back to article Supermodel-fiddling tool Photoshop CS6 flinged in free beta

Adobe has lobbed out its latest refresh of Photoshop as a free download for Windows and Mac users. Photoshop CS6 beta will run for a limited time until the product launches in the summer. It's not first time Adobe has released a major product as a free public download - Lightroom and a few previous versions of Photoshop have …

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  1. Fractured Cell

    This'll be cracked in 3....2.....1.....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Maybe that's the point

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    And wait for the....

    ..."why do you need to pay for this propriety system when GIMP is just as good" comments.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      @Lost

      I wasn't planning on commenting but since you brought it up... So why do you need to pay? ;-)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And wait for the....

      oh , hang on....

      sorry for the DV... I missed the " in your post and totally missed the sarcasm...

      GIMP indeed...... its fine for the home user who needs to resize and crop a picture, but for a photography professional its like sparking up a hamlet and trying to say its as good as a Montecristo Eagle,

      1. mdava

        Re: And wait for the....

        The "home user who needs to resize and crop a picture" should use Irfanview.

        Actually, everyone should use Irfanview (for the things that it is best at).

        1. ThomH

          Re: And wait for the....

          If you're just collecting photos, cropping and possibly adjusting colour balance, don't you probably have Picasa or iPhoto, or you can probably do it directly on Flickr? The number of people that want to do only basic editing and also want manually to manage storage has to be vanishingly small.

          I may give Photoshop a spin out of curiosity but Pixelmator matches my slender needs — though pretty much anything with layers and a clone brush would. Including Ifranview.

        2. Andrew Norton
          Thumb Up

          Re: And wait for the....

          I know I do. It's VERY handy at resizing images (and viewing them) and cropping.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Smart move

    I'm surprised they keep this open for all users and somewhat wonder how long they can keep up the "free beta testing"... I mean; there is a lot of different software out there (sure, the Gimp but I'm also referring to other commercial software) and I think there is a growing awareness that Adobe is basically using its users as beta testers. I'm sure many will enjoy the quick preview, but how many will get the feeling that they're actually helping Adobe for free to wield out some of the bugs?

    This is one of the reasons why some companies try to push beta testing forward as an exclusive privilege; people feel special and thus don't even consider the idea that they're basically helping out the company for free.

    Now, I'm well aware that Photoshop is still quite ahead of the rest when it comes to specific editing features (I don't use it myself but a friend of mine uses it professionally), but it seems others are catching up here and there. So I wonder how long they can keep it up.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Smart move

      "Now, I'm well aware that Photoshop is still quite ahead of the rest when it comes to specific editing features (I don't use it myself but a friend of mine uses it professionally), but it seems others are catching up here and there. So I wonder how long they can keep it up."

      I'd be interested to know what those alternatives are. I'm not really in the market for a heavy tool (I'm not even a gifted amateur when it comes to editing :) ), but occasionally you find that tools like Seashore and Paint.net are not quite as smart as I'd like them to be, and given the apparent coding standards as exposed through crud like the Adobe Reader I am seriously hesitant to expose my Mac to the hourly update circus that I was happy to lose when I switched from Windows.. It's bad enough with Adobe Air (inflicted on users via the BBC iPlayer)..

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Smart move

        "I am seriously hesitant to expose my Mac to the hourly update circus that I was happy to lose when I switched from Windows"

        monthly is not exactly hourly is it now? and I would sooner have the circus than sticking my fingers in my ears and going "LA LA LA LA LA" then pay for the fix when they sell you the next version of the OS, that breaks your existing software suite and told by support "you need to buy the new versions of the software for it to be compatible with our OS"..

        1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

          Re: Smart move

          I think my focus was more on the cruddy quality of Adobe code than on which platform I execute it. I mainly use a Mac because I don't have the time to maintain a Linux GUI and I need a desktop on which I can run commercial apps (yes, shock, horror, I pay for things - the latest being Carbon Copy Cloner).

          I suggest you actually *use* a Mac for two months - that's what I did for research. Unless you play games you'll soon notice that you can actually more time actually getting some work done. For me this was unexpected, but since I discovered it myself I don't need to spend time checking someone's affiliation :)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Smart move

        In recent versions maybe 1 or 2 patches each, as far as I can remember. I've found Photoshop rock solid as well, unlke some of the other parts of CS. Its pretty clear where their coding priorities lie.

  4. HMB

    So Affordable!

    I'm so excited. I can use the beta and when it comes out Adobe have agreed that I can pay for CS6 buy selling them one of my Kidney's! I don't know why anyone would want to pirate this product.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Heh

    I cannot think of photoshop now without remembering this frankly hilarious spoof advert.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_vVUIYOmJM

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We're really keen to get people's feedback on this,

    This applies to every Adobe product I've ever had the pleasure of trying. When I tick the "Disable Automatic Updates" checkbox I expect the application to take notice and not remind me every two minutes that there is a new update available. Also when I want photo editing software that is exactly what I want, not one that has modules that can't be disabled. For the life in me I could not, not install the cataloguing part of previous version of CS and have since not bothered with Photoshop. I have my own system for tracking my photos and I don't need someone to try and force how they think I should do things upon me. Nor do I need to search for objects in photos and if I need to share them I am capable of doing so myself.

    I always found photoshop to be quite good but since they started with all the bloat I gave up on it. Even Elements is too full of crap that has nothing to do with photo editing.

    As this is free I'll give it a try but I don't hold out too much hope.

  7. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Re Gimp

    I can't get on with the windows in The GIMP on XP / Win7 - they keep hiding each other. I've been told that this is because GIMP was designed for GNOME which had a more sophisticated window management system that XP / 7. It sounded a plausible reason.

    GIMP seems to run far slower than PS for filters.

    It can't handle HDR images, though a fork of GIMP called CiniPaint can. CinePaint hasn't been put together for MS Windows yet, though. HDR Shop is worth a look for its geometric transformations, such as Mirrored Sphere > Lat / Long or Cube Map.

    The 'Free Transform' tool in GIMP is more limited. You can't use Ctrl to give individual control over the corner anchor points- essential for placing a mock-of of some packaging graphics onto a 3/4 view of a box.

    Having said that, I may be confusing a perceived lack of some functionality in The GIMP with a different way of doings, due to my greater familiarity with PS.

    I'm not saying PS is perfect. Indeed, there are some things for which Picasa is far faster... Like 'straighten' and 'crop', if JPG output is good enough for the task in hand. Images for eBay, for example.

  8. AbortRetryFail

    GIMP

    Horses for courses really. GIMP is pretty powerful but it has a pretty poor user interface and you do kind of have to bludgeon it into submission a bit, but you can get some pretty impressive results way beyond the rather dismissive "resize and crop a picture" that AC@14:38 seems to think its level is at. Users who want to do that are better off with Paint.net and I active dissuade such users from using GIMP - it's way too powerful and complicated for simple tasks like that.

    The main draw (no pun intended) for me is that GIMP gives you a hell of a lot and it's free and Open Source. Photoshop may be fine for those with incredibly deep pockets or very loose morals, but quite simply I have neither so GIMP is a very credibly alternative.

    Sure, Photoshop users look down their nose at GIMP users, but at least we have the smug satisfaction of knowing we have both our kidneys and a clear conscience. :o)

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: GIMP

      I agree, bludgeoning software into submission is part of the fun! HDR Shop is very powerful, but can feel like an exercise in algebra to use ( e.g, if combining two images you have to use operators).

      There are many other pieces of open source software that can do what nothing else can do.

      You can find yourself using a little bit here, and a little bit there if you have a none-standard workflow.. and then find that there is one little function that is essential to the process, and it is only on the full version of, say, AutoCAD (example: Use open-source software to generate a desired geometric pattern. Exports as PDF. Use illustrator to convert to DWG for export to CNC router. Discover that each one of your 2,000 lines has been duplicated. This would not be a problem for print output, but drives the router insane. Solution? 'Overkill' command in AutoCAD, not available AutoCAD LE. The document is open in AutoCAD for all of 30 seconds, but is an essential step).

      Often a 30 day trial is enough, or a 'limited to 10 saves' will get you through.

      Also, it is the industry students who use pirated Photoshop. When they join a company, they are familiar with these licensed tools. The company will not consider using, say, Corel's alternative. Adobe wins. If the student starts their own company, the software is tax deductible so doesn't feel like such a financial hit.

      Being able to rent software by the minute - or by the image, in the case of rendering software- would be good, though. Many more people would happily pay, say, £10 per image, instead of £1000 for the software. Add to this the added value of using Amazon's Cloud CPUs for the donkey work, and the business model seems attractive.

  9. Dave 126 Silver badge

    Grr Adobe

    For the life in me I could not, not install the cataloguing part of previous version of CS and have since not bothered with Photoshop. I have my own system for tracking my photos and I don't need someone to try and force how they think I should do things upon me. - Chris W

    Indeed, like when Adobe disabled Illustrator thumbnails in Windows Explorer, in order to push people towards their Bridge asset management software. Not sure how that was supposed to help their customers and their individual established workflows.

    Having said that, Adobe Bridge doesn't make a nuisance of itself unless you run it. I tend to use Picasa for reviewing photos and launching PS. Picasa well, except for Alpha Layers in TIFFs (rendered black) and also whatever flavour of RAW my camera kicks out (rendered purple!).

  10. Roger 11
    Trollface

    Crop?

    Who doesn't need a faster crop?

  11. Dick Emery
    Thumb Up

    Sharpening

    I've only interested in this for the contant aware sharpening. The demos looked amazing.

  12. John Angelico
    Headmaster

    Flinged? Flinged!!???

    What's this "flinged" in the subtitle?

    At least it allows me to use the Grammar icon!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Flung

    Not `Flinged`. Wow. You write for a living?? Come on! ;)

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: Flung

      You're right. It should be "Flang".

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Been running the beta in a VM to take a look, it's not as worthwhile an upgrade from 5 as 5 was from 4, but I'll still do it when it comes out. That could be because speed gains are more often than not in the tools I rarely or never use. I laughed that Crop was a headline feature too, but the new method is so much more sensible, they should have done it years ago. Though it's not faster - I don't know where that came from. It is much easier to visualise what you're doing - and its non destructive now, like their unfortunately second rate RAW software Lightroom

    Expensive? Not really - if you actually need it, it pays for itself bloody quickly.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not another bloody new version!

    The trouble with Photoshop is that it was feature complete about five years ago. Every version since has just added extra crap that no-one who works with graphics professionally ever uses —but those of us who earn a crust teaching it have to waste time getting to grips with, just on the off-chance some smart-arsed student demands to be shown how the new 'automatic 3D pimple embossing drop-shadow background removal enhancer' tool works.

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