Adobe Photoshop CS3 due in April

Ahead of its NYC launch event/webcast on Tuesday, Adobe today formally announced Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended, two new editions of the professional industry standard for digital imaging. Photoshop CS3 software is called a "major upgrade," offering new innovations in editing power and productivity for designers and photographers as well as an entirely new version, Photoshop CS3 Extended that brings tools for 3-D, motion graphics, image measurement and analysis for professionals in architecture, engineering, medicine, and science. Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended will be available as stand-alone applications or key components of Adobe’s expanded Creative Suite 3 family. The software will be available as a Universal application for both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. Photoshop CS3 brings new features for advanced compositing, including the ability to automatically align multiple Photoshop layers or images based on similar content, while the new Auto-blend Layers command blends the color and the shading to create a smooth, editable result.

Photoshop CS3 Extended software includes everything in Photoshop CS3 plus additional specialized features such as support for 3-D and video workflows, animation and in-depth image analysis. With support for popular 3-D formats, users can render and incorporate rich 3-D content into their 2-D compositions, including texture editing on 3-D models. Using the Enhanced Vanishing Point, designers can measure in perspective and also export from Enhanced Vanishing Point to a 3-D model. For video post-production, Photoshop CS3 Extended now includes video-format and layer support to edit video files frame by frame. The resulting video can then be exported to a variety of formats including Flash.

Developed for manufacturing and medicine fields, the Measurement Log palette calculates a range of values within an image, the Scale Marker easily adds a scale graphic to any image, and the new Count tool tallies features in an image simply by clicking on them.

“We estimate that 98 percent of all video games on the shelf were created with Photoshop,” said Michael Casalino, senior environment artist for Electronic Arts Sports. “The enhancements in Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended will make the software even more indispensable to us, with functionality like the new 3D editing tools allowing users to seamlessly incorporate 3D content into the image-editing workflow.”

New to Photoshop CS3 and the Adobe Creative Suite 3 family, Adobe Device Central boosts the productivity of creative professionals who develop content for mobile handsets, the company said.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended will begin shipping in April 2007 to customers in the United States and Canada. The estimated street price for Adobe Photoshop CS3 is $650 (upgrades are $200) and $1000 (upgrades start at $350) for Photoshop CS3 Extended.

Filed under: Graphics/Web Design