Get the Goods: Announcing Updates to Photoshop CC, Dimension CC, and More Today
Photoshop 25 Under 25 Artist, Fredy Santiago
Download or try out everything in this blog post here:
Adobe Photoshop Sketch [LINK]
Adobe Photoshop Express [LINK]
Photoshop Friends: Every year I look forward to writing this blog post to present the results of a year’s worth of work by our Photoshop teams to deliver great new capabilities to our diverse and incredible customers.
This year, there is something here for everyone: from Adobe Dimension CC — a completely new product that enables you to easily design in 3D — to exclusive access for CC members to Kyle T. Webster’s Kylebrush.com collection (yes!), to an incredibly long list of new Photoshop features for pros and beginners, and much more across a portfolio of products linked across desktop, web, and mobile devices.
We have also added a lot of new capabilities that are powered by Adobe Sensei. Sensei is our use of artificial intelligence (AI) – machine learning and deep learning — to deliver much of the imaging magic that you’ve come to expect from us over the years. More about Adobe Sensei can be found here: http://www.adobe.com/sensei.html.
These releases represent hundreds of hours of conversations, research with our customers, and the passion and focus of many diverse teams at Adobe. We’re designing these great products for you, the most creative people on the planet. I can’t wait to see what you make!
Introducing Adobe Dimension CC
You Already Think In 3D. Now Design In It.
[Video from Chantel that will be on A.com and available to us to embed here by end of Sept]
Download Adobe Dimension here: [LiNK]
As designers, you have pushed our 2D tools to the limits trying to meet the changing needs of your clients. You have told us that you urgently need a connected set of modern tools that are more flexible, faster, and that enable you to experiment — making what used to be difficult changes throughout the design process without incurring big costs.
I am thrilled to announce a new member of the design product family – Adobe Dimension. Dimension gives you the power to design in 3D, without having to learn challenging 3D tasks or tools. You can use Dimension to create photo-realistic, high-fidelity images for anything you can imagine from product shots, to branding concepts, packaging, or anything else that requires realistic lighting and shadows — textures that respect 3D contours, angles, and perspectives to design flexibility that is difficult to achieve with 2D assets. It also ships with a marketplace of models, lights, and materials from Adobe Stock [LINK TO 3D PART OF ADOBE STOCK] that you can use to create your scenes.
Here are some examples of why you should integrate Dimension into your current design process now. With Dimension, for the first time you can easily:
- Apply a logo created in Illustrator CC to a 3D model. Light the scene and add a background to show a branding concept. Easily create multiple examples of it in different scenes and lighting conditions, viewed from various angles and more.
- Visualize a photoshoot by staging a scene from many angles. Export to Photoshop with layers that you can use to jumpstart what used to be a tedious masking process and then take your renders even further with all the power of Photoshop.
- Create graphic art, unique digital images, or storyboards to accompany editorial for your client. As you get feedback from your client, easily show or make changes to the lighting, perspective, contours, and shadows throughout the design process in ways that are not possible when working only in 2D.
Check out how designers are using Dimension on our Behance page here
Dimension was created for designers by designers. We launched it as a beta last year — Project Felix. In the time since the beta release, we have conducted over 40 research studies, collecting over 700 hours of direct customer feedback. We’ve received over 9,200 comments via the in-app widget (upper right-hand corner of the UI – in this version you can tell us what you think too). You’ve given us amazing input on what you want to produce with this product and the features you’d like to see. Dimension will just keep getting better as we continue to customize the product for your needs.
Here are a few images and quotes from members of our beta program:
“This is great for beginners who have never used a 3D designing program before and who want to start learning! Besides InDesign, Project Felix is becoming one of my favorite programs Adobe has!”
“I used it to create visualizations of an Augmented Reality app I’m designing to use in our App Store screenshots. It allowed me to create professional renderings instead of just using screenshots of the app in use.”
“I just recommended to my team!!!! Having a quick turnaround on rendered images—already placed into a graphic—makes this a game changer in ads and other various materials!”
Dimension is powered by Adobe Sensei — specifically the smart selection, Auto-IBL, Auto Ground-Plane and Horizon Detection, and Decal features.
For more in-depth information about Dimension, go here [LINK TO A.COM PAGE].
Download it today and give it a try [LINK]
Kyle T. Webster Joins Adobe
All Brushes Available at Kylebrush.com Now Available to CC Members
We’re excited to announce that Adobe has acquired KyleBrush.com. As of today, all Creative Cloud customers will gain exclusive access to over 1,400 high-quality, digital brushes at no additional cost. Digital brushes offer illustrators, animators, and designers a rich digital painting experience when working in Photoshop CC and Photoshop Sketch [LINK TO SKETCH IN APP STORE].
As part of the acquisition, Kyle T. Webster, an international award-winning illustrator and leader in the field of digital brush creation, also joins Adobe. He will work closely with Adobe product teams on the development of future brushes for Creative Cloud.
“For years, Kyle has created the world’s best-selling Photoshop brushes for professional illustrators, animators, and designers,” said Maria Yap, Adobe senior director of digital imaging product management. “We’re thrilled to bring his award-winning brushes to all Creative Cloud members and, at the same time, gain Kyle’s expertise to enhance Adobe’s digital drawing experience for designers in the future.”
“I’m honored to join the Adobe team, and excited that all CC members now have access to my vast collection of digital brushes,” said Kyle. “I know the team well and have collaborated with Adobe in the past, including the recent Hidden Treasures of Creativity campaign, a fun project where we recreated the over 100-year old paint brushes of Edvard Munch.”
Get access to the brushes today:
In Photoshop: We’ve already started to create seamless access to Kyle’s brushes by integrating 25 of them into the modernized brush set we are shipping in this release of Photoshop. You can get access to even more of his brushes from within the app by selecting “Get More Brushes” in the brushes menu inside Photoshop.
On your iOS or Android device: You can also use Kyle’s brushes on your iOS or Android device with the Photoshop Sketch app, available at Google Play [LINK] or App Store [LINK]. Most of Kyle’s brushes are compatible with these devices. Mixer brushes, Smudge Tool, and Erasers brushes are not yet compatible.
If you have any questions, please visit our [FAQ LINK].
Photoshop CC
Easier Access to Your Photos, Simplified Pen Tool, In-Product Learning and So Much More
Download Photoshop [here].
This version of Photoshop is much easier to learn for the millions of beginners who try it for the first time every year. Test out the new learn panel and other ease-of-use improvements, like the new Curvature Pen Tool. We’ve integrated Lightroom Photos into the start screen and search to save you time when working with mobile and images you’ve synced via Lightroom CC. We also addressed a number of pro requests, like your #1 request of all time – improved brush preset management, and much more.
Significantly expanded support for photographers:
Many of our customers use Photoshop and Lightroom together, creating beautiful images. Lightroom has expanded significantly over the past few years, including adding web and mobile versions and connecting all your synced Lightroom photos together via Lightroom Cloud Services. Now we are connecting Photoshop to your Lightroom cloud catalog for a unified experience for your photos across the full Lightroom and Photoshop portfolio.
Lightroom Photos is now available in the Photoshop start screen and search, so you can search or browse the photos you’ve synced across Lightroom’s desktop, mobile, and cloud experiences and import and edit them directly in Photoshop. The search functionality in Lightroom Photos is powered by Sensei. You can search through your photos, even if you’ve never tagged them.
This first version of Lightroom Photos in Photoshop will help you save time sending images from place to place, particularly when working with those you’ve captured via the mobile version of Lightroom.
By the way, we also shipped an exciting new version of Lightroom CC today. Learn more here [LINK].
Don’t have Lightroom yet? It is included with most CC memberships. Download it here:
Lightroom CC [LINK]
Lightroom Mobile [LINK]
[Russell Brown creating 360 pano tutorial we can link to. Said he’ll be done the week before Max]
Open and edit 360 spherical panoramic images, and retain key metadata on export to use with 3rd party panoramic viewers. Here’s an excellent tutorial by our own Russell Brown to help you get started: [LINK].
Improvements to Adobe Camera Raw
[Julieanne doing a video here: Color and Luminance Range Masking in Adobe Camera Raw]
Range Masks allow you to make precise local adjustments with fine control easily.
Another feature for photographers can be found by opening the HEIF image file format supported by Apple in macOS 10.13 and iOS 11.0. Take advantage of iPhone 7+ depth map data to create a depth of field effect.
Major improvements in learning and getting started:
Millions of people try Photoshop for the first time every year. Once you learn it, it’s an unequaled tool that enables you to create anything you can imagine, but it can be tough to get started. Even our most experienced customers are not experts in every aspect of the product.
So we are very happy to deliver a new interactive in-app learning experience that will take you from zero to hero.
The Learn Panel provides interactive tutorials directly inside Photoshop with tips to help you navigate each step.
Rich tooltips replace the existing simple tooltips in the toolbar with helpful graphical style tooltips. The top 20 used tools also have animated GIFs showing the tool in use, like this one for the Dodge tool.
Brushes, brushing and painting leap forward
We have improved a wide array of features related to brushes and painting in this release. These highly requested updates should make your work with brushes and painting smoother (pun intended).
[Julieanne doing a video here: New Brush Preset management in Photoshop. I believe she’s adding the twist of how to do this in the context of the newly integrated Kyle Webster’s brushes]
Brush preset management, drag and drop re-ordering, organize in folders, new flexible view modes, and more. This has been one of our top requested features and we are thrilled to bring it to you in this release.
Enhanced brush presets to save tool options in a brush preset (opacity, flow, blend mode, etc).
[Julieanne doing a video here: Brush Stroke Smoothing and Paint Symmetry]
Brush stroke smoothing that filters out jitters in your paint strokes for brush, eraser, pencil, and mixer brush.
Get all the power and diversity of Photoshop brushes on mobile using Adobe Photoshop Sketch, our mobile drawing app for iOS and Android. Simply add your favorite brushes — including those by Kyle Webster — to a CC library. Sketch something on your tablet or phone using the exact same brushes you use in Photoshop desktop then send the artwork to Photoshop to continue your work there. (Scroll down for more about what’s new in Adobe Photoshop Sketch below.)
Even more painting features:
- Painting performance improvements for scattering, dual brush, texture, and basic brush on HiDPI screens and large documents.
- Symmetry painting creates mirrored brush strokes along a symmetry axis. This will ship as a tech preview, turned off. Occasionally, Photoshop ships with technology preview features that you can turn on and try out. These features are not yet production-ready, so exercise discretion while using them. Learn more about tech previews here: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/technology-previews.html
Select and Mask is now even more accurate:
We have received great feedback from our beta testers on these selections improvements. I hope you have an equally good experience.
More accurate and realistic results when selecting, especially in cases where the foreground and background color are visually similar. Faster Quick Mask and more intuitive view mode settings. Improved accuracy of refine edge tool in select and mask.
New Curvature Pen tool and paths improvements will speed your work
Learning how to draw a curve doesn’t have to be hard. We are releasing a new curvature drawing tool that is much more similar to Illustrator’s. If you have already invested the time to learn the current Photoshop pen tool, it’s still there for you, too. If you’re just getting started drawing curved lines, I suggest you start with the new one we are shipping today.
[Julieanne doing a video here: The New Curvature Pen Tool – could be appropriate also for the new paths update section]
New Curvature Pen tool significantly improves the ease of use to create curved paths by simply clicking points.
Path updates give you more control to choose bright colors and line thickness to make paths easier to see on high pixel density screens.
Deeply integrated Adobe Stock content
We know many of our customers use stock content in their designs. We have integrated Adobe Stock into Photoshop in many different ways, making it easy for you to work with stock images. With this release, we added one more important improvement.
Easier to use Adobe Stock images with license state, asset ID, and an option to find similar images on Stock.Adobe directly within the properties panel.
Better customization of type, and font management
We’ve spent many years now improving text in Photoshop and are happy to keep pumping out the features for you.
[Julieanne doing a video here: Variable Fonts and additional Typographic Enhancements]
Variable fonts that enable you to control and customize one or more parameters of the font’s design, such as width, weight, or slant.
More type and font goodness:
- Additional type properties for tracking and leading, and the ability to adjust multiple type layers at once in the properties panel.
- Paste type as plain text.
Improved image resize
With my heavy use of mobile images, I spend a lot of time resizing them. Now that we have added Lightroom Photos to Photoshop, making it simple to bring your mobile images into your work, this becomes even more important.
Preserve Details 2.0 is designed to better preserve localized areas of texture and critical edge details that can appear smoothed out in more traditional resampling approaches (powered by Sensei). Shipping as a tech preview turned on. See my description of a tech preview above in the symmetry painting section.
And even more
[Julieanne doing a video here: Variable Fonts and additional Typographic Enhancements]
Top-requested copy and paste updates:
- Copy and Paste Layers within a document and between documents.
Expanded sharing options:
- Quickly share your work to social media outlets, email, and more from within Photoshop.
Improved experience when working with skin tones and faces:
- Improved protection of faces for Content-Aware Move, Auto Levels/ Curves/ Tone/ Brightness/ Contrast, and Skin Tone Color Range.
- Improved face detection in Face-aware Liquify (powered by Sensei).
More save options:
- Save as PNG offers much better compression, comparable to PNGCrush or PNGQuant.
New hardware support:
- Use the Microsoft Dial, a new hardware device, to change tool parameters without taking your attention from the canvas. Shipping as a tech preview turned on. See my description of a tech preview above in the symmetry painting section.
Performance improvements to common tasks like:
- File open launch time.
- Common blending and compositing operations.
- Surface Blur filter.
- Noise>Median filter.
- Virtual memory system.
Adobe Photoshop Sketch
PS Sketch for Android Now Supports Photoshop Brushes*
[Screen shot from Will]
Download it here [LINK]
Photoshop Sketch, our sketching and drawing app for iOS and Android, keeps getting better. Our MAX 2017 release includes:
PS Sketch for iOS:
- Timelapse video sharing! You can now view and share timelapse videos of your artwork’s creation process. Watch other artists’ timelapse videos to learn new techniques.
- Drag and drop layers between Sketch documents. Taking advantage of the latest in iOS 11, you can even drag in layers from documents created with the Adobe Draw app to combine your vector and raster art.
- Paint with your favorite Photoshop brushes. You can use Ps brushes stored in libraries or import your existing .TPL or .ABR file into your Creative Cloud account into a new library.
PS Sketch for Android:
- Paint with your favorite Photoshop brushes in the latest update to Ps Sketch for Android. Simply add your favorite brushes to a CC library and they will automatically show up in Sketch on your phone or tablet.* on select Android phones and tablets
Photoshop Express
New Text Capabilities, Collage Enhancements, Send to Photoshop
Download it here [LINK]
Join millions of creative people who use Adobe Photoshop Express for fast, powerful, and easy editing on mobile devices. You can find it on most flavors of modern phones and tablets.
Photoshop Express is an easy-to-use mobile app with a broad array of capabilities like collages, image capture with auto-fix, blemish removal, filters and other adjustments, sharing options, and much more.
The Photoshop Express team has been very busy over the last few months churning out many updates. Here’s a sampling of what we’re adding this Fall:
September
- Text — Now you can add text and create incredible memes, using a variety of fonts, colors, and transparency options.
- Perspective Correction — Fix those skewed perspective photos with just a click. Choose among auto, vertical, or horizontal correction options.
- Collage Enhancements — Collage workflow has been enhanced to let you create even more stunning collages.
- Pop Color — Accentuate a single color in your collage automatically.
- New Layouts — More layout options including free-form layouts have been added to create unique collages.
- New Backgrounds — Additional backgrounds have been added to further enhance your collages.
- JPEG quality option — Customize the quality and size of your output image.
- Better Help — All the help you need to guide you on various functionalities in the app.
October
- Send to Photoshop – Now you can easily take your edits from Photoshop Express to Photoshop on the desktop, where you can open them as a layered document and take your images even further.
- Text in Collage – Add text on top of Collages seamlessly.
- Open Eyes – A precious moment can be ruined if the eyes of the subject are closed. Now open the eyes in the image with just a click. It’s truly an eye-opener!
November
- Artwork – Add creative artwork to your images to make them even more unique.
As always, I can’t wait to see how you use the Photoshop products to make the world a more beautiful and interesting place.
Enjoy!
Pam Clark
Senior Director, Photoshop Portfolio