photoshop

Adobe's next Lightroom to forsake PowerPC Macs

Adobe Systems, taking the same course with its forthcoming Creative Suite applications, will offer the next Mac OS X version of Photoshop Lightroom only on Intel-based machines.

Apple has chosen to discontinue support for Macs using PowerPC processors beginning with its next operating system, version 10.6 aka Snow Leopard, which is due to arrive in coming weeks. Adobe said last week that its next Creative Suite will follow suit. The CS family includes programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, DreamWeaver, and Flash Professional.

Lightroom, which is for editing and cataloging photos, isn't part of the suite, but it'… Read more

How Flickr needs to change

I use and enjoy Flickr. But with each passing month it worries me more that when I visit a photo page on the Yahoo photo-sharing site, it looks essentially identical to when I first started using it four years ago.

Flickr has typical online photo site abilities to upload, share, and print photos. What sets it apart, though, are features that make Flickr a community: discussions in comments below photos, groups for like-minded photographers to share their work, and social networking attributes that let people stay on top of their contacts' doings.

Flickr revamped members' home pages starting last September, … Read more

Adobe kills low-end Photoshop, urges users online

Adobe Systems is discontinuing Photoshop Album Starter Edition, the lowest rung on its ladder of image-editing software products, and the company is nudging its users toward the online Photoshop.com site.

Adobe launched Photoshop Album Starter Edition in 2003 as a free, bare-bones image cataloging and editing package. Adobe discontinued the line, though, and support for it ended June 30.

So what's the alternative? In a customer note, Adobe puts its online service front and center.

"As part of our commitment to providing customers with a free photo-editing solution, we have created Photoshop.com, an exciting new online … Read more

Adobe reclaims design guru from Microsoft

A high-powered programmer who'd left Adobe Systems to lead a Microsoft Windows interface design team is heading back after just over a year.

Mark Hamburg had worked on Adobe Photoshop since version 2.0 in 1990 and then was instrumental in designing its photography-specific cousin, Lightroom, which sports a radically different user interface.

Hamburg left Adobe for Microsoft in 2008 to become a "distinguished engineer" leading work on improving operating system usability. He called the job an opportunity that "was a little too interesting to turn down" because he found the Windows' experience "really … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1,000 Photoshop contest winner!

We asked for submissions from our fans for the podcast art that would be attached to the MP3 file for episode 1,000. We received a number of awesome submissions, but alas, there could be only one winner. Here is a slideshow with the winning submission, as well as the rest of the pack.

Congratulations to Emmanuel from France for such a creative (and nerdy) take on the BOL logo for episode 1,000. And as always, thanks to EVERYONE for taking part in this.

Readers offer presidential plane publicity--for free

Last month, a plane sometimes used as Air Force One was flown low over the Hudson River for a photo op, costing more than $300,000 and evoking for people on the ground memories of September 11.

On the heels of that failed presidential plane publicity stunt, we decided to test our readers' public relations chops. Keeping our focus on technology in mind, we asked them to submit recession-friendly publicity shots of Air Force One flyovers (with a little help from their favorite photo-editing tools).

Needless to say, our readers' images caused less panic among New Yorkers and were produced … Read more

Photoshop plug-in puts artists on notice

Whether it's rescuing a photo mucked up by a camera's image processing or boosting interest in an otherwise stale photo, Alien Skin's Snap Art 2 plug-in for Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements aims to let users quickly turn mouse clicks into brush strokes.

The software announced and made available Monday gives users 10 natural media, hundreds of styles (oil paint, watercolor, pencil , pastels, etc.), and several canvas textures. The example above was done using the Impasto selection, giving it the look of thick paint, which would be great for hiding photo flaws. There are more than 700 … Read more

Can't afford the flight? Create your own Air Force One flyover

Update 1:10 p.m. PDT: If you tried sending an image to the e-mail address provided earlier Monday and it bounced back, please try sending it again to my e-mail address, provided below, while we straighten out our e-mail kinks.

You probably don't have your own Air Force One, or the $328,835 to spend on a fancy New York photo shoot like the United States government, but with a few basic Photoshop skills and an Air Force One press photo, we're betting you can make some pretty convincing images of Air Force One flyovers, without sending … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: The future of Web access shapes up

Marguerite Reardon talks about two technologies, WiMax and LTE (Long Term Evolution), that will shape the way we access the Web in the next few years.

Also in this podcast: Google is hoping to join an antitrust fight in Europe objecting to Microsoft's inclusion of Internet Explorer in Windows; Steve Wozniak joins a start-up that hopes to make breakthrough solid-state drives; and Adobe rolls out a fix that addresses some crashing and slowness issues in Photoshop. Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

Google wants to join EU case against Microsoft

What does Woz see in solid-state drives?Read more

Photoshop update fixes slowdowns, crashes

Adobe Systems released an update to the flagship CS4 version of Photoshop to squelch a number of bugs that could crash or slow down the image-editing software.

The 11.0.1 update (downloads available for Windows and Mac OS X) deals with the following issues, according to Adobe:

• A number of issues that could cause slow performance have been addressed.

• Pen barrel rotation with Wacom tablets now works correctly.

• Photoshop now correctly recognizes 3D textures edited by a plug-in.

• The quality of the results of Auto-Blend Layers (Stack Images) has been improved.

• A problem that … Read more