As if you didn’t already know, Adobe today announced the latest iteration of it’s Creative Suite, CS4. There aren’t any real surprises and most of the updates fall squarely in incremental territory. I am excited about the intelligent image scaling and GPU acceleration in Photoshop. I was a beta tester for Photoshop so I’ve had a chance to see these features in action. I didn’t notice any huge performance gains with the GPU acceleration, but then again my workflow doesn’t really include a lot of the tasks the new feature is supposed to speed up. I also got a chance to get a 64-bit version of PS running on my Windows XP 64 install to test out the performance now that Photoshop can actually "see" all 8GB of memory in my system. Again, the performance gains weren’t really noticeable which was somewhat disappointing. I think the cause of this was file size though. I think once you’re dealing with files that occupy more space in memory than you have physically installed in your system, the scratch disks are the key. In other words, I don’t think Photoshop seeing and extra 6GB of memory is really all that important when the file you’re working with is taking up far more and still writing to scratch disks.
I’ll admit though, I just haven’t had the time to really put it through it’s paces and get any real figures, these were just my initial impressions from the limited experience I’ve had with the software. I guess I just always looked forward to the day Photoshop became 64-bit with GPU acceleration as the day I could effortlessly tear through an 18×26" poster @ 300dpi without so much as a screen refresh delay; sadly, I don’t think we’re there quite yet. All that aside, I’m always excited to have an update to my favorite software. All of the previous updates have added great features / functionality and this version is no different. Link
Sounds good… I’m liking the inclusion of the tabbed interface too, amongst a few other things.
GoMedia have a nice read about Illutrator CS4, here: http://www.gomediazine.com/design-tip/product-tip-review/adobe-illustrator-cs4-preview/
It just seems like they haven’t given time for CS3 to get massaged in industry and they already releasing CS4. So far out of all the features, like Jayden said, the tabbed interface is something I’m looking forward to. I hate the whole minimized windows going to the bottom left with non-readable titles, although, Ctrl+Tab’ing is fast solution.
Speaking of high resolution files, have you been able remaster some of those old posters bigger? Remaking those raster elements must be a bitch. I know for myself, being mildly OCD / perfectionist, it would drive me crazy if the posters weren’t “exactly” the same as their smaller counterparts.
jez! CS4 allready? I didn’t fully coped with CS3 yet.
I have CS2 and CS3 version but I only working in CS2 (ps and ai).
Why? CS2 better working than CS3. For me CS3 is only illusion something like better appearance.
If we don’t have money we can’t buy old version (we must buy new). This is not all right I think.
if you’re working with larger format posters like 18×26 and larger 150dpi to 200dpi is fine. There’s no need to work in 300, it’s wasted space and time.
I was skeptical at first, but after talking to printers, other designers and then making large format posters myself I saw there is no difference. You would be saving so much room on your hardrives if you brought big posters like the Obama one down to at most 200.
Matt-
I have heard the same…. I just like to design in 300 so that eventually, if need be, I can bump the size up even larger and not be constrained by the original resolution.
The webcast wasn’t in depth, so I can’t wait to see what else is in store. I think everyone is looking forward to the intelligent image scaling – I wish I could see the algorithms behind that!
A little FYI, an awesome photographer by the name of Nick Onken (http://www.nickonkenconnection.com/shoptalk/) just posted a bit about you. Thought you might like to know…
Man, and I’m just getting settled into CS3, couldn’t they have waited just a bit longer.
It’s does seem kind of soon to be releasing CS4 already, hasn’t CS3 just been out barely over a year? One thing I’m excited for, is that FINALLY you can rotate your canvas in Photoshop (like Painter). Why has this taken Adobe this long to incorporate?