The last time we saw the “#1 Photoshop Fan,” he was camped out all night waiting for the release of Photoshop CS5… Now he’s back (in the funny video below) and helping launch a new contest to find Adobe’s “Next Photoshop Evangelist” – and if it’s you, you’ll win a new copy of Creative Suite 5 plus a paid trip to Photoshop World in Florida next March, including the chance to demo your work at the conference, roundtrip coach airfare, lodging, and meals.

To enter: “Upload a two-minute Photoshop video tutorial demonstrating why you should be the Next Photoshop Evangelist. Your video must use Photoshop CS5, a new Photoshop CS5 feature, and, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Photoshop, incorporate the concept of ‘20′ some­where in the final image. Have fun!”

If you need Photoshop CS5 to use for the contest, you can easily download the fully-working free trial for 30 days. For choosing a new feature to use, see the list of new CS5 features for Photoshop (and all other products).

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If you missed your calling as a 19th-century post-Impressionist painter, here’s your second chance… Adobe recently released the fast and free Pixel Bender Plug-in for Photo­shop CS5, which adds new image processing algorithms (filters or effects) in a hardware-independent manner. There are dozens of free filters available, including one for an oil paint effect. Pixel Bender also runs cross-platform in After Effects and Flash, so all filters and their behaviors are portable among various Adobe products.

Installation of the Pixel Bender Plug-in is easy, provided you already have Photoshop CS5 installed. If you don’t yet have Photoshop CS5, you can just download the full 30-day free trial. The Pixel Bender Gallery is initially populated with 13 filters that come with with the plugin. The one we’ll focus on today is the OilPaint filter, with two video tutorials below demonstrating detailed examples of its use. The tips and techniques shared will help you use the tools to turn an ordinary photo into something special – “makes a great gift!”

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If you’re weighing whether to upgrade to Photoshop CS5, or just want to see the best of the new features, Adobe’s got a free new seminar series for you… Digital Imaging Evangelist Julieanne Kost just gave a one-hour online session (now available on-demand) highlighting at least 10 good reasons to become a Photoshop CS5 believer:

Top Ten Reasons to Upgrade to Photoshop CS5 — Watch now

Photoshop CS5 is packed with features that save time, and helps you create images with the desired impact. Easily make complex selections. Remove any image element and see the space fill in almost magically. Paint realistically. Create stunning HDR images, remove noise, add grain, and create vignettes with state-of-the-art photo­graphy tools. Seeing is believing.

This is the second in the What’s New in Photoshop CS5 eSeminar Series. The first was given last month by Photoshop Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes of Content-Aware Fill fame, and is also available for on-demand replay:

Adobe Photoshop CS5 for Photographers (1 hour) — Watch now

See how Photoshop CS5 gives photographers a set of breakthrough tools to help you refine your images and get superior results faster than ever before. This seminar highlights key features and the reasons why photographers should consider upgrad­ing to Photoshop CS5.

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With the final releases of new Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2, Adobe is hosting a new series of free webinars introducing the new multi-screen web content and applications development capabilities of the Flash Platform. You will discover the exciting new features of Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2 and learn the best practices from leading industry experts on how to create unique experiences and optimize web content, video, and applications across desktop and mobile. Here’s the session list, with detailed descriptions available on the registration page:

Best practices in optimizing web content for Flash Player 10.1
Tuesday, June 22, 9AM–10AM PDT — Watch Free On-Demand

The quickest way to build cross-platform apps with AIR 2
Tuesday, June 22, 1PM–2PM PDT — Watch Free On-Demand

Rich Internet App development with Flash Builder 4 for Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2
Wednesday, June 23, 9AM–10AM PDT — Watch Free On-Demand

Multi-screen web content development with Flash Pro CS5
Thursday, June 24, 9AM–10AM PDT — Watch Free On-Demand

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We’re seeing some folks reporting problems trying to download the new Lightroom 3 using the Akamai Download Manager, which is enabled by default at Adobe.com… There are several posts on the user forums (e.g., here and here), as well as incoming visitor search queries here like “download link for lightroom 3 without akamai,” “adobe lightroom 3 direct download link,” and “how to download lightroom 3 from adobe without the download manager.”

So to complement our earlier sets of direct links for Adobe CS5 and CS4, below are the direct download links for Lightroom 3 – they are very straightforward, just one single file for each platform that covers all languages (with both 32-bit and 64-bit versions inside for Windows)…

Because we’ve also had requests for links for the Elements product line (Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8), you’ll find those further down as well – including the extra con­tent files for Premiere Elements. All of these links go to the auth­entic files residing on Adobe’s servers, are guaranteed genuine and will not change.

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With the official release of Lightroom 3.0 looking to be just around the corner here!, it’s time to launch our June contest… This month we’re giving away 3 free upgrades to Lightroom 3, and all you have to do for a shot to win is enter your email address in the “Adobe Special Offers” box in the sidebar to the right for our free occasional e-newsletter. That’s it.

It’s open worldwide with one subscription per person and submissions end at 11:59pm EDT on Wednesday, June 30th, 2010. Then on July 1st we’ll choose three new subscribers at random, and if you’re one of them we’ll ship you a shiny new shrinkwrapped upgrade to Lightroom 3 for free! (Or if you’ve already purchased your upgrade by that time, just send us the bill and we’ll reimburse 100% of your cost via PayPal.) We’ll contact you via email just to get your address for shipping, and then follow up back here announcing your first name and hometown. It’s that simple, no kidding!

If you like, you can find out more about our newsletter – it typically covers select Adobe-related news plus the latest specials and promo codes. And of course you can easily unsubscribe from the bottom of any issue. Natu­rally we’ll never spam you or share your email address with anyone else, ever. So enter your email today and spread the word – someone has to win and there’s nothing to lose…

See Terry White’s new video, My Top 5 Favorite Lightroom 3 Features.
Read more…

[UPDATE (6/11) – Get Lightroom 3 or Elements 8 direct too.]

Following our popular post last week with the direct download links to the official trials of CS4 and CS3 for those who need them, by reader request we are doing the same for all CS5 products here… In theory the Akamai Download Manager that Adobe uses is a good thing, intending to reduce download times and provide a ‘resume’ capability in case of interruption. But despite their best efforts, some folks are still encountering problems downloading CS5 with Akamai’s presence, so we thought we’d provide a complete set of direct download links for all Adobe Creative Suite 5 software (Windows and Mac), for instant easy access and to assist in these cases…

Below is a table for CS5 trial downloads in major languages. These links go to the auth­entic CS5 files residing on Adobe’s servers, are guaranteed genuine and will not change. For Windows, each program consists of up to two files, an .exe and a 7-Zip file (.7z). The .exe file will only work once the .7z file is fully downloaded and resides in the same location. For the Mac, it’s just a single .dmg file for each program.

The supported languages vary by product. The Western Euro­pean languages can include Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. To see which product supports which languages, visit the main Adobe trials page and then click on the selection menu for whichever product(s) you’d like to try – it will tell you which languages are currently available.

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Did you know that people spend over $7 billion each year printing, faxing, and overnighting documents just because a signature is needed? Adobe has just introduced a free solution aiming to crush those expenses… It’s called Adobe eSignatures™ and it’s live now, a new online service allowing you to electronically sign contracts, NDAs – any Acrobat PDF document that requires a signature.

If you already have an Adobe.com ID or login, you’re good to go – just sign in and start signing (electronically)! If you don’t yet have an Adobe ID, just take a minute to create one; it’s easy and free. Then it’s a very simple guided process that allows you to upload your document, enter the email address(es) for all parties, and click to sign. You don’t need any special tokens or smartcards. Once signed, the final eSignatures document is certified by Adobe to ensure that no one has modified it, providing an authentic copy that is protected against alterations. And it’s entirely legal, valid, and lawfully accepted, being used to sign everything from real estate and sales contracts to judicial orders.

Adobe actually has a lot of experience in this area, with a big, well-established business pro­viding a highly-secure digital signature capability into large banks, the military and a number of governments. In fact, the first digitally-signed judicial order was executed using Adobe technology, and the FY 2011 U.S. Federal Budget was electronically certified using the same technology that underlies eSignatures. They’ve been a market leader in digital signatures for over a decade, and are now extending this service out to the rest of the world for everyday documents… (Read how it works.)

Did we mention it’s free?

[UPDATE (June 4th) – If you'd also like to download CS5 directly see our complete set of links.
If you want to buy After Effects CS4 or Premiere Pro CS4, see our recommendation here.]

Even though Creative Suite 5 is out and is a phenomenal release, some folks still need the earlier versions for various reasons: 32-bit vs 64-bit (e.g., After Effects and Premiere Pro), compatibility with other software or systems owned, the rest of your class or company is still on CS4, you need to reinstall but no longer have your original disks or download file, etc… But this older software is now hard to find – Adobe doesn’t publicize or provide a web interface for it. So if you’ve been searching high and low all over the Internet to find the official Adobe trial downloads for CS4 or CS3, well your search is over!

Below are two tables for CS4 trial downloads in major languages. These links go to the auth­entic CS4 files residing on Adobe’s servers, are guaranteed genuine and will not change. For Windows, each program consists of two files, an .exe and a 7-Zip file (.7z). The .exe file will only work once the .7z package is fully downloaded and resides in the same location. For the Mac, it’s just a single .dmg file for each program.

There are also optional “extra content” downloads included here for most products that consist of one or two additional files, which you can install separately after the main product is installed.

Read more…

[UPDATE (June 7th) – See the winners plus our new contest!]

Our last giveaway went so well that we’re launching a new one for the month of May – we’re giving away ten copies of some of the best CS5 books coming, Adobe’s popular “Classroom in a Book” series! The books will be published in early June, just after the contest ends… They sell for up to $59.99 and include companion DVDs for Windows or Mac with bonus content including lesson files and video tutorials. Our winners can choose a book for whichever product you’d like: Photoshop CS5, Dreamweaver CS5, Illustrator CS5, InDesign CS5, Flash Pro CS5, Flash Catalyst CS5, Premiere Pro CS5, After Effects CS5, Fireworks CS5, or CS5 Design Premium.

To enter, all you have to do is add a comment below describing what you like about CS5 and how you’ll be using it, in up to four sentences – that’s it! The contest runs until 11:59pm EDT on Monday, May 31st, 2010, when we’ll choose the ten entries we like the best. One entry per person please, and if two submissions are similar, the first one will count. The contest is open to residents of the USA, Canada, U.K. and Ireland, and the winners will be chosen and books shipped out next month. Be sure to give an accurate email address as we’ll be contacting ten commenters via email to get shipping information, and then follow up back here announcing first names and home­towns.

Speaking of giveaways, we’re also pleased to announce the winner of our big Photoshop CS5 Giveaway last month… The lucky fellow who won the drawing is Dayne from North Lincoln­shire, England, and he will be receiving a shiny new shrinkwrap­ped box of Photoshop CS5 for free!

It turns out Dayne is a talented young artist who after­wards sent us some work he did with Photoshop CS4, which we’d like to share with you here…
Congratulations Dayne, and we’ll look forward to seeing what you do with CS5. And thanks again to everyone who entered for your participation and enthusiasm.

Adobe has some more great product releases coming up, so we expect to be running one new contest each month for a while to come… And since we have a full ten new Creative Suite 5 books to give away this month, if you enter now plus facebook and tweet your friends and colleagues, hopefully one of you will get one!