10 Most Notable Plugin Releases and Updates 13/01/2010

Rather than bombarding you weekly with a list of plugins that you could just get by going to this link, we’ve decided instead to take a look through this week’s most notable plugin releases and updates. What is the criteria for being notable? Well….. useful, strange, exciting, stoopid, amazing, game changing, important – anything that jumps out. Hopefully they will be plugins that you find useful, or at least amusing.
Let’s go!


1. iPad Swipe
I don’t have an iPad :( But it seems that more and more people are carrying them around these days. This app allows your visitors to swipe from post to post. When your visitor lands they’ll receive a message telling them that they can swipe from post to post. Luckily, it will work on anything with iOS. This means it works on my broken up old iPhone! Though I couldn’t get the notification to work on my phone :( Still, it’s in it’s early phases so hopefully it’ll work better in future updates.



2. Divebook
Into diving? I’ve always wanted to go diving. I was supposed to go with my husband once but then his blood-pressure was too high *grumble* – that’s a whole other story. If you are into diving this nifty little plugin lets you log your dive information. You can then inject that information into your posts and pages.



3. Related Posts Slider
Related Posts plugins are a great way to link your posts together internally. Rather than producing a simple list this plugin inserts a jquery sider to display your related posts. It’s packed pull of options so you can style the slider however you like.



4. Cool Fade Popups
Okay so I never land on a page and go “Hey! Great! A Pop-up!” In fact, they’re usually blocked by a pop-up blocker. But this plugin lets you create a dynamic popup which is unblockable. You can read what Sarah has to say about it here.





5. Weight Watchers Points & PointsPlus Calculator
It’s that time of year when millions of people try to lose weight. I have to admit that, after expanding since being super-thin for my wedding, I am one of them. There are loads and loads of food blogs out there with excellent recipes for people following weight watchers. This WordPress calculator plugin could be a handy addition to those sites. Although WW tend to be pretty tight on their trademark so I wouldn’t be surprised if this plugin changes name soon.



6. Remove Custom Header Uploads

As the plugin developer says, this plugin may not symbolize the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generationbut it does remove the custom header uploads from WordPress 3.0+ installations. Why do you need that? If you’re a network administrator and want to maintain control of all of the headers in your blogs it’s a very handy one to have.





7. wp-unit
Want to create unit tests for your plugins and themes? No? I bet one or two of you do. This plugin is based on the WordPress automated test system. It could be useful for plugin and theme developers. If you’re one of them people try it out and report any bugs.





8. Facebook Fanbox (with CSS support)
Yes, there are thousands of Facebook plugins out there – they tend to be a bit yawnsome. What I like about this one is that you can edit the CSS in your sidebar widget. Does that make me a nerd? Does that make me a lover of gimmicks? Perhaps….. but if you need a Facebook Fanbox this might be worth a try.

9. WP-Emphasis
WP-Emphasisis a plugin that implements the New York Times open source emphasis script which is a great open source project. This lets you use dynamic, paragraph specific anchors which allows you visitors to link and share specific paragraphs with one another


10. Tipsy Social Icons for WordPress
There’s loads of social media icons out there. These are particularly cute though, which is why I am including them :) They also have a nice hover effect. Just another one of many to choose from!

Photoshop plugin

Photoshop plugin

Photoshop plugins (or plug-ins) are add-on programs aimed at providing additional image effects or performing tasks that are impossible or hard to fulfill using Adobe Photoshop alone. Plugins can be opened from within Photoshop and several other image editing programs (compatible with the appropriate Adobe specifications) and act like mini-editors that modify the image.

Photoshop functionality can be extended by add-on programs called Photoshop plugins (or plug-ins). Adobe creates some plugins, such as Adobe Camera Raw, but third-party companies develop most plugins, according to Adobe's specifications. Some are free and some are commercial software. Most plugins work with only Photoshop or Photoshop-compatible hosts, but a few can also be run as standalone applications.
There are various types of plugins, such as filter, export, import, selection, color correction, and automation. The most popular plugins are the filter plugins (also known as a 8bf plugins), available under the Filter menu in Photoshop. Filter plugins can either modify the current image or create content. Below are some popular types of plugins, and some well-known companies associated with them:
Color correction plugins (Alien Skin Software, Nik Software,OnOne Software,Topaz Labs Software, The Plugin Site, etc.)

Special effects plugins (Alien Skin Software, Auto FX Software, AV Bros.,Flaming Pear Software, etc.)
3D effects plugins (Andromeda Software, Strata, etc.)

Adobe Camera Raw (also known as ACR and Camera Raw) is a special plugin, supplied free by Adobe, used primarily to read and process raw image files so that the resultant images can be processed by Photoshop. It can also be used from within Adobe Bridge.


Photoshop plugin types

Photoshop-compatible plugins fall into several main types: filter plugins .8bf, import plugins (also called 'acquisition') .8ba, export plugins .8be, file format plugins .8bi, and automation plugins .8ly. Also, there are selection plugins 8bs and parser plugins 8by, but no one other than Adobe has ever created plugins of these types.
"Import/export plugins" acquire or write image data from or to certain devices, "file format plugins" open and save less common image formats (not inherently supported by Photoshop), and "automation plugins" automate certain tasks in the manner of Photoshop "actions" (macros).



Host applications or Host Photoshop plugin

Host applications or plugin hosts are graphics applications that are capable of running plugins. Many commercial graphics applications support Photoshop-compatible plugins — Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements, PhotoImpact, Corel PhotoPaint, and Adobe Fireworks are the most renowned ones. There are several dozens more plugin hosts, including little known products like Chasys Draw IES, free editors like GIMP (with certain add-ons) and viewers like IrfanView. Much support is limited to the Microsoft Windows platform and .8bf filter plugins.
Photoshop fully supports all available plugin types; certain hosts, like Photoshop Elements, support most of them, while the majority of hosts support filter plugins only and many of them don't even support all available filter plugins.
The support for plugins was more uniform up until 2002, when Adobe restricted access to the Photoshop SDK containing the specifications for Photoshop plugins, and made the developer license more prohibitive. Since then, developers of other image applications have had limited or no access to it anymore, so they can't support newer host features. Therefore, plugin developers face a dilemma: either support the new host features that appeared in Photoshop 7 and later versions, like the access to layers, and lose the compatibility with other image applications, or use the old SDK version which already includes all important specifications and make sure the plugin will be supported by all hosts.
Around 2005, Adobe changed the policy so that developers could make the request for the SDK via a Web form with no fee charged for it and with all requests handled individually.

The history of Photoshop

The next time you fire up your copy of Photoshop, spare a thought for the scores of developers and the reams of code that have gone into making it.

While you won't find it printed on any calendar, 2005 marks a quiet anniversary for the program that you, and many other graphic designers, probably use the most. It was 15 years ago in February that Adobe shipped version 1.0 of Photoshop - still its most popular (and lucrative) application, and possibly the only bit of software to have spawned its own verb form.

Get the latest Photoshop CS6 review and Photoshop tutorials from our sister site Creative Bloq.
But the true origins of Photoshop go back even further. The program whose splash screen now displays 41 names was originally the product of just two brothers, Thomas and John Knoll, as fascinated by technology as they were by art. It was a trait they'd inherited from their father, a photography buff with his own personal darkroom in the basement and a penchant for early home computers.

Thus Thomas dabbled with photography, learning about colour correction and contrast in the darkroom, while John happily tinkered with his dad's Apple II computer. When their dad - clearly an early adopter - bought one of the first Macs on the market in 1984, both were bowled over by its capabilities. Yet ironically it was its frustrating inadequacies that would eventually lead to the multi-million dollar application sitting on nearly everyone's hard drive today.

In the beginning
By 1987, John Knoll was working at Industrial Light and Magic - Lucasfilm's nascent special effects division, founded for Star Wars - while Thomas was studying for his Ph.D. on image processing at the University of Michigan. Having just bought a brand-new Apple Mac Plus to help out with his thesis, he was dismayed to find it couldn't display greyscale images on the monochrome monitor. So, in true hacker style, he set about writing his own code to do the job.

Unsurprisingly, John was also working on image processing at ILM, and during a holiday visit he became very impressed with Thomas's progress. In the book CG 101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference, John says: "As Tom showed me his work, it struck me how similar it was to the image-processing tools on the Pixar [a custom computer used at ILM]." Thus the pair began to collaborate on a larger, more cohesive application, which they dubbed - excitingly - Display.

It wasn't long before John had bought a new colour Macintosh II and persuaded Thomas to rewrite Display to work in colour. Indeed, the more John saw of Display, the more features he began to ask for: gamma correction, loading and saving other file formats, and so on.

Although this work distracted Thomas from his thesis, he was quite happy to oblige. He also developed an innovative method of selecting and affecting only certain parts of the image, as well as a set of image-processing routines - which would later become plug-ins. A feature for adjusting tones (Levels) also emerged, along with controls for balance, hue and saturation. These were the defining features of Photoshop, but at the time, it was almost unthinkable to see them anywhere outside of specialist processing software in a lab - or at ILM.

By 1988, Display had become ImagePro and was sufficiently advanced that John thought they might have a chance at selling it as a commercial application. Thomas was reluctant: he still hadn't finished his thesis, and creating a full-blown app would take a lot of work. But once John had checked out the competition, of which there was very little, they realised ImagePro was way ahead of anything currently available.

From ImagePro to Photoshop
Thus the search began for investors. It didn't help that Thomas kept changing the name of the software, only to find a name was already in use elsewhere. No one is quite sure where the name 'Photoshop' originally came from, but legend has it that it was suggested by a potential publisher during a demo, and just stuck. Incidentally, splash screens from very early versions show the name as 'PhotoShop' - which seems far more in line with today's craze for ExTraneous CapitaliSation.

Remarkably in retrospect, most software companies turned their corporate noses up at Photoshop, or were already developing similar applications of their own. Only Adobe was prepared to take it on, but a suitable deal wasn't forthcoming. Eventually, though, a scanner manufacturer called Barneyscan decided to bundle it with its scanners, and a small number of copies went out under the name Barneyscan XP.

Fortunately for the future of digital imaging, this wasn't a long-term deal, and John soon returned to Adobe to drum up more interest. There he met Russell Brown, then Art Director, who was highly impressed with the program and persuaded the company to take it on. Whether through naivety on Adobe's part or canniness on the brothers', Photoshop was not sold wholesale but only licensed and distributed, with royalties still going to the Knolls.

It wasn't as if this deal meant the Knoll brothers could sit back and relax; if anything, they now had to work even harder on getting Photoshop ready for an official, 1.0 version release. Thomas continued developing all the main application code, while John contributed plug-ins separately, to the dismay of some of the Adobe staff who viewed these as little more than gimmicks.

Curiously, this attitude still remains among some purists, who claim that most Photoshop plug-ins are somehow 'cheating' and not be touched under any circumstances, while others swear by their flexibility and power when used properly.

As in the program's formative days, there were always new features to be added, and somehow Thomas had to make time to code them. With the encouragement of John, Russell Brown - soon to become Photoshop's biggest evangelist - and other creatives at Adobe, the application slowly took shape. It was finally launched in February 1990.

Photoshop files:PSD,PSB

Photoshop files have default file extension as .PSD, which stands for "Photoshop Document." A PSD file stores an image with support for most imaging options available in Photoshop. These include layers with masks, transparency, text, alpha channels and spot colors, clipping paths, and duotone settings.

This is in contrast to many other file formats (e.g. .JPG or .GIF) that restrict content to provide streamlined, predictable functionality. A PSD file has a maximum height and width of 30,000 pixels, and a length limit of 3 Gigabytes.

Photoshop files sometimes have the file extension .PSB, which stands for "Photoshop Big" (also known as "large document format"). A PSB file extends the PSD file format, increasing the maximum height and width to 300,000 pixels and the length limit to around 4 Exabytes. The dimension limit was apparently chosen arbitrarily by Adobe, not based on computer arithmetic constraints (it is not close to a power of two, as is 30,000) but for ease of software testing. PSD and PSB formats are documented.

Because of Photoshop's popularity, PSD files are widely used and supported to some extent by most competing software. The .PSD file format can be exported to and from Adobe's other apps like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, and After Effects, to make professional standard DVDs and provide non-linear editing and special effects services, such as backgrounds, textures, and so on, for television, film, and the web. Photoshop's primary strength is as a pixel-based image editor, unlike vector-based image editors. Photoshop also enables vector graphics editing through its Paths, Pen tools, Shape tools, Shape Layers, Type tools, Import command, and Smart Object functions. These tools and commands are convenient to combine pixel-based and vector-based images in one Photoshop document, because it may not be necessary to use more than one program.

To create very complex vector graphics with numerous shapes and colors, it may be easier to use software that was created primarily for that purpose, such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW. Photoshop's non-destructive Smart Objects can also import complex vector shapes.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP VERSION HISTORY

 Adobe Photoshop Version HistoryPhotoshop is a huge program it has a lots of fractures which are very useful. Butphotoshop is a unique software its very different to another. We will tell you most usefuland important tools of photoshop so you can use them easily.Photoshop has reached at very higher position by the
Thomas Knoll
and Adobe.They make it and make our lives more awesome,One of the most impressive things about the company is the fact that one gifted family,consisting of an engineering proof, a PHD engineering student, and a talented specialeffects whiz working atIndustrial Lightand Magic came up with the core idea of Photoshop.Thomas Knoll was thePHD student
, heavily involved with Photoshop from many years…
 Glen Knoll

was a college professor his two hobbies are computers & photography.Thomas Knoll was studying Engineering at the University. His brother was at IndustrialLight and Magic. His brother John recommended to Thomas for doing a great effortabout full featuredimage editor software.
First Adobe 1.0 was released In February of 1990
 Each version of Photoshop is listed blow --
Adobe Photoshop-1.0 in 1990
It was the Macintosh version. After The first version of the Photoshop they werecontinuously trying to improve features of Photoshop.There were only 4 developers name on this version splash screen -
Adobe Photoshop-2.0 in 1991

Original version of Adobe Photoshop in 1990 free from Computer History Museum

Original version of Adobe Photoshop in 1990 free from Computer History Museum

The Computer History Museum presents the first original version of Adobe Photoshop 1.0.1 for free.

The history of Photoshop

 

Photoshop, the program, with the more than countless images have been created and even has its own verb (Gephotoshoppt / Photoshopped), was published in 1990 by Adobe. And although the photo-editing software today can easily cost a few thousand dollars, you now have the chance to try the original version for free in 1990. However, we doubt that you do a lot with this rather outdated software.

The original version of Adobe Photoshop is of the Computer History Museum for free and of course only be made for non-commercial purposes.

 

 

The roots of Photoshop extend into the late 1980s, when Thomas Knoll, phD student at the University of Michigan, and his brother, John, who worked for George Lucas’s Industrial Light & Magic, together wrote the program. Together they developed a user-friendly application, the first iteration was connected to a slide scanner called Barneyscan. The program was baptized Barneyscan XP, although it had nothing to do with Barney Rubble and not running on Windows XP. No wonder, then, that only 200 copies were sold.

However, it really was enough for Adobe became aware of the Knoll brothers and they also acquired the rights to the program, and then to publish Photoshop 1.0.

Adobe Photoshop 1.0.1 and its codes

The original code of Photoshop consists of 179 files, and from more than 128,000 lines of code.

About 75 percent of the code were written in Pascal, 15 percent has been programmed in a code that was specifically for the Motorola 68000 processor, which the original Macintosh operating. The remaining 10 percent were created in other programming languages. Today’s Adobe Photoshop As opposed to the original version than 10 million lines of code.

While the Computer History Museum has available most of the code for Photoshop 1.0.1, still lacks the MacApp Framework, which was licensed by Apple. So long as you do not have original Macintosh has, of standing around somewhere with you, you can probably assume that not many people will be able to download the program and actually try.

Nevertheless, you can here the code for Photoshop 1.0.1 Download from computer History Museum.

Adobe Photoshop version history

Adobe Photoshop version history
This table shows the Adobe Photoshop version history and operating system compatibility in charts, starting with the first versions by independent creators Thomas and John Knoll in the summer of 1988. The license to distribute the program was purchased by Adobe Systems in September 1988.

Version history

Version	Platform	Codename	Release date	Notes and significant changes
0.07	Macintosh	Bond	January 1988	Not publicly released - This demo was the first known copy of Photoshop with any public exposure.[1]
0.63	Macintosh		October 1988
0.87[edit]  0.87	Macintosh	Seurat	March 1989	First version distributed commercially (by the scanner company Barneyscan), though distributed as "Barneyscan XP".[1]
1.0[edit]  1.0	Macintosh		February 1990
2.0[edit]  2.0	Macintosh	Fast Eddy	June 1991	Paths CMYK Color EPS Rasterization
2.5	Macintosh	Merlin	November 1992	16 bit per channel support "Deluxe" edition available on CD-ROM
	Windows	Brimstone
	IRIX, Solaris		November 1993
3.0[edit]  3.0	Macintosh	Tiger Mountain	September 1994	Tabbed Palettes Layers
	Windows, IRIX, Solaris [2]		November 1994
4.0[edit]  4.0	Macintosh, Windows	Big Electric Cat	November 1996	Adjustment Layers Actions (macros)
5.0[edit]  5.0	Macintosh, Windows	Strange Cargo	May 1998	Editable type (previously, type was rasterized as soon as it was added) Multiple Undo (History Palette) Color Management Magnetic Lasso
5.5	Macintosh, Windows	Strange Cargo	February 1999	Bundled with ImageReady Save for Web Extract
6.0[edit]  6.0	Macintosh, Windows	Venus in Furs	September 2000	Vector Shapes Updated User Interface "Liquify" filter Layer styles/Blending Options dialog
7.0[edit]  7.0	Mac OS 'Classic'/Mac OS X, Windows	Liquid Sky	March 2002	Made text fully vector Healing Brush New painting engine
7.0.1	Mac OS 'Classic'/Mac OS X, Windows		August 2002	Camera RAW 1.x (optional plugin)
CS (8.0)[edit]  CS (8.0)	Mac OS X, Windows	Dark Matter	October 2003	Camera RAW 2.x Highly modified "Slice Tool" Shadow/Highlight command Match Color command Lens Blur filter Smart Guides Real-Time Histogram Detection and refusal to print scanned images of various banknotes[3] Macrovision copy protection based on Safecast DRM technology Scripting support for JavaScript and other languages Hierarchical layer groups 16 bit per channel layers, painting, and adjustments Support for files over 2 Gigabytes Documents up to 300,000 pixels in either dimension Type on a path
CS2 (9.0)[edit]  CS2 (9.0)	Mac OS X, Windows 2000 / XP	Space Monkey	April 4, 2005	Camera RAW 3.x Smart Objects Image Warp Spot healing brush Red-Eye tool Lens Correction filter Smart Sharpen Vanishing Point Better memory management on 64-bit PowerPC G5 Macintosh machines running Mac OS X 10.4 High dynamic range imaging (HDRI) support (32 bit per channel floating point) More smudging options, such as "Scattering" Modified layer selection, such as ability to select more than one layer.
CS3 (10.0)[edit]  CS3, CS3 Extended (10.0)	Universal Mac OS X, Windows XP SP2 or later	Red Pill	April 16, 2007	Native support for the Intel-based Macintosh platform and improved support for Windows Vista Revised user interface Feature additions to Adobe Camera RAW Quick Select tool Alterations to Curves, Vanishing Point, Channel Mixer, Brightness and Contrast, and the Print dialog Black-and-white conversion adjustment Auto Align and Auto Blend Smart (non-destructive) Filters Mobile device graphic optimization Improvements to cloning and healing More complete 32 bit / HDR support (layers, painting, more filters and adjustments) Faster launching ImageReady removed
CS4 (11.0)[edit]  CS4, CS4 Extended (11.0)	Universal Mac OS X, Windows	Stonehenge	October 15, 2008[4]	Smoother panning and zooming and fluid canvas rotation OpenGL display acceleration in Photoshop Native support for 64-bit on Windows Vista x64 Adjustments panel Masks panel Improved Adobe Photoshop Lightroom workflow Content-aware scaling Extended depth of field Auto-blending of images Auto-alignment of layers New file display options (tabbed document display and n-up views) New file management and workspaces with Adobe Bridge CS4
CS5 (12.0)[edit]  CS5, CS5 Extended (12.0)	Mac OS X, Windows	White Rabbit	April 30, 2010[5]	Content Aware Fill Puppet Warp Tool 64 bit for Mac OS X Bristle Tips Mixer Brush Automatic Lens Correction Easier HDR toning for beginners Improved selection and masking controls Camera RAW grain control GPU HUD controls for brush resize, color picker, color sampling Improved Ray Tracing quality and speed (Extended) Repousse 3D extrusion tool (Extended) Image based lights (Extended)
CS5.1,[6] CS5.1[6]Extended (12.1, 12.0.4)	Mac OS X, Windows	White Rabbit	May 3, 2011[7]	Interacts with remote applications over TCP/IP, such as tablets and other computers. Subscription model pricing [6]
CS6 (13.0)[edit]  CS6 (13.0)	Mac OS X, Windows	Superstition	May 7, 2012[8]	UI redesign (all new icons and optional dark UI) Auto and background saves Content-aware Patch and Move tools (extensions of content-aware fill introduced in previous version) Blur Gallery includes Tilt Shift, Iris and Field that can be used to create depth of field effects Color Range: skin tone and face detection Adobe Camera RAW 7 Enhanced crop tool with straighten option New properties panel that can be used to vary properties of adjustment layers Enhanced video support Oil Paint filter now ships with the program Adaptive Wide Angle filter Paragraph and Character Styles Built in support for Middle Eastern languages Updated Printing UI 3DLUT adjustment Overhauled vector tools including stroking of vector paths, dotted or dashed Snap to Pixel for vector tools and transforms 3D UI completely redone, now easier to use
CC (14.0)[edit]  CC (14.0)	Mac OS X, Windows	Lucky 7	June 17, 2013 (current)	Camera Shake Reduction Former Extended features now always included Intelligent Upsampling Camera Raw as a filter Editable rounded rectangles Improved 3D painting Conditional Actions System antialiasing style for type Min and Max filter round kernel Sync preferences with Cloud

You can no longer BUY Adobe Photoshop

You can no longer BUY Adobe Photoshop

I will join you and refuse to go cloud! maybe if enough people refuse to "go along" they will rethink this move. its sad the Jared's of photography are backing this move. they are selling us out!!!

You did read the title correct, you no longer can purchase Adobe Photoshop. Adobe is the latest in a line of companies to move to a subscription only model. If you can’t purchase it how will you be able to get it? Well you will have to pay a monthly subscription to have access to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud or individual programs. (You will still be able to purchase Adobe Lightroom, at least for now)

Why is Adobe doing this in the first place? One reason is they wanted to focus on making the best product possible which they call the creative cloud. Second they hope to cut back on the bootleg copies. Third, being able to update their software whenever a new feature is ready opposed to waiting 18 months for the next product cycle is important.

So what does it cost? If you do not currently own CS6 the cost for the entire creative cloud which includes 12 different programs is $49.99 a month (on yearly contract). That comes out to $600 a year to access every single software title Adobe makes available. Now this is great for the professional who makes a living using all of these titels who in the past would have to purchase the entire suite every time it was updated. Sure that is a lot of money a year but when this is your profession, it is the cost of doing business.

If you are like me who has no need for anything other than Photoshop $49.99 is way to steep. With that said Adobe has a solution for you as well. You can purchase any one of the titles in the creative cloud for $19.99 a month. Is that worth it, if your profession is built around touching up your images in Photoshop then yes. But if you are just someone who tinkers around here and there the $19.99 a month may not be worth it for you. The funny thing is that the people who are complaining the loudest are the people who have only used bootleg software to begin with.

Do I agree with going to a subscription only option, I don’t really mind it as so many other companies have started to go this direction. We saw that this week when YouTube rolled out Subscription based channels. I already subscribe to netflix, spotify and many others have sub options like Amazon Prime, Office 360 so on and so forth.

Now I do think that $19.99 is to much if you are looking to just use Photoshop. I think $10 a month for one program would have sufficed. This way the casual user could feel like their money was well spent. $240 a year is a lot more than most beginners can afford to spend on this software.

One of the issue is that in the past if you purchased the software it never expired, you could continue to use it even after the new version came out. In this case you are just renting the software and if you choose not to re-up you no longer have access to the programs.

You have to keep in mind that many photographers can not live without Photoshop. Adobe has create software that you can not live without, you can not replace it easily with something else. But like I said above, the people most up in arms are the ones who have never purchased the software.

I read some concerns that people had and I have since done some research to find the answers. One concern was can you use the software when you are not online. The answer to this is yes. From what I read you can go 99 days without being connected to the internet before your software locks you out.

Can you use the software on multiple computers. The answer to this is yes, all you have to do is log into your creative cloud account form any computer anywhere and all of your settings and shortcuts are right there for you to use. This is a really cool feature and something I think is well worth it.

If I cancel my subscription will I loose all my files. No, you will not loose your files, you may not be able to open them without the software but they are preserved and waiting for you when you are ready. This is one thing most people are upset the most about. Once you no longer pay for the service you no longer can open your files.

I have been hearing from a lot of people that Adobe is making a huge mistake here. I personally do not agree with that. They are adapting to the times and finding a solution that works best for them and their loyal paying costumers. See the full time pros use the majority of the Apps that creative cloud offers and the $50 a month is well worth it.

It is still early for Adobe in this new direction and I don’t think their numbers are locked in stone. I think you may see some pricing changes but nothing to drastic. Adobe understands that the people who would never buy their software in the first place probably still wont buy a subscription.

Only time will tell what will happen but in the long run I do not see this being a major issue for Adobe.

For those who are wondering if Lightroom will be going to a subscription service, as of now Adobe says no. But they did say that there may be some features in future releases that you can only access if you are part of the creative cloud. Lightroom is only $149 and sometimes less. Last year the software was twice that price so Adobe did us a solid by dropping the price for upgrading and new purchases.

Another thing I want to point out about the future of Lightroom is the fact that a lot of features that once were only found in Photoshop can now be found in lightroom. This is a good sign for those of you who rarely venture into Photoshop. Putting these Photoshop tools at your fingertips in Lightroom will save us time and money.

Rent vs. Buy: Is Adobe's Creative Cloud Subscription Cheaper than Buying Photoshop?

When will Adobe ever get it through their thick skulls that they would sell 25x more copies if they cut the price by 3/4? If you have a monopoly on something, people don't really feel guilty about pirating it. You're already the bad-guy in their minds. My reasoning is this: it couldn't take them any more time to write the new features for each version than it takes a company to make an entire video game. Games sell for $60 and they generally make a good profit. It's not like they are re-writing each application from the ground up as it is. Just a few new features here and there. So why does it cost so %$#@ing much? Because they CAN. When you take that attitude, you piss people off, and then they pirate your stuff. And so it will be until they decide to stop being an "evil corporation" and start being human.
Hurry up, you only have a few weeks to take advantage of it.

And the kicker is that once you install the CS6 upgrade, you can uninstall/deactivate both CS5 and CS5.5 and give them to friends as gifts. The old licenses are still valid after you upgrade, and it's perfectly within the EULA to transfer old licenses to someone
Honestly, I pay more for my cable package than I would for the subscription model- I think that is what's truly insane. 50$/month for basically the Master Master Suite? Really its not a bad deal. Being a Graphics Professional I can bring in over that amount per week which is easily enough to pay for the subby cost. Is it more expensive in the long run? Yeah, but what about things like 5.5? I wouldn't have to pay an upgrade charge for that, it's included. So long as the cost stays the same, then to me it's worth it.

Rent vs. Buy: Is Adobe's Creative Cloud Subscription Cheaper than Buying Photoshop?

Rent vs. Buy: Is Adobe's Creative Cloud Subscription Cheaper than Buying Photoshop?


Adobe Introduces CS6 and Creative Cloud for Subscription Based Design Tools
Adobe has announced the sixth version of its Creative Suite alongside a new subscription based service called Creative Cloud that gives you access to … Read…
Adobe launched a new cloud subscription services for all its products today that lets you subscribe to individual programs like Photoshop for only $20 a month. But is it cheaper than just buying the program flat out? Here's how the math adds up.

The whole thing is a little convoluted, but we pored over the Adobe store to find retail and subscription prices for both Photoshop and the Master Collection to see whether this Creative Cloud service is worth it in the long run—the long run being two years, since that's about how often Adobe updates its software. Subscription prices are calculated using the annual subscription prices, not the more expensive month-to-month prices. We've also added in the Amazon prices for the CS5 versions, since Amazon usually saves you quite a bit of cash when buying the full version of a product (though those prices can fluctuate). Here's what the numbers looks like:

Photoshop CS6 Retail: $700 ($585 on Amazon)
Photoshop CS6 Extended with a Student Discount: $250 ($184 on Amazon)
Photoshop CS6 Upgrade: $200
Photoshop CS6 Subscription: $20 a month ($480 over two years)
The Master Collection follows a similar pattern:

Master Collection CS6 Retail: $2600 ($2020 on Amazon)
Master Collection CS6 with a Student Discount: $800 ($789 on Amazon)
Master Collection CS6 Upgrade: $525
Master Collection CS6 Subscription: $50 a month ($1200 over two years)
Master Collection CS6 Student Edition Subscription: $30 a month ($720 over two years)
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How to Get Student Discounts Forever
Sales be damned, nothing saves you money like an old fashioned student discount. Here's how to continue making use of those golden markdowns… Read…
So, it breaks down to this: If you're upgrading from a previous version of the program, it's quite a bit cheaper to just grab the upgrade from Adobe instead of subscribing. And, if you can get a student discount (which nearly anyone can do), that'll be cheaper too—at least in the case of Photoshop, which doesn't seem to offer a subscription for students. In the case of the Master Collection, the student subscription is cheaper than the regular student version, but still not cheaper than upgrading from a previous version. However, once you get past the two year mark, all bets are off—the subscription is more expensive than buying, even if you plan on upgrading every two years.

It's all a bit confusing, but our official recommendation is to stick with the retail versions unless you only plan on using your Adobe product for under two years. The subscription is great for the short run (that is, if you can't get a student discount), but it'll cost you quite a bit more in the long run. Are you going to be checking out Adobe's new subscription service? Let us know in the comments.

Adobe Photoshop & Suite Subscriptions, Facebook Search Update & Imagine A Future With Driverless Cars

Adobe Photoshop & Suite Subscriptions, Facebook Search Update & Imagine A Future With Driverless Cars

Adobe Photoshop & Suite Subscriptions: Adobe is taking a page out of Microsoft’s book and actually going a step further by offering a subscription only model for their latest version of Photoshop and also for the full Adobe Suite. And the extra step further I referred to is the fact that unlike Microsoft, which still offers an individual download version of its software (i.e. you can purchase a copy of Microsoft Office or one of its components like Word for a one time only purchase price), if you want the latest version of Adobe Photoshop or the Adobe Suite you have to pay for a subscription as the company is no longer offering the latest versions of Photoshop or the Adobe Suite for sale for a flat one time only rate. There are a number of different Adobe subscription packages; however, the entry level package for Photoshop now costs $30 per month.

We do seem to be moving towards a subscription only world which I’m sure makes companies like Adobe, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and Microsoft very happy as it makes them more money but it does give me pause because it seem like consumers will be at the mercy of those same media, software and publishing companies and if we truly get to a point where you’ll never own a copy of the software, movie, television show because you can only buy access to the content then what is to stop those companies from pulling the plug on your access to the content you’ve paid to license? Somehow although I am something of an idealist I’m doubtful that those media, software and publishing companies will have the best interests of the consumer at heart – I tend to think they’ll want to make more money by charging you repeating subscription fees to access software, e-books, movies and television shows. But then I digress and the subject of the ownership of digital content, or the lack-there-of is a whole other subject for future conversation!

Getting back to the subject of the Adobe software, if you like to do light photo editing and prefer to pay a one-time only purchase fee you can still (at least for the present) purchase a download or disc version of the of latest version of Photoshop Elements — Photoshop Elements 11 – Amazon is currently selling that standalone software for both PC & Mac for $68.88.

And here’s a link to a New York Times article on the new Adobe subscription service which is aptly titled “Software as a Monthly Rental:”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/04/technology/personaltech/photoshop-cc-turns-software-into-a-monthly-rental.html?ref=technology&_r=0

Facebook Search Update: Facebook is updating its search function options starting this week. The search function for U.S. Facebook users will now include some advanced search options. The new search options are collectively being called the “Graph Search” and basically the options are tools that allow you to input more information into your searches so you can search for “photos of my friends before 1996” or “Restaurants in New York City my friends like” and get better results.

Here a link to an ABC News article on the subject that offers more in-depth information:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-graph-search-function-rolls-us-users/story?id=19597958

Imagine A Future With Driverless Cars: On to one of my favorite topics the evolution of driverless cars and how that evolution will change our society!

The New York Times offers an article on just this subject today titled “How Driverless Cars Could Reshape Cities.” Now I like the idea of the positive changes to cities that driverless smart cars will bring – less parking spaces needed, less traffic gridlock, fewer traffic tickets, more room available to build new homes and businesses because having smart cars will translate into those cars being able to drop off their owners at their requested destination and then the cars will go find a parking space.

However, what I really like about smart driverless cars is more universal and three-fold:

1. The increase in safety on the roads (and for both car passengers and pedestrians) because driverless smart cars won’t get distracted as people do by smartphones, upcoming appointments or whatever else is on their mind and driverless cars have sensor to prevent them from running  into pedestrians or pets that run out in front of them;

2. The increase in free time driverless smart cars will offer their owners.  Now this one you can take one of two ways! If you want to you’ll  able to focus on work related tasks like reading your work emails, going over details for a conference or presentation or returning video calls while on your way to or from work or your latest conference. If on the other hand you’ve already worked  really hard during the day you’ll be able to sit back and relax and watch a video, listen to music, read a book, work out on your exercise bike or even pick up and eat  your dinner during your evening commute! Cool stuff – more time to do whatever you want to do in an increasingly busy world – and I think we’re increasingly busy because in our high tech Internet connected world – we’re connected to our great communications technology 24/7/365 but then that is a whole other discussion!

3. The third super cool point I see about the evolution of smart driverless cars is how the technology will free many homebound people who can’t drive but who can get about. For example, someone who is blind or disabled and thus can’t drive but can get out will be able to own a smart driverless car and go to the movies, or the grocery store, go shopping  or go to visit friends or relatives on their own – the independence factor will be very cool!

So that is my current “Smart driverless cars are cool” pitch for the moment!

Have a great day!

Linda R

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/disruptions-how-driverless-cars-could-reshape-cities/?ref=technology

References

Bilton, Nick. (2013, July 7). Disruptions: How Driverless Cars Could Reshape Cities. New York Times. Online. Accessed July 8, 2013. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/disruptions-how-driverless-cars-could-reshape-cities/?ref=technology

Pogue, David. (2013, July 3). Software as a Monthly Rental. New York Times. Online. Accessed July 8, 2013. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-graph-search-function-rolls-us-users/story?id=19597958

Stern, Joanna. (2013, July 7). With New Improvements, Facebook Brings Graph Search Function to All U.S. Users. ABC News. Online. Accessed July 8, 2013. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/facebook-graph-search-function-rolls-us-users/story?id=19597958#.UdrQQdI4vTo

 

Getting to Know New Features in Photoshop CC

We are thrilled to announce the release of Photoshop CC, packed with new features for designers, photographers and digital artists. There’s something in Photoshop CC for everyone: improved design tools, a number of new sharpening features, and seamless integration with Creative Cloud to allow you to streamline your creative workflow.

The Photoshop team is proud to bring you the latest technology in digital imaging with this release. Each improvement has been carefully created with our customers in mind. We love all of the new features, but here’s a list of some of our favorites:

• All-new Smart Sharpen: Photoshop CC analyzes image data to maximize clarity and minimize noise and halo. A range of new editable options lets you fine-tune images to get richer textures, crisper edges and more distinct details.
  

• Intelligent Upsampling: Preserve detail and sharpness while enlarging images for different print sizes. The new upsampling tool retains edge detail and reduces the noise and artifacts normally associated with enlarging images.

• Camera Shake Reduction: Save shots you thought were lost due to camera motion. Whether your blur was caused by slow shutter speed or a long focal length, Camera Shake Reduction analyzes the trajectory of the camera shake and helps restore sharpness.

• Editable Rounded Rectangles: Creating shapes has never been so flexible. The ability to resize and re-edit shapes after they’ve been created is one of the most-requested features added to Photoshop CC. Web designers will also be able to export CSS data from files to use later.

• Adobe Camera Raw 8 and layer support: Apply new effects to your images with Adobe Camera Raw’s new Advanced Healing Brush, Radial Gradient and Upright tools. Adobe Camera Raw’s powerful tools can now be used as a filter on any layer, allowing you to use controls like Clarity, Noise reduction and Temperature on any layer at any time.

Try or buy Photoshop CC to experience our new features.