The biggest change you will notice has to be the interface and menu features with the new icons – its such an improvement on CS5.

The darker colour scheme was made to reduce the strain on your eyes. In Photoshop CS6 you now have the option, like with many other Adobe apps, to change the interface to darker or lighter colors.

With redesign on CS^ sees a lot less clutter. Old less useful parts of the application have been removed. For example the large toolbar at the top of the Photoshop window that basically did nothing more than let you quickly change the apps layout.

So what will you discover in Adobe Photoshop CS6 ?

• The new interface includes over 1,800 new icons
• There are 250 cursors.
• A brand new darker interface. Several fixes on UI (User Interface)  inconsistencies
• Improved UI  menu items.
• Photoshop CS6 has new performance improvements.
• New awaited ability to edit vectors in much the same way as you would in Illustrator
• Improvement on the ability to easily add strokes and dashed lines
• New ways to organize your layers
• A new background save and auto recovery features.

Our Sneak Peak of Photoshop CS6 is a major upgrade that has more than 62% more new features than CS5 had over CS4. It also includes 65 user inspired enhancements that were a result of Adobe’s efforts to reach out to its customers through blogging and social media channels. It is changes like these that make us extremely excited share with you some of what you will see in Photoshop CS6.

The Photoshop team have  spent a lot of time streamlining the interface. The team tell us that the menu and UI issues have now been around for over 22 years, so it was very well over due on CS6. Here is a sneak peak of photoshop CS6.

The team are very excited about the major release as it enables Photoshop CS6 to boast greater performance improvements that will enable you to work faster and more efficiently.

Download the beta installation for testing of Adobe Photoshop CS6 - http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/photoshopcs6.html

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We asked a while ago what would you like to see in Adobe Photoshop CS6 ?

Certainly a new layout replicating other Adobe products was popular so it looks like this maybe addressed. Also it’s rumored that CS3 and CS4 users can now upgrade to CS6 until December 2012. the camera raw features look very powerful.

Another idea is for Adobe Photoshop CS6 to have externally linked smart objects. This means that while it is currently possible to embed PSDs into each other, once they’re embedded. It would be even more useful if there is a live connection between the original and the nested copy. Then if changes were made to the nested or the original PSD it wouldn’t affect it.

In this video, Photoshop Senior Product Manager Bryan O’Neil Hughes gives us a sneak at Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw and Adobe Photoshop CS6. The most dramatic change that you will notice from this video might be the darker color of the new interface.

What Adobe Photoshop CS6 features are needed?

• Make the interface selector a slider like After Effects
• Make it so you can set the file view to one setting and have that setting consistent whenever you use open
• Ability to have an area for searching layers
• Clarity adjustment has not yet made the grade – it’s available in Camera Raw but not in Photoshop itself.
• Linux Support
• Being able to make a selection on the target image with the marquee tool and have Photoshop paste the clipboard contents into the marquee area
• Greater efficiency – Photoshop eats your memory and runs a little slow
• What about Cs6 having externally linked smart objects
• Develop an even better way of transfering images with white backgrounds into transparent images

Adobe Photoshop CS6 - sneak Peak

More information on Adobe Photoshop CS6

New Photoshop features include in this version a background save
Also CS6 includes a very powerful liquify tool

These are two really nice enhancements to Photoshop; Background Save and some performance tweaks to Liquify.

Background Save. Background Save in CS6 will allow you to save your file and then continue working while the file is being saved. how much time with this save in a workflow?

Liquify. There is a performance tweak to Liquify. If you’ve ever worked in Liquify, you know that you can’t expand your brush beyond 1500 pixels. This is frustrating if you’re working on a really big image. In this video, Zorana works well beyond 1500 pixels. In addition, the Photoshop team has also improved the performance of Liquify so that it doesn’t tile. You can now use Liquify in real-time with no lag in Adobe Photoshop CS6

Related posts:

1. Adobe Photoshop CS5 – Painting
2. Adobe CS5 release date – April 21-22 2010
3. Mixer Brush tool – Adobe photoshop CS5

Several requests have also come in for Photoshop CS6 to develop an even better way of transfering images with white backgrounds into transparent images. Right now, the only options are to bring down the opacity or cut out the white pixels as is seen in this tutorial below:

How do I convert the white background on my JPG image to the background colour I require with photoshop?

There are 2 decisions to make before decidiing the best way to do this in our photoshop tutorial and knowledge of the fact that JPG doesn’t support transparency. You will need to use PNG or GIF instead for transparency.

How do I change my JPG background in photoshop

A) Do you want it to be a transparent background because the background colour may change from time to time?
If so then you will need to convert the JPG file to a GIF or PNG

See the jpeg image transparent background tutorial :

How do I Convert a JPG background to a transparent background GIF or PNG
or

B) I want it to remain a JPG, but i know the background colour and it will always remain this colour
If so then you will need to use Photoshop to remove the background and replace it with your new colour

See the jpeg image to new colour background tutorial :

How do I convert a JPG image to a new colour background?

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1. How do I convert a JPG image to a new colour background?
2. How do I Convert a JPG background to a transparent background GIF or PNG
3. How to create a Twitter background using Photoshop

Twitter has recently released a new version of itself andd many of the old backgrounds are now finding it hard to fit in the new Twitter layout. How can you make a background that is future proof using photoshop?

Easy!
Today this tutorial will reveal how to help you produce a simple Twitter Background for both versions of Twitter using photoshop.

Easy Way to Photoshop Twitter Backgrounds

The key to creating a Twitter background using Photoshop is 2 part

A) Makes sure you use a good size canvas
B) Make sure you keep important info to the far left
Many of the old Twitter backgrounds are having issues displaying on the new interface as it is using a wider layout.
STEP 1
Choose the size of canvas 1600×1200.
Personally I use 2000×900 pixels as i prefer less depth and a greater width coverage for incredibly hi- resolutions.
STEP 2
Add either decoration or an image, but postion it top left and fade it out to a solid colour bottom right, this enables the background to fade out regardless the screen size.
STEP 3
Aim to put the name or logo of your site as far left as possible. It may well be worth using text vertically. Remember visitors to your Twitter account will be able to see this address, and if inclined, type it into the browser window, so this is an important connection to take visitors from your Twitter account to your web site.

Thats it.

Follow these simple principles and you’ll have a great and future proof Twitter background using Photoshop that you can be proud of.

Related posts:

1. How do I Convert a JPG background to a transparent background GIF or PNG
2. How do I convert a JPG image to a new colour background?
3. Photoshop Workflow: Easily create new guides with a click

Today we take a look at several issues with the Paint Bucket tool – Then the  solutions to these problems so you can get the best out of your Paint Bucket tool in Adobe Photoshop

Issue 1 – Paint Bucket Fill gives blurry edges

You make a selection in photoshop. You then fill in the selection with the paint bucket tool. The problem is  it ends up not fully putting the fill inside the selection, and leaves blurry lines on the outside of the selection.

Answer

You may need to check the feather is set to 0px before you make your selection.

Additonally you could

1. Make your selection, then save it.
2. Deselect the selection, so you are on a new blank layer.
3. Fill the layer with the color you want.
4. Load your selection.
5. Then inverse it.
6. Then hit delete.
7. Should give you a nice clean edge.

Issue 2 – Paint Bucket Tool just stops working all together

The paint bucket tool suddenly stops working for no apparent reason even though it did work on previous uses.

Answer

1. Firstly make sure the layer is not locked.
2. Then check other settings on the blend mode. It could be this needs resetting to normal blend mode and that’s why it acts differently.
3. It could be the layer is set to a very low opacity. Check its not set to a very low tolerance setting.
4. If none of the above then resetting the Paint Bucket tool in Photoshop’s Preferences will resolve it.

Issue 3 – I can’t find the Paint Bucket Tool

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Yet he was alert and a fine designer at heart. The issue was raised as Adobe have overlooked anyone over 70 years of age when registering Photoshop elements.

The customer asked “Why don’t your programers recognize that 75 years old customers exist? When I registered my new purchase (customer for 10+ years) I could only show my birth year as 1941. We are not stupid at this age. Please adjust to at least age 80.”

Too Old for Photoshop – Really?

A Cheif Customer Advocate for Photoshop did apologies about the discrepancy with “It’s certainly not meant to discriminate against folks over 70. It’s likely an oversight by the team. I’ll have them investigate.  I believe the date of birth is asked for with regard to COPPA to make sure users aren’t minor/children below a certain age”

Though the discussion didnt end there as it was then raised to the team “its interesting that in 2011 the date went back to 1941,(see comment from 3 months ago) and now in 2012 it goes back to 1942. the programmers have allowed only 70 years on the drop down menu”

Funnily enough Reddit was running an article to see who could Photoshop his 94 year old Grandad – Now that might be something for the 70 year old users  to have a crack at!

So we await to see if there is an update to sort this issue, meanwhile let us know if you have had similar issues.

Nobody is too old for Photoshop !

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Of course there is the excellent http://www.psdisasters.com that has a good share of some quite

Our favorite Photoshop disasters from the web

One recent photoshop disaster was put together for Roger Karoutchi, Secretary of State for Relations of Parliament. The photo is used for the start of the ‘Grand Paris’ campaign on unfair tax. It plans to take tax on highways. Using a Highway photo clearly photo-shopped – I’m sure the French don’t revers backwards down a motorway.

How about this photoshop error.

Its a simple task just remove the hand.

Finally we look at a local government council.Clearly the designer had recently learned how to use the cloning tool in photoshop.

So use it he did! We present his creation of another classic photoshop disaster.

If you have found any photoshop disasters, please let us know below.

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1. What are people saying about Photoshop CS5?

Adobe Creative Suite (of course you can guess what the CS stands for) is a collection of graphic design, video editing, and web development applications made by Adobe Systems. The collection consists of Adobe’s applications (e.g., Photoshop, Acrobat, InDesign), that are based on various technologies (e.g., PostScript, PDF, Flash). The latest version, Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 (CS5.5), was released on April 12, 2011.

So we have already shared with you some exciting Adobe news – The launch of Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5), came out on April 12th, 2010.

UPDATE – CS5 is now out for general release – take a look at the CS5  software features such as the puppet warp effect.

Photoshop is a Key Component of Creative Suite

Photoshop cs5 box

Some of the popular Adobe Creative Suite 5 Software products are:

Photoshop, used for perspective drawing, images and animation,
Dreamweaver, used for web designing,
Flash Professional, used for interactive rich content, and
InDesign, used for print layouts and digital publishing.

Adobe always release various editions of Adobe Creative Suite 5:

• Adobe sells Creative Suite applications in five different combinations called “editions”, these include:
• Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Design Premium and Design Standard are two editions of the Adobe Creative Suite 5 family of products intended for professional print, web, interactive and mobile designers. The key difference between Design Premium and Design Standard is the addition of Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended, Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5, Adobe Flash Professional CS5, Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, and Adobe Fireworks CS5 to the Premium version.
• Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 5 family of products intended for professional web designers and developers.
• Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium is an edition of the Adobe Creative Suite 5 family of products intended for professional rich media and video post-production experts who create projects for film, video, broadcast, web, DVD, Blu-ray Disc, and mobile devices.
• Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection contains applications from all of the above editions

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So here is what i consider a very simple and extremely easy way to produce these beautiful vintage posters from the past decades. It was developed as part of a project for Cottage Agent. They wanted posters representing the various locations in the UK.

1. Choose an ideal photo

So first take a photo of an area that would make an ideal poster. Even though the picture seems to lack the brightness and vibrance seen in the posters, photoshop will deal with this in a moment, the most important part to consider at this stage is are there several areas, in the example the beach the hillside and the sand as well as water will all become contrasting colours in a moment.

2. Add an extreme vibrance

This really brings out the colours, which gives it the artificial painting look and false vibrance and saturation. I use 100% on both. Even though it feels extreme, it will help define the areas in the next stage. so select image – adjustments – vibrance and set them to 100%

3. Add the cutout filter

The cutout filter will take a little adjustment depending on how complicated the shapes and colours are, so rather than copy my settings you may need to experiment a little as each photo has its own unique setting.

You’re looking to make enough shapes and colours to get the desired effect but not so few that it become abstract

Select Filter – Artistic – cutout and then adjust by eye

4. Finally add any lettering or border if required

That’s it, we hope you liked it.I have used the font called impact to get the strong lettering and just added a border using select and fill on a layer above the photo. We will be developing numerous amount of these for the Cottage agent site, so if you want to see the results of this tutorial then take a look at the cottage site

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updated article- seems like the Brush size is still an issue for many, so we have updated this article and added some further tips.

There are more than a few ways to change the brush sizes in photoshop.

Tip1 – Standard change using the bracket keys [ & ]
Many applications that use a brush can be regulated using the Bracket keys.
The Left Bracket key [ decreases the brush size.
The Right Bracket key ] increases the brush size.
Bracket shortcut issue

Anyone having an issue with the bracket key shortcuts on the brush size may benefit from checking there hardware acceleration setting.
First right-click on your desktop and select “properties”
Then choose the “settings” tab and select the “advanced” button
Now select the “troubleshoot” tab
If you are on “Full” hardware acceleration, click it one notch to the left. This will disable hardware acceleration of the mouse.
Now reopen Photoshop and this hopefully fixes the bracket issue.

Tip2 – Greater Changes
If you hold the shift key down while using the brackets you will find the increase or decrease is ten fold

Brush Size Tips

Tip3 – You can use the mouse wheel to adjust the size.
Click the input field and move the mouse wheel to change the value.

Tip4 – Good old fashion point and click using the menu – but that tip goes without saying.

Worth bearing in mind some complain the Brush has disappeared all together. It sounds drastic but it’s probably the CAPS LOCK causing the issue or the brush size is bigger than the document itself and thereby the circle is outside the documents borders.

Keep us updated with any other brush size tips and tricks you come across.

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