Technical Illustrators.org Forum

Public service announcement

The Photoshop CS6 beta is now available for public download from Adobe Labs:

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/photoshopcs6.html

Have fun, if you've not played with it already...

There's some nice enhancements, along with some old stuff packaged as new, stuff they removed a few versions ago and are now selling to you again, as well as the usual new auto-magical consumer stuff

Mike

Mike, are you going to upgrade?

Do you upgrade the whole CS series or just components? I have been upgrading CS Design Premium each time a new one comes out but only really use Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat and Dreamweaver.

What do others do with regards to upgrades?

Mike's doodle illustrating his thoughts on PS6

Hi Don,
I sympathise... I'm a Design Premium owner too and there are a few applications in my suite that don't get any exercise. I pretty much have to upgrade as I do some training as an Adobe Certified Instructor - so I need to stay current on the programs I teach - currently Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects.

Would I upgrade if I didn't have to? That would be a much closer call. There are some nice enhancements in PS6 - but a lot of the headline features (content aware move, the blur gallery, video improvements etc etc) do nothing for me. It's the smaller workflow improvements that I find attractive - and of course their value depends on exactly the sort of work you tend to do.

For me, and I have to be honest even as a guy who makes part of his living teaching this stuff, I feel Photoshop is losing it's focus.

Yes, it's always been something of a generalist image editing tool - but CS6 leaves me wondering where it's heading with the 3D, video features et al. Maybe it's a personal thing, but I like my software to be specific. If I want to work in image editing I want a specific and powerful tool for that. If I want to work in 3D, or vector illustration, or video, or page layout - I want the best tools I can lay may hands on for those tasks.

With Photoshop CS6 we seem to be heading towards the Swiss army penknife. Handy to have around, OK as a knife, but all the other tools are really 'get me by's' - far from the best tool for the job.

There's one thing that Photoshop CS6 is still desperately missing: a decent competitor.