Creative Suite 4 Unofficial Highlights
It is sort of tradition for me to geek out and share what I like about the new Creative Suite with my designer friends when it first comes out, only this time I'm sharing it with you in case you are interested. I use these products (all of them in the Suites with limited exposure to the Video products, so this is NOT about Production Premium). There are an insane amount of features, so let me tell you only what blows me away and I like most. Of course, there is an official overview and demo if you want the real overview and not opinion from me. This is my honest opinion no hype version, but I am by no means a neutral party. I am a flat out fan of Adobe design products and always have been. I'm elbow deep in the technology and solidly in love with Vectors.
Lanette's List of Wow Cool
Why is it cool?
Stuff in the Products
This overview on Photoshop CS4 by Martin Evening is a good one. I agree with him.
Photoshop GPU enhancements- Because performance matters hugely in Photoshop. To get the no hype, no marketing version of what you actually get, check out the knowledge base article. It is cool because it speeds up what you need to get done and we all hate waiting. Faster is good. Ok, while still in the Photoshop topic, let's talk about the coolest thing (note: Not most useful to you, but COOLEST) in all of CS4.
Content Aware Scaling-Because it is wickedly innovative. When I imagine that this is just the second feature based on this concept, I get excited for the future of Photoshop and digital imaging in general. Ok, we bought this technology from a school, but it RULES. It is some good koolaid to drink. Photoshop knows what is important in your pictures (sort of). I thought that Auto Align Layers was the best thing in CS3, and this is just variation on a theme taken much much further.
Illustrator Gradients-This you just HAVE to try. Download the trial version and check it out. It's the coolest thing since gradient mesh. Now you can have transparency in your gradients and they are so much easier to edit. Everyone is going to be so into the Multiple Artboards that they won't give the gradients the proper WOW they deserve. Check this out.
I'd also like to state for Ellen that NO, this version of Illustrator doesn't suck as much as some of the past ones in terms of stability. You know that when you say some of our versions of AI suck I shake my head sadly in agreement, but I know you are just disappointed as a fellow vector lover. Check out the trial and I think you'll see many of the crashing issues now resolved in CS4. AI CS4!=suck How is that for marketing?
Stuff in the Suite
Integrated Interface-Our new look is a subtle goth appearance. This brings me back. Finally, Suite apps look and act much more the same! Less jarring. Easier to transition between applications. The tabbed documents on the top are very easy to switch between. I put this in the cool category because it isn't just useful, it does look nice as well.
Share My Screen- Ugh, I hesitate to put a link here because it's SO much better if I just show you. Email me and ask me to share my CS4 screen and show you something cool. I'm testing a patch help update the next 2 days and TRUST ME, I've got time to share my screen. Hit me up if you want to see this. It is the thing I was most excited about and just try it. Don't watch the tutorial. The best thing about it is you don't need a tutorial. Usability is beautiful. Go to acrobat.com, sign up for a free account, and share your screen.
This is free. Yes, free. It is AWESOME. Just try it. It is so simple. I am so addicted to this that I've stopped having in person meetings in some cases. This is a snoopy person's dream. Don't tell me about it, show me what you've got! It's very fast and useful (except for video, don't bother sharing that through your meeting room). Rather than allowing another person control of your computer, or controlling their computer, there is an isolated room created for you. You can make changes real time while collaborating. There are just too many good tools in there for me to go over them here, but it is worth making a free account to do this. This is the service I'm most excited about. All you need is a browser with Flash installed. You get a URL to share you can just IM or email to someone. Directions are pointless. If you just pick Share my screen, anyone can do this. You do need a buddy to share with though. Perhaps you want to show me your pretty artwork?
Product Improvement Program-This isn't cool for you yet, but if you opt in, it will be. It's going to give me some generic information about what platform, and how long you had each application launched for. This will focus testing on more real data and I plan to use it for workflow testing. Nothing is tracked unless you opt in, but please DO opt in? I will use the info to test where it makes the biggest difference. Those who test online products often have more information than those testing desktop products, but if people are willing to let us use this component to track what applications they use most, we can adjust accordingly when it comes to testing what exists and predicting how new features will fit in to existing workflows. Say what you will about Adobe, but for a for profit software company, Adobe is a good, sincere, trustworthy company. If we have a few main areas for growth, one is openness, which I'm part of the push to change here, by showing my plain opinion. By having courage to take a risk and tell you my thoughts, consequences be d@mn3d. Now, the other area is in that of humility, which I'm also working on, so please, trust us with your info to help us test even better. We'll give back our ideas to help you in your testing too. I'm working on a little something for you guys to help you in testing. Should be ready at EOB tomorrow in my blog. I got off track today due to a "retest" firedrill, but I won't forget to share something special with you that can be used at any software company, commercial or otherwise, that has multiple languages.
Lanette's List of Wow Cool
- Photoshop GPU enhancements
- UI Integration with Tabbed document interface
- Share my Screen
- Content Aware Scaling
- Illustrator Gradients
- Product Improvement Program
Why is it cool?
Stuff in the Products
This overview on Photoshop CS4 by Martin Evening is a good one. I agree with him.
Photoshop GPU enhancements- Because performance matters hugely in Photoshop. To get the no hype, no marketing version of what you actually get, check out the knowledge base article. It is cool because it speeds up what you need to get done and we all hate waiting. Faster is good. Ok, while still in the Photoshop topic, let's talk about the coolest thing (note: Not most useful to you, but COOLEST) in all of CS4.
Content Aware Scaling-Because it is wickedly innovative. When I imagine that this is just the second feature based on this concept, I get excited for the future of Photoshop and digital imaging in general. Ok, we bought this technology from a school, but it RULES. It is some good koolaid to drink. Photoshop knows what is important in your pictures (sort of). I thought that Auto Align Layers was the best thing in CS3, and this is just variation on a theme taken much much further.
Illustrator Gradients-This you just HAVE to try. Download the trial version and check it out. It's the coolest thing since gradient mesh. Now you can have transparency in your gradients and they are so much easier to edit. Everyone is going to be so into the Multiple Artboards that they won't give the gradients the proper WOW they deserve. Check this out.
I'd also like to state for Ellen that NO, this version of Illustrator doesn't suck as much as some of the past ones in terms of stability. You know that when you say some of our versions of AI suck I shake my head sadly in agreement, but I know you are just disappointed as a fellow vector lover. Check out the trial and I think you'll see many of the crashing issues now resolved in CS4. AI CS4!=suck How is that for marketing?
Stuff in the Suite
Integrated Interface-Our new look is a subtle goth appearance. This brings me back. Finally, Suite apps look and act much more the same! Less jarring. Easier to transition between applications. The tabbed documents on the top are very easy to switch between. I put this in the cool category because it isn't just useful, it does look nice as well.
Share My Screen- Ugh, I hesitate to put a link here because it's SO much better if I just show you. Email me and ask me to share my CS4 screen and show you something cool. I'm testing a patch help update the next 2 days and TRUST ME, I've got time to share my screen. Hit me up if you want to see this. It is the thing I was most excited about and just try it. Don't watch the tutorial. The best thing about it is you don't need a tutorial. Usability is beautiful. Go to acrobat.com, sign up for a free account, and share your screen.
This is free. Yes, free. It is AWESOME. Just try it. It is so simple. I am so addicted to this that I've stopped having in person meetings in some cases. This is a snoopy person's dream. Don't tell me about it, show me what you've got! It's very fast and useful (except for video, don't bother sharing that through your meeting room). Rather than allowing another person control of your computer, or controlling their computer, there is an isolated room created for you. You can make changes real time while collaborating. There are just too many good tools in there for me to go over them here, but it is worth making a free account to do this. This is the service I'm most excited about. All you need is a browser with Flash installed. You get a URL to share you can just IM or email to someone. Directions are pointless. If you just pick Share my screen, anyone can do this. You do need a buddy to share with though. Perhaps you want to show me your pretty artwork?
Product Improvement Program-This isn't cool for you yet, but if you opt in, it will be. It's going to give me some generic information about what platform, and how long you had each application launched for. This will focus testing on more real data and I plan to use it for workflow testing. Nothing is tracked unless you opt in, but please DO opt in? I will use the info to test where it makes the biggest difference. Those who test online products often have more information than those testing desktop products, but if people are willing to let us use this component to track what applications they use most, we can adjust accordingly when it comes to testing what exists and predicting how new features will fit in to existing workflows. Say what you will about Adobe, but for a for profit software company, Adobe is a good, sincere, trustworthy company. If we have a few main areas for growth, one is openness, which I'm part of the push to change here, by showing my plain opinion. By having courage to take a risk and tell you my thoughts, consequences be d@mn3d. Now, the other area is in that of humility, which I'm also working on, so please, trust us with your info to help us test even better. We'll give back our ideas to help you in your testing too. I'm working on a little something for you guys to help you in testing. Should be ready at EOB tomorrow in my blog. I got off track today due to a "retest" firedrill, but I won't forget to share something special with you that can be used at any software company, commercial or otherwise, that has multiple languages.
We sadly won't be upgrading any time soon due to the current state of economic freefall, so I won't let you taunt me with the promise of well behaved vectors. I should actually install the demo on my Mac at home, poor thing hardly gets used for design work now that my job saddled me with a giant laptop to cart to and fro.
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