Photoshop CS6 has arrived! Discover the hottest new features. Hear what the world's best designers have to say about this new version. 

 

Those looking for the much-heralded Deblur filter will be disappointed: it's far too early for inclusion this time around. In fact, those looking for big splashy show-off features in Photoshop CS6 will also be looking in vain. (Check out reviews of the other apps in Adobe CS6.)

• NEW UPDATE! Jump to our 'designer views' section where you can see the features other designers love in Photoshop CS6

Adobe Photoshop CS6 is largely an under-the-bonnet release, bringing a few new tools and filters but concentrating on greater speed, efficiency and ease of use. But the improvements are great, and this Photoshop CS6 review will reveal all!

Dreamweaver CS6 has added new tools for working with sites that scale from desktop, to tablet, to phone, using some of the latest CSS features. 

 

The web doesn't stay still, and new browsers and new technologies mean changes to your sites. With the explosion in mobile browsing, those changes are now bigger than ever before. Even so, Dreamweaver CS6 is still the familiar app with the same mix of design and code, and support for just about any web authoring technology you can think of.

Adobe Illustrator CS6 is here, and boasts the same appearance updates as the other apps in Adobe's Creative Suite. But there's much more to this update than meets the eye. Discover the improvements to workflow, patterns and more in our in-depth review. 

Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard tool for vector drawing and illustration, used by a wide variety of creative professionals including editorial illustrators, identity designers, textile and pattern designers, UI designers, motion artists and many others. It's always been an incredibly versatile tool, thanks to a broad feature set, and of course the fact that vector graphics are infinitely scaleable and in most cases relatively lightweight.

Over the years the application has been given some quite remarkable features - from the Gradient Mesh in the 1998 release of version 8 to multiple art boards in CS4 and the Perspective Grid in CS5 (which Adobe ported across from FreeHand, the tool it bought from Macromedia and then phased out), it is a behemoth of an application, whether you want to create photorealistic illustrations or slick logos. So, what has Adobe done in Adobe Illustrator CS6? A facelift, some speed improvements, a few tweaks and one major addition that illustrators and designers in particular will love are all on the agenda.

Adobe After Effects has a huge user base in the motion graphics and animation sectors, and Adobe After Effects CS6 enables you to deliver more cinematic visual effects and sophisticated motion graphics than ever before! 

 

 

Adobe After Effects has a huge user base in the motion graphics and animation sectors, so any update to the power of this venerable compositing workhorse will be eagerly scrutinised by those working in broadcast and cross-media applications. Luckily for those artists (and Adobe), After Effects CS6 will do nothing to tarnish its status and appeal.

With the continued growth of digital publishing, Adobe InDesign CS6 is packed with new features that enable you to not only design for print, but for tablet devices, too. But does this new version live up to expectations?

The launch of any new iteration of the Creative Suite is hyped to the extreme by Adobe, which knows that there's an army of fanatics out there eager to lap up every new whizz-bang feature, tweak and addition regardless of how subtle some of them may seem to the slightly more jaded reviewer. Amidst all this hoopla, Photoshop, without exception, takes the lion's share of the limelight, followed by Illustrator and After Effects, leaving InDesign languishing in fourth place in the attention and column inches stakes.

Although Adobe InDesign CS6 perhaps isn't the most glamourous or exciting of the apps within the CS6 roster, for designers and creative professionals alike - who use it extensively on a daily basis - any new additions are certainly worth taking note of. The question is, though, after such a major overhaul with CS5, and then subsequently 5.5, what substantial additions can this new version offer that would warrant the cash outlay to upgrade?

Fans of Flash should be happy with the updates made in Adobe Flash CS6. The app includes a host of new and improved features, as Adobe's animation workhorse strives to stay up-to-date with emerging web technologies. Our review tells all!

Welcome to the new version of Adobe Flash Pro, Flash Pro CS6, or 12 if you want to keep count. Over the last 24 months web development has seen a change in focus. Where rich content was the bastion of Flash and Flex, now HTML5 and various JavaScript libraries have taken on some of that responsibility. However, Flash has always had the luxury of being ahead of the curve when it comes to new features and new areas to expand and extend in to.

Premiere Pro has been Adobe's stalwart desktop video editing tool for many years, often outperforming rivals at the consumer end, but it struggled to impact on the broadcast market. Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 is taking on the big guns, though! 

 

Until recently Adobe Premiere Pro has failed to make much of an impression on a broadcast market dominated by Avid and Apple. That all changed with the introduction of the Mercury Playback Engine, and Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 takes the app to the next level.

This was further refined in CS5.5 to allow users to open projects faster, get real-time feedback for more GPU-accelerated features, and work more smoothly at 4k and higher resolutions. Premiere Pro, on the Mac at least, saw another leap in sales as people switched to Adobe and Avid in droves after Apple 'reengineered' Version X of Final Cut Pro FCP and completely changed the interface

Adobe has announced Creative Cloud availability from the 23rd May, and here's the nitty-gritty detail on what you get, and what it'll cost ...

The Adobe Creative Cloud was announced on the 23rd April, providing creatives with a new way of accessing Adobe CS6, as well as a host ofother great Adobe tools (such as Typekit). Adobe has announced Creative Cloud availability from the 23rd May, and here's the nitty-gritty detail on what you get, and what it'll cost ...

What is Adobe Creative Cloud?

On the one hand, the Adobe Creative Cloud embraces digital downloads and it represents a major shift in the way Adobe will provide its creative software in the future.

Rather than sticking to boxed products and an inadequate upgrade cycle, Adobe CS6 and its related creative tools will be part of an Internet-based creative hub. Adobe wants you to purchase a yearly subscription to access/download the Creative Suite software.

How will this work? Despite the 'Cloud' moniker, Adobe's Creative Suite isn't becoming a cluster of online applications. Instead, a typical subscription will give you on demand access to the Adobe CS6 Master Collection, which will include all the tools you know and love - Photoshop CS6, InDesign CS6, Illustrator CS6, After Effects CS6 and so on.

Here's a full run-down.

What you get with your Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

Lightroom and Adobe Touch apps

As you can see from the screenshot above, a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud also includes a bunch of extra apps, tools and services. These include Lightroom 4, Adobe Edge and Adobe Muse, plus the new Adobe Touch apps:

Adobe Photoshop Touch

Core Photoshop tools optimised for tablet devices

Adobe Debut

Present your Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign files on your tablet

Adobe Proto

Easily create website wireframes and prototypes

Adobe Collage

Combine different files to make an idea-driven mood board

Adobe Ideas

Sketch out concepts with vectors, layers and colour schemes

Adobe Kuler

An app-based extension of the Kuler colour theme generator

Installation and the Cloud

Particular attention has been paid to the easy installation of apps, which isn't something Adobe is particularly well known for. Having registered for Adobe's Creative Cloud, you are presented with an apps screen. Simply select an app, and then hit download - it's that simple.

You also get 20GB of Dropbox-style cloud storage thrown in, giving you the ability to sync content across different devices. Adobe Business Catalyst, meanwhile, will give you an easier way to offer website hosting for clients.

Syncing is full of win

Having seen the service being demonstrated at the official launch, there's a seamless nature to the transferal and placement of files. You can add files to the cloud via a folder that can be access traditionally through Finder and the like, or you can drag files directly into the browser. An icon, which sits in your taskbar, indicates that files are being synced.

The Adobe Creative Cloud subscription also includes access to the web font library Typekit. You essentially get the Portfolio plan (worth $49.99 per year) for free - 500,000 page views/month, full library access, unlimited website usage, unlimited fonts per site and SSL serving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You get free access to Typekit with an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.

Lastly, the Digital Publishing Suite Single Edition is a tool for turning graphics/layouts into interactive iPad apps. Handy.

Adobe is keen to point out that its Creative Cloud offers more than digital downloads. "The vision for Adobe Creative Cloud is to turn previously difficult, disparate workflows into one intuitive, natural experience, so our customers can create freely and deliver ideas on any desktop, tablet, or handheld device."

Community in Adobe's Create Cloud

Community is a massive part of Adobe's Creative Cloud, and a lot of work has been put into this part of the service. Subscribers will get access to 20GB of server space, where they can store files. But it doesn't stop there. These files can then be shared with other subscribers - and even people not subscribing - with all Adobe's supported file types being visible in a browser view (so the app doesn't have to be installed by the person viewing the file). You can also see file information, such as which fonts were used in a project, as Adobe exposes meta data to the person viewing a file.

Do you actually need a subscription?

There are pros and cons to the Adobe Creative Cloud approach. If you only use one or two of the Creative Suite applications, you might prefer stumping up a one-off payment. Adobe isn't discontinuing its physical products just yet.

But Adobe is going all-out to make it worth your while to become a subscriber. Both Mac and PC versions are included as part of the basic subscription. You simply download the version that's right for you. With two user licenses per subscription, you can install the tools on up to two machines.

Subscription model

The subscription model also means that Adobe can keep pace with changing technology, add new features and deliver upgrades between traditional boxed copy upgrade cycles. Subscribers will get updates and add-ons as soon as Adobe is ready to roll them out.

Adobe says that it aims "to provide you with maximum flexibility, lower cost of entry, and most importantly the ability for Adobe to deliver cutting-edge innovation on an ongoing basis, to keep you ahead of the changing technology and device landscape."

OK. But how much will it cost?

Adobe Creative Cloud: pricing and availability info

An annual subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud will cost £38.11 and $49.99.

Adobe Creative Suite 6 products and Adobe Creative Cloud will be available by 23rd May. Adobe Creative Cloud membership will be available to customers in 36 countries and in multiple languages. Pricing for Creative Cloud membership for individuals in the UK is £38.11 ex VAT per month, based on annual membership and £57.17 ex VAT per month for month-to-month membership. A special introductory offer of £22.23 ex VAT per month for CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 individual customers is also available. Customers paying in the US pay $49.99 each month, on a one year contract (with a special $29.99 offer for CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 individual customers). Finally, if you're paying in Euros then it's 49.99, and 29.99 with the special offer. For more info on the product, and pricing, visit the official Adobe Creative Cloud page.

This is not a normal Smashing Magazine post. I’m not going to teach you something new or inspire you with examples of great work. Instead, I want to encourage you to complete a Web design challenge. I believe this will help to address a weakness that exists in many of our design processes.
If you complete this challenge, it will make it easier for clients to sign off on your designs, and it will improve the quality of your work.
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s get started.


Source: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/09/21/are-you-ready-for-a-web-design-challenge/

Texture is becoming integral to design. It’s gone beyond being a trend — it’s now a simple and effective way to add depth to a website. Wielding the power of texture is a great responsibility. It increases the effectiveness of websites and is a quality tool in the arsenal of designers. It can guide the user’s eye and emphasize the importance of key elements.
However, texture has long been synonymous with “dirty” or “grungy” design. Its overuse can be seen throughout the world of music group websites and has left a bad taste in the mouths of designers. Due to its frequent misuse, its benefits have long been overlooked. Texture can bring a website together, but should not be the main focus.


Source: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/03/whys-hows-textures-web-design/