Ben Long’s “Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta First Look” highlights the performance improvements of the now Intel-native application, and offers some insight into a few of the key new features, including the non-destructive, “Smart Filters,” the enhanced selection and Rubber Stamp tools, and the Camera RAW 4.0 plug-in.

“If Adobe had done nothing more than release a Universal CS2, many users would probably be happy,” said Ben referring to the speed gain of CS3, adding, “Within a few days of playing with the new features, though, you’ll ... Read entire article

AKVIS Decorator V.1.2 is a plug-in that allows the user to paint a new texture and color to an object while preserving its volume. This means that your pretty model may be able to wear a skirt of bricks and still appear genuine, but that’s taking it to the extreme.

A more believable application might be a car with the skin of a snake, or a chair with a different texture. Akvis Decorator follows the underlying features of the object, the texture that already exists, and makes the new color or ... Read entire article

onOne Software has unveiled updates to their plug-ins to make them work seamlessly with Photoshop CS3. The updates involve five key plug-ins that are used by professionals to enhance their Photoshop capabilities.

The updated CS3 plug-ins can be downloaded for free as soon as Photoshop CS3 is commercially available.

onOne makes PhotoFrame Pro 3, which creates unlimited borders and edge effects; Intellihance Pro, which is claimed to streamline image optimization; Genuine Fractals and Genuine Fractals Print Pro, which up sizes images for large prints; and MaskPro 4, an image masking tool.

[Via: ... Read entire article

Genuine Fractals by onOne Software is the Photoshop plug-in to use when you want to blow up images to print in large formats. It doesn’t invent details that are not there in the first place, but its clever math is able to maintain sharp edges to lines and curves and come up with images that are genuinely sharp. Genuine Fractals claims to be able to scale images up to 800%.

Version 5 of the software will come out in the spring of 2007, says onOne, but you don’t have to wait ... Read entire article

Wanna know what Photoshop CS3 Beta is all about? Imaging guru Deke McClelland has got you covered. He has some free training videos available for viewing in collaboration with lynda.com.

It’s just a preview of his upcoming (Jan 2007) training video “Photoshop CS3 Beta One-on-One” but it is already a lot. If you can manage the whole 90 minutes of the preview, you’ll have a peek into many of CS3’s new features: the new interface, Bridge 2.0 essentials, using the Photo Downloader, enhanced Brightness/Contrast, new blend modes, the new Photomerge and many ... Read entire article

It’s a record for Adobe Systems Inc., a substantial revenue of $682.2 million for the fourth quarter period ending December 1, 2006. This is 34 percent higher than last year’s fourth quarter at $510.4 million.

“Fiscal 2006 was another year of solid financial performance for Adobe,” said Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen. Adobe made $2.575 billion this year, up 31 percent over last year’s $1.966 billion.

The fiscal revenue announcement comes in the heels of Adobe’s release of its Photoshop CS3 Beta.

[Via: DigitalCameraInfo]

Following the release of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta, PictureCode also updated its Noise Ninja plug-in to provide native execution on Intel-based Mac computers. The new version of the plug-in works only with CS3 and is expected to run much faster in its native mode compared to the emulated execution that was necessary with Photoshop CS2.

There is also a Noise Ninja version for those running Photoshop CS3 on a PowerPC Mac.

You need and existing Noise Ninja license to unlock the beta release. But if you don’t have it, the link below provides some resources.

[Via: PhotoshopNews.com]

Adobe today released a beta version of its Photoshop CS3 image editing software. The beta version is widely available for download to enable Photoshop users to more easily transition to the latest hardware platforms, particularly Apple’s new Intel-based systems. Photoshop CS3 is expected to run a lot faster on the new Intel Macs than the previous CS2 version. The beta is available as a Universal Binary for the Macintosh platform, as well as for Microsoft Windows XP and Windows Vista computers.

Photoshop CS3 beta also includes a pre-release version of ... Read entire article