Illustrator

My goodness. CS4 appears to have shipped. Here in the dekeCave--where we keep the dekeCopter and the darkly tinted dekeMobile--we have long heard rumblings that October 15 would be the day. But we also heard that October 23 might be the day. And possibly a push-back to November. With a launch event on the fiery noxious planet Venus.

(Don't you think, if CS4 ever recorded an album, this should be the art?)

Thankfully, Adobe has chosen to scale back its extraterrestrial ambitions and launch CS4 here on Earth. And as usual, I have your back. And when I say, "as usual," I mean, for the first time ever. Of course, I always have your back. But this is the first time I have so much of your back from day one.

(Yes, that explains why you've been reduced to just your front. B/c I have your back. It says "hi," by the way.)

Colleen's post tells you what's up with the new books, all three of them, including the revamped and expanded Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One. Read more » 

Color me not psychic, or even on the right press release list. Just this evening I was ignorantly predicting to Deke that Adobe would announce CS4 was shipping next week during PhotoPlus Expo in New York. Then I arrive home to see this on the Adobe site. In truth, I got the heads up from a tweet by my colleague, Derrick Story (who I just saw a few hours ago at O'Reilly, so the news must be very fresh). Derrick is apparently on the right press release list (or possibly not not-psychic), as are our friends over at Photoshop News who have posted said missive here.

If software is anything like books, it will be a day or so before Amazon has "in stock" status. And speaking of books, Deke's Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One book is at the printer as we speak, due in stock shortly, followed very soon after by Adobe Design One-on-One and (if the planets align) Photoshop CS4 Channels & Masks One-on-One. Yes, Deke and his elves have been working very hard. It's why we all look so sleepy and vitamin deficient, as if we've been living off caffiene and giant gift tins of popcorn. But of course, we're armed with Photoshop CS4 skills to fix that in post. Read more » 

I'm am slowly in pursuit of aggregating what videos I can from the various online sources, all in the name of getting you educated.

The players in this video: Me, of course. That voice, right at the beginning of the move, that's Melanie. The guy soon after is Garrick. He and his buddy Larry (of The Jellybricks) did the music to "101 Tips."

I've spent a lot of time with these two. So has the fourth voice you'll hear, Mordy Golding, a frequent contributor to this site.

En masse, the Fantastic 4 of us show you the best features in Photoshop and Illustrator. (Well, two -- content-aware scaling and multiple artboards -- but still, absolutely best features.) Enjoy! Read more » 

Before you start your weekend... (Ah, I remember weekends, before I started working on the CS4 One-on-One offerings) don't forget to sign up here to join Adobe for the unveiling of CS4 on Tuesday. They promise brilliance, don'tcha know. (I've been watching Deke videos for days, don'tcha know. Next thing, I'll using phrases like "As it turns out" or "in order to undo that modification.") We're very excited around here to soon be able to debate the new features of our favorite Creative Suite applications with you, the revered citizens of dekeTopia.

When you get to the registration page, you can choose your time for viewing the launch event. You a die-hard, have-to-know-it-first kinda person? I'm thinking go for the "Europe 11AM" slot, and get the scoop before all your North American friends even wake up. Here in California, for me that means something like 3AM depending on Adobe's actual definition of "Europe." OK, in fairness, it says Central European Time, so that's 9 hours ahead for me, which puts me at the much more civilized hour of 2AM. But what is sleep compared to knowledge you can lord over your friends for at least 8 hours, during some of which they may not even still be asleep? (Ah, I remember sleep, of course, that was before I started working on the CS4 One-on-One offerings...) See you at virtual Adobe, my die-hard comrades! Read more » 

Well, kids, we finally get to say the name of the next version of Photoshop. Adobe announced early this week, and Adobe VP John Loiacono reiterated during the Photoshop World Keynote, that the next version of Creative Suite will indeed adopt the number 4 and not "next," "5," or "big toe." In fact, Adobe also announced that they will be announcing CS4 on September 23. There will be more details to follow about that launch date soon, and we'll be sure to keep you posted here in dekeTopia.

Meanwhile, what specific features for the next version of Photoshop did we get to see at Photoshop World? The Adobe Team isn't showing us much at the moment. Interestingly, Johnny L did demo a feature referred to as "Seam Carving" which applies a similar effect to the one Deke discussed in the Stretching Podcast and its followup article. This feature allows you to selectively scale only certain parts of an image, sort of removing and stretching and smooshing to effectively leave behind only the parts of the image you want. Apparently, it helps you make your VW van more economical and easy to park.

Adobe VP John "Johnny L" Loiacono demos seam carving and how Photoshop CS4 will help you find a parking space at the Photoshop World Las Vegas 2008 Keynote.

  Read more »