With each release, I wonder how the Adobe engineers
can possibly come up with new ideas, but
somehow they do. Across the board, you’ll see interface
changes, as well as annoyance fixes. And there
are also some compelling additions and enhancements
that may entice you to upgrade.
GENERAL CHANGES
In what some may view as the continuing
Macromediafication of the applications, the interface
for all the programs has changed (again); the
panels are even more condensed than they were
in CS3. I applaud the apparent goal of conserving
screen real estate, but if you’re a current user of
previous versions of the programs, I suspect you’ll
find yourself opening up panels that aren’t open by
default, and creating your own workspaces.
There is now an Application Bar in each application;
this is different from the Control panel
(Options bar in Photoshop), providing access to
Bridge and controls for displaying and arranging
documents within each application.
In addition, all applications now have a tabbased
method of displaying open documents. There
is one application window, and the open documents
are accessed by clicking on the tabs shown at the
top edge of the application window. You may find
it less annoying to use the old floating-window
approach instead, available under the Window
menu in each application (figure 1).
All applications now offer easy access to the
Adobe Kuler online community, so you can experiment
with color harmony rules—and create, save and
download color themes, automatically adding them
to the Swatches panel. Note that Kuler-generated
swatches are RGB.
Now, to the changes in each application:
PHOTOSHOP CS4
In addition to the general interface changes,
Photoshop has taken some steps to make life easier.
Masks
There is a new Masks panel (figure 2), giving you
the ability to nondestructively manipulate layer
masks! Controls include Feathering and the Refine Edge. My only criticism is that there is no glowing
fanfare announcing that this is one of the coolest
additions ever.
Adjustments
An Adjustments panel (figure 3) makes it easy to
access 15 image alterations, and a list of presets
to get you started. The best thing about the Adjustments
panel is it automatically creates an Adjustment
layer, so you’re working nondestructively.
Pixel Grid
Set Pixel Grid view at and above 600 percent magnification. This can come in handy when you’re
creating masks or retouching tiny details.
Camera Raw
The Camera Raw interface now includes an Adjustment
Brush for local contrast, exposure, brightness,
clarity and sharpness work—and a Graduated Filter
that allows you to stake out an area of any angle and
apply corrections in a graduated fashion.
3D features
The updated 3D features in Photoshop CS4
Extended have been enhanced, providing more
editing capabilities.
ILLUSTRATOR CS4
Whereas the features in CS3 were nice—but
incremental—improvements over earlier versions,
Illustrator CS4 takes some great leaps forward.
New and improved features include:
Multiple artboards
Illustrator now offers the ability to create documents
that contain multiple artboards (figure 4) within a
single file. Artboards can be of different dimensions,
and can even overlap each other. For example, the
letterhead, envelope and business card for a client
can be created within one Illustrator file. This can
simplify the creation of common components such
as swatches and symbols. Artboards can be printed
separately. Saving an Illustrator file with multiple
artboards to a PDF results in a multipage PDF, with
each page sized correctly.
Think of the overall Illustrator environment
as a canvas, and artboards as defined work areas
within the canvas. Keep in mind this is not InDesign:
If you need to build true multipage files such as
publications, do that in InDesign. Illustrator does
not offer master page functionality or automatic page
numbering. And your printer will have every right
to smack you if you submit a 32-page annual report
as one Illustrator file, rather than an InDesign file as
nature intended.
Separations preview
Finally, you can view individual inks in color, as well
as overprint effects. Choose Window > Separations
Preview, check the Overprint Preview box, and then
all the visibility controls in the Separations Preview
panel become active. I wish there was also an option
to view separations in black, but maybe that’s just
the old prepress person in me.
Bleed support
You can now define a bleed zone of any width, as in
InDesign. Bleed values can be different on each side
and applied uniformly to an entire document; all
artboards are affected by the bleed setting.
New defined workspaces
Under Window > Workspace, you can also
choose new options that will configure the workspace
to resemble FreeHand, InDesign or Photoshop
environments.
No more filters
There was considerable duplication between the
visual operations available under the Filter menu
and those available under the Effects menu.
Filters—left over from the olden days, before transparency
and Live Effects—created literal, embedded,
pixel-based content or permanently altered affected objects. Effects remain editable throughout
the life of the job, and as such, are much more flexible.
To remove the redundancy, the Filter menu
entry is now gone. Most options that were available
under the Filter menu can now be found under the
Effects menu or the Edit menu.
Enhancements to existing
Illustrator features
Isolation mode
Work in Isolation mode with more object types,
including compound paths, gradient meshes, clipping
paths, opacity masks and images.
Type on a Path
Illustrator has improved composition of type on
paths, requiring less manual kerning for smooth text
flow. This is great news for mapmakers.
Alignment to a key object
While it’s long been possible to designate one of several
objects as a key object for alignments, this feature
is now more obvious. Select several objects, and
click on one of the objects to earmark it as the key
object. The selection edge of the key object becomes
bold; any transforms will now be based on the position
of that key object.
InDesign CS4
Sitting down? InDesign CS4 now includes direct
export to Flash (XFL) and SWF (Shockwave Flash).
Now you can export a publication to spiffy online
’zine content, complete with adorable page-curl
effect. And if you’re proficient in Flash, you can
easily manipulate the exported content; even text is
editable. But wait, there’s more …
Spread rotation
Visually rotate a spread onscreen in 90-degree increments
for easier handling of rotated content by
choosing Rotate Spread View (figure 5) from the
Pages panel menu. Rotated spreads print and export
in their original orientation. When you rotate the
view of a spread, you work in the new orientation:
Create a text frame in the normal way while the
spread is rotated, not working “sideways.” No more
cricks in the neck while you work on calendars. You
can apply rotation only to a spread; you can’t, for
example, rotate only one page of a two-page spread.
Note that when you rotate the spread back to its
original orientation, text frames that were created
while in rotated view are now sideways (if you highlight
text, you will have to turn your head).
Enhanced links panel
A Link Information window is available underneath the Links list, displaying extensive information
about a selected link—including format, creation
date, scale and much more. Additionally, the Links
Panel options allow you to choose whether to display
columns that display effective PPI, color space, rotation
and more.
The new Relink to Folder speeds the updating
of links by allowing you to target a folder. Relinking
and updating links is now a bit more intuitive: Select
one link, relink to the correct image and InDesign
is smart enough to update or relink to all graphics
found in a folder. You no longer have to click in
the empty mystery space at the bottom of the Links
panel to tell InDesign “fix them all.”
New preflight panel
Greatly enhanced from previous versions, InDesign’s
Preflight function is now configurable to check for
conditions specific to your workflow. Define and
share custom profiles to pinpoint problems early
in the life of a job. A Preflight indicator in the status
bar at the lower left of the document window
dynamically displays the current Preflight state of
the document. A green light in the status bar indicates
the document currently meets the preflight
profile in effect. A red light indicates preflight problems;
open the Preflight panel for detailed information.
This enables designers to monitor the content
of their documents throughout the design process,
rather than discovering problems by preflighting just
before they send their job for print.
Informational cursors
As you click and drag to create frames in the page,
width and height are dynamically displayed. While
this is helpful for exact positioning, you may find
it annoying.
Image grids
Interactively create grids of multiple images as they
are placed by holding down Command+Shift (PC:
Control+Shift) as you drag in the page with a loaded
graphics cursor. Use the arrow keys to increase and
decrease the number of rows and columns.
Text stroke enhancements
Miter Limit and Join options allow you to control
the appearance of strokes applied to text.
Conditional text
Create text that displays and prints only when specified. For example, a textbook might contain some
text intended only for the instructor’s information,
but not to be viewed by students (such as quiz
answers). But with Conditional Text, both versions
of the textbook can be sourced from the same file.
