Posts Tagged ‘Adobe Photoshop’

Adobe listens to its customers, will allow CS3, CS4 users to upgrade to CS6

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Adobe listens to its customers, will allow CS3, CS4 users to upgrade to CS6

Last year, Adobe created quite a furor when it announced that, with the upcoming release of its Creative Suite 6 (CS6), only users of the most recent incarnation (CS5 or 5.5) would be able to upgrade from their program to CS6. Previously, Adobe had allowed people with software 3 generations old (back to CS3) to make the upgrade. To help ease the sting, Adobe announced a 20% discount on CS5 for CS3 and 4 users. Still, though, many were feeling burned.

Still, many were not satisfied.

Upon the abrupt change in upgrade policy, Adobe users took to the web to voice their frustrations, led by Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, who made it a point to address all sides in the issue. In an open letter to Adobe, Kelby offered two solutions: either start the new upgrade policy with CS7 or use a tiered system wherein users of more recent programs would pay less than users upgrading from older software. Also, Kelby warned Adobe that the United States is a free market, wherein consumers are free to choose what to buy which, in the case of such an abrupt upgrade policy change, could drive many long-time users away from Adobe.

Well, Adobe has listened to the flood of consumer complaints and has announced that it will be giving CS3 and 4 users special introductory prices valid from the CS6 release date until the end of the year on the new CS6 programs. Unfortunately, the prices are still TBA and will only be determined at the time of the CS6 release, which is forecast for sometime in the first half of 2012.

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Avenza® Releases Geographic Imager® 3.4 for Adobe® Photoshop®

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Avenza® Releases Geographic Imager® 3.4 for Adobe® Photoshop®

Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher® cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator® and PDF Maps for Apple iOS, is pleased to announce the release of Geographic Imager 3.4 for Adobe Photoshop. This release is fully compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS5.1, which is also known as Adobe Photoshop 12.1 in Adobe CS5.5, as well as Adobe Photoshop 12.0.4 in Adobe CS5.

“We’re delighted to release Geographic Imager 3.4 with even more format support,” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza. “We’ve also included new options to import and export images, providing users with even more ways to streamline and improve their data editing work flow. In addition, included are some priority fixes based on user requests and feedback,” he added.

Additional Geographic Imager 3.4 features

Fully compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS5.1 (also known as Photoshop 12.1 in Adobe CS5.5) in both 32 and 64 bit
New import support for ERDAS IMAGINE (.img), Esri ArcInfo Binary Float Grid (.flt), and “DEM” grayscale GeoTIFF (*.tif) formats, including ability to import georeferenced images from Web Map Service (WMS) sources
New export support for BigTIFF, ECW (up to 0.5 GB), and NITF formats
Major enhancements to Advanced Import, including options to:
import multiple files of differing formats
resample and crop images prior to import
modify bands/channel color mapping and select specific channels to import for multiband/hyperband images
mosaic and import images as layers into existing documents specify and adjust DEM and DTM information and combine multiple DEM files on import
Enhanced Quick Save feature for quick format conversion
New ability to measure areas in images using the Adobe Photoshop Measurement Log panel
Various bug fixes and user experience enhancements
More about Geographic Imager for Adobe Photoshop

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Adobe Photoshop Express 2.0 (for iPhone)

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

Adobe Photoshop Express 2.0 (for iPhone)

Photoshop Express is imaging software giant Adobe’s toehold in the free app space. The Express family includes not only apps for iPhone (reviewed here), iPad, and Android, but also a Web-based image editor. Express also takes advantage of Adobe-hosted online galleries that make sharing well-presented images easy and an integrated piece of the Express offerings. Though there is a shooting mode, the app is more about perfecting and enhancing images after the fact than adding extra shooting options the way Camera+ ($2.99, 3 stars) and Camera Genius ($1.99, 3.5 stars) do. The one big downer with Photoshop Express is that a few of its most compelling features require an in-app upgrade purchase. Still, you get some nice editing tools for free.

Shooting
In its Camera mode, clearly accessible as the top choice on the app’s home screen, Photoshop Express adds little over what you get with the iPhone’s built-in camera. And unfortunately, the biggest shooting plusses, auto-review mode and shutter timer, are only available as part of the extra-cost Camera Pack ($4.99); when you press their icons, a buy ad pops up. And those two features are actually not that big a deal, compared with the impressive capabilities in competitors, like Camera Genius’s shooting when you make a sound or Camera+’s stabilization, burst modes, and ability to control focus and exposure points separately. You do get a slider for the digital zoom, which is easier than the built in app’s pinch to zoom.

Review mode lets display photos after you’ve snapped the shutter for up to 5 seconds, which saves you from having to switch to the Photos gallery view, the way you do with the built-in iPhone apps, and makes shooting with the phone more like shooting with a point-and-shoot digital camera.

Another setting, Auto-time, lets you choose between 3 and 10 seconds to wait to snap the pic after you press the shutter button. It’s a basic feature that’s standard in many Camera-replacement apps for the iPhone (which surprisingly lacks it), but again it’s only available if you buy the $5 Camera Pack upgrade.

Fixing and Enhancing Photos
As you’d expect from Adobe, the image-editing basics are very well handled. The Crop tool not only lets you crop either freehand or in square, 3:4, or 4:3 locked aspect ratios (other apps offer more presets), but also handles straightening, rotation, and image flipping. One benefit of Photoshop Express over some options like Camera+ and Hipstamatic is that it lets you edit any photo on your iPhone, rather than just those taken through the app.

Express offers good control over lighting and color, too, with choices for Exposure, Saturation, Tint, Black & White, and Contrast. In each of these (except B&W), you just swipe your finger right or left to increase or decrease the adjustment. Clear undo and redo icons are always available, and an X takes you back to the album entry.

The next group of adjustments lets you be more creative, with Sketch, Soft Focus, Sharpen, and Reduce Noise options–this last one, probably the app’s most powerful feature, is another part of the extra-cost ($4.99) Adobe Camera Pack. The tool did indeed reduced noise in my test photos, but at the cost of making them blurrier. Luckily, you can increase and decrease the effect, but I wish the tool let me zoom in, since noise is a detail factor, requiring close inspection.

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The All-new Photoshop site and Mobile application for iPhone

Monday, August 30th, 2010

The All-new Photoshop site and Mobile application for iPhone

Updates for the Photoshop Express online photo tool has been released last Wednesday and it comes not only with one improvement but a lot of important features as well.

The main improvement to the site of Photoshop is that instead of making users register so they can edit their photos in the site, they are no longer required to make an account which removes the hassle of being able to edit pictures in the site. Even downloading the edited photos do not require information from the user. Moreover, the tools are now organized with their own units. It also allows them to develop modules of the software which is Photoshop Lightroom.

Themes can now be customized in the new site of Photoshop and by default, the theme is “Midnight”. It has a one colored background. Plus subscribers can avail of the 40 themes and extra storage. Moreover, they are entitled to more photo editing effects.

Photos edited through the Photoshop Express online photo tool can be easily uploaded to Facebook and Twitter which also allows other people to comment them. This helps people be more interactive with one another.

Another improvement of Adobe with regard to photo editing is their photo-editting application for Android services. This device for mobile phones allow videos to be played in an application whether they were uploaded from a mobile phone or a computer. It also developed how people will upload photos from the application to Facebook.

Adobe is working out on new improvements for many scenes like photo editors which are in a great competition with sites like Picnik. Picnik was acquired by Google during the early part of this year. Other sites that are competing with the online photoshop are Fotoflexer and Aviary. These sites benefit so much from the Adobe Flash.

Source: au.ibtimes.com

Avenza Announces Terrain Shader Functionality for Adobe Photoshop

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

Avenza Announces Terrain Shader Functionality for Adobe Photoshop

Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher® cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager® spatial tools for Adobe Photoshop® is pleased to announce that the upcoming release of Geographic Imager, version 3.2, will include the ability to dynamically apply terrain shading and colourization to digital elevation models within Adobe Photoshop.

The Geographic Imager Terrain Shader functionality will be included as a standard feature in the upcoming release.

“The addition of a terrain shading function to Geographic Imager is a natural extension to our Adobe Photoshop spatial imaging toolset” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza. “For the first time, users will be able to easily and quickly import a DEM, apply colours and shades based on elevation and even apply a specific light source position and intensity to achieve a specific shading effect, all within Adobe Photoshop. This is a very powerful proposition for all geospatial image and DEM users and further extends the value of Adobe Photoshop as a bona fide spatial image processing platform.” he added.

Features of the Geographic Imager Terrain Shader

1. Easily generate custom colour maps or use predefined ones
2. Use Photoshop gradients to colorize DEM images specifying elevation intervals
3. Create shaded relief easily with intuitive controls
4. Adjust light source position and intensity
5. Import existing Photoshop gradients to use as colour maps
6. Assign elevations to gradients and save them for reuse
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