It’s based on the Adobe Air platform and allows users to create their own palettes. This is what we have been waiting for, thanks Adobe – I think you have been listening to your users… great work!

Note that this only works with Adobe Photoshop CS4 (or above). Also, it is pre-release, so expect to see some refinements here and there as time goes on. I have had a play with it and had no problems with it at all – I found it to be stable and fully functional – although I’ve not actually been able to try a custom palette out yet as I’ve not upgraded to CS4 just yet (and neither have any of my main clients!).

You can download it, and find out more at http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/configurator.html

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Content is a little sparse at the moment, as much like the Apple iPhone App store, everything that gets submitted must be approved by Adobe. This is good in the long-run as it maintains a quality standard – so you know you can have confidence in the qaulity of downloads. Publishers may not like it, but users will certainly appreciate the Adobe stamp of quality.

Adobe are aiming for a full functional roll-out to all users by Summer 2009. It will be interesting to see how this site develops in the future – it’s in my bookmark list and should be in yours too! Good work Adobe – it’s great to see investment in the community around Photoshop!

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First, I’ll review what was on the original wishlist written in 2005:

Editable filter adjustment layers – It would be great if some of the more simpler filters like gausian blur where accessible through a temporary non-destructive adjustment layer, which effected layers below it – much like the current adjustment layers. Obviously this would require a fair amount of processing power, but it would be great!

Well, we basically now have this with ’smart filters’ – not exactly the functionality I outlined, but pretty darn close… thanks Adobe!

Advanced eps handling – This is would work much along the lines of how InDesign and Quark work with imported graphics. Rather than rasterising a placed vector graphic to specific dimensions as pixel data and it suffering when resized, it would rasterise a low res version – keeping a link to the placed vector graphic. So it would auto update if you changed the vector file and you would be able to resize it to any size. This would need the option to rasterise it when you where happy with the placed vector graphic. I know you can copy and paste vector artwork from Illustrator or Freehand, but im talking about more complex graphics.

We also now have this functionality, with the introduction of ’smart objects’ that get created when you place an EPS or vector graphic into Photoshop. In-fact Adobe gave us even more, with the ability to turn any layer into a smart layer and re-size it up and down without any loss in quality (original resolution of graphic allowing). Again, great work Adobe, thanks!

Levels palette overhaul – I think this needs to be bigger in dimensions and more intuitive – possibly offering more colour info feedback. The quick ability to view individual channels would also be very useful.

Well, they didn’t give us this – but they did significantly improve the Curves palette, making it much larger and with the new functionality of presets, so can’t really complain too much!

Advanced scaleable actions – The ability to record an action on an image at a recorded resolution, then play it back on a higher resolution image – with Photoshop scaling the action appropriately to the new image.

This was a complex one really and I understand why this has not been integrated into Photoshop yet by Adobe. However, Photoshop actions are used extensively by production designers and something like this would be VERY useful to see appear in the future!

Filter overhaul – Although I only use a handful of filters these days it would be nice to see some refinements of the current filters appear in future versions. In particular a much more sophisticated tiled pattern/texture generator would be good to see appear. Also the lighting effects have not been touched for years – the preview/setup is particularly small!

Well, looks like someone was looking again at Adobe (I do hope so!!). Filters have has significant improvements in speed and new production filters have been introduced (like ‘Smart Blur’). I’m glad to see Adobe have been working more on ‘production’ type filters rather than ‘fancy effects’ filters too. We also got a pretty decent pattern generator too – bravo Adobe!!

More Actions Options – It would be great to see some more advanced actions options, for instance the ability to pick up file save names from the names of layers or layer sets. This would be great for web development!

Whilst improvements have been made to Actions, I feel that there is still room for improvements here. There is the functionality to save

Give the Mac version the PC toolbar palette extra! – When you are working in full screen mode on a PC, a little arrow appears in the top of the tool palette that has all the top menu options on, this is not available in the Mac version, meaning you have to come out of full screen mode to execute a command you don’t know the shortcut for!

Still waiting for this one, but I guess now we have the palettes that appear automatically when you move your mouse to the edge of the screen this has been superseded by this new interface design… but you still don’t get the main menu across the top, meaning that I have to come out of full screen mode if I don’t know the keyboard shortcut for a menu command.

A live liquify free transform tool – I would love to see the liquify filter be combined into the free transfom tool, so that you get the distortion mesh over a layer directly on the editable image rather than within a (all be it large) filter window. It would be particularly powerful if it also included benzier transform handles like vector paths to curve the edges of distorted layers, maybe even providing an editable low res version of the distorted layer until you hit apply!

The ability to distort layers using vector paths has now been integrated – of all of my wishlist itmes this was pretty much number 1! Gone are the days of having to bodge distortion filters on layers in funny positions, now Adobe have given us PROPER vector point based layer distortions – and as a side bonus even given us presets from the text distortions… could ask for more really on this one!

2005 wishlist review

Wow, after reviewing my previous wishlist, it seems that Adobe have pretty much integrated everything – and even extended the functionality in some areas beyond what I originally outlined! Now, I’m not saying anyone at Adobe HQ was actually paying attention to what I wished for, but it is certainly interesting to see just how many of my wishes have been granted since 2005!!

2009 Photoshop features wishlist – a new beginning

So, onwards and forwards to a new wishlist. There are so many other features that have been integrated into Photoshop now that I didn’t wish for originally and the application has moved on so-much that it’s hard to find any faults with this professional software!! Adobe seem to be listening hard to what users want and rolling out functionality to address these requirements. However, I would suggest the following for new functionality:

New layer styles/effects
It would  be great to see some new layer styles/effects introduced, as these haven’t really changed much for a while. Some suggestions would be ‘roughen edge’ (works off a scaleable noise mask/repeating pattern to displace the edges of a layer) and a better ‘bevel and emboss’ that properly displaced the layer pixels, rather than just shade them.

Ability to apply multiple styles/layer effects of the same type to a layer
It would be highly useful to be able to apply more than one of the same layer style/effect, for instance multiple strokes to a layer, instead of stacking duplicate layers with different strokes applied. Functionality would remain the same, but just with a number next to the ‘instance’ of the layer effect.

More Smart Filters
Smart Filters are a very welcome introduction and improve the editable, non-destructive workflow that commercial designers require. However, only a handful of filters are available (I guess due to potential performance issues). However, it would be good to see more filter choices introduced.

Faster, faster!
I know it’s not really functionality – and certainly things are getting faster through optimisation… but it would be good to see even more code improvements to make things go faster in Photoshop!

Kuler functionality
Kuler is a really nice function that gives you a little helping hand if you are struggling building palettes of complimentary colours. I know we have it in Illustrator, but it would be nice to see in Photoshop too! If it could suggest colours from an image by analysing the predominant colours used… even better!

Improved layer masks on smart layers
Currently, layer masks don’t link properly with smart layers – so if you move a smart layer with a mask attached, only the layer data moves, not the layer mask too. The way around this is to edit your smart layer and build you masking/transparency  into that individual smart layer. It would be great if layer masks linked PROPERLY to smart layers, just like normal layers!

Variable transparency on healing brush
Due to the nature of the healing brush I understand why it always paints 100% opaque. You can fade a brush stroke by going to Edit>Fade after using it, or using it on a new layer and fading the layer. It would be useful to be able to adjust opacity on the fly rather than having to go through this process!

Plugin Manager
I think many years ago there may have been functionality like this – my mind get’s hazy and different versions of Photoshop blend into each other after nearly 12 years!! I’d like to see a ‘Filters Manager’ type function that allows you to not load certain filters to quicken loading time and remove them from the filters menu. I realise that you can customise the menu now (which would have a similar effect), but a manager would be great!

More options for blur and sharpen tools
It would be useful to have more options when using these two tools – taking functionality from the relevant blur and sharpen filters and bringing it into these brushes. I realise this could be achieved by duplicating the layer, applying the filter and then using a layer mask to mask out the effect – but having access to advanced blurring and sharpening straight from the brush would be useful sometimes!

What do you think… what would you like to see?

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I have been a Photoshop user since V2.54 (before layers, eeek… that makes me feel old!) and have obviously seen a-lot of different versions, but they do seem to be coming quicker over the last few versions.

On one hand it’s great to see Adobe working so hard on new features. Also, it’s not just new stuff, but code/speed improvements that get rolled out too don’t forget…

However, there haven’t been any real ‘wow’ moments like the introduction of layer masks, vector shape layers or the healing brush in the last couple of versions for me personally.

Also, as a freelancer I work in different studios and sometimes have to work with older versions because they can afford to upgrade their licences. I understand these design studios make their living from this software, but I’m starting to hear again and again that many studios skip a version and upgrade on the next (eg CS2 to CS4). At least this way you get more bangs for your bucks!

I also feel a little sorry for schools, colleges and universities. I lecture part-time at a local college in graphic design. Although they do get a very decent educational discount, it’s nigh-on impossible for educational institutions such as these to keep up with the upgrade cycle. The college I work at must have around 100 Macs (which cost a fortune in the first place), along with the initial relevant design software. They now have the daunting task of keeping up with the upgrade cycle to ensure they are training students on the latest software.

With an inability to cross-grade between Windows and Mac versions, around an 18 month upgrade cycle and if you fall more than 2 versions behind you are unable to upgrade, I begin to wonder if Adobe are pricing themselves out of their own upgrade cycle that they would dearly like us to buy into… credit crunch bahh – I’m thinking this is more like upgrade crunch!!

I would be very interested to know what readers think – why not leave a comment below?

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I was always a big fan of how the palettes worked in InDesign CS2 (which was different to the rest of the applications in the suite like Photoshop and Illustrator) – where they attached themselves vertically to the side of the screen and ‘flew-out’ when clicked. This made a really neat and un-cluttered interface to work with. I dearly hoped that Adobe would have had good feedback on this and adopted it for all applications in CS3… how very wrong I was!

It seems they have changed the palettes AGAIN, and for the worse in my opinion. If anyone has used the CS3 suite they are presented with much bigger palettes, it feels like they take up much more screen space. I eventually worked out that I don’t have to have them all labeled with their functions but can have little icons instead… still no good in my opinion! Gone also is the great ‘palette well’ at the top right in Photoshop where you could store any number (within reason and screen resolution allowing) of palettes very neatly – I liked that too!

Now don’t get me wrong – overall CS3 is a good upgrade, Photoshop certainly works faster, Illustrator has had a major upgrade, and InDesign has had some essential features added. Overall Adobe has done a good job on this, and I’m a big fan of their software (as most people are in the design industry). But it just seems to me that these new palettes are no good – I wish their was a preference to put them back how they where – a kind of ‘classic’ option. InDesign in particular suffers I think… or is it just me being set in my ways?

With CS3 being an essential upgrade, especially for those people on Intel based Macs (CS2 really didn’t work too well on Intel, especially Illustrator) I wonder how other people have received this new interface?

Don’t get me wrong – I’ll get used to it in time, but my first impressions are really not good and considering I’ll have to use this interface for the next couple of years until CS4 comes out it’s a case of ‘like it or lump it’!

I do wonder what went through the developers minds – surely they conducted lots of usability research, but I feel that from the outcome alot of this was with amateur users, not professionals. It seems the wonderful interface of InDesign CS2 is lost in the void for ever, which in my humble opinion was the best interface ever designed by Adobe. If they had combined that with the palette well of Photoshop we would have been cooking on gas!

What do you think? Comments, as always are very welcome (scroll down!).

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