Software News

Adobe has announced an update to Photoshop CC that adds new features including changes to the Creative Cloud service; improvements to some existing features; and various other refinements. Key among those additions are updates to 13 Photoshop CC desktop tools that link to a new family of integrated mobile apps; Touch support for Windows 8 and Surface Pro 3; the Creative Profile (that connects CC desktop tools); and nine new mobile apps.

Creative Cloud Libraries now give you quick access to your most used content in a new panel. With the update, you just drag your favorite graphics, colors, type and layer styles, brushes and more into the panel and drag them back out to use them. The items in the panel are synched with Creative Cloud via your Creative Profile allowing you to access them at any time in Photoshop CC or Illustrator CC.

The mobile apps also support Libraries so you can access a brush created in Adobe Brush CC, a color theme from Adobe Color CC or a drawing from Adobe Photoshop Sketch. Photoshop CC can auto-enable HiDPI support for Photoshop in Windows 8.1 Touch devices and offers a Mercury Graphics Engine performance boost.

Extract Assets is a new interface for creating Generator tags that allows you to easily export layers from your design and automatically update them when your design changes. Extract Assets is an easy way to define parameters for extraction such as 2x scaling, compression levels and file type. You may also export vector content as SVG for infinitely scalable assets.

The set-up guides are now faster, allowing you to easily create a grid within Photoshop by choosing the number of columns or specify the exact width, gutter, margin and rows. You may also save your favorites as presets and the Guides From Shape option creates guides based on the currently selected shape (or shapes).

The update includes over 25 assorted improvements to Photoshop including a faster Focus Mask and Content-Aware processing, a filter for creating customizable flames, document presets, updated patterns, new keyboard shortcuts (for locking or hiding layers), 3D rigging and animation data in COLLADA files and support for a 3D PDF workflow.

The update for Lightroom Web allows viewers to add comments to photos shared online. Lightroom mobile features the ability to set pick flags and star ratings without switching contexts or modes and it can use iPhone GPS data to sync with Lightroom and desktop systems. Photographers who use shared collections on lightroom.adobe.com can collect feedback and flow it into Lightroom mobile. Lightroom mobile now supports Brazilian, Portuguese, Italian, Korean and Spanish.

Adobe Photoshop Sketch is a new drawing app for the iPad that lets you create drawings using natural drawing tools such as pens, pencils and markers. It now includes five built-in brushes including: acrylic, pastel, smudges, spray and ink. It even allows you to create your own custom brushes with Adobe Bruch CC and send your sketches to your desktop as a PSD file to use in Photoshop or Illustrator. Adobe Photoshop Mix now gives iPad users a fast, flexible integrated solution for selective edits and access to Creative Cloud, Photoshop CC, Lightroom and more. Adobe Photoshop is now available as an app for the iPhone.

Illustrator Draw gives users access to their favorite vector drawing tools and features with a modern interface and high-fidelity integration with Illustrator CC and enhanced support for Adobe Ink and Slide. Illustrator Line is a precision drawing app that offers new features to distribute shapes and the ability to send a sketch to Illustrator CC.

The Adobe Premiere Clip app transforms video shot with an iPhone or iPad into edited videos for sharing. Adobe Brush CC lets you make unique brushes (from a photo) on your iPad or iPhone for use in Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC or Adobe Illustrator Sketch. The Adobe Shape CC app can capture and create shapes on your iPhone or iPad, the Adobe Color CC app can capture colors and save them as themes that are available for use in Illustrator CC and Photoshop CC.

Adobe also launched Creative Talent Search to connect artists around the world with job opportunities from top brands and companies. Hiring mangers may use Talent Search's advanced discovery tools to find the right artist for the job, custom algorithms recommend candidates and public postings advertise jobs.

More info on the Adobe updates here.