How to Cheat in Photoshop

» Forum Index » General comments » Topic: Photoshop CS6 announced

Posted on 22/03/12 08:46:14 AM

Steve Caplin
Administrator
Posts: 7068

Reply

Photoshop CS6 announced

I'm delighted to be able to announce the impending launch of Photoshop CS6, for which a public beta goes live today (and you can download it here).

CS6 is largely an under-the-hood overhaul, with a fresher look and much faster operation in many areas. Here's a run-down of the new features that I think are of particular interest:

Faster operation Thanks to GPU-enhanced graphics. This means Photoshop can take advantage of your computer's Graphics Processor Unit, if it has one, for real-time previews of many filters and effects - including things like Puppet Warp.

New interface colours allow users to choose from four different looks, from light to dark. A great many of the icons have been redrawn for better clarity - for instance, the Pen tool icon is now at an angle so it doesn't get in the way.

Auto Save Photoshop now saves transparently in the background, so if you suffer a crash you can pick up from where you left off when you reopen the application. This doesn't overwrite the 'official' saved version - you can still revert to it.

Better Liquify filter Thanks to the GPU enhancement, Liquify is now smooth and much faster to load, even with huge images. Now supports brushes up to a massive 15000 pixels.

Head-Up Display A new HUD system gives feedback on-screen when you perform a transformation, drag a marquee, or perform several other operations, through numerical information displayed next to the cursor. In addition, the new filters have controls directly on the image, as well as in a Panel.

Content-Aware Move The only new tool in CS6, the Content-Aware Move tool allows you to select part of an image and then move it elsewhere - both blending it into its new surroundings, and removing it from its original location. It can also extend objects as an alternative option.

Text Styles Text now has paragraph and character styles which contain all text parameters, and can be applied with a single click. All applied styles can easily be changed globally at a later time. There's also a Lorem Ipsum generator.

Shapes layers are now true vector objects (previously, they were Color FIll layers with vector clipping paths). This means they can have strokes and no fill, as well as things like dotted and dashed strokes, arrowheads, and so on.

Eyedropper tool can now sample underlying layers as if adjustment layers in between weren't there - very useful for detailed editing.

Camera Raw now has localised noise reduction, and Clarity controls with no halo effect.

Movie making Movie support has moved from the Extended edition into the regular edition of Photoshop, which means it's available to everyone.

Lighting Effects The good news for Mac owners is that the LE filter is now back in glorious 64-bit mode. The good news for all of us is that it's had a huge overhaul, with full screen previews and HUD controls.

Three new blur filters Field Blur, Iris Blur and Tilt-Shift, all with Head-Up Controls and GPU-accelerated operation. Very interesting, and very customisable.

Oil Paint A filter showing off the speed of the GPU acceleration. Impressive as a demo, but frankly it's unlikely you'll ever use it.

Adaptive Wide Angle A new filter for straightening out lens distortion, that works even with multiple distortions such as those produced by combining panorama images. A very fine filter.

3D modelling has had a huge overhaul, with HUD controls for bevel, extrusion, twist and much more, together with a new way of manipulating objects. Plus editable text and path outlines (even after extrusion), ground planes creatable in Vanishing Point to match image perspective, and much more. In the Extended edition only, but now much easier to use.

Properties Panel A new panel that holds Adjustment Layer and Mask data, as well as 3D info. It's expandable, so you can make adjustment layer controls such as Curves as large as you like.

Layer filters You can now display layers in the Layers Panel by name, by kind, by effect, and so on. Makes navigating large documents much easier.

Layer Groups can now have Layer Effects added to them, and can be duplicated with Command/Ctrl J just like regular layers.

Crop tool has been reworked so that the image, and not the crop area, is panned and rotated when you use it. Much more intuitive, but takes a bit of getting used to.

Actions can now include brush strokes. You can automate the creation of an entire drawing!

Select Color Range now includes skin tone and face detection.

I am, of course, working on How to Cheat in Photoshop CS6, which should be published within the next couple of months. Watch this space!

Posted on 22/03/12 10:32:16 AM

BigVern
Q Quipper
Posts: 674

Reply