Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta announced, previewed
Almost exactly two years ago, Adobe first started teasing a major update to its flagship digital imaging application Photoshop, with a variety of interesting new features including an eyecatching content-aware fill tool.
Fast forward to today, and the company has relegated mere teasers to the trashcan: today it launches its first ever public beta of Photoshop, and we’ve just posted our Adobe Photoshop CS6 preview. Adobe has made something of a tradition out of its public beta program for its popular, photographer-oriented Photoshop Lightroom app, and we’re sure many will be thrilled to see that tradition expanded to encompass the full-fledged Photoshop release.
The Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta brings a number of important changes over its predecessor. Perhaps the first thing you’ll notice is a new, Lightroom-like dark user interface, although the original color scheme remains available for traditionalists, and those who find dark backgrounds tiring on the eyes. There’s also a new requirement that an Adobe ID login be provided within one week of installation, something the company says will simplify the process of reinstallation or switching to a new machine since deactivation will no longer be needed before uninstalling the program. (For those with computers that lack internet connectivity, an offline activation process will be available, allowing you to complete the activation via another internet-connected device, and in that specific case, a deactivation process will still be required to free up the software license for use on a different machine.)
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The Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta defaults to a dark color scheme, reminiscent of that in Lightroom. |
The most exciting new feature for our money is the addition of GPU acceleration for many features, something that should make the application significantly more responsive, with near-realtime preview of a variety of effects and tools. Although this shares the same Mercury branding as in Adobe’s Premiere Pro non-linear video editor, the list of graphics cards is rather wider, and hence there’s a greater chance your specific configuration will be supported.
The feature that’s going to grab the most attention is one that was previewed recently, however. Adobe’s Content-Aware technology has been expanded, and is now available with user-control over the area borrowed for the fill, for both Content-Aware Patch and Content-Aware Move tools that let you rearrange your subjects with a minimum of fuss.
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The new Blur tools make it easy to recreate a tilt-shift lens effect or add pleasing bokeh. |
Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta also includes Adobe Camera Raw 7, incorporating the improved imaging engine seen recently in Lightroom 4, and there are many other changes besides. A few that will prove key with photographers include updated Auto Levels and Auto Curves tools, and three new blur filters. Videographers will be pleased to see timeline-based video creation, and there’s also more robust 3D editing capability that will make its way into the final release of Photoshop CS6 Extended. And to make sure there’s something for everybody, Adobe has also completed another 65 of its Just Do It (JDI) items, smaller tweaks that can have a big impact on day-to-day usage as suggested by the user community.
The Adobe Photoshop CS6 beta is available immediately, as is our Adobe Photoshop CS6 preview. We suggest you start there to get a better idea of the new features, and then visit Adobe’s site to give the beta a try for yourself. The final release is expected during the first half of 2012.