A 4-Part Video Series: What’s Actually in Photoshop CS4?
A couple of weeks ago, Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski and I were all talking about how one of the most common questions we got from attendees during our Lightroom and Photoshop tours in November and December was, “I’m not sure what’s in Photoshop CS4. Should I upgrade or not?”
We were kind of surprised, but again on my blog last week, people are still asking the same questions, “What’s in CS4? Should I upgrade? Is it worth the upgrade? etc.” so we went into the studio to put together a comprehensive discussion on all of CS4’s new features. Now, we’re not saying that Adobe hasn’t done a good job of letting everybody know what the new features are, but…….anyway, if that many people are asking we thought we ought to do it.
Now, the funny thing is; there actually is a LOT more to CS4 than we realized (as you’ll see on the video clips this week), because what was supposed to be a short video, turned into a packed-full four part series that will run here on my blog all week (except of course for Wednesday, when I have a VERY special guest blogger). Anyway, I think if you take a few minutes to check out these video clips this week, you’ll see another side of CS4 that I don’t think a lot of folks know about. Start with the video below, and we’ll pick up back here tomorrow with Part 2.
Great!!! I’ll be watching my inbox closely to see when the next part arrives. I just wish that the upgrade was 199 USD in europe as well- for some reason even the english version is more expensive here + that the NAPP discount isn’t available for us:-(
“Should I upgrade to CS4?….”
“Yes”
This is what I tell all my friends when they ask. If you just do it as a hobby, I’d say no unless you you can afford it, If you do it as a job—hands down, absolutely, without a doubt—YES! Adobe is usually on a 18 month cycle I believe for the CS apps, so the longer you wait, the further you’ll be behind.
Shouldn’t that be: A Week Long Video Series: What’s Actually in Photoshop CS4?
Even though I already have CS4, this is still a great video blog to watch. Makes me glad I upgraded.
i’ve got cs4 too and the videos will help us find even more of the new features that we might otherwise miss.
Ditto. I also have CS4, but it is great getting the insight on what’s hidden in the cracks.
Hey Scott any chance for an upgrade to the 7points book in CS4?
Help!
OK, it might be just me (prob is!) but I cant find pdf presentation in CS4, only just upgraded a couple of weeks ago and needed to do a pdf for a client on Friday and had to back to CS3!
Anyone know where its hidden now!
Thanks
John
PDF Presentation is now in the Output module in Bridge. Select the Output workspace at the top of the right-hand side in Bridge, and you’ll be good to go.
Thanks, I dont use Bridge so neber thought to look there!
John
Thanks guys for this info….great stuff
Ken from KY
Great idea for a blog series, but seriously, Scott….ya gotta cool it with the jazz hands, dude! It’s really distracting.
Also, I realize you’re the boss and all, but give Matt and Dave some more air time, please….you’re hoggin’ it all!
No flaming intended, just a couple observations…..
Mike
Great idea to do some shows highlighting CS4 features.
Our Photoshop Users Group here in Los Angeles invited Adobe PS guru Rick Miller to do a “Whats New in CS4″ presentation this week. http://www.meetup.com/PhotoshopLA/
Hi Guys -
I would upgrade to CS4 if I first knew what is the minimum ram needed for this software. No one told me a year ago that I needed to have 1GB for Lightroom, and after buying Lightroom two years ago I still can’t use it because My G4 does not have 1GB of ram,and I can’t buy it since my G4 goes back 8 years. Can you tell us what is the basic requirements of ram and HD needed for CS4? I even took Scott’s workshop tour on Lightroom when he first started the tour. You know even at the Apple store they did not know what the basic ram was to install Lightroom when I bought it.
Mandy – here ’s the link to the CS4 system requirements.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/photoshop/systemreqs/?promoid=DRHXB
That’s a hard one to answer. I guess it really depends on how big the files you use are. I know I need more RAM and computer performance in working with my 50D files compared to my 20D files. If I were you I would download the 30 day free trial and see how it runs.
Honestly, I would put that money into a new computer before I would buy CS4, my computer is a first gen G5 and I can’t even those hardware accelerated features. Save yourself frustration and put it towards a newer machine, you won’t regret it.
Mac OS
PowerPC® G5 or multicore Intel® processor
Mac OS X v10.4.11–10.5.4
512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
2GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on flash-based storage devices)
1,024×768 display (1,280×800 recommended) with 16-bit video card
Some GPU-accelerated features require graphics support for Shader Model 3.0 and OpenGL 2.0
DVD-ROM drive
QuickTime 7.2 software required for multimedia features
Broadband Internet connection required for online services*
….not to mention that with my experience, I’ve found that 4-5 GB of ram is a nice starting point for an amount of ram to have—granted you can do it with less, but I’ve found that number to be where you start getting less lag time switching programs, re-drawing issues with inDesign ect, ect. Good luck, hope that helps.
I have a question. i’ve looked everywhere for information on resetting the default screen mode. All I can find is references to the icon and the menu to make a change. I understand how. I just don’t want to change it everytime I open up CS4. How to I change the DEFAULT?
As far as I know you can’t change the default screen mode. But you can have a script change the screen mode every time you open Photoshop.
Copy the line below into a plain text editor and save with .jsx extension.
//(”screenModeFullScreen”);
//(”screenModeStandard”);
runMenuItem( stringIDToTypeID( “screenModeFullScreenWithMenubar” ) );
Then in Photoshop choose File-Scripts-Scripts Event Manager. Assign the script to the start event.
As is often the case the first comment is spot on. Why does Adobe rip us off if we dont live in the US? John Nack said he would find someone to answer the question but I never saw the answer. Pity because its good software.
I hope you will discuss the video board requirements for the rotate tool to work. I have been having LOTS of problems with that. You should advise everyone that you may have to upgrade your video driver to get it to work. Mine didn’t work until I downgraded to a very old driver. Crazy I know, but that’s what it took to get it working. With the wrong driver CS4 can get very jittery and jumpy when moving images around on the screen. Forget about using the rotate tool on a laptop (PC anyway) more than likely it will not work. I have read on a few fourms that it will not work on a laptop, and it sure won’t work on mine. No updated driver available for my laptop. Granted it’s not the most expensive laptop. Also there are problems being created in CS4 by NIK filters. Some they know about, some I told them about, that they didn’t know. The one I told NIK about even exsisted in CS3. Hope they fix them soon. Sorry to report this news. It would be nice if Adobe would let us know of the problem with the rotate tool without having the correct driver for it to work.
I watched the video and was wondering if the speed / performance increase will be seen when using my existing Mac (G5 Intel 3.0ghz, 8gigs ram), not the newest. Will the speed / performance be faster then CS3 on my existing tower or G4 MacBook Pro 2.6ghz, 4gigs ram (non-unibody)?
Ooooohhh ya—I have a Macbook Pro 1st. gen (I think 2.0 core duo or something like that), that thing is FASTER (as is Lightroom) at PS CS4 with only 1 GB of ram vs. my older G5 tower with 8 GB of ram—it’s crazy. If your video card is compatible with the new Photoshop, it’s awesome. I could toss the images around with the hand tool like the iPhone does all day, it’s so nice & fluid…….
Thanks for the reply! Im downloading the trial now!
Good luck, it’s really awesome if your video card it supported.
I loaded it up last night. Seems awesome so far! Just need to get used to where everything is and how the new stuff works! I think you need at minimum 1 generation old (at least an Intel Mac) to see the increase in performance. The software may run slower on older machines.
Ya, I’m just waiting for those new Mac Pros to come out…..oh, and a job LOL, ha ha. Hope it works out for you, it’s some great software, they just keep out doing themselves everytime.
what is this do a tones thing?
“Duotones”
Wanted to let you know that if you don’t have flash installed, you don’t even have a place holder or comment that indicates there is a video here, or you need to get flash. Yes, I know it seems pretty silly when you can’t watch the video, but on a work machine that you can’t install flash on, making it more obvious that there is a video here to go look at later would be nice. (like the moose blog)
You spoke about saving time as being one of the reasons to upgrade, however now that Lightroom has dropped the need for as much time in Photoshop, this doesn’t seem to be a compelling factor for upgrading for LR2 users. (Usage %: 90% Lightroom 10% Photoshop)
I do think that you guys are much better salesmen than anyone over at Adobe. My understanding is that they need all the help they can get as CS4 has so far been a bust in the sales department (only 10%-15% of previous Photoshop users have upgraded to CS4).
For those of us on a tight budget these days all we can say is “Only 15 more months till CS5!”
I agree with you Robbie, with so much being done in Lightroom, Adobe is starting to find that Photoshop is not being upgraded except by those who absolutely need it.
I Have found that CS3 works great for me and that using a
method I have developed using presets in lightroom, I have now speeded up my workflow 10 times in lightroom, with this little method. You can find it on my blog.
Why when downloading the trial, the link says try CS4 you have to download cs4 extended which is a lot more than $199.00. Many users are going to have to upgrade their graphics card. Nvida and adobe in cahoots? Another gripe, you are marketing lightroom and cs4 as programs to streamline your workflow, yet you have to purchase them seperately. Why not offer that as an upgrade option? I downloaded the trial, had to update my drivers to get it to work correctly. Cs4 does some cool things, gotta remember all those new shortcut keys, now if I just had an extra hand to press all those new option, shift, alt combos. At this point in time I do not feel this upgrade is living up to all the hoopla.
Can somebody help me with duotones in CS4? I converted an image to B&W under adjustments tab, then used the mode/duotone option and the image looks great BUT!! when I tried to save it, I could NOT save it as a TIFF or JPEG or a regular .PSD – there is a .PSD option, but it is not the usual photoshop extension. Why can’t I save it as a TIFF or JPEG.
I want to print and/or email it.
i installed photoshop CS4 Extended in my pc, and it’s look different the menu,not showing apple mark and photoshop on the top of the menu! Way?
Hi there.
Thank you for a great post. It was very helpfull.
Anyone reading this post should bookmark this guys contents.
I have a new PC and needed some installation help so i went over to http://www.InstallSoftware.com but they did not provide me with the in depth
info this guy did. he kicks all the bigger sites’ butts.
Thanks Again
I harmonise with your conclusions and will thirstily look forward to your next updates. Just saying thanks will not just be enough, for the exceptional clarity in your writing. I will directly grab your rss feed to stay privy of any updates. Solid work and much success in your business endeavors!
Hi I reach your site by mistake when i was searching bing for this wii issue, I must say your site is really helpful I also love the design, its amazing!. I dont have that much time to read all your post at the moment but I have bookmarked your site and also signed up for your RSS feeds. I will be back in a day or two. thanks for a great site.
This is a great post you have written.
buy levitra rick