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Monday 26 March 2007, 10:09 AM
What do you want to see in CS3?
Adobe's planning to make the formal announcement of Creative Suite 3 tomorrow. The overhaul of its publishing applications is expected to be one of the largest in the software maker's history.
We'd like to find out what you, the community, hope to see in CS3. While some details have trickled out, a number of features won’t be disclosed until the announcement.
So please let us know what you think. Would you like to see a Web-based version of Photoshop? The integration of Dreamweaver and other Macromedia applications? Will the planned built-in support for Intel-based Macs mean better performance? Just post a reply to this blog.
Update: A dig through the ZDNet UK treasure trove has unearthed a bunch of zdnet.co.uk hats to give away. (They'll come in handy, now it's a bit nippy.) The five best posts will each get one--so get typing.
PreviousComments on this post
This comment has been deleted at the users request
Unfortunately it looks like the one thing we didn't want from CS3 is what we're getting...
Adobe appear to have gone all Windows Vista on us and are going to release the files of hell. Actually it looks like we're going to get all sorts of "versions".
What happened to simplicity?
With Adobe's portfolio now including macromedia's suite of apps better integration and borrowing of tools would be what I would hope for. For example some of Flash's vector based drawing tools are a lot easier to use than Photoshop eqivalents. Using the Flash tools would be a great help. The ability to open Fireworks PNG files with all the layers and text intact.
I'd like to see a quick-edit option on my right-click contectual menu. This would open a streamlined Photoshop for quick rotate, crop, red eye tools that would mean I can a quick task on an image without loading up the full app which on some PCs can take a while.
Bring back thumbnails in Windows explorer. I have to download and install a 3rd party app to see thumbnails of PSD files which in older versions of photoshop was not necessary. In Vista the sizing of thumbnails now makes it really useful for browsing through images and photoshop files.
Often I use photoshop to layout a page before I build it. However, sometimes I am working within an existing framework. The ability to import a web template based on a design made in Dreamweaver or other editor would be a great help. If I could grab the html/css files and import them into photoshop so that I could see where the divs or existing imagery is would be helpful. I know I can take a screenshot and use it as an under/overlay then use ruler guides to line up elements etc. but why not make it even easier.
Sometimes I am working with other designers and it would be great to work together on the same project at the same time either both having access to the file at or Dual Mouse support so both can work on the same system.
Resizeable tool menus. I work on multiple systems from multiscreens, to laptops, from 15" to 19"+ and each system I need to move the to tools around to suit the screens and what I am doing at the time. More flexibilty with the shape, size a positions I can put tools would be a great help.
A feature I love in Word 2007 is that hoving over a new formating option actually shows the effect live on the page. This will have to be an optional feature with a 1-2sec delay before a preview is applied as it could slow things down a lot esp on a high-res images.
I also have to spend a small fortune on video editing software - if Photoshop could handle that too it would help justify the high price tag.
Well that's my 2cents - probably not see any of them in CS3 but I am sure there are ton of great new features I didn't think of in there.
I've been using the CS3 beta for about a month now and my initial feeling was that there were some nice improvements to the interface, but that nothing much else seemed to have changed.
The new version of Bridge seemed equally familiar. New skin, some new layouts, but still v clunky and cumbersome, especially compared to the delightful new Lightroom (which I am in love with).
So, given this total lack of obvious new features, to hear that Adobe will be charging upwards of £300 for an upgrade from CS2 was pretty shocking. I simply won't be upgrading.
Of course, if I was a Mac user that'd recently bought an Intel based machine, I'd have much more incentive to upgrade, as currently there is no Universal Binary version of CS 2, meaning you have to run it through the conversion application 'Rosetta'. This makes CS 2 on an Intel Mac incredibly sluggish to the point of being virtually un-usable. Given that Adobe have had just as much 'heads up' time as every other major software developer to prepare for the switch to Intel chips on Mac's, it does make one wonder why every other major pro app on the Mac has had Universal Binary versions on release for more than a year, while CS 2 remains Power PC only. Cynics could argue that Adobe have so spectacularly dragged their heels in this matter in order to ensure maximum profits from the release of CS3, as a new generation of Intel Macintosh owners begrudgingly stump up £300+ on top of the £600 or so that they spent on CS2 in the first place. If so, this is a truly despicable leverage of their position by Adobe, especially when you consider that Macintosh users have been among Adobe's best customers down the years.
That, along with all this 'vista-isation' of their product line, all leaves a pretty bad taste in the mouth.
