Posts Tagged ‘CS5’

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Adobe CS6 in 2012

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

The next major version of Adobe Creative Suite will arrive in 2012, Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen revealed. This is in line with the 18 – 24 month product renewal cycle the suite has followed in the past.

Adobe CS6 in 2012In the meantime, Adobe plans to release an HTML5 update to the current version. The update will make it easier for designers and developers to build websites using the HTML5 Internet standard.

Adobe released the current Creative Suite 5, which includes the Photoshop and Illustrator programs, in April 2010. The version before that, Creative Suite 4, was released in October 2008.

The HTML5 standard is supported by both Apple and Google and competes with Adobe’s Flash Internet video and animation software. Apple bans Flash on the iPad tablet computer and iPhone handset.

Adobe believes that selling HTML5 development tools and working with software developers who create applications for smartphones and tablets can help Adobe assert the importance of its tools.

By embracing HTML5, Adobe gives Web developers more options and positions itself to benefit whether programmers decide to use Flash or HTML5. It is a win-win situation for the company whether developers choose to work with Flash or HTML5.

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Posted in Adobe, Creative Suite, Photoshop, Software, Tech news | 1 Comment »

Japan disaster fallout: Adobe tempers forecast

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

Lower sales in Japan due to the Mar 11 disasters. Adobe forecasts second-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates because of earthquake and tsunami impact on sales.

Adobe forecast affected by Japan disastersAdobe Systems Inc. is the largest maker of graphic design software in the world. It has reduced its sales forecast by $50 million because of the disasters in Japan – its second largest market after the U.S. According to analysts, Japan accounts for 10 – 15 percent of Adobe’s revenue each quarter.

Profit for the current quarter is expected to be 47 – 54 cents. This compares with a 56 cents average based on analysts’ projections compiled by Bloomberg.

“We saw a noticeable drop in our revenue,”Aaron Ricadela from Businessweek quotes  Mark Garrett, Adobe’s Chief Financial Officer.

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Adobe Flash CS5 Professional

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Flash CS5 Professional was launched on 12 April 2010 as part of the Adobe CS5 Suite. It is the industry standard for adding animation, interactive content, videos and games to webpages.

New text engine in Flash CS5 Professional

New text engine in Flash CS5 Professional

Its top feature would have been its Packager for iPhone, which enables developers to write applications within Flash and then convert them into iPhone apps.

However, four days before its launch, and as part of Apple’s beta release of iPhone OS 4 Software Development Kit (SDK), Apple amended its developer licence agreement for iPhone developers to prohibit the use of third-party cross-platform development tools, like Flash, to produce iPhone apps.

Adobe has since announced that while it will ship the Packager as part of Flash CS5, it has stopped all new investments in this area.

Even without the Packager for iPhone, there are enough goodies within Flash CS5 Professional to entice code writers and designers. I will be delving into some of the main features below in more detail over the next few weeks. I also did a review of Adobe Flash CS5 Professional  in Digital Life on 2 Jun 2010.

For the Designer:

  • New text engine – Print-quality typographic control like in desktop publication software, Global language support, Advanced inline text editing, Advanced rendering support.
  • Spring for Bones – The Inverse kinematics feature is enhanced with a dynamic physics engine that simulates realistically the springy vibrational oscillations of a spring.
  • New Deco drawing tools – Dynamic Deco brush tools are extended with new brushes with additional shapes and animation effects.

For the Coder:

  • Code Snippets panel – Prebuilt codes that can be injected into projects for things like timeline navigation, actions, animation, audio and video, and event handlers. The snippets contain helpful comments and clear instructions for easy customisation for the inexperienced programmer.
  • Enhanced ActionScript editor – Custom class code hinting and code completion, and reference your own code or external code libraries more efficiently.
  • Flash Builder – Formerly Adobe Flex Builder, this coding tool is bundled with Flash CS5 Professional and both are tightly integrated with each other.

For all users:

  • Distribute content virtually anywhere – Deliver consistently across screens of virtually any size and use Adobe Device Central for enhanced device testing.
  • XML-based FLA source files – XFL offers improved cross-product integration and workflow productivity.
  • Improved Creative Suite integration – Tight integration with Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder, InDesign, Fireworks, and After Effects.
  • Video improvements – Streamline embedding and encoding processes with on-stage video scrubbing and the ability to define cue points directly in the Properties panel. Playback FLV video directly on the stage instead of testing the movie.

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Photoshop CS5: Complex and hairy selections made easier

Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Deer staring into headlights

Sharp edges along the horns and hairy edges elsewhere.

Photoshop CS5 has made it easier to make image selections and masks, speeding up the extraction of subjects from backgrounds and the creation of realistic composites.

Enhanced intelligent selection technology offers better edge detection and faster, more accurate masking results of complex subjects such as hair. Automatic color decontamination helps eliminate background color around the edges of a selection, resulting in more seamless compositions when placing extracted subjects on new backgrounds.

Dialog box with controls for Refine Edge

New controls can be found in the Refine Edge dialog

The enhanced controls are found in the Refine Edge dialog box when a selection is made.

The Smart Radius setting uses adaptive selection-edge modification approach to produce different types of selection edges on different parts of the subject’s outline, depending on the type of edges — whether the portion of the edge is fuzzy or sharp. This is based on the traditional best practice of using different techniques for different types of edges along the outline of the subject — one method for fuzzy hair and another for the clear edge of a building.

Selection outline in black and white

Selection outline in black and white

Additional view modes provide new ways of previewing the quality of the selections.

The Refine Radius and Erase Refinements tools allows the initial selection to be refined — be it to add more of the subject or to remove more of the background along the selection edge.

My article in Digital Life on 2 June 2010 (Not a hair out of place) illustrated the use of the enhanced selection controls to make a hairy selection round a starry-eyed deer in Miyajima, Japan.

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Posted in Howtos, Photoshop, Software, Tech news | 1 Comment »

Photoshop: Selecting objects with irregular outlines

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

My article in Digital Life on 26 May 2010 (Choice selections) illustrated the use of the Lasso Tool, the Polygonal Lasso Tool and the Magic Wand Tool for making selections of objects or areas of the image with an irregular outline.

Red telephone booth amidst drab surroundings

Red telephone booth to be selected and preserved

Red telephone preserved while surroundings toned down to Black and White

Surroundings toned down to Black and White

Where there is a fair amount of contrast in colour between the object to be selected – such as the red telephone booth – and the surrounding pixels, you can also use the Magnetic Lasso Tool.

Just click anywhere on the edge of the object move the mouse along the edge of the object, in this case the booth. As the mouse moves along the edge, Photoshop will detect where the edge is by examining the contrast between the pixels on either side of the mouse cursor.

Photoshop will place anchor points along the edge as you go along. You don’t have to click the mouse button.

(more…)

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HDR Toning in Photoshop CS5 (Part 2)

Monday, May 24th, 2010
Monochromatic High Contrast Preset - a few black and white HDR Toning effects are included in the Presets

Monochromatic High Contrast Preset - a few black and white HDR Toning effects are included in the Presets

Photorealistic High Contrast - I like the few high contrast HDR toning effects.

Photorealistic High Contrast Preset - I like the few high contrast HDR toning effects available.

Photorealistic Preset

Photorealistic Preset

Surrealistic High Contrast effect - I like the few high contrast presets available.

Surrealistic High Contrast effect

Using the “Local Adaptation” Method, there are 14 Presets available that gives a whole spectrum of different HDR Toning effects. I have included above the results of a few of my favourite presets.

(more…)

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New HDR Toning feature in Photoshop CS5 (Part 1)

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010
HDR-like effect applied to a single snapshot

HDR-like effect applied to a single snapshot

Ever saw those surrealistic digital photographs of landscapes that are so rich in colours? These High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos are getting more popular due to the ease in producing them – with the proliferation of powerful software that combine bracketed shots of a scene at different exposures into a single photo.

Original dull photo with overexposed skies and underexposed foreground

Original dull photo with overexposed skies and underexposed foreground

The process allows much more detail to be displayed in a single photo than is normally possible, through the clever tone mapping of the colours in the photo. As a result, what little details are left from blown-out highlights and murky shadows are rescued and made more discernible.

HDR Toning using Equalize Method - no controls are available

HDR Toning using Equalize Method

What if you weren’t able to bracket the shot, or you have an old jpeg that wasn’t bracketed but still wants the same eerie and otherworldly effect? Photoshop CS5 has a new HDR Toning feature that can fake simulate the look, even if you only have a single exposure.

I tried it out and found the result rather impressive.

(more…)

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Parody on the video on Content-Aware Fill

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

And this is the parody on Adobe’s sneak peek video on Content-Aware Fill. I thought it was rather humorous.

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The original Sneak Peek video for Content-Aware Fill

Monday, May 17th, 2010

This was the original sneak peek video that Adobe uploaded onto YouTube just 3weeks before the official launch. It gave a good idea of what the feature would be capable of.

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Now you see it … now you don’t

Sunday, May 16th, 2010
Before: Two Spanish boys frolicking on a beach in Altea

Before: Two Spanish boys frolicking on a beach in Altea

After: The two boys removed in seconds using Content-Aware Fill

After: The two boys removed using Content-Aware Fill

Yesterday, I showed how Photoshop CS5’s new Content-Aware Fill can be applied using the Spot Healing brush. The second way of using the powerful feature is to use the Content-Aware option when applying the Fill command.

I took the photo of two local boys at the Spanish beach at Altea, just 10 km to the north of the famous beach haven of Benidorm on the Costa Blanca. I like the way these two boys added life to the beach scene. But just to test out the Content-Aware Fill, I decided to “remove” them from the photo.

(more…)

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Posted in Howtos, Photoshop, Software | 2 Comments »

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