CS5 New Features
We are loving the new features and faster working methods within CS5 ! They are simply amazing.
Photoshop CS5 – the big launch announced on April 12th. The Photoshop software has celebrated its 20th anniversary a few months ago and yet it still keeps amazing us with its unbeatable functionality, new working methods and is always packed full of new features to learn.
Previous version of Photoshop, especially CS4 – was accepted by the design community as an “amazing update”. BUT some designers and agencies decided to wait due to the current economic climates that we live in and skip CS4. (missing out on some serious features which would save them so much money they could have bought the product several times over)
The questions now are….
- will CS5 be good enough? Believe me when i say it is and will be an amazing set of tools for any designer or agency to “emerge” onto a world wide platform and expand their working methods while reducing the time spent on producing files. A win-win for all companies by buying the product and learning how to use it through some practical hands on training.
- pricing of CS5? This is one question i got asked a lot when CS4 was released and is on many people’s minds at the minute. Will the pricing structure reflect the commitment that i have shown to Adobe over the years by upgrading at every opportunity compared so someone coming from CS1 or CS2? Will the price be competitive? Is it expensive to purchase? Only Adobe can answer these directly and I am sure they will release pricing and information very soon. Not everyone will be happy but these questions must be put into the context of Cost/Benefit analysis and each of you must weigh up in your own business what value you can place on the Suite of Adobe Products. In my mind it is value for money. A full suite of applications at your finger tips to allow you to take control of any modern design business given some direction on the new features and working methods.
It’s important to remember – these are tools, you are the designers, these tools will not make better designs – that comes from training you to use these tools to their full advantage and having top quality designers in place.
Below is a list of “some” new features in Photoshop CS5 – we will be posting more over the coming days/weeks…. call / email or follow us on twitter (@iwsayers) for more information as we go.
New features!
Photoshop CS5 has some extremely discussed and really exciting options that can easily be called its key features. Here they are:
- Content aware fill or “Patch Match” as its been called for some time, (see a video from October 2009 – yes we have seen this for some time) This cool option allows healing and filling any part of the image. jump over to some of the videos we have on the site to see it in action – you will be amazed.
- Refine edge option was first presented in CS3 version and CS5 offers really enhanced opportunities of this tool because you can apply refine edge to any image. The New Photoshop allows working more efficiently with masking and selection. Now you can easily edit even the trouble areas such as hair, the edge between two different objects etc. One of the best features is the “Smart Radius” that uses advanced edge detection to help you create complex selections really fast.
- Painting and brushes are one of the main innovations in the Photoshop CS5. We have been using Wacom Intous 4 tablets for some time and have been trying to show and tell designers and photographers to rush out and buy them for anything brush related in Photoshop, lets hope some of you read between the lines and bought them – for those of you that have one, you will be amazed at the level of control and ability to paint and retouch with CS5. You now have palette that allows mixing up colors with the wet brush effect (for those of you that paint or want a paint effect). You will be able to use any image as a canvas template for painting. The brush performance is fantstic in CS5 because now all brushes are available in 3D preview that simulate real live physics of the brushes. This means that you can see exactly how different brushes will paint and choose the proper one or even create your own.
So on the 12th April we told you to…
- cancel any training courses that day (yes I did say that and we are a training company)
- Reschedule all meetings
- turn off the telephones
- divert all emails
- get the baby sitters in for the kids
- and set time a side to listen, watch and learn about the New Features within CS5.
If you didn’t make the opening launch, call us and we will be only to glad to show you why its going to change the way you retouch and use design software.
A brief overview of some smaller but also important new features
- ability to select multiple layers and settle them all at once;
- color management system was improved and now end users will feel the difference in quality and calibration;
- in CS5 you can create your own layer styles instead of the default one;
- CS5 allows saving 16-bit files as JPG in a single step without downsampling;
- use switch for activating and deactivating multi-touch gestures;
- new system of adjusting opacity can really save your time;
- new CS5 allows to save multiple documents with single command;
- from now on you can use a ruler tool together with straighten button to rotate and straighten images really quickly;
If you don’t already have a….
- wacom intous 4 tablet or Cintiq screen – go buy one NOW ! let us know and we can organise it for you.
- large hard drive or storage space – you will need one – contact us and we can advise you on space allocations and file size in the new CS5
There are of course other applications within the Creative Suite which are packed to breaking point with new features, Indesign, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver and much more. We will be covering these in more detail over the coming days/weeks.
