Last week Adobe quietly revealed a first look at Photoshop CS6, which was received with hundreds of thousands of views…  And now we have a second look, a sneak peek which focuses on performance gains.

As images grow larger and larger in resolution and file size, even simple issues such as saving your files can slow down productivity – which has been a point of interest in Photoshop CS5. In this preview, a smooth and oft-requested Background Save capability is introduced allowing you to fully continue working while all file saving takes place in the background, regardless of size or compression.

Large images also slow down functions like Liquify… In the video, a 100MB photograph lags when loading and editing in Photoshop CS5. Now this new Photoshop (CS6 we presume) uses the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to greater effect to bring real-time loading and editing responsiveness. See how much faster and crisper the Liquify filter works, enabling effectively unlimited brush sizes:

If you missed the first Photoshop CS6 sneak peek, it’s definitely worth two minutes of your full-screen time if you haven’t seen it yet – introducing the new user interface, rich cursor support, plus advancements in the Camera Raw processing engine that will power Photoshop CS6:

Check out what it does to this simple cellphone shot of the Eiffel Tower using just a few (new) sliders, restoring it more accurately to how it looked to the photographer’s eye at the time of capture…

Roll over the image with your mouse (or tap) for the before and after results:

What else do we know about Photoshop CS6? Well, there’s the chance we’ll see the much-discussed Photoshop Image Deblur tool that Adobe showcased at the annual MAX show last fall – and then later published more before-and-after images for demonstration. But from the sounds of what Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes said afterwards, it could be too “early stage” to make the CS6 release.

So all in all, some cool and welcome enhancements to the Photoshop product but nothing too earth-shattering quite yet – we think Adobe could be saving the “big gun” new features (a la CS5′s Content-Aware Fill and Puppet Warp) for closer to the actual CS6 launch date.

Related Posts

• When is Adobe CS6 Being Released, including Photoshop CS6?
• Adobe Confirms Release Cycle for Creative Suite; CS6 Out Mid-2012
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Late last week we received these two inquiries via our Contact page:

“Could you please provide a proposed release date for CS6 Design Premium software? I can’t see anywhere on your site where this is mentioned except for the U-turn regarding upgrade policy from earlier versions.”

“I have a budget meeting tomorrow and need to know the approximate release date and projected cost of the CS5 to CS6 Master Collection Suite upgrade.”

So, this is something people really want to know now.  And we have written about it before, giving clues in posts here as far back as March and July of last year…

But it’s clearly time for an update.

Even today, we wish we could give you exact dates and numbers for those questions, but Adobe hasn’t publicly disclosed that information – and likely won’t until CS6 is launched… However, we can make a best estimate of the possible timing for the Creative Suite 6 release window.

On Adobe’s site now there is a document referencing the new CS Release Schedule.  Here are a few of the key elements contained within this Message Summary:

New CS Release Schedule

To enable customers to successfully capitalize on these industry trends, Adobe is innovating quickly and we are introducing a new release schedule for Creative Suite:

• In order to keep customers ahead of these industry trends, we will issue midcycle releases in between our traditional milestone releases.
• We are extending the time between milestone releases to two years.
• There will be one midcycle release during each cycle. So, once every 12 months there will definitely be a substantial release for CS.
• Since features in the midcycle release are primarily focused on keeping users ahead of the industry trends at that time, not all point products will be revised in a given midcycle release.
• This new Release Schedule debuts … with CS5.5 as the first of these midcycle releases.

So reading between the lines here – if milestone (new major number) releases will be every two years, and if every 12 months there will be a new version of Creative Suite coming out, then taking the CS5.5 launch date of May 2011 and adding twelve months would give an expected CS6 shipping date in the May 2012 timeframe.

Of course, software development schedules are never exact, and your mileage may vary – but this is about the best estimate right now from public information.

What else do we know about CS6?

First and foremost, Creative Suite 6 will continue to be available in all the forms you’re used to today with CS5 – download or boxed, full or upgrade, individual or suite, perpetual (perma­nent) or subscription. And based on the Message Summary document, all major products are likely to receive substantial revisions and new features.

What about pricing? There have been no announcements in this regard – but since Adobe just postponed their change in upgrade policy, your best price estimate for modeling purposes has to be to use what’s in place now for CS5, for a similar product or upgrade.

Current CS3, CS4, and CS5 customers will be able to upgrade to their choice of CS6 products. CS2 customers can still upgrade to CS5.5 now, but will be too far back to receive discounted upgrade pricing to CS6. However, there may be a brief grace period where anybody (including CS2 users) could upgrade to CS5/CS5.5 and then receive a free further upgrade to CS6, if Adobe continues what they’ve done after past Creative Suite announcements. Stay tuned here as we’ll have quick news of that if it’s offered.

Adobe will also be offering a Creative Cloud alternative (where access to the software is rented monthly by paid membership) but — and there’s a lot of misunderstanding here — the cloud will be completely optional and not required by any customer (either existing or new) to buy or use it… In other words, it is an addition – not a replacement.

We also now know that Adobe’s two new products Edge and Muse will not be part of CS6, and will be available via separate subscription or cloud only. At the same time, we know that Adobe Acrobat, Lightroom, and Photoshop/Premiere Elements will not be affected by any cloud or upgrade changes.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 – a Sneak Peek?

Did you catch the little “sneak peek” video that Adobe slipped out on YouTube last week, presumably a first look at what’s to come in Photoshop CS6?

[UPDATE (February 1st) – A 2nd sneak peek of Photoshop CS6 has also just been released.]

There were some interesting details revealed – confirming longtime rumors, Photoshop is getting a darker and redesigned user interface that allows for a more immersive experience and consistency between other Adobe applications, plus rich cursor support that gives a floating heads-up of significant brush metrics right near the action. And as is customary, Photoshop CS6 will continue to use the same new Adobe Camera Raw 7 processing engine that’s also available now in the free Lightroom 4 beta release.  ACR 7 has been rewritten and can do some pretty amazing things very quickly, as shown in the video.

Check out what it does to this iPhone camera shot of Paris – how easily it brings up the foreground without blowing out the background, recovering highlights and boosting clarity for a more compelling image using just a few sliders…

Just roll over with your mouse (or tap) for the before and after results:

So the video is definitely worth two minutes of your full-screen time if you haven’t seen it yet – and we’re likely to get more previews in the coming months because it’s titled “#1″ in a new YouTube playlist Adobe created called “Sneak Peeks”:

What other features coming in CS6?

Well, of course we also have the possibility of the stunning Photoshop Image Deblurring feature that Adobe demoed at MAX last fall – but from what PS Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes said earlier, it sounds like a long shot for deblurring to make the CS6 release.

It seems more likely we could see some of the other MAX feature sneak peeks finding their way into CS6 products, including Liquid Layout for InDesign, plus 3D Video Meshes, Auto-Align New Dialogue Track, and Auto-Sync Crowd-Sourced Video for Premiere Pro & After Effects, as well as all the rest of the sneak peek demos.

Related Posts

• Adobe Confirms Release Cycle for Creative Suite; CS6 Out Mid-2012
• Adobe Photoshop CS6 – Another Look? More Sneak Peeks [VIDEO]
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• The New Adobe Creative Cloud: What It Is and Why You Should Care
• CS5.5 or CS6? New Adobe “Sneak Peek” Preview Videos Out

If you’d like to learn how to use Adobe’s Creative Suite tools to easily and portably create websites and apps for tablets, smartphones, and mobile devices there’s a new 2¼-hour course you’ll be interested in…

Guru Paul Trani teaches an extensive free class with 18 video chapters that will take you step-by-step on how to create portable content that will run on both Apple iOS and Google Android devices with a wide variety of screen sizes using a single code base. Basic usage of HTML5 and CSS3 is covered, as well as how to bring in Adobe’s recent additions PhoneGap (for building fast, cross-platform mobile applica­tions) and Typekit (for delivering custom web fonts).

The first half of the video series employs Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.5 to develop both websites and apps, with steps on how to convert a website into a portable mobile app. The tutorials then move on to using Flash-based tools (with Adobe AIR) to build multi-platform mobile apps. We already know that Flash Professional CS5 can be used to build apps for the iPad and iPhone, but this takes it a step further. The videos guide you all the way through to how to publish your app to your device and to the Android Market (which shows immediately) or to the Apple App Store.

If you don’t own the Adobe software yet but would like to use it to follow along with the training, you can easily download the free trials, which will be fully-functional for 30 days. The tutorials also include downloadable sample files to use as you go along, so be sure to look for those.

The CS5.5 Web Premium suite is used in the demonstrations – which coincidentally we’re also giving away for free!

Here’s the 2¼-hour course:

And here is the first segment (the Overview chapter) to get you started:

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The long-awaited Adobe Lightroom 4 beta release finally made its appearance last week (free download here), and has some folks pretty excited about the collection of new features. There’s a complete list further below, but some of the biggies include much better video support, soft proofing, integrated maps and photo books, and some amazing improvements to the Develop module.

We’ve got a new video here from the popular Terry White giving a fine walkthrough of what’s new and improved…  Adobe has said they expect the general featureset to remain consistent between the beta and the final release (see when that will be).

This “public beta,” so that means it’s not done yet – it’s a beta product, it’s not been released… so therefore you should proceed accordingly. This is not “ready for prime time” nor ready for for production work. However, as a public beta you can freely download it, install it side-by-side with any earlier versions of LR you may have, begin testing it, try out the new features, and check out what’s in store – and more importantly give Adobe feedback on what you’d like to see in this version or in future versions.

How does Lightroom 4 compare vs. Lightroom 3?

First off, we should mention something a little controversial regarding older computers: Adobe is dropping support for the ten-year-old Microsoft Windows XP with this release… The official LR4 system requirements call for Windows Vista or 7, or a 64-bit capable Mac OS. And if you’re wondering why they did this, Adobe has just put up a new post explaining why.

For the rest of what’s changed, we had planned to put together an detailed, comprehensive overview with the details and screenshots for every new feature and function – but then we found Ian Lyon’s excellent and comprehensive review which already did exactly that…

So here’s the punch list of top-level new features in LR4:

And for more details and the best coverage we’ve found, check out [via] Ian Lyon’s page.

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= BREAKING NEWS =

Two months ago Adobe made a major change in the Creative Suite upgrade policy that had been in place since CS3 came out in April 2007…

Had you heard about it? If not, here’s what they said on the new upgrade policy for CS6…
In a nutshell, Adobe said only customers running Creative Suite 5 products would be eligible for discounted upgrade pricing to the new CS6 when it comes out.

Customers spoke up and reaction to the change was pretty unfavorable across the web… Results from our own poll here showed a striking 91% against the move including the company’s related business model changes to the Creative Cloud.

And now, in a stunning turnabout, Adobe says they have been listening and are backing off the new policy, in response to customer feedback…

Yes, it’s true – and just as we were one of the first to break the original story, we’re back now with the good news that the older Creative Suite versions like CS3 and CS4 will indeed be able to get upgrade discounts to CS6 in the future.

Here it is from our Adobe Partner Update:

CS6 Upgrade Offer for CS3 and CS4 Customers

With these great new releases coming in 2012, we want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to discover which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to our customers who own CS3 or CS4.

This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.

In other words, Adobe will effectively be restoring their longstanding “three versions back” upgrade policy through the launch of CS6, until the end of this year…

You can read more details about the new policy here, under the section, “What is Adobe’s upgrade pricing policy?”  Note you will be able to purchase future CS products just like today, as perpetual (permanent) desktop licenses.

So, all you folks with CS3 or CS4 can now rest easy if your plans have been to upgrade to CS6 all along, as this will give you the chance to do it with lower prices as you had been expecting. For those customers now on CS5 or CS5.5, it should cost even less for you to upgrade to CS6 under Adobe’s Tiered Upgrade Pricing Policy, because you own a more recent version.

Note the company has not announced CS6 pricing for anybody yet, so at this point we don’t know these exact numbers and how different they’ll be from those for CS5, if at all.

But if you do get on board with CS6 later this year, then looking forward under the new policy starting in 2013, you’d have nearly four years to think about later upgrading from CS6 to CS7 down the line.

So it’s good to see that after all the discussion, Adobe listened – and rethought this policy in a way that gave enough notice and made more sense for customers.

Please spread the word and share this news with anyone who you think should know!

See also:  Acrobat, Lightroom, and Elements – How Are They Affected By Creative Cloud?

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NEWS FLASH – Adobe has just announced a free public beta release of the eagerly-anticipated Photoshop Lightroom 4, with new tools and advancements to enhance and share your digital photograph library:

“Available as a free public download from Adobe Labs for Windows and Mac, the Lightroom 4 beta is a preview of new features and capabilities that will be offered in the final release of LR4, expected in early 2012.

The beta features refined technology for superior shadow and highlight processing, expanded management capabilities including enhanced DSLR video support and the ability to create beautiful photo books from within Lightroom. Adobe encourages photographers to try the beta release and provide feedback to the product team.”

The news comes six years to the day from the very first beta release of Lightroom 1 on January 9, 2006, where it all started…  Lightroom is Adobe’s digital photography workflow solution helping amateur and professional photographers quickly import, manage, enhance and showcase their images.

And great news – some long-requested new features are here now in LR4…

New Features in Lightroom 4 Beta

• Highlight and shadow recovery brings out all the detail that your camera captures in dark shadows and bright highlights.
• Photo book creation with easy-to-use elegant templates.
• Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.
• White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.
• Additional local editing controls let you adjust noise reduction and remove moiré in targeted areas of your images.
• Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips.
• Easy video publishing lets you edit and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr.
• Soft proofing to preview how an image will look when printed with color-managed printers.
• Email directly from Lightroom using the email account of your choice.

LR4 Beta Download Availability

The free Lightroom 4 beta program is open and available to the public. Anyone with an Internet connection can download and test it out in full. You do not need to own (or have tried) a previous version of Lightroom, and there is no serial number required. The Lightroom 4 beta will not overwrite or interfere with any existing installation of Lightroom 1, Lightroom 2, or Lightroom 3.

You can download the beta immediately and use it freely until the product expires at the end of March. Please see this detailed post for the minimum system requirements and installation instructions, as well as more information on the new features and known issues. One possible hiccup for some users is that Lightroom 4 is not supported on Windows XP systems.

Also be sure to give your feedback to the Adobe developers…

Introduction to Lightroom 4

And here’s a great video series on what’s new and to get you started…  Afterwards, explore more on the differences between Lightroom 4 vs. Lightroom 3.

For Lightroom 3, the Current Release

Related Posts

• Adobe Lightroom 3.5 and Camera Raw 6.5 – Final and Free Updates
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It’s been a few months now since Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 was officially released, so let’s take a look at what the reviews out there are saying…

First, for a quick overview of the new version, check out our Elements 10 Release Guide, as well as What’s New in PSE 10 vs. 9, 8, 7, or 6?

And if you’re wondering which edition of Photoshop is right for you, see: What’s the Difference between Photoshop CS5 vs. Elements 10 vs. Lightroom 3?

OK, so now on to the reviews for Photoshop Elements 10:

PC Magazine writes, “If you’re mostly concerned about doing interesting and creative things with your images, but don’t want to invest the time and money in learning Photoshop, Photoshop Elements 10 is an excellent option… Competitors don’t come close to matching Photoshop Elements’ array of dazzling photo effects, organizational tools like face tagging, and sharing and output options. Photoshop Elements 10’s tools for perfecting your digital images are unrivaled, making it our Editors’ Choice for prosumer photo editing.”

About.com says, “Each new update to Photoshop Elements has always brought strong new features to the program. Photoshop Elements 10 is no exception… Elements remains an extremely powerful and useful photo editing program for anyone who doesn’t need the graphic editing feature of CS or its high price tag. Whether you are a beginner or ‘old hand’ at photo editing, Photoshop Elements 10 offers strong tools for a very reasonable price.”

Computer Shopper weighs in: “Photoshop Elements 10 remains a must-have tool for casual and hobbyist digital photographers alike. Overall, this is a super-solid consumer image editor, but it’s not a vast improvement over the already-excellent version 9. Many owners of version 9 will not find enough new here to justify the discounted upgrade price. But for newcomers and those who haven’t upgraded in a few years, the substantive features for both manual and automated photo editing make Photoshop Elements a heck of a bargain, whatever the cost.”

Notebook Review gives the software a 4½ out of 5-star overall rating and concludes, “Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements are both mature programs that have worked well for consumers for some time now. Particularly with the enhancements in version 10, these products remain among the top contenders that we recommend.”

Macworld renders its verdict: “Over the years, Photoshop Elements has evolved from a de-featured version of its Photoshop CS cousin into a full-featured product on its own. In the brand new version 10, new features abound in the Editor as well as the Organizer, with a focus on enhanced creativity, mobile interconnectivity, problem solving, and simplicity… These features make an upgrade well worth the $80 price tag.”

Tech & Learning gives its overall rating: “Elements 10 provides ordinary users with a variety of digital touch up tools to adjust a picture, add a caption, change a color, and fix some red eye while working in a Photoshop-like workspace without being overwhelmed. The latest version adds several new features and enhancements, including adding text on a line, painting special effects on designated areas of a photo, and management tools for organizing photo sets, tagging, finding duplicate photos and creating online photo albums. As with earlier versions, changes are incremental rather than overwhelming. If you don’t already have a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements for image editing and organization, it’s a worthwhile investment. If you own a copy of Elements 9, the new Elements 10 Text on a Shape tool enabling users to flow text on a rectangle, ellipse, polygon, heart, speech bubble or other shape is sufficient reason to upgrade.”

Renderosity writes, “Adobe Photoshop Elements is not only a powerful image editing program, it is also a timesaving tool for organizing and sharing your images… all at an affordable price. At first glance, the additions to Elements 10 seem minor; however, once you explore the program, you’ll discover numerous new features and enhancements that will spark your creativity. In conclusion, although Photoshop Elements 10 is not overflowing with new features, the functionality and affordable price make this a must-have program for all levels of photographers: from hobbyist to professional.”

The bottom line from PCMag: “Lots of powerful image-manipulation tools. Strong face- and geo-tagging. Excellent output options — printing, online, photo books. Good help with performing advanced edits. Bottom Line: Photoshop Elements continues to be the best way to get some of Photoshop’s coolest effects without requiring you to attend a night course. This version tweaks the program’s combination for success, adding some nifty new tools.”

Want more? Read 20 additional industry reviews for Photoshop Elements!

Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 will run on both 32-bit or 64-bit computers, and is designed for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, or Mac OS (see full system requirements). It can be installed side-by-side with earlier versions of Elements without difficulty or interference.

Want to try it out for free yourself? Just download a fully-working free trial and you can be up and running in minutes.

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Adobe has two major new products in free public beta right now – Adobe Edge for developing HTML5 animations (like Flash Pro but outputs HTML5) and Adobe Muse which allows designers to create websites as easily as creating a layout for print. Adobe says interest in these betas has far exceeded their expectations.

Both tools will be shipping in their first official release in 2012. And while it’s been known for a while that Muse would be “subscription-only,” we now know too that Edge will likely follow the same path. Furthermore, neither will be included in the Creative Suite.

At a recent Adobe Analyst meeting during the question and answer session, it was revealed that Adobe is planning for both new design tools to be available only via subscription or through their optional “Creative Cloud” software rental offering – and neither will be a part of CS6 – in other words, they will only be sold separately.

Here it is at the 33-minute mark of the Q&A:

Q: You talked about Edge and Muse… Just wondering if those will be included in the CS6 upgrade, or only available through the Creative Cloud?

A: So, we’ve announced Edge and Muse, and they will be available in the CS6 timeframe. They’ll be available as point product subscriptions and through the Creative Cloud; the current thinking is not that we will be adding them to Creative Suite. Again as [CEO] Shantanu pointed out, we do expect and anticipate adding and driving more value into the Creative Cloud, that is the destination that we believe adds the most value to our customers, and we want to continue to drive people in that direction.

So while all current applications in the Creative Suite (like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, etc.) will continue to be available with perpetual/permanent licensing in CS6, and sold either standalone or as part of a larger suite, neither Edge nor Muse will be offered in these customary ways. This is according to Adobe’s shared current thinking, which of course is always subject to change.

See more from this analyst call here.

[UPDATE (January 25th) — Adobe now says that Edge will not be included in the Creative Cloud initially, but is "planned for a future release."]

In other news, Adobe Edge has a new free beta version slated to be out soon available now – the Preview 4 release, and here’s an advance look:

Get the scoop:

• Read more about Adobe’s Creative Cloud, including the impact on Acrobat & Lightroom.
• See when CS6 is scheduled to be released, with big changes to Adobe’s upgrade policy.
• Watch the latest sneak peek videos for Photoshop, InDesign, Premiere Pro, and more.

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• When is Adobe CS6 Being Released, including Photoshop CS6?
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• The New Adobe Creative Cloud: What It Is and Why You Should Care

“What’s the difference between the different Photoshops?”

We’ve seen this question sooo many times, we just had to write a complete article about it.  With four different members of the Adobe Photoshop family, it can be confusing what is what and which to get…  And now that Photoshop Elements 10 has just been released, it’s a good time to look at this.

If you ask Adobe, they’ll tell you:

Q:  How do Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Extended, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom software differ?

A:  Photoshop Elements 10 (US$99) is designed for people who are just getting started with digital photo editing, and delivers powerful yet easy-to-use options that help you organize, edit, create, share, and help protect your personal photos.

Photoshop CS5 (US$699, actually CS5.1) is the professional standard for creating and manipulating powerful images, and Photoshop CS5 Extended (US$999) delivers every­thing in Photoshop plus tools for creating and editing 3D and motion-based images.

Photoshop Lightroom 3 (US$299) addresses the workflow needs of professional and serious amateur photographers, enabling them to import, process, organize, and showcase large volumes of digital photographs quickly.

And indeed they do nicely summarize all the different versions on one page.

So that’s a good starting point, but let’s dig a little deeper. Here’s another way of looking at it, functionally:

• Photoshop CS5 – The latest-and-greatest “flagship” (or regular/standard) version of the breakthrough industry-standard tool – the world’s leading pixel manipulation program.
• Photoshop Elements 10 – A scaled-down, simpler version for hobbyists and home market, with fewer features, functions, and options – it offers “elements” of the full program.
• Photoshop Lightroom 3 – Not really “photoshop” or a pixel-level editor at all, but rather a non-destructive image workflow system for serious and pro photographers.
• Photoshop CS5 Extended – The “top of the line” with everything: it takes Photoshop CS5 and adds editing for both 3D and motion (video!) content, as well as image analysis.

That captures the essence, and we have in-depth comparisons below. But if just from reading that you’re unsure which one is right for you, Adobe offers free downloadable trial editions of all four editions which are fully-functional for 30 days. So you can get any one (or multiple, or all) for tryout to see which work(s) best.

But it’s not “either/or” – many folks actually end up buying two of these: Lightroom together with one of the CS5 editions (or Elements) – they are complementary and integrated to work well together, in fact Adobe offers a 30% discount when those products are purchased at the same time.

All four products are available for both Windows PC and Mac OS – and in fact all of them can be run on both platforms, with the ability to install on up to two computers for each tool. If you own a previous release of the same product, then you may qualify for the Upgrade version which costs less ($US79 for Elements, US$199 for Photoshop CS, and US$99 for Lightroom), otherwise you’d get the Full version.

Compare Photoshop CS5 vs. Photoshop CS5 Extended

OK, we’ve actually written a whole separate article on just that question – the differences between Photoshop vs. Photoshop Extended – so please see that related piece for more details there… 

Importantly, note that in almost all of Adobe’s suites, and in all of Adobe’s education versions for students & teachers, the edition of Photoshop is Extended.  That’s a good thing.

For the other three editions (Photoshop CS5 vs. Lightroom 3 vs. PSE 10):  What are some of the features in one version but not the other(s), or unique to each?

Compare Photoshop CS5 vs. Photoshop Elements 10

As mentioned earlier, most would say that Photoshop Elements 10 is a stripped-down version of the full Photoshop CS5 with significantly fewer features, options, and controls. On the other hand, PSE is targeted towards the consumer market and Adobe has designed it to be easier to get started with and learn to use.

There is a long list of features it does not contain as compared to the full Photoshop CS5. Here are a few that Photoshop CS has, but that Photoshop Elements does not have:

• Puppet Warp
• Pen Tool (vector drawing & selections)
• Content-Aware Fill
• 64-bit support (for performance)
• HDR Pro
• Paths Palette
• Vanishing Point Tool
• History Brush
• Curves
• Full 16-bit RGB
• Creating custom Actions
• Smart Objects, Smart Guides
• Color Balance and Match Color
• Channels Palette and Mixer
• Automatic lens correction
• Warp Transform Tool
• 3D objects & text
• Pixel Bender plug-in
• CMYK and Lab color models
• Truer Edge detection technology
• Adjustments & controls for everything

That said, because Photoshop Elements is meant for home use, there are some features it contains that Photoshop CS5 does not have – for example, templates for photo books, slideshows, greeting cards, email, print calendars, scrapbook pages, and online albums, as well as drop-in frames, backgrounds, and artwork, plus online sharing options for Facebook, Flickr, etc.  Elements also offers more user assistance through aspects like Guided Edits and shortcuts like Quick Fix mode, the Smart Brush tool, and Cookie Cutter tool.

For keeping track of images, Photoshop Elements includes the Organizer to manage photos and videos, which is considered to be simpler but slower than the Bridge media browser that comes with Photoshop CS5. However, most users feel that Lightroom’s smooth library and cataloging functions are superior to both, and especially better when you have a large number of images.

Note that for students and teachers, Adobe gives a much bigger discount on Photoshop Extended (80% off the regular price) than on Photoshop Elements (only 20% off).

Compare Photoshop CS5/Elements vs. Lightroom 3

So, how is Lightroom different from all of the above? Lightroom 3 an intuitive digital darkroom and efficient assistant designed for advanced amateur and professional photographers. LR3 lets you manage, edit, and showcase all your photographs – and do it quickly, powerfully, smoothly. It’s a complete photo and data management solution that was built from the ground up by Adobe to streamline workflow productivity for photographers.

Lightroom has the library and cataloging functions to work with a large collection of images easily and process them rapidly in groups or batches, with a sophisticated database for very fast search, keyword tagging, and previewing functions – even when your image files aren’t accessible on your computer. It has built-in RAW processing (also works with .JPEG, .TIFF, and .PSD images) and can make corrections based upon the camera and lenses you use.  LR has terrific tools for “developing” like correcting exposure, adjusting tone, lighting, white balance, contrast, color, saturation, sharpening, and noise reduction, which are state-of-the-art. There’s also a local adjustment brush for dodging and burning, graduated filters, and so on.

And all of it is nondestructive, meaning you can go back and simply undo or redo changes to any image at any time, even years later. This is much like film, where photographers can always return to their original negative – whereas in standard Photoshop, once you change and save an object, you permanently change the pixels.

Lightroom is not for performing detailed pixel-level editing, compositing multiple images, using layers, cloning & healing, adding text, drawing shapes, editing objects out of a photos, or many of the other capabilities Photoshop has. However, many thousands of serious photographers use Lightroom very efficiently every day for 90% of their needs, and then pop out to tightly-integrated Photoshop for the rest (retouching and post-processing).

Lightroom is an end-to-end digital photography solution so it also includes features to showcase your work in customized print layouts, slide shows, and web galleries, and on popular photo-sharing sites.

So if you want the photographer’s workflow to manage thousands of images with ease then you’re talking about Lightroom, but you want to perfect a single image with the “gold standard” professional editing & finishing tool then you’re talking about Photoshop. The two products complement each other and together comprise a complete image processing system.

Adobe has an excellent FAQ on Lightroom and more on the differences between other tools.

This short video answers the question “What is Lightroom?” for new users of the product. Lightroom unites your digital photography essentials in one fast and intuitive package and gets you there with the tools you need to create great images, manage all your photographs, and showcase them with style and impact.

Adobe Camera Raw (ACR)

Interestingly, all products in the Photoshop family share the same underlying image processing technology to ensure consistent and compatible results across applications that support raw processing. This is called the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) plug-in and it’s packaged in with Photoshop CS, Photoshop Elements, and Lightroom. This is the interface where support for new camera models and lens profiles is added, so Adobe updates this plugin on a regular basis (about every 3-4 months).

You can get access down to the powerful ACR features from within Photoshop CS or Elements, while Lightroom essentially takes Camera Raw and centers a full-featured application around it with all the streamlined workflow and cataloging benefits described above.

Free Tutorials and Training

Learn how to use these tools!  As mentioned above, you can download a free trial of any or all of them to get started, and then:

• Best Free Photoshop Tips, Tricks, Techniques, Training & Tutorials
• 4 Hours of Free Video Tutorials for New Photoshop Elements 10 & 9
• Three Hours of Free Courses on Lightroom 3, plus Other Resources

Have any other questions about the differences between these Photoshop products?  Just ask them below and we’ll answer!

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Judging by the amount of attention that Adobe’s recent upgrade policy changes have been receiving, as well as our subsequent visitor poll on the company’s model shift to the new “Creative Cloud,” this is a big and important issue…

And while this cloud model is optional, two of the persistent questions so far have been: How are the Acrobat and Lightroom products affected by all of this?

Both of these tools have historically different release schedules from Creative Suite – and while Acrobat is included in the suites, Lightroom is not.  Looking back, CS5.5 launched in May 2011, Acrobat X in November 2010, and Lightroom 3 in June 2010.

[See:  When will Adobe CS6 be released?  When is Lightroom 4 coming out?]

So first off, we can clarify: both Acrobat and Light­room are currently slated to be included in Adobe’s Creative Cloud, at least according to this slide from a recent analyst presentation – although there is a disclaimer at the bottom which states, “list of included products [is] not yet final.”

[UPDATE (January 25th) — Adobe now says that Lightroom will not be included initially, but is "planned for a future release."]

The next question then is, will either of these two popular standalone products be affected by Adobe’s new upgrade policy?

Adobe tells us: No, these two applications will continue with their current policies of discounted upgrade pricing for up to three versions back, instead of the planned “one version back” for all of the CS6 products.

In other words, based upon what we are hearing now, both Acrobat and Lightroom will remain on their independent release cycles and existing upgrade plans.

Here is the exact statement they sent us (and we subsequently confirmed the same applies for Lightroom):

With the announcement of Adobe Creative Cloud, there have been many questions about how Acrobat will be treated.  Please note, the Acrobat upgrade policy has not changed, Acrobat customers may continue to upgrade to the current version from three versions prior (currently 7, 8, and 9 for upgrading to X). Details about this policy are outlined in the Acrobat Customer FAQ.

As an extra, we can also confirm for you that Adobe’s Elements line – Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements – will also remain “as is,” with the separate version and upgrade system that exists today.

However, there is no word yet on the status or impact to Adobe’s Student & Teacher Editions (if anything)…  Hopefully they will continue with the current setup, whereby educational users can receive discounts of up to 80% off the regular prices (although with the limitations that these products cannot be upgraded to other academic versions).

So we hope that helps put these questions to rest!  Any others?  Please ask away below and we’ll do our best to answer…

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• Adobe Lightroom 4 Beta Release is Here! Now Available Free to Public

[UPDATE (January 11th, 2012) – Adobe has listened to customers and just reversed this change! CS3, CS4, & CS5 are all good for upgrade to CS6 now.]

Earlier this month Adobe made a major change in the Creative Suite upgrade policy that has been in place since CS3 came out in April 2007…

Have you heard about it yet? If not, you might want to read the new upgrade policy for CS6.

Also helpful: see Adobe’s planned new business model, a membership-based Creative Cloud.

OK, all caught up? Good. So, how will these changes affect you?

First off, for anybody currently running the latest major release, Creative Suite 5 (either 5.0, 5.1, or 5.5), you’re fine. You will not be affected by this revision, and will be eligible for the discounted pricing on upgrades when CS6 comes out.

For everyone else, if you’re still running older versions – like CS2, CS3, or CS4 – when CS6 releases, you wouldn’t qualify for that upgrade price break. And customer reaction on this point has been understandibly unfavorable.

Adobe is trying to mitigate the impact of this change by offering an extra 20% off all CS5.5 upgrades worldwide until the end of the year the extended date of March 15, 2012 (see banner).

But in trying to figure out what this means for everybody, it might be helpful to first take a step back with the Creative Suite release history and expected future schedule… Here’s how the big picture looks:

So if Adobe continues as they anticipate, anybody who is running CS5 (or CS5.5) right now will be able to get low upgrade pricing to CS6 (or CS6.5) until that cycle completes in mid-2014. That’s over two years from now.

In other words, it’s likely that part of Adobe’s reasoning for moving from “three versions back” to a “one version back” upgrade policy is that the major releases are now spaced out to once every two years – so that someone who bought CS5.0 the moment it came out in 2010 could still qualify for discounted upgrade pricing to CS6.5 nearly four years later in 2014.

But for “version skippers” and other folks still running prior releases, what are your options?

Here are what the choices look to be:

1. Upgrade to CS5.5 now so you’re current, taking advantage of the additional 20% discount – and then revisit the question again before CS7 comes out in 2014.
2. Wait now, and then pay full price for a new copy of CS6, CS7, or a subsequent release.
3. Keep using the older software that you own now.
4. Convert to the optional “Creative Cloud” rental model, with access included to more applications and services so long as you’re paying the per-month subscription fee.

So, which will it be, what will you do?

And regarding Adobe’s business focus here, with the cloud model – what do you think, will it work? Is it the right move, at the right time? Or do you feel otherwise?

Take our instant poll:

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Tell us more below – here’s your chance to express your thoughts and feedback… We will be sharing the results with Adobe directly.

See also:  Acrobat, Lightroom, and Elements – How Will They Be Affected?

[UPDATE (January 11th, 2012) – After feedback, Adobe has now deferred this policy change.]

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Many people have been making guesses on what’s happening now that Flash Player for Mobile will not be further developed.  There’s a lot of talk and speculation out there, as folks try to figure out what it means…  So take two dozen common questions on the subject, and here are the official answers Adobe sent to us:

What is it that Adobe is announcing?

Adobe announced plans to increase its efforts on HTML5, and to focus Flash on mobile applications (packaged with AIR) and PC browsing with an emphasis on use cases not yet addressed by HTML5, including premium video and console-quality gaming. Adobe will no longer develop Flash Player for mobile web browsers. See the blog post for more details.

Does this mean that Adobe is no longer supporting content publishers focused on delivering content via a browser on a mobile device?

Adobe offers world-class tools and technologies including HTML5 tools like Adobe Edge that allow content publishers and developers to bring rich content and experiences across mobile web browsers using HTML5.

What does this mean for Flash Player support on desktops?

Adobe is fully committed to providing a great experience for use cases not yet well supported by HTML, including console-quality gaming and premium video. In fact, Flash Player 11 just introduced dozens of new features, including hardware accelerated 3D graphics for console-quality gaming and premium HD video with content protection. We are already working on Flash Player 12 and a new round of exciting features which we expect to again advance what is possible for delivering high definition entertainment experiences.

Why is Adobe making this move now?

All the major platform providers (Android, iOS, Windows 8) are betting on HTML5 for browsing, some even to the point of excluding third party plug-ins such as Flash Player. Adobe sees this as the right time to increase our focus on accelerating the development of HTML for in browser experiences, especially on mobile (phones and tablets), and general purpose apps, while using Flash to drive what’s possible in advanced interactive entertainment areas like console-quality gaming and premium video so that it can continue to serve as a blueprint for further work on HTML. Flash developers get the greatest reach by targeting mobile devices with apps packaged with AIR, and that is where we are investing while helping the mobile browsers advance the state of the art of what can be done in a browser using HTML5. Our strategy allows us to maintain leadership in content published through the web and app stores and gives developers the best tools to create content across all platforms.

Will Adobe continue to support AIR? On Mobile? On TVs?

Adobe is fully committed to enabling Flash-based apps on mobile and digital home devices. These apps are packaged using AIR for mobile devices and can be packaged with AIR or web runtime technologies on TVs and other digital home devices that use the TV as a display.

Will the Flash Player continue to be available on the Android Market?

Yes. We will continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates to Flash Player 11.1 on Android Market for existing devices.

When will Adobe stop supporting Flash Player for browsing on mobile?

Adobe will release one more version of the Flash Player for mobile browsing, which will provide support for Android 4.0, and one more release of the Flash Linux Porting Kit – both expected to be released before the end of this year. After that time, Adobe will continue to provide critical bug fixes and security updates.

What will happen with Flash Player support on RIM’s BBX platform?

Adobe will continue to support RIM’s use of the Flash Player on the current PlayBook configurations with critical bug fixes and security updates. RIM has done a great job optimizing the Flash Player for their platform and as a result the RIM playbook provides a great experience for consuming Flash content. RIM is expected to leverage their expertise with Flash to continue to support and ship the Flash Player on BBX devices for the foreseeable future.

Will the current version of Flash Player support smartphones and tablets that are coming to market over the coming weeks and months?

It depends on the version of the OS, silicon, and browser supported on the device. We are working with OEMs to determine the appropriate support and transition plan for their current and planned devices.

Will Adobe stop OEMs from shipping Flash Player on devices?

No, Adobe will not stop OEMs from pre-loading and shipping the Flash Player. We expect some of our OEM partners to opt to continue working on and releasing their own implementations of the Flash Player. However, Adobe will be recommending mobile OEMs discontinue pre-loading new devices with Flash Player due to expected OS and browser compatibility issues. However, existing licensees can continue shipping Flash Player at the manufacturer’s discretion.

Will 3D support and any of the console-quality Flash games you demoed at MAX come to mobile devices?

Yes, game developers will be able to bring console-quality games with hardware-accelerated 3D graphics to mobile devices as Flash-based apps packaged with AIR. On the desktop 3D games can be delivered with Flash within the browser. However, 3D content will not be supported in Flash Player on mobile browsers.

What does this mean for Flex?

Flex SDK 4.5 supports the development of mobile applications that target, or are packaged with AIR. Mobile applications built with Flex SDK are installed on phone or tablet devices and do not rely upon the browser or Adobe Flash Player to run; as such, they are unaffected by this announcement.

How does this affect other Flash Platform tools?

This news has no impact on the Flash platform tooling offerings (e.g. Flash Builder) from Adobe. We continue to invest in Flash Pro and Flash Builder for developing Flash-based content for the PC web and mobile apps, especially games and premium video.

Is Flash getting more and more replaced by HTML5? How will Adobe advance Flash Player on desktops and stay relevant?

We are continuing to invest in Flash to deliver the most advanced web experiences on desktops, focusing on features that are not yet available in HTML5. Flash Player 11 just introduced dozens of new features, including hardware accelerated 3D graphics for console-quality gaming and premium HD video with content protection. Flash developers can take advantage of these features, and all that Flash has to offer, to reach more than a billion desktops through their browsers and repurpose their content to hundreds of millions of mobile devices through popular App Stores using Flash-based apps packaged/enabled with AIR. We are already working on the next future version of Flash Player and a new round of exciting features which we expect to again advance what is possible for delivering high definition entertainment experiences across the Web and devices. We will continue to leverage our experience with Flash to accelerate our work with the W3C and WebKit to bring similar capabilities to HTML5 as quickly as possible, just as we have done with CSS Shaders. And, we will design new features in Flash for a smooth transition to HTML5 as the standards evolve so developers can confidently invest knowing their skills will continue to be leveraged.

How many Flash-based apps are available on App Stores today?

There are thousands of Flash-based apps available on App Stores like iTunes App Store, Android Market, BlackBerry App World, and Amazon’s Appstore for Android. Popular and top rated examples include Machinarium, Politifact, Dr Stanley’s House, Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook, WatchESPN etc.

How are Flash-based apps different from HTML5 apps?

Flash-based apps support features and capabilities not yet supported in HTML5 such as 3D graphics and content protection for premium video. Developers are able to deliver high-end entertainment experiences as Flash-based apps packaged via AIR on mobile platforms and within the browser on PCs.

What about Flash Player and support for web browsing on TV’s (Google TV, Samsung SmartTVs and other connected Digital Home devices)?

Adobe will continue to support existing licensees who are planning on supporting Flash Player for web browsing on digital home devices and are using the Flash Player Porting Kit to do so. However we believe the best approach to deliver Flash-based content on televisions is through applications, not a web browsing experience, and we will continue to encourage the device and content publishing community down that path.

What happens to Flash browsing support in the Google TV solution?

We recommend you talk with Google, but we believe Google has no immediate plans to remove the Flash Player from the Google TV browser.

Do you regret having waited so long after Steve Jobs predicted that Flash Player won’t work on mobile devices 1.5 years ago?

HTML5 has matured and is able to deliver a great web browsing experiences across mobile devices. At the same time users consume the richest content almost exclusively via apps on smartphones and tablets today. At Adobe we are focused on delivering the best tools and technologies for our developers and content publishers so they can offer the best possible experiences to their customers across platforms – from desktops to smartphones, from tablets to TVs. We are proud to lead the industry with HTML5 tools while offering new, cutting–edge features in Flash that are not yet supported in HTML5.

Is this expected to improve the relationship between Adobe and Apple?

Adobe and Apple have a longstanding relationship and Mac and iOS users are very important to Adobe. Like with any other company in the industry we work closely with Apple in specific areas like support for our Creative Suite products on Mac OS while we compete in other areas like video editing tools.

What platforms and browsers will Adobe continue to support with Flash Player for browsing?

Adobe plans to continue to support Apple Mac OS X and Safari; Google Chrome Browser for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and Intel-based Chrome OS; Microsoft Intel-based Windows and desktop Internet Explorer; and cooperate with other third-party browser providers such as Mozilla and Opera.

How will content publishers serving premium video reach mobile devices?

Content publishers can continue to stream premium, Flash-based video content across platforms and devices including the iPhone and iPad using Flash Media Server 4.5. Additionally, content publishers can deliver premium video experiences as Flash-based applications packaged with AIR across platforms including mobile devices and connected TVs.

Does Adobe intend to bring HTML5′s capabilities to full parity with Flash Player? If yes, then why continue supporting Flash Player for desktop?

HTML5 today cannot replace the Flash Player as a platform for delivering console gaming or premium video experience on desktop computers. Adobe plans to leverage ongoing innovation in Flash to provide a blueprint for our work in HTML5. We believe there are opportunities for significant new innovation in both Flash and HTML5, and we are focused on enabling developers to create and publish the richest possible content, regardless of the underlying technology.

Will Adobe create Flash Player for Windows 8 on ARM and Windows 8 on X86?

Adobe’s plan is to support Flash Player with all of the popular browsers on Windows 8’s desktop interface (not the Metro interface) on x86.

Check out Flash Pro CS6 generating HTML5

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Last week Adobe revealed 11 sneak peek videos of technology they are working on but haven’t released yet, and while Photoshop Image Deblurring and InDesign Liquid Layout got much of the attention, there were still some amazing developments in the video realm as well – and all three of those are covered below.

Naturally, Adobe says there are never any guarantees for what may or may not appear in a production release, or when… (maybe CS6?) But nevertheless, major new product features very often appear in these previews before they make the real tools (case in point, Content-Aware Fill).

3D Video Meshes

The first sneak was about turning ordinary 2D video into 3D – in fact, dynamically editable 3D video! A very cool demo by Sylvain Paris, allowing direct manipulation of the objects and characters within the moving scene, and the ability to change camera parameters post-facto like focus and depth of field. Adobe says, “a potential feature for editing videos” – a future advancement falling somewhere in between Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Auto-Align New Dialogue Track

The next demo was at the intersection of video editing with audio processing. Commonly the original audio track for a video piece is thrown out and replaced by a new one recorded in the studio. This often introduces vocal alignment issues and challenges in getting everything synchronized naturally. A new Premiere Pro function called “RubbaDub” is shown here by Brian King which will automatically replace the dialog of a video clip with separately recorded audio to near perfection – even if the two halves are coming from different people.

Auto-Sync of Crowd-Sourced Video

This last one continues in the same line of making the video editor’s job simpler by automati­cally resolving complex tasks. In this presentation, Nicholas Bryan shows you a sneak peek of a possible new Premiere Pro feature that synchronizes multiple video clips taken with different cameras and different vantage points into a single merged, immersive video.

See more from the show – including the keynote presentations plus over 160 hours of free tutorials and training sessions from the experts, on a wide range of topics covering all major Adobe products.

And check the other big previews, like the aforementioned, much-discussed Photo Deblurring and Liquid Layout sneaks.

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Here is the latest news on Photoshop Image Deblurring:  In response to some of your questions here at ProDesignTools, we contacted Adobe and requested they help “bring into focus” the new Deblur feature that could be in a future Photoshop. We got in touch with Dr. Jue Wang, Adobe senior research scientist, and as a direct result his team has provided more examples of the technology using notable photographs. Most of these are well-known from history or come from independent sources, and thus began with natural camera blur.

For those just joining us on the story, here’s a quick review: Earlier this month we ran a feature article on this “sneak peek” of an amazing new capability revealed at Adobe MAX. Several blurry photographs were processed through a new Photoshop plug-in to give before-and-after results that wowed the crowd, even more than the other popular sneak demos at the show. [See the full video in HD]

Why did controversy later arise? For the last brief image of his demonstration, intending to be entertaining and relevant to the audience, Dr. Wang used a photo of Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch that had been synthetically blurred. Creation of synthetic inputs is common practice across the research in this field, but out of simplicity, Dr. Wang did not go into those origins at the time.

The original sharp version was found online, and even though the other images came from real-world blur due to camera shake, this opened the door for some to raise questions about the efficacy of the developing technology. After we contacted them, Adobe added an update to their Photoshop.com blog post explaining why synthetic blurring was used for that example, but some skepticism remained.

So we got in touch with Dr. Wang again and have been working with him over the weekend. In response, his team put together a group of independent photographs that began with natural camera blur and included the results from Photoshop’s Image Deblurring algorithm. Here is what he wrote to us yesterday:

This is still early-stage research and as it develops we will definitely be reaching out to the community for testing examples. But at the moment our researchers are still refining the technologies. In the meantime, we have put some real-world examples on our fun Deblur Famous Photos webpage, and there will be more. On the page you can also find a way to contribute to our research.

We hope you find these as helpful and interesting as we do. Just roll over each photo with your mouse (or tap) for the before and after results. And if you have an image of your own or a good-case historical photo, please see the invitation on how to propose it for deblurring at the end of this article.

Robert Capa’s D-Day Photo

This is perhaps the most famous blurry photograph in American history. It was taken by Robert Capa on June 6, 1944, during World War II. The picture captured an American soldier landing on Omaha Beach on D-Day in Normandy, France. As you can see, the technical quality of the original is challenging – there is an enormous degree of blur, noise, and artifacts. It’s an extreme test of the Photoshop deblurring algorithm, but check out the noteworthy result – particularly in the foreground, and the new detail revealed in the G.I.’s face.

Microsoft’s Sculpture Test

Here is an authentic photograph Microsoft used as a test for their own picture deblurring solution, which involved having hardware gyro sensors built into a special camera and then using the sensor data recorded at the time of image capture to automatically deblur each photo taken on it. As a challenge, the Adobe team fed the same original Microsoft image blurred from camera shake into the Photoshop prototype, which of course did not have the benefit of the recorded data to work backwards from. Yet the Photoshop output compares favorably with Microsoft’s result that had required the special apparatus.

Korean Pagoda

One last example we’ll cover is from the Hwanho Sunrise Park in Pohang, Korea. This photo­graph was an inspiration to the Korean team that originally created the Photoshop unblur technology, in that the image convolution was so bad that it seemed impossible to save. But the researchers didn’t give up working on their algorithms – and then finally late one night, it worked. Notice in particular the water, the trees, and the bench at the lower right.

More

Of course, the developing algorithm does not always work so well (which the researchers freely admit) – and you can see an example of that, plus more details and estimated blur kernels for all images at the Deblur Famous/Interesting Photos page, where visitor submissions of additional photos are also invited.

Read more about this sneak peek, or watch the original Photoshop Deblur demo in its entirety, now in full-screen High Definition video…  Also catch the cool sneaks for other Adobe products:

• InDesign Liquid Layout
• Three for Premiere Pro & After Effects
• All 11 sneak peeks presented at the show

See the best from Adobe MAX 2011 – including the keynote presentations plus over 160 hours of free tutorials and training sessions from the experts, on a wide range of topics covering all major Adobe applications.

Check out more Adobe Photoshop (CS5) magic with advanced demos and techniques for the new Content-Aware Fill feature as well as Puppet Warp.

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This very cool InDesign “sneak” comes fresh from the big Adobe MAX conference earlier this month…  What’s a sneak?

We’ve gone through the company and found the 11 coolest demos of technology that are at work within Adobe. These are things that are on the cutting edge of the technology. They may show up in a product, they may not. The demo may work, it may not. But this is your chance to get closer and really understand where we’re going and what we’re doing.

OK fair enough.  Here’s the set up:

“I want to show you some things we’re thinking about on the InDesign Team. As you know, it’s actually been about a year since we launched Digital Publishing Suite, and we’ve had fantastic traction in terms of getting great-looking content on tablet devices. So I have an iPad here and as you see I can turn it over and tilt it, let the accelerometer do its trick. We’re actually seeing two different layouts here – two different layouts – which creates two different files. So designers actually have to create two separate InDesign files for this one device.

Another thing that’s happening is you’ve got another device like the Motorola Xoom – and on the Xoom you’ve got an totally different size, shape, aspect ratio. And the best we can do right now is if you notice the black bands here – this is all white space – you have to scale down the layout to fit on this size screen. It drives designers crazy – God abhors white space – and this just drives us insane. But it’s the best that we can do right now.

So, how are we going to make things a bit easier for the designer?”

The InDesign Sneak

For the rest, words can’t accurately capture what happens in the demo, so the video is the only way:

Thanks to Adobe presenter Kiyomassa Toma.  Notice the new Adobe Edge even makes a guest appearance of sorts, with the embedding of the HTML5 animation in the document displayed across multiple platforms.

So, could this whizzy new capability be coming in InDesign CS6?  Well, Creative Suite 6 could be about six months away or so – and the smooth and polished nature of the demonstration suggests to us that (hopefully) this kind of thing could be ready to go by then. That contrasts with the “prototype” feel to the (nonetheless impressive) Photoshop Image Deblurring sneak that was shown by Adobe at the same session.

Certainly, this type of liquid layout feature – to be able to automatically adapt layouts across devices and screen orientations – is hugely needed as the number of smartphone and tablet models continues to skyrocket, all with different profiles. It also becomes an even bigger deal with the announcement of the new Digital Publishing Suite Single Edition at MAX, for smaller publishers.

See more from the show – including the keynote presentations plus over 160 hours of free tutorials and training sessions from the experts, on a wide range of topics covering all major Adobe products.  And we’ll have more MAX sneaks here for other Adobe products in the coming weeks… For instance, the aforementioned, much-buzzed-about Photoshop sneak.

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Can you imagine a new feature in Photoshop that could automatically deblur photographs to restore the originally-intended subject material to clarity and focus?  Adobe can…

This demonstration comes from last week’s Adobe MAX conference in Los Angeles, where the last major session showcases “sneaks” of what Adobe is working on but hasn’t revealed yet. There are no guarantees for what may or may not appear in a production release, or when. But, could this appear in a future version like Photoshop CS6?  Well, watch this video and make up your own mind:

Adobe Photo Deblur: How Does It Work?

From the video you see the key element in the unblurring feature is the program’s intensive computation of a “blur kernel” (or point spread function), a unique signature which describes the motion trajectory of the camera while the shutter was open during the creation of the flawed image… Then, once this path is determined, further computation applies it to the blurry picture to reverse and work back to what the photograph should have looked like originally – in other words, to remove the blur and restore a sharp image.

For the clearest example, check this high-resolution before-and-after still photo comparison. Or see brand new amazing photos of this capability that have been released since the show.

Watching it in action is pretty amazing – unreal even – as heard in the gasps and incredulity of the audience, which at this venue is a pretty sophisticated crowd. The show’s emcee calls it, “mind-blowing, cool Photoshop magic.”  And though this plug-in can’t correct a picture that’s just plain out of focus, with the rise of cellphone cameras everywhere and the iPhone now being the #1 camera on Flickr, the ability to fix camera shake and repair blurry or smeared images could be a very big deal.

So, back to the previous question – could this new feature be coming in Photoshop CS6?  Well, Creative Suite 6 (or whatever CS “Next” is called) could be about six months away or so – and picking up some of the cues from Adobe presenter Jue Wang, it’s unclear…  He says in various spots, “we have been working on this problem for a while and have built a prototype to solve it,” and, “you can see there are a lot of controls here because it’s still an early prototype,” so it’s hard to say how close something like this might actually be.

What do you think?

Let us know in the comments below.

See the best from Adobe MAX 2011 – including the keynote presentations plus over 160 hours of free tutorials and training sessions from the experts, on a wide range of topics covering all major Adobe products.  And we’ll have more MAX sneaks here for other Adobe products in the coming weeks… For instance, here are new sneaks for InDesign Liquid Layout and Premiere Pro Syncing.

Check out more Adobe Photoshop (CS5) magic with advanced demos and techniques for the new Content-Aware Fill feature as well as Puppet Warp.

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Adobe Lightroom 3.5 and Adobe Camera Raw 6.5 are now available as final releases, and are free for all current Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 users…

These updates include bug fixes, performance and stability improvements (20 for Lightroom and 9 for Camera Raw), plus support for 27 new lens profiles and 24 new cameras, including the Nikon Coolpix P7100, Olympus E-PL3, and Sony SLT-A77 – and could be some of the last revisions before Lightroom 4 and CS6 come out.

 » Download the Final Adobe Lightroom 3.5 for Mac OS  (a free update to Lightroom 3)
 » Download the Final Adobe Lightroom 3.5 for Windows

 » Download the Final Adobe Camera Raw 6.5 for Mac  (a free update to Photoshop CS5)
 » Download the Final Adobe Camera Raw 6.5 for Windows

Read more details about the update including the 29 fixes that were made as well as the new cameras supported, or take a look at the complete list of all Lightroom-supported cameras.

Lightroom 3.5 is a recommended update and is available in 12 languages: English, German, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Traditional and Simplified).   If you don’t yet own Lightroom 3, Adobe’s free trial download has also now been moved up to version 3.5.

To confirm that the updater has run successfully, launch Lightroom and verify that the version number on the splash screen shows current as 3.5.

Camera Raw 6.5 also works with Photoshop Elements 9 plus the new Photoshop Elements 10 just released – see the full compatibility chart. Note that Camera Raw 6 is not compatible with Photoshop CS4 or earlier. The last release of Adobe Camera Raw for Photoshop CS4 was ACR 5.7 on 4/20/2010.

Save 30% when you buy Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 together, no coupon code needed.

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One of the most common upgrade questions you’re likely to see is what’s new, what’s different, what’s improved between the new Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and version 9? Or more fundamentally, what are the key new features in PSE 10, versus PSE 9, 8, 7, or even version 6? We put together a quick list here of what’s changed since 9, but how about a version-by-version, feature-by-feature table? You’ll find this down below (or shortcut here), but first let’s take a close look at some of the biggest additions.

The before-and-after images pictured above are a demonstration of the new “depth of field” effect, where in just seconds you can produce the feeling of shallow focus (low f-stop) for the subject in any existing photograph you have.

From Adobe’s official press release:

Making Photos Pop with Innovative Tools

Powered by the same engine as Adobe Photoshop, the industry standard for digital imaging, Photoshop Elements 10 utilizes intelligent technology that makes it easy to give everyday photos a boost. Photoshop technology is brought to life through easy to follow steps for achieving stunning photo effects in an approachable way with new Guided Edits, which are very popular and successful. These include innovations such as creating a shallow depth of field or designing a fun layout of snapshots with Picture Stack, or even adding a dream-like diffused glow with the Orton Effect.

What’s the Orton Effect? It gives images a dreamy quality, and works well for candid portraits, landscapes, and photos of children or animals. Besides creating a fairytale feel, it can be useful for salvaging photos that you didn’t quite get in focus to begin with. This enhanced result was created in ten seconds with PSE 10:

More New Features

Also new are the text-on-a-path feature, a Crop Overlay tool, and some significant Organizer improvements:

New text functionality, which scrapbookers will especially love, allows users to add curving, flowing text to a photo that automatically follows the outline of a subject, custom path or shape. In addition, special crop guides [Rule of Thirds and Golden Ratio] now help users at any level easily achieve interesting, visually appealing compositions.

Object Search automatically finds objects within photos, such as a landmark, flower or pet. The Elements Organizer can even automatically detect duplicate or near-duplicate photos so users can clean up and delete the photos they don’t need and quickly group similar collections of photos

Probably one of the most-requested features, Photoshop Elements 10 sports three new Text tools for making lines of text follow paths you create… These new capabilities mean you can now place curvy, flowing text on a shape, on an object, or on a customized path – and then resize and reshape or add effects as desired.

The new “Smart Object Search” function saves time by making it easy to find almost anything in your catalog via searching by shape or color – and quickly detect and match together similar photos.

Here’s a one-minute video demo on how to create some of these new stylistic effects with just a few mouse clicks:

Comprehensive Version Comparison

What’s new in Photoshop Elements 10 isn’t perhaps quite as earth-shaking as what was introduced in version 9, which included the long-awaited Layer Masks, Style Matching, and the invaluable content-aware Healing Brush…  But there are still plenty of nice additions in PSE 10, including more we haven’t mentioned yet – like integration with your Facebook Friends list, saving creations to PDF format, 30 new Smart Brush patterns, a new Smart Pan & Zoom feature, automatic syncing between multiple devices, and more…

And thus far, the reviews for Photoshop Elements 10 have been pretty positive.

You can see a comprehensive feature comparison between the last five versions of Photoshop Elements below, for both Windows and Mac OS:

Importantly, Photoshop Elements continues to be multi-platform software, available with largely the same features on both PC and Mac (containing both discs in the box) – and installable on up to two machines. The fully-functional free trials are also now available and can install and run alongside any previous versions you may own, without interference. Adobe has also restored the discounted upgrade pricing that was unavailable for PSE 9.

For more details and information, including on Premiere, see our Elements 10 Release Guide. Or start learning right away with four hours of free tutorials for Photoshop Elements 10 & 9.

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Adobe is dropping some hints about new and future creative tools coming on tablet devices and for HTML5 content creation. On a publicly-available conference call earlier this week, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen shared some guidance on the company’s upcoming product roadmap and what to expect…

With a shifting landscape that favors HTML5-based content and application delivery, we are doubling down in our investment in this area. CS5.5 delivered enhanced HTML5 capabilities. We recently previewed Adobe Edge, a new HTML5 web motion and interaction design tool, which allows web designers to create cutting-edge animations for their websites. Interest in this tool far exceeded our expectations.

We also just introduced the beta release of a new product code-named Muse, which allows designers to create and publish HTML-based websites without writing complex HTML code. And we are contributing new innovations to WebKit to allow for a more expressive Web. These initiatives show our commitment to help drive the evolution of browsers and be the leading tools provider for HTML5, and this is only the beginning.

So what does this mean in terms of the next release of Creative Suite? Will we see Adobe Muse and Edge – or other new HTML5 tools – as part of CS6?

So as we think about the evolution of Creative Suite moving forward, I think there are a couple of different things that we’re hearing from our customers in terms of what would be catalysts for Creative Suite. And HTML5 and support for HTML5, whether that’s browser-based content or creating standalone applications, is certainly one of them. So as you can expect, we will be taking the tools we’ve been delivering, like Adobe Edge and Muse, and you might see those in future versions of the Creative Suite.

So big picture, I would say as HTML5 is getting more prevalent, we’re clearly both embracing it from the point of view of tools and being the leader in tools but also contributing aggressively to the evolution of HTML as a standard.

On tablets, there’s some big news as well… Adobe will soon be introducing a broad new collec­tion of tablet applications centered on content creation. This has the potential to significantly deepen the company’s footprint from the handful of Photoshop-connected mobile device apps they have released to date.

The explosion of tablets is changing the paradigm for content authoring. We believe that content will be consumed and created on these devices. Similar to the desktop, we intend to be the leading provider of creative authoring applications on tablets.

We will soon be introducing a broad set of tablet-based and cloud-connected apps and services across iOS, Android and other mobile platforms that represent a new revenue stream. We intend to deliver a whole new set of tablet applications which will be augmenting the current desktop functionality for creative professionals. We believe there’s a large opportunity to attract new customers to the base with the new tablet applications we will create. We are excited about the recent introduction of Adobe Carousel, an innovative new cloud-connected imaging app for Mac OS and iOS devices.

On the tablet side specifically, I think we would all say it’s early. We do believe strongly that tablets will be used not just as consumption devices but as creation devices. You’re going to continue to see styluses added to tablet devices which make it an even more compelling offering. We will have a comprehensive set of products, and I think it’s early to say how rapidly that will grow, but we do think that’s a new product stream that will be meaningful for Adobe.

So this is very interesting, as up until now these devices have been used more for content consumption than creation… So we can only speculate what Adobe has in store here. One possibility, a Lightroom app for iPad?

When will we find out more?

At Adobe MAX in early October, we will unveil some of our newest innovations in the content authoring arena. And as we look forward, frankly, to the next version of Creative Suite, we think there are a lot of things that are going to drive the new release, and not least of which is a new version of our franchise imaging application [Photoshop CS6]. But in addition to that, the things that I mentioned earlier – video, expect to see a fair amount of HTML5 innovation coming in the next CS, and the combination of both the creative applications, the tablet applications, and what we provide as cloud services. So, a lot of excitement about what we’re going to deliver next year.

Listen to the entire conference call here, or read the transcript for more details.

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Yes – Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 and Premiere Elements 10 are just out and now shipping!  Pretty much on the timeframe we forecast, both products are available on both Windows and Mac with the same features…  You can instantly download the free trials now as well (yes, they are available!), and the new software will work side-by-side with any previous release(s) of Elements you may own. If do you have an earlier version installed, you can automatically import and convert your work.*

And thus far the reviews for Photoshop Elements 10 have been pretty positive.

The prices remain US$99 for the full version of either PSE 10 or PRE 10, and $149 for the bundle package containing both complete products. To add Adobe’s Plus Benefits runs $30 more. Education customers can grab the Student and Teacher Edition for $119 for both applications (note that academic pricing is no longer offered for each one individually). The languages available today include English, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, and Japanese.

Adobe has also brought back the upgrade discount for owners of any previous version of Elements… This briefly disappeared in Elements 9, but popular demand has restored the lower pricing worldwide. This means if you are an existing user of any previous version of Elements (Photoshop or Premiere, back to version 1), you get a lower price from Adobe when upgrading to this new release.

Photoshop & Premiere Elements 10 will run well on 32-bit or 64-bit systems, and are designed for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, or Mac OS (see the full system requirements for PSE 10 on Windows or Mac; and PRE 10 on Windows or Mac).  Premiere Elements 10 now comes with a native 64-bit version for higher performance – in other words, the PRE Editor now runs native on both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. Photoshop Elements 10 continues as before, running native in 32-bit and compatibly on 64-bit systems.

For customers with both PCs and Macs, the Elements line is now sold as multiplatform software, meaning your single purchase can be installed on either operating system… If you buy a boxed copy of Elements 10, you will get both the Windows and Mac OS versions of the application(s) and a cross-platform serial number. And similar to other Adobe products, you may be able to put the software on up to two computers, subject to the terms of the license agreement.

Download the product overview sheet or free trials, or see the new online documentation that just went up, including the Photoshop Elements 10 keyboard shortcuts. Start learning right away with four hours of free video tutorials.

What’s new in Elements 10 – what are some key new features?

This is covered in detail in our companion “what’s new” article, but here are some quick highlights:

Elements is already the #1 selling consumer photo- and video-editing software.†  Powered by the same engine as Adobe Photoshop, the industry standard for digital imaging, and with these new features on top of the Spot Healing Brush (Content-Aware Fill) and Layer Masks added in PSE 9, this latest 10th-generation version of Elements is looking like a smooth and polished release.

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