imaging

There's so much big news surrounding Photoshop CS6 that I'm not sure where to start. This is Adobe's first-ever public beta of its most important product (expected to ship sometime in the first half of this year). It's the first Adobe product to incorporate the company's new DRM architecture. It's the first version of Photoshop to take video seriously and to make it into the Standard Edition of the product rather than the extra-pricey Extended version. It's the first version to integrate the company's GPU-accelerating Mercury Graphics Engine (MGE). And for the first time in more than 20 years, Photoshop goes dark.

The beta, which is actually the Extended version of the product, is downloadable from Adobe Labs or Download.com, though at a hefty 1.8GB, it's not for the bandwith-constrained. While you can't run it simultaneously with previous versions, like every Adobe update it installs completely separately so that you can keep predecessors.

Dear Adobe: while that's very convenient, I still want the option to actually update from the previous version. I am tired of the cruft Creative Suite leaves behind every time a new version comes out; on my previous system, I had random directories left over from at least three generations of CS. Given that your new subscription model is designed to drive users to more-frequent updates, you'd better deal with better ways to clean up behind yourself.… Read more

A law passed late Monday in Israel is not only banning underweight models from appearing in local advertising, it's also requiring publications to disclose when models -- male or female -- have been digitally edited to appear thinner than they are.

"We want to break the illusion that the model we see is real," Liad Gil-Har, the assistant to the law sponsor, told the Associated Press.

Supporters of the law, which appears to be the first of its kind anywhere, say they hope it will help reduce the rate of eating disorders, which in many developed countries (… Read more

It seems like many years since massive CRTs dominated the desktop display market, not to mention the desktop: anything over 17 inches was a sure hernia, and 21 inches was the practical limit. But what many people remember is screensavers, which were as important as Flash is today, and critical for preventing burn-in. Not only are screensavers still with us in the LCD era, they're better than ever, even if they're no longer needed much for their original mission. That's OK, because they have a new one, and that's to place something visually interesting on all … Read more

ImageVisu is freeware that displays a wide range of images in a fast interface. It has basic controls for orienting and fitting images, zooming, and printing, and it displays slideshows. It's part of the GeoVisu Suite, a free set of image, GIS, and GPS tools. However, you can choose to install only ImageVisu or any combination of the three.

ImageVisu installs three components: GeoVisu, GpsDiffuser, and ImageVisu, with optional file association check boxes to make ImageVisu our default tool for displaying JPEGs, bitmaps, and other common (and not-so-common) file types. GeoVisu's graphics editor-style interface opened when the installer … Read more

With a focus on both the occasional graphics user and the professional, CorelDraw Graphics Suite X6 (download) hits the market toting a wealth of tools that make manipulating graphics much simpler than before. Hobbyists can check it out to make newsletters, calendars, or banners, while business users can use it to make simple marketing collateral or sales presentations. And of course, designers can use it design things as well.

The new version of the Suite, X6, comes with native 64-bit and multicore processor support, which bumps up the speed of this program noticeably. This means less waiting when exporting, printing, … Read more

Apple has released an update to let Mac users view and edit raw files from several new high-end cameras, including the new $800 PowerShot G1 X, Canon's answer to the parade of high-end mirrorless compact cameras with interchangeable lenses.

Also supported is Nikon's new flagship SLR, the D4.

Raw photo formats, taken directly from the image sensor without in-camera processing into a JPEG, permit greater flexibility and quality for editing. But they require manual processing with software, and this update means Apple's iPhoto and Aperture can handle the shots. The proprietary raw formats aren't standard, so … Read more

Sporting some interesting user interface conventions and a fairly powerful set of image-editing tools, iPhoto makes a fairly splashy debut, especially at the relatively reasonable price of $4.99. Though it lacks some of the capabilities of the more expensive Photoshop Touch, including cross-iOS/Android compatibility and compositing, it looks like it has a reasonably broad image-editing feature set and a major advantage: it can handle images up to 19 megapixels, while Adobe's app is limited to 1,600x1,600 pixels. Though it was launched with the new iPad--and will probably be really nice to use with that model'… Read more

Sporting some interesting user interface conventions and a fairly powerful set of image-editing tools, iPhoto makes a fairly splashy debut, especially at the relatively reasonable price of $4.99. Though it lacks some of the capabilities of the more expensive Photoshop Touch, including cross-iOS/Android compatibility and compositing, it looks like it has a reasonably broad image-editing feature set and a major advantage: it can handle images up to 19 megapixels, while Adobe's app is limited to 1,600x1,600 pixels. Though it was launched with the new iPad--and will probably be really nice to use with that model'… Read more

Updated, October 22, 2012: Replaced Windows 8 Consumer Preview screenshots with those from the final version of Windows 8.

We recently showed you how to use the new Windows 8 refresh feature to reinstall Windows, while keeping your settings and data files intact. One drawback to refreshing your system is that you have to reinstall any programs you installed on your own (non-Microsoft Store apps).

Using a custom refresh image will allow you recover Windows 8 with the programs you want, so you won't have to reinstall them after a refresh. You can create as many custom images as … Read more