Illustration

I’ve posted some demos showing off Photoshop CS5’s new physics-simulating brush engine–but did you know that the same engine is part of Illustrator CS5 as well?
Check out this painting and behind-the-scenes info from Greg Geisler, one of the artists behind A Scanner Darkly (see previous). Greg makes amazing use of the new Bristle Brush engine. I’m also digging this illustration by Joel Cocks, done using the same tools.

Side note: When I met Greg in Austin a couple of years ago, he talked about how useful he’d find the ability to tell Illustrator to put subsequent strokes/shapes behind the current one, rather than on top of it. Apparently the Rotoshop artists use this technique extensively when tracing over imagery. I’m pleased to say that Illustrator CS5 implements the new Draw Behind mode. Here’s a brief (2-minute) demo of that feature, along with the related Draw Inside mode.

Free online Photoshop eSeminar tomorrow

CS5

My fellow PM Bryan O’Neil Hughes is presenting a couple of free one-hour eSeminars covering what’s new in Photoshop CS5. According to the event registration page, “This series is specifically designed to help professional photographers and design professionals who use photography and digital imaging in their work.”

What’s New in Photoshop CS5 ›
Thursday, May 6, 2010
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM US/Pacific

Photoshop CS5 for Photographers ›
Thursday, May 27, 2010
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM US/Pacific

Imagenomic plans free plug-in updates for CS5

64-bit, CS5

Good to know:

Imagenomic will be providing FREE compatibility updates of its Plug-in Products (Portraiture, Noiseware and RealGrain) for Adobe Photoshop CS5. Furthermore, we will be providing a FREE update for registered users of the Portraiture Plug-in for Lightroom to ensure compatibility with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3… For Mac OS X: We will be releasing compatibility updates to make sure our Plug-in products are fully compatible with Photoshop CS5 in both 64 and 32 bit mode.

[Via Bryan O’Neil Hughes]

Illustrator CS5 has excellent pixel chops (at last)

CS5, Illustration

When I started working at Adobe nearly 10 years ago, I got up in the Illustrator PM’s face. AI9 had just implemented Pixel Preview mode for Web and screen designers, but the feature was maddeningly incomplete. I made my point forcefully, and over the years Illustrator has made improvements (e.g. enabling inside/outside/center placement of strokes), but the job just wasn’t done.
Until now.
You can now set up a document so that all art automatically snaps to pixel boundaries, meaning that, for example, 1-pixel black strokes will remain 1 pixel in width instead of looking like blurry 2-pixel gray strokes. You can also snap objects selectively to the grid, and you can choose among anti-aliasing options on text. See the Illustrator help docs for more info, or better yet, watch this three-minute video:

But don’t take my (or Mordy’s) word for it. Recently the noted Web designer Jon Hicks (creator of the Firefox logo, among other things) was unhappy with Illustrator for Web work. What a difference a month & a version make:

  • March 22: “Illustrator [CS4] in particular irritated the hell out of me with it’s pixel preview artefacts.”
  • April 30: After trying Illustrator CS5, “I’m rather smitten with it… Having pixels work properly in Illustrator is fantastic.”

Nik plans free plug-in updates for CS5

64-bit, CS5

The folks at Nik Software report that they’re planning to issue free CS5 compatibility updates to their plug-ins:

We are actively working to add 64-bit compatibility to the Macintosh version of our Viveza 2 product and expect to be finished mid-year. Once the update for Viveza 2 is released, we will deliver cross-platform 64-bit versions of our remaining products as they become available.

Please see the Nik site for additional details.

Color-picking improvements in Photoshop CS5

CS5

In Photoshop CS4, we added the ability to click & drag in order to resize one’s brush, and to change brush hardness in a similar manner (using a separate keyboard shortcut). Artists told us they wanted to perform these operations in quick succession, without having to use separate commands.

Therefore in CS5 you can change both brush size and brush hardness via a single shortcut: on Mac, Control+Option click, and on Windows, Alt+right click, then drag left/right to change brush size and up/down to change hardness. We built in little “dead zones” between up/down and left/right to reduce the chance that you’d inadvertently change both parameters when you’re trying to change just one.

Moving to a single shortcut had the side benefit of freeing up the shortcuts that were previously used to control brush hardness. Now you can invoke the new HUD (Heads-Up Display) color picker* by holding Command Control Option (Mac)/Alt Shift Right Click (Windows) when clicking.

We also gave the eyedropper tool a color selection ring that shows one’s previous foreground color as well as the one being clicked. Because human color perception is notoriously susceptible to influence by surrounding colors (see this little demo if you need convincing), we included a gray ring around the previous/sampled colors. If for whatever reason you don’t like the ring, you can select the eyedropper tool, then uncheck the “Show Sampling Ring” on the Options Bar.

One other tweak: You can now launch the color picker using a keyboard shortcut. To set this up, start by choosing Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Under the Shortcuts for “Tools,” scroll the to the bottom to locate “Foreground Color Picker,” and then type the letter you prefer.

[Screenshot of the ring courtesy of digital painter John Derry’s blog.]

*Detail: If you want to switch Hue without changing the Saturation/Value, you can hold down the space bar to stop the color sampler from moving. (I call up the HUD, then release the shortcut keys, which frees up my hand to select the space bar.) Once you move over the Hue strip or ring you can release the space bar and adjust the hue. It’s complicated to describe but rather simple to use.

"Use Legacy Shortcuts" option in CS5

CS5, User Interface

In Photoshop CS4 we changed a number of keyboard shortcuts related to selecting and targeting color channels. At that time I posted a plug-in (Mac)/registry entries (Windows) that one could use to switch many of these changes back to the CS3-and-earlier behavior. To make things easier to discover, in CS5, there’s an option in Edit>Keyboard Shortcuts… to “Use Legacy Channel Shortcuts” (screenshot). That is, you no longer need to use the plug-in/registry entries.

Note that this option can’t change things entirely back to the old behavior. Moving adjustments from modal dialogs to a non-modal panel simply means that some commands would now conflict (e.g. hitting Cmd-1 can’t both display a channel & target a channel). See my earlier post for a more detailed list & explanations of why this is.

Adobe Lens Profile Creator now available

CS5, Photography

I’m pleased to report that Adobe Labs is now hosting Adobe Lens Profile Creator, a free utility that enables the easy creation of lens profiles for use in Photoshop, Lightroom, and (very shortly) Camera Raw.

Lens Profile Creator characterizes three common types of lens aberrations, namely the geometric distortion, the lateral chromatic aberration and the vignette.
The general process of creating a custom lens profile for your lens involves capturing a set of checkerboard images using your specific camera and lens, converting the set of raw format images into DNG format, and importing the DNG files to generate the custom lens profile.
You can also submit the lens profiles to share with the rest of the user community.

Check out the Labs page for more info, and see the Lens Profile Creator user forum to discuss the tool & profiles.

New Watermark Panel for Photoshop CS5

CS5

Adding a previously unannounced goodie into the CS5 mix, Russell Brown has created a new Watermark Panel for use in Photoshop. He writes,

Need to watermark a photo? You got it! Need to watermark 100 of them? No sweat. The all new Adobe Watermark panel takes all the hassle out of watermarking and let’s you get back to work (or doing the other things you like to do) a lot faster.

Here’s a quick tour:

A longer, more detailed video is available on Russell’s site. Here’s the panel installer itself.

Configurator 2 for CS5 is coming soon

Configurator, CS5

Custom panels made with Configurator 1.0 for Photoshop CS4 need to be updated via the forthcoming Configurator 2.0 before they can run in Photoshop CS5. I’m pleased to say that we’re wrapping up work on the (very cool) new version, but it’s not quite ready to share yet. If you’ve jumped on CS5 and can’t wait to et your custom panel(s) back, drop me a line (jnack at adobe) and I’ll get you squared away.

Podcast: Hughes & I talk CS5

64-bit, CS5

Bryan & I sat down with Deke and Colleen for another well lubed installment of Martini (half) Hour (listen in regular or high quality). Among the content we discussed:

64-bit: Not much more to say. Better, stronger, and in this case, faster. It’s Bionic Photoshop. OK, John has a little more to say. And it’s a cool look into what is really involved in creating a new version of something as mature and labyrinthian as Photoshop.

PS–Hughes actually is a witch; good fun at team parties.

Using a dialog box to edit a Curves adjustment layer

CS4, CS5, User Interface

In response to my notes on how we’ve polished the Adjustments panel in Photoshop CS5, I saw a couple of requests for a way to edit adjustments (especially Curves) via a dialog box instead of via a panel. To do so in CS4 you can download and use this panel (screenshot). In CS5 the architecture that supports extension panels has changed, so you need to grab the CS5 version of the panel.
In case you have trouble installing the panel via Extension Manager*, you can download this plain-zipped version (or the CS5 version). Unzip it and drag the resulting “Curves – Dialog” folder into your “Adobe Photoshop CS4/Plug-Ins/Panels” directory.
* If you’re getting permissions errors on Windows Vista or Windows 7, try right-clicking the Extension Manager icon, clicking Properties, selecting the Compatibility tab, and checking the “Run this program as an administrator” checkbox.