Adobe Photoshop CS6 Beta Available for FREE Download Right Now!!

Very exciting news!
Adobe has just announced that the brand new release of everyone’s favourite editing tool (Adobe Photoshop CS6) is now available for FREE download as part of their public beta program.

There are tons of mind-blowing New Features (well, 65 new features according to the Adobe press release)
Mark and I will be reviewing and writing about what’s new and amazing about the new release, but in the meantime here’s a quick rundown of the latest features.

• Totally fresh new user interface
• Searchable layers
• Content-aware move
• A whole new way to crop images….

Brushes
– HUD brush resize and hardness can now change opacity
– Increase brush size to 5000px
– Change color dynamics to per stroke instead of per tip (user option for old behavior)
– Brightness/contrast slider for textures when painting
– Brush projection for static tips
– Brush cursor reflects brush dynamics for round and captured tips

Eyedropper
– Show the sample size popup for the various eyedropper tools (black point, white point,
etc.)
– Add ignore adjustment layers options bar item for the eyedropper
– New mode for eyedropper to select layers current and below

File formats
– Read common stereo image pair formats (JPS, PNS) Allow for more bit depths in TIFF files
– Read BIGTIFF format
– Give the user choices regarding how they want transparency treated in OpenEXR on file open

Grammar
– Policed throughout app
– Use consistent grammar style in the title of dialog windows (no commands such as “Choose a color:”)

Layers
– Add a contextual menu item that deletes a layer effect not just disables it
– Add dither options to Layer Styles for Gradient Overlay and Gradient Stroke
– Allow 00 or Shift 00 to work when setting layer/fill opacity (previously no way to get 0%)
– Add bicubic sharper & bicubic smoother options when free transforming layers
– Allow changing of blend modes for multiple layers at once
– Allow locking of multiple layers
– CMD+J to duplicate layers and layer group
– Allow changing color labels to multiple layers at once
– Layer tooltips to include layer name (if defined)
– Opt+click on toggle arrows (groups and effects) in layer panel should close all targets
– Show blend if/Blending Effects badge on layer
– Show correct opacity and blend mode values for hidden layers
– Tab goes to next layer on inline layer rename, SHIFT + TAB goes to previous
– New command to raster layer effect into layer, merging the selected layers into themselves
– Reorder effects in the layers palette to match the Z-­­order style/blend mode (bottom most effects in termsof blending order, drop shadow is below the other effects

Liquify
– Resize Liquify brush with shortcuts
– Increase maximum Liquify brush size Add option to load last mesh

Presets
– Add new document presets for common devices (e.g. iPhone, iPad, etc.)
– Add new Gradient Map presets for toning and split-­­toning
– Sticky reorganization of tool presets (changes persist after re-launch) Add Contact Sheet II as an Automation option

SDK
– Add the ability to return an array of guides in a document from the scripting SDK
– Add ability to access tool name associated with the tool preset name via scripting
Selections
– Make the marquee, lasso, and mask panel feather values support decimal places like the feather dialog
– Remember feather radius when showing dialog for selection from a path

Transform
– Improve dragging of vector curves
– Don’t hide smart object icon when transforming a layer
– Rotate 90 with even x odd pixel dimension to be smooth (bjango.com)
– Undo or disable auto -­­rotate on open

UI
– Remove the app bar and reduce the drag/app bar over 30%
– [Windows] New/open document to context click on a document tab (has always been on Mac, now Windows too)
– Add “Don’t show again” checkbox to Purge warnings

Miscellaneous
– Enable Split Channels for documents with layers
– Select Hex field by default and allow clipboard pastes with # in contents (i.e. #fffffff)
– Increased GPU stability by prequalifying GPUs on the fly before use
– Auto-­­select the best resample method based on the type of resize
– Enable Invert and Threshold adjustments for masks in 32 -­­bit
– Hold SHIFT during startup to disable 3rd party plugins
– Add warning message that 16 -­­bit images cannot display their file size in the Save as JPEG dialog
– Add command to insert “lorem ipsum” for type

While you wait for your free beta copy of Photoshop CS6 to finish downloading, here’s the inimitable Russel Brown (not to be confused with the idiosyncratic Russel Brand!) has a rundown of his favourite 6 features.