Posts Tagged ‘Photoshop’

Photoshop Suggestions

November 9, 2009

Here’s some of the stuff I’d love to see in the next version of Photoshop, CS5.

  • Fractal Interpolation. Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about… http://meesoft.logicnet.dk/Analyzer/help/help3.htm
  • A pen tool that allows dynamically feathered paths.It would be great to be able to dynamically feather a path in Photoshop. Take the image to the right for example. It would be difficult to select this shape with the Pen Tool, since it’s a vector tool. After the path is created, you would have to manually blur the edges of the selection using Lens Blur or the blur tool. This is not ideal. It would be great to have the ability to go back and use some sort of bezier curves to dynamically feather a path after creating it.
  • Fully-fledged font manager. Alphabetical sorting just isn’t good enough. Adobe should create a program that takes all the fonts in your computer, compares them to an online database, and downloads detailed information about each font. If you were looking for a script font, all you would have to do is pick the tag “script” from a list, and voila—All of your script fonts would show up. It could even have the ability to suggest new fonts… you could think of it like Apple Geunis for font selection. I know it would be a feat, but well worth it. It would need to be pretty easy for people to submit new fonts to Adobe’s database, so that all virtually all fonts can be in their database. The manager would also need to open up in seconds to be useful. If it takes as long as Adobe Bridge does to open, it will be useless.
  • Sub-pixel text rendering. I know it’s not the best idea to embed sub-pixel rendered text in an image because people with old CRTs would see it funny, but I think it would be great to at least have the option.
  • Liquify breaks out of the box. There is absolutely no reason that Liquify (which has been spelt wrong since day one… shouldn’t it be Liquefy?) should open up in it’s own window. TADA!Liquify
  • Add and Subtract Blending Modes. See here.
  • Leading in relative terms. Defining a block of text’s leading using pixels is frustrating, especially when you spend time tweaking font sizes. You’ll always have to go back and dial in a new leading number. If there was some sort of relative leading, perhaps in pixels or ems, it would make life oh, so much easier.
  • Normal blending mode in Layer Styles by default. When creating a drop shadow or a glow, Photoshop picks blending modes like Screen and Multiply. This can be quite confusing to beginners. “Why can’t I see my black glow? Why isn’t my white drop shadow working?”
  • Open a GIF image and retain frames. You can create an animated image in Photoshop and save it as a gif. If you open an animated gif file however, Photoshop proceeds to tell you that it can only open the first frame? Why???

What do you think?

Blending Modes

September 28, 2009

There’s one thing that’s been on my mind for a few years. What’s up with Blending Modes? They always seem to behave differently. In Photoshop, opacity ruins the effect. In Flash, it all relies on alpha, not luminosity. In AfterEffects?

Here’s an image that I’ve concocted which checks for exposure-like qualities.

Blend

In conclusion, Adobe really needs to stop calling Linear Dodge ‘Add’ because that’s really not what it is. ‘Add’ should work with luminosity and transparency the way it does in After Effects.

  • Photoshop should add two blending modes: Add and Subtract. These should function similarly to Linear Dodge and Linear Burn, but also work with alpha (the way Add does in After Effects).
  • After Effects should add a blending mode entitled Subtract, which is the exact opposite effect of Add.

What’s in store for Adobe’s CS5?

September 5, 2009

Who knows? There is a blog I found here that has a bit of info.

Being a veteran user of Adobe programs, here is what I’d like to see in the next version of Creative Suite, CS5.

Uniformity.

Back in September of 2003, a number of Adobe’s flagship programs were bundled together for the first time ever. Since then, Adobe has released three more versions of their Creative Suite. It’s time for some uniformity among programs. Why should items with the same name act differently in different programs? Why should items that function similarly be called different names? A lot of times, they probably shouldn’t.

  • Pen tool: One of the only things Illustrator has done right since day one. In Illustrator, after drawing a bezier curve, clicking on the anchor point will remove half the handle. In Photoshop, you must Alt/Option click. Single clicking on an anchor point in Photoshop does nothing. In Illustrator, the Alt key can convert an anchor point. Not always the case in Photoshop. Dragging a handle into the anchor point itself will remove that handle… only in Illustrator. Why?! And don’t even get me started about the pen tool in Flash. It’s basically useless.
  • Paste: Paste into, Paste in Place, Paste in Front/Back. None of Adobe’s programs handle pasting the same way. Adobe, pick your pony.
  • Break Apart/Convert Text to Outlines: There should be some uniformity here. There isn’t.
  • Brush tools: Adobe, please find a happy medium between Flash and Illustrator. Stop calling it a “blob” brush. Change the name of the other brush to the “stroke paintbrush” or something.
  • Text: Text tools should be more unified. I’d die to have the ability to extend truncated text from a text field into a new field the way InDesign works. Kerning, Leading, Indenting, and more. Come up with a standard.
  • Transform: Control+T in Photoshop is free transforming. It’d be great to free transform in Flash with this shortcut by default.
  • Shortcuts: It would be great to have some sort of global keyboard shortcut manager. Each program has different keyboard shortcuts, but these vary wildly from one program to another.

This post is running a little long, so I’ll stop here. I plan to write more posts with specific ideas I have for each program, so stay posted.