public

Oh gosh,

A couple of days ago, I posted a bunch of videos on Photoshop CS6, which is now in public beta.

Some of you commented on the tenor of my voice. Examples include "Deke are you OK?" and "Was someone holding a gun to your head?" Here are some others:

Please, Deke, don't keep using that tone of voice! Sounds like you either had a death in the family or just got over a long illness! Read more » 

Tonight, at 9:01pm California time (that's 1 minute after midnight on the East Coast), Photoshop pulls off something it has attempted just once before: It enters a nearly seven-week period of public beta, during which you can download the program for free. Yes, Photoshop CS6 is available, right this moment, for your immediate click, install, and enjoyment. And it will cost you nothing.

That is to say, you won't have to shell out cash. But you will have to expend some attention. Because, and make no mistake about this, CS6 is one of the biggest upgrades to Photoshop since its inception.

Which is why I've created a total of 29 movies on the topic for lynda.com, including the one above and five more embedded in this post. The full 29-movie course is available, in its entirety, for free to members and non-members alike. Just click on this link, Photoshop CS6 Beta Preview, and start watching.

Meanwhile, here's my take on the product: After many months using the application, I put it in the same rarefied air as Photoshop 1 (a big upgrade from no Photoshop whatsoever), Photoshop 3 (layers!), Photoshop 5 (color management, layer effects, history, editable text), Photoshop 7 (healing, Camera Raw), and Photoshop CS3 (smart filters, 3D). Feature-wise, it's closest to the 1990's-era Photoshop 5. Because the damn thing's dripping with the stank of the spanking new. If this were a car, you'd be driving it for a month just to learn all the gizmos and then sitting in your garage just to smell the upholstery. And honestly, friends, this is one good-smelling application.

In fact, Photoshop CS6 may be the most impressive upgrade to the program since Adobe assigned the CS trademark. My two cents, love to know yours.

For example, there's the infectious tang of the dark interface, feature in the above movie. (Lightroom users will say they already had this, but this is Photoshop, so where's the comparison?) The darkness is calming and it allows you to focus on your image without the distraction of the bright stuff around the edges. On the PC, it looks like the image below. On the Mac, it's topped off by a light gray menu bar, which sucks, but it's a necessity of the light OS. Click the image below to see a full-res view.

Read more » 

And that's just the beginning. What follows is a list of my Top 10 favorite features in the program:

Update: As of 29 June 2009, Flow is now shipping. To order a copy at a special dekeOnline discount, go to gridironflow.com/deke.

Forgive our relative lack of blogging this week. But between Photoshop World and the pre-announcement of CS4, Colleen and I have been maxed to the gills. (Is that the right phrase? I ask b/c it doesn't make any damn sense. Even so, you know what I mean.)

Regardless of how busy we are, things are afoot. For example, if you hold your ear to the ground closely you can hear, just below the thunderous approach of CS4 (think T-rex), a softer but more animated advancement (3 or 4 velociraptors) that I'm thinking might be every bit as exciting. That softer sound is Gridiron Flow.

One of the most ambitious applications I've witnessed in years, Flow stands poised to be that one killer non-Adobe app that every designer cannot live without. (And I don't say that lightly. We designers can live without food, family, sleep, friends . . . just about everything.) Read more »