all things design
28 April 2010
Adobe CS5 Release
Adobe, the graphics software company renowned for Photoshop, along with other great graphics software, is about to release the new version of their products. The last version to hit the shelves was called CS4 for Creative Suite 4, and, aptly, the new packages will all be called CS5. At first, I was astonished to hear that a new upgrade was coming. CS4 was released in September of 2008, which doesn’t seem that long ago. Most software companies try to time new releases around an 18-24 month schedule and I realized that by releasing CS5 on May 12th, Adobe hits that timeframe. The question then becomes, is it worth the price of upgrading?
I am here to tell you that, from what I have seen, it is definitely worth the price of admission to the new world of CS5. Adobe has always dealt in algorithmic & code magic and they have outdone themselves with this version. Let’s start with Photoshop. There are many new features in Photoshop CS5, but the one that is worth the price alone is called Content Aware. Photoshop already has some extraordinary tools to manipulate pixels, yet, to move or remove items in a photo can be excruciatingly hard to do correctly. Click on this link and be prepared to be amazed by Content Aware!
Besides Content Aware, Adobe has some other tricks up their sleeves. Check out Puppet Warp that gives the user the ability to bend and move objects with precision in real time. The difficult task of making complex selections, such as hair, is another feature tackled in this new upgrade. Click on this link to see all the new features of PSCS5.
InDesign is another extraordinary Adobe product that benefits nicely in CS5. The number one request made by InDesign users has finally been answered; multiple page sizes and orientations in the same document. This is a biggie! Text editing is also strengthened by giving the user the ability to span text across columns automatically. This is particularly helpful when creating header text for your content. Another useful feature is the capability to open a mini-Bridge version inside of InDesign to access another InDesign file and drop and drag text and images into your file. There is also a photo Gap Tool to set the gap between multiple images and to move that gap automatically along the images. And finally, as if these weren’t enough, you can now create Flash based interactive content right in InDesign using built in automation controls without having to write any code. Check out some of these features demo’d by Terry White here.
If this is any indication, the other Adobe products such as Illustrator, After Effects and Flash, probably all have amazing upgraded features, but, I’ll leave that for you to discover on Adobe TV.
‘til next time, take care.
Bob
