Photoshop-CS6

The future of creative image editing is upon us: Adobe Systems today announced the free public availability of a Photoshop CS6 Beta.

The new version of the leading image-editing software for Windows and Macintosh updates the interface, adds some stunning new image-manipulation tools, brings video editing into the program, and ratchets up performance. Most impressive among what’s new in Photoshop CS6 are its “Content Aware” tools. Content Aware Move lets users grab an object in a photo and relocate or duplicate it, while recreating the existing background. Similarly, Content-Aware Patch can remove an object (or person) from an image, replacing it with a background consistent with the rest of the photo.

The new video tools are surprisingly rich for what is primarily a still image editor: They let you join and split video clips, add fade transitions between them, and even apply any of Photoshop’s image adjustments to the video—brightness, contrast, tint, and so on.

New layer options such as layer search, font, and paragraph styling, and even more lifelike brushes and pencils, will give visual artists more creative possibilities. And the interface has been redesigned for more simplicity, less clutter, and more consistency—of major importance for such a feature-rich, complex application.

“Photoshop CS6 will be a milestone release that pushes the boundaries of imaging innovation with incredible speed and performance,” said Winston Hendrickson, vice president of products for Adobe Creative Media Solutions. “We couldn’t wait to share this beta of Photoshop CS6 with our customers and are looking forward to hearing from them and seeing the ways they are incorporating the beta into their daily creative workflows.”

Photographers will appreciate the new Camera Raw sub-application, which allows better control over corrections for lighting, geometry, and even can automatically correct photos based on lens profiles for nearly every camera model. A new blur gallery produces the popular “bokeh” and “tilt-shift” effects, and CS6 offers a new, more-useful cropping tool.

Availability and Pricing
The Photoshop CS6 beta is a free download from the Adobe Labs website. Adobe is eager for feedback from beta testers, and is offering many options to so do. Users can post in an Adobe forum; on Photoshop.com; on Facebook; on YouTube; or via Twitter. The new software is available for Windows starting with XP SP3 and up to Windows 7; the Mac version requires an Intel multicore CPU. On both platforms, it can run at 64 bits.

The final release is expected in the first half of 2012, so we won’t have to wait long before it’s fully available. Photoshop CS6 continues to be one of the largest software investments you can make, at $699 for the standard version and $999 for Extended, which adds 3D editing capabilities. Adobe also now offers a subscription model for either individual programs or the whole Creative Suite. And a new Adobe option, Creative Cloud, will give you the Extended version along with the rest of the Creative Suite, starting at $49 a month, depending on which apps you need included.

Source: PCMag