Adobe Releases Major Updates for Creative Cloud Apps on Mac: Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, and More

[MacRumors]

At its annual MAX conference today, Adobe announced a range of new features for its Creative Cloud suite of software for Macs and PCs, including Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, InDesign, and more.

Adobe Lightroom​

Adobe is releasing a major update to Photoshop on the desktop today with several improvements based on its Sensei artificial intelligence technology, including new capabilities in the Object Selection Tool and Content-Aware-Fill.

Adobe has added three ways to identify where in your image you want Content-Aware Fill to look for source pixels as fill content:Auto: Intelligently select source pixels by analyzing pixels near the selection
Rectangular: Chooses pixels nearby
Custom: Full control to identify exactly which pixels to fill fromThe latest version of Photoshop is faster for many tasks, including opening files on a Mac. Adobe has added new quick action buttons to accelerate common tasks, such as the ability to one-click to remove a background, select a subject while in the pixel layer properties panel, or quickly convert text layers into a frame or shape.

Preset workflows have been overhauled, with new, dedicated panels and behaviors for gradients, patterns, and shapes. Presets can be organized into groups, and you can drag and move to rearrange and re-order them.

To learn more about the new features and improvements in Photoshop, read Adobe's blog post and its what's new in Photoshop page.

Following months of beta testing, Adobe today is also making Photoshop on the iPad available to all Creative Cloud customers who have a subscription to Photoshop. Photoshop on the iPad is based on the same code base as the desktop version, but it is reimagined for a mobile, touchscreen-based user experience.

With the iPad version, you can open and edit PSDs, view and edit your layered documents, and take advantage of core functionality such as compositing, masking, and retouching. Adobe plans to add several new features to the app over time. Read our Photoshop for iPad post for more details.

Adobe today also announced that it has integrated cloud document capabilities into Photoshop and expanded support to PSDs. This allows you to access and work on projects across devices, including Photoshop for Mac and iPad, with all edits seamlessly saved to the cloud with an auto-save feature.

Other updates to the Creative Cloud suite:Illustrator: Files with very complex vector illustrations, multiple embedded images, or lots of artboards open up to twice as fast; spell check indicator as you type; file saving in the background; faster rendering of effects and previews; and more efficient path simplification
Lightroom: Guided tutorials for learning how to edit photos; additional export options for choosing output resolution, compression, metadata, file naming, output sharpening, and color space; GPU accelerated editing; and a new Fill Edges option to automatically fill in the edges using Content-Aware Fill technology
InDesign: Support for SVG file formats; variable fonts; and easily find alternative images from Adobe Stock to complete your layout design
Dimension: Match Image can now detect what type of lighting is in your image and will generate sunlight, multiple lights, or 3-point lighting accordingly; easily send your Dimension projects directly to Adobe Aero
XD: coediting in beta; cloud document history; create and manage shareable web links to your work; convert existing Sketch Libraries into cloud documents in XD; redesigned plugin manager; expanded support for Creative Cloud Libraries to allow you to create and manage libraries from within XDNew features previewed earlier this year for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Character Animator are also available as of today.

Adobe's new Creative Cloud updates are available to all Creative Cloud subscribers, with plan options outlined on Adobe's website.


Article Link: Adobe Releases Major Updates for Creative Cloud Apps on Mac: Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, and More

 

[Eauboy]

Do they work with Catalina?

 

[uneeko1ne]

Would love if I could just pay one price for PS hate the subscription

 

[4jasontv]

Im probably wrong, but didn’t they say they were moving to subscription prices so that they could trade features as they were created? The monthly fee was supposed to end large upgrades.

 

[picaman]

Moved on to alternatives (e.g. Pixelmator Pro) when I could no longer own my Adobe software. Haven’t missed any of it, for my purposes.

 

[kissmo]

Do they work with Catalina?

Yes. Nothing special. I don't understand what is that major release.
At least Photoshop - it has some AI improved selection tools which are nice but honestly it's not an OMG upgrade. I haven't yet tested it with sidecar...... I don't know if it can work with it properly.

 

[Latte]

Do they work with Catalina?

Does Catalina work?

 

[mrongey]

The new Nvidia drivers will be great! Oh, wait...

 

[ignatius345]

Adobe today also announced that it has integrated cloud document capabilities into Photoshop and expanded support to PSDs. This allows you to access and work on projects across devices, including Photoshop for Mac and iPad, with all edits seamlessly saved to the cloud with an auto-save feature.

Just what I need -- a silo with just my Adobe files in it and another storage quota to keep an eye on.

I'll just keep putting entire projects into folders, the way I have for years, thanks. I don't want the .docx files and PDF files and .ppt the client sent me in one place and the .ai file I'm working weirdly stored separately in Adobe's lame cloud. All in one folder, thank you very much.

As to the synced part, I made do with Dropbox for the last 8 years, tried Google Drive for a while, and now use iCloud Drive. It works just fine.

 

[nol2001]

I just tried saving in the background in Illustrator and it is a great improvement. Well done Adobe for inventing that.

I think the Creative Cloud subscription should be cheaper (half price) if you only get to use two apps eg just InDesign and Illustrator.

 

[McTaste]

What’s macrumors charge to make 47 separate product announcements from the same company, on the homepage at the same time?

 

[c.s.]

I've been trying out the new object selection tool in Photoshop and it works really well. For me, it's the kind of thing that's worth the price of the subscription this year, because it will save me that much time. I really like Affinity but I think Adobe realizes that these AI improvements are where they can stay ahead for their pro users. The growing competition is good for Adobe, I hope, to keep subscription prices from growing. That's my main concern. I still see it as a decent value, for me professionally.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Im probably wrong, but didn’t they say they were moving to subscription prices so that they could trade features as they were created? The monthly fee was supposed to end large upgrades.

Yes... they can push out new features as they're ready.

But they still wait until there are 5 or 6 new headline features before they make a formal update. (usually this time of year at Adobe MAX and another in the Spring)

And you will get the new features automatically since it's included in your subscription.

You probably wouldn't want Adobe to make an update every time they add a single new feature anyway. That would get tedious. Instead... there are two updates a year... with a handful of new updates and enhancements in each.

But if you remember the old days... they would go two years between updates. And you had to pay for it. The only way to get those new features was to buy the next version. (luckily they had cheaper upgrade pricing)

It was a different cycle back then.

Imagine if an engineer finalized a new feature like Content Aware Fill in January of this year... but the next version of Photoshop wasn't scheduled for release until December of next year. That's a long time to wait for a new feature. (granted there would also be other new features in the next paid-for version)

And Adobe certainly wouldn't add new features for free... because... why would they? Who would pay for upgrades then?

But now... a new feature could be added into the next update coming in 6 months since you're already a paying subscriber.

You're right... subscription pricing can facilitate frequent updates.

But Adobe doesn't update quite as frequently as you'd think.

 

[Steve121178]

Moved on to alternatives (e.g. Pixelmator Pro) when I could no longer own my Adobe software. Haven’t missed any of it, for my purposes.

You never owned the software, you just paid for a license to use it.

 

[mrmrecho]

Anyone have issues with the Extensis Fusion 9 plugins and the new AI24 update? There is nothing -- no mention whatsoever -- on the Extensis site about updated plugins or conflict issues. I hate font issues!