14 DAY TRIAL // Adobe has officially announced Creative Suite 4, along with Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended, the latest iterations of the applications found in Adobe's suite. Optimized to take advantage of GPUs, Photoshop CS4 simplifies tasks, like with content-aware scaling, auto-align and auto-blend modes on 360 degree panoramas.
The primary enhancement from which users benefit is, of course, Photoshop's new GPU-aware nature. This allows the program to share tasks with the graphics card, speeding up several intensive operations, such as panning, zooming, canvas rotation and several others. These actions are offloaded to the GPU, speeding things up.
Where “Extended” is concerned, Photoshop CS4 allows users to paint directly on 3D objects, or texture them with 2D images. Animating 3D objects is also possible with CS4 Extended, and, if the user wishes to create more realistic renderings, a new ray-tracer is included. Last, but certainly not least, users can edit light, or compile DICOM image stacks into three-dimensional models (aimed at medical personnel), to mention a few of the tweak-able parameters.
“Photoshop is about delivering cutting-edge innovation that really pushes the boundaries of digital image editing,” said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for professional digital imaging at Adobe. “This version is no exception with some stunning new imaging technology that complements our work to bring more control, simplicity and speed to everyday tasks. By streamlining the most popular workflows for the professional, technical or home user, Photoshop CS4 brings new levels of accessibility to the gold standard in digital imaging software.”
Photoshop is Adobe Systems' flagship graphics editing program. It is the current and primary market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation. It is an industry standard for graphics professionals and was one of the early "killer applications" on Macintosh.
Photoshop CS4 ships in October for $700. Photoshop Extended will cost $1,000.