The Top 10 New Features of Adobe CS5
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Software comes and software goes, but some releases make every Mac user sit up and pay attention. Nothing commands the attention of designers, photographers, and anyone else with an artistic bent like the release of Adobe’s next Creative Suite. We’ve been putting the beta versions of CS5 through their paces for a couple months now, and the results of our rigorous testing will be in your hands in next issue’s reviews. To whet your appetite, our reviewers put together a list of the most interesting, useful, and impressive new features in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere. They also dove into what’s new in the other key apps of CS5. Check out the coolest new tools that Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere add to your artistic toolbox.1 PHOTOSHOP’S AUTOMATIC RETOUCHING The new Content Aware Fill is akin to a fleet of intelligent retouching monkeys living behind the screen. To use it, first make a selection around something you want to remove from a complex background, and then choose the Content Aware Fill option in the Fill dialog. The selection is whisked away as the hole is filled in with a patchwork derived from surrounding areas. In the images to the right, we removed the tourist with Content Aware Fill by making a rough selection around him and simply pressing Command-Delete—no manual retouching was done. You can also invoke this mojo with a new Spot Healing Brush mode, which, when it works, is a sight to behold.2 ILLUSTRATOR’S VARIABLE STROKE WIDTH The four strokes you see in the screenshot are identical as far as the geometry of their curves. However, by using the new Width tool, we’ve adjusted thickness at various places along each path. The Width tool adds control points along a path, and by dragging the handles of these control points, you can quickly change a stroke’s appearance, making it skinnier or wider than the stroke’s original point size. You can add, reposition, and tweak multiple control points to endless effect; and by holding down Option, you can grab a single left or right anchor and make width adjustments to just one side (as seen in the screenshot).3 SPAN HEADLINES ACROSS COLUMNS IN INDESIGN Tired of creating separate text boxes for headlines? The Span Columns option lets you run display type across multiple columns and the gutters in between. It’s a paragraph-level text-formatting option, like specifying alignment. To use it, create a multicolumn text frame and then fill it with placeholder text. Select a paragraph and choose Span Columns from the Control panel menu. In the Span Columns dialog box, make sure Span Columns is selected in the Paragraph Layout menu, then choose an option from the Span Columns menu. The paragraph can flow across all columns of the text frame or across any number of columns. You also have the option to specify a Space Before Span and a Space After Span. The most efficient way to use the Span Columns feature is to include it as part of a paragraph style for headlines and other text elements that span multiple columns.4 PREMIERE’S 64-BIT, GPU-ACCELERATED MERCURY PLAYBACK ENGINE It might take you a few minutes to spit that all out of your mouth, but while you’re doing that, Premiere will be spitting out HD video in record time. The engine takes advantage of 64-bit technology to utilize all the available RAM in your computer, and it works hand in hand with Nvidia CUDA technology. Similar to Apple’s Grand Central, the Mercury Playback Engine takes advantage of today’s super-powerful GPUs. All that technology mumbo jumbo means you’ll be editing more and rendering less, even when you’re using one of those fancy new 4K cameras. 5 PLAY WITH PUPPETS IN PHOTOSHOP The Puppet tool is an amazing distortion capability grafted over from After Effects, and it delivers totally controllable warping effects that have no counterpart in any other software. It’s easy to use, allowing you to quickly bend and reshape images by using “virtual pushpins” to both constrain and bend pictures in a precise and fluid fashion. For example, the arm in this screenshot can be instantly turned into a Stretch Armstrong toy—the South Park guys wanted this capability years ago. This tool really needs to be experienced to be completely appreciated, but trust us—it’s awesome.6 AN END TO ILLUSTRATOR’S PATHFINDER MADNESS Adobe has been well aware of the difficulties inherent in the Pathfinder panel. Whether you want to merge shapes or pull off more complex tricks, getting the desired results has required the “hit and mess” method. The new Shape Builder tool ends all that by providing an intuitive method for path welding and trimming. In the screenshot, the circles in the left column are separate objects, but by using the Shape Builder tool on the first two circles in the second column, we merged their paths and defined the new shape’s color with a Swatch Preview that shows up over the cursor (not shown). In the third column, we held down the Option key to subtract the path of the green circle from the conjoined twins above.7 INDESIGN’S IMPROVED SELECTION TOOL In CS5, you can use InDesign’s Selection tool to move a graphics frame and a graphic. With the Selection tool chosen, move the pointer within a graphics frame. (It doesn’t matter whether the frame is selected.) Notice that when the pointer is within the frame, a donut-shaped “content indicator” icon is displayed at the center of the frame. When the pointer is outside the content indicator, you can click and drag to select the frame and move both the frame and the graphic within. If you move the pointer within the content indicator, a hand pointer is displayed. Clicking and dragging when this pointer is displayed selects the graphic and moves it without moving the frame. Sweet relief!8 PREMIERE’S PRE- AND POST-PRODUCTION WORKFLOW Premiere expands upon its ability to turn the spoken word into text while importing by adding Adobe Story and OnLocation to the mix. Adobe Story is part of the new CS Live Suite, and it helps you develop and break down your script for production. OnLocation utilizes the character and story metadata in Adobe Story to automatically create placeholders in your imported media. Premiere and OnLocation now support the latest tape-based and tapeless cameras (including the current and upcoming RED cameras) for the ultimate in flexibility on set.9 PHOTOSHOP GOES 3D Using Photoshop CS5 Extended, you’ll finally be able to easily create 3D extrusion effects with the new Repoussé tool, which puts some serious extrusion controls in your hands right within Photoshop’s 2D world. While it’s no substitute for a fully featured 3D-modeling program, it’s really cool when used with text for quick 3D logo treatments, and the new ray tracing renderer does a passable job making it look like a professional product.10 ILLUSTRATOR’S DASHED LINES AND ARROWS FINALLY BEHAVE In previous Illustrator versions, dashed lines never intuitively negotiated around angles, as seen in the ugly corner points of the blue star in the screenshot—yuck. But now a simple toggle aligns dashes to corners, as illustrated by the black star. Also, in the “no longer asinine” category: Arrowheads that don’t hide in the Effects menu! Arrowheads are now in the Stroke panel, and the size of the heads themselves can be easily adjusted; they’re no longer linked to a stroke’s point size. THE REST OF THE CS5 GANGThe four apps we’ve focused on so far are the core of Creative Suite 5, but Adobe’s got loads more in the box. Check out the new features in the other key members of the CS5 family.ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS The Mac’s premiere motion-graphics tool, After Effects is a staple for animators, videographers, and special effects experts. Besides Photoshop, After Effects CS5 has some of the most significant updates in the CS5 lineup, and they’ll bring smiles to the faces of serious After Effects artists.- 64-bit operation--essential for editing HD video.- Overall rendering speed improvements—up to 30 percent faster than After Effects CS4.- Roto Brush greatly facilitates complex compositing challenges, allowing you to quickly isolate elements from complex backgrounds.- Refine Matte plug-in delivers exquisite mask edge controls for pro users.- New features in bundled Mocha application include variable-width feathering of masks and improved motion tracking support.- Custom color lookup table support, which is critical for high-end effects work.- Bundled DigiEffects FreeForm plug-in for 3D coolness.- Updated Color Finesse plug-in offers Vibrance, Highlight Recover, and HSL Curves for advanced color correction tasks.- Numerous interface enhancements and refinements.ADOBE FLASH PROFESSIONAL You’ve probably read lots about the Flash controversy surrounding the iPhone and iPad, but regardless, tons of websites utilize Flash as a primary programming scheme to deliver data-intensive, custom-based experiences. And it’s still popular as a video-delivery codec too. - Significantly beefed-up text handling and typographic control.- DefineFont4, a new embedded font format in Flash files for retaining advanced type characteristics.- XML-based FLA files offer more flexibility for managing Flash content development.- Code Snippets deliver modular code for easier programming functionality.- The addition of Springs to the integrated IK (inverse kinematics) system for better, more realistic animation effects.- New graphics tools include particle system, grid brushes, and natural effects brushes. ADOBE SOUNDBOOTHThe audio-editing component of the Adobe stable, Soundbooth is primarily designed for editing audio to be used in video projects, but it’s easily pressed into service on more mundane editing tasks, such as podcasts and music production. This revision isn’t very dramatic, mainly focusing on multitrack-editing interface tweaks and a bunch of new audio content.- Resizable Track views for easier multitrack editing.- Bundled with 10,000 sound effects.- 130 customizable, royalty-free musical scores.- Nondestructive, round-trip editing with Premiere.ADOBE DREAMWEAVER Long considered a go-to website editor, the Dreamweaver CS5 update primarily addresses integration with external PHP-based CMS systems, such as WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. It also continues to refine features introduced in CS4, such as the Live View previewing. It’s not a huge improvement over CS4, unless you regularly work with the aforementioned CMS solutions.- Works directly with editing and design of sites based on popular CMS systems.- Live View now works with dynamic links and dynamic-data driven pages.- Live Code provides real-time JavaScript tracing and debugging.- Emulates previews on multiple browsers entire within Dreamweaver.- Dynamically parsed PHP code for better debugging.- Enhanced CSS starter templates and layouts.ADOBE FLASH CATALYST This new program is geared towards providing a set of Flash-coding tools to folks who are intimidated by the main app, and it does a fairly nice job of letting you sketch up Flash-based websites without much hassle. You start with Photoshop-, Illustrator-, or Fireworks-based mockups and can add interactivity and dynamic data processing with a minimal amount of work or coding. The results can be saved as SWF or Adobe Air executables. - Codeless creation of Flash sites.- Predefined interface elements for modular development.- Timeline-based event editing tools.- Pro-quality transitions and animated element blending.- Extensive rich media (video) support.
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