Creative Toolbox

I’m sure once everyone has a chance to download the Photoshop CS3 beta and digest it all, they will soon discover their favorite new features and enhancements. To get things going though, I thought I’d go ahead and try to list some of mine that quickly surface to the top:

• Smart Filters - Finally we get non-destructive filters (well, sort of). Smart Filters build off of Smart Objects introduced in CS2. In order to use Smart Filters, a layer must be converted to a smart object first. Yes, a little clunky, but the team has made every effort to make it as seamless as possible. Choose “Convert to Smart Filters” from the Filter menu in order to have Photoshop CS3 automatically convert a layer to a smart object before apply a selected filter. I’m not completely convinced at how successful this feature will be consider how Smart Objects exhibit strange blending behaviors in CS2. I’m hoping this has been fixed up.

• Smart Masks - These can be created on a Smart Filter for even more flexibility. Want to apply a blur filter to just a portion of a layer? Do it with a smart filter.

• New Windowing System- Possibly taking some inspiration from their video production applications, Photoshop CS3 now allows you to expand and collapse palettes horizontally. Shrink them enough and they become tool-sized button palettes.

• Miscellaneous UI Refinements- I’m digging the new smooth zooming animation when zooming in and out of a file. Sure, Apple has done this for a while now but it makes Photoshop feel like a more modern application. Switching to and from the application produces a nice subtle fade-in and fade-out of the palettes. Resizing an image now gives you a bit more help as to what interpolation method to select.

• Speed Improvements - Of course this is completely obvious, but the fact that Photoshop is now Universal has just made my MacBook feel like it has officially surpassed my PowerBook 12″ in terms of performance and functionality. Doing mostly web design on my MacBook in Photoshop CS2 with Rosetta wasn’t great but it worked. Now with Photoshop CS3, I’m popping though the UI like I once did on my G4-based Macs. The Layers Styles dialog always killed me but it now pops up without hitting a beat.

The new changes in Photoshop CS3 can be hilighted for you by changing your workspace: Window > Workspace > What’s New in CS3. This feature works in CS2 as well, but the folks at Adobe were considerate enough to go ahead and update it for CS3 for us.

I also wanted to let you know that John’s done a great job compiling resources so I wouldn’t have to. Have at ‘em on his blog.