inside creative cloud*€¦ · the june 2014 update to creative cloud added the market feature,...

Inside Adobe Creative Cloud/Photoshop Deep Dive� p.�1�of�15Claudia�McCue�|�Practicalia,�LLC�|�www.practicalia.net

Adobe Creative CloudThere are still some misconceptions about Adobe’s Creative Cloud offering. Let’s clear up the myths!

• I don’t want to be online to use my software! What if I’m stranded in the jungle? How will I use Photoshop?

You don’t have to be online to use Creative Cloud applications: they’re installed on your hard dive. About every 99 days, the Creative Cloud app calls home to make sure your credit card is still valid. That’s it.

• I don’t want to store my files in the Cloud.You can store your files anywhere you like. Creative Cloud includes 20GB of Dropbox-like online file storage (admittedly, that’s not huge). You can use it if you wish, or you can use Dropbox, or you can just put your files on your desktop — it’s up to you.

• What if I am collaborating with users of older versions?All of the Creative Cloud applications provide a way to backsave to older versions.

• What happens if I drop my subscription to Creative Cloud?While you still have the files you created with Creative Cloud, you’ll need Creative Cloud versions to open those files. At this point, you need to backsave to file versions that can be opened in CS6 (or whatever older version you own).

• I don’t want to subscribe; I like the old perpetual license arrangement.Adobe vows to sell perpetually-licensed CS6 for the foreseeable future. If you’re an AIGA member, you can take advantage of discounts to buy CS6 at a reduced price. Of course, CC has features that are lacking in CS6.

Inside Creative Cloud*

*And What’s New for Photoshop


Subscribing to Creative CloudThere are a number of subscription plans for the Creative Cloud.

• Upgrade from previous versions: If you own CS3 or later, pay $29.99/month for the first year, or $359.99/year for a prepaid year). After the first year, pay $49.99/month.

• New subscriber: $49.99/month (annual prepaid, $599.88/year)• Month–to–Month: $74.99/month• Student/Teacher: $19.99/month for first year; $29.99/month thereafter• Teams: $49.99/month for first year; $69.99/month thereafter (includes 100GB/seat storage,

centralized license management• Additional plans for Enterprise and educational labs; call for pricing and options.

Feature ReleasesIn the past, users waited 18–24 months for a new version of Creative Suite. Now, new features are released when they’re ready. You can accept or decline new features, although if the Creative Cloud app itself changes, you are required to update it before you can download new features. This is to ensure support for any new services that might be added to your Creative Cloud subscription.

While there are intermittent trickles of features, there are also “clumps” of features released periodically; for example, in October 2013, and February 2014. In June 2014, Adobe modified the names of applications, appending the “2014” designation to indicate substantial changes to feature sets and, in some cases, file formats. As a consequence, InDesign CC (2014) files had to be exported to IDML for users of “plain old” InDesign CC to open them. Although this sounds like a problem, in actuality, InDesign CC users had no reason not to accept the CC 2014 update, so all users should be on the same version.

Typekit FontsCreative Cloud membership includes access to Typekit fonts for both Web and desktop. These offerings (usually from smaller foundries) include a wide variety of font styles, which can be instantly installed on your system. The fonts are available to all your applications (not just the Adobe programs), and can be converted to outlines, and embedded in PDFs or EPUBs. However, Typekit fonts cannot be packaged by Illustrator or InDesign (probably to minimize font theft).

MarketThe June 2014 update to Creative Cloud added the Market feature, which includes royalty-free images, vector art, icons, and patterns. These are free to use on your own projects.

Working With Users of Older VersionsAll subscribers to Creative Cloud have access to the CS6 and current CC versions of applications. If you’re collaborating with someone who’s using an older version, don’t worry — all applications provide some method of backsaving, either via Save As (Illustrator) or export (InDesign > IDML). Of course, because newer features are not present in older versions, be cautious about backsaving files such as InDesign files with multiple page sizes (not present in CS4) or Photoshop files using Linked Smart Objects (not available in CS6 or earlier).


New Features in Creative CloudIllustrator CC & 2014

• Custom tools panel

• Package for Output

• Typekit

• Touch Type tool

• Images in Brushes

• CSS Extraction

• Live Corners

• All-New Pencil tool

• Pen Tool enhancements

• Repair anchor points

• Reposition closing point

InDesign CC & 2014• 64-bit native

• Faster performance

• Instant font preview

• QR Code generator

• EPUB enhancements

• Simplified hyperlinks

• Typekit

• Drag & Drop table rows/columns

• Swatch groups

• Backward/forward Find/Change

• Fixed-layout EPUB

Photoshop CC & 2014 • Smart Sharpen

• Intelligent up-sampling

• Camera Shake Reduction

• Camera Raw as a filter

• Perspective Warp

• Linked Smart Objects

• Up to 10 color samplers

• Package (except fonts)

• Spin Blur

• Path Blur

• Focus Blur

Illustrator CC 2014Custom Tools PanelRather than wading through the Illustrator tools panel (with all those hidden tools), you can make your own custom Tools panel. Just choose Window > Tools > New Tools Panel and give the panel a name. A “starter kit” of tools appears. Drag and drop tools from the main Tools panel to add them to your new panel.

Create a custom tools panel, tailored to the way you like to work.


You can rearrange the tools, or Option/Alt-drag one tool over another to swap positions. You can display as a single column or in two columns. To remove a tool, just drag it out of the custom panel (this only works if you have an open document).

Touch Type ToolIn the past, if you wanted to rotate a letter within text, you would have to convert the type to outlines, ungroup, then modify the letter as a standalone object (hope you ran spell-check first). But the new Touch Type tool lets you select and transform individual letters without converting to outlines. Is this a good thing? Maybe…

Touch Ty pe ToolTouch Type Tool

Scale (constrained)

Scale horizontallyMove character

Scale vertically

Rotate character

Use the Touch Type Tool to scale, rotate, and reposition individual characters in text.

Live CornersRounded rectangles have long been frustrating — you almost never achieve the perfect corner radius at your first attempt. A little-known trick (using the Up/Down arrows to control radius as you drag to create the rectangle) only added to the frustration. Now, at last (after only 25 years), you can interactively or numerically control corner radius, and choose from several alternate corner treatments. Just select a shape with the Direct Selection tool, and the Live Corners controls appear.

LIVE CORNERSUse the Direct Selection tool to activate the Live Corners controls. Drag to curve the corners.


ROUNDED CORNERSClick with the Direct Selection tool (white arrow) to view the Live Corner controls. Drag to add curvature. Option/Alt-click to choose a corner style. Double-click to see numeric options.

Improved Pencil ToolAlthough Illustrator’s Pencil tool is more like a real-world drawing instrument than the Pen tool, it has suffered in the past from an excess of anchor points when using its smoothest setting. This has been greatly improved in Illustrator CC 2014. To control the Pencil tool settings, just double-click the tool

When the Pencil tool Fidelity is set to “Accurate,” it faithfully renders a lumpy drawn line (top).

But when the Fidelity setting is set to “Smooth,” the same drag of the mouse produces a much better line (bottom).

Other improvements to the Pencil tool include the ability to draw straight lines while holding down the Option/Alt key.


InDesign CC 2014Much of the changes in InDesign CC 2014 have been devoted to improving performance, and to strengthening support for the creation of EPUBs. So it may seem that InDesign isn’t seeing the new-feature love that has been lavished on the other applications. Under the hood, it’s like a brand new car. But there are some nice new features.

Instant Font PreviewCan’t decide which typeface to use? InDesign makes it easy to experiment; just select some text, click the pulldown triangle in the font menu to reveal all active fonts, move your cursor over the font list, and use the Up/Down arrows on your keyboard to traverse the list and apply various fonts to the text. If you find the perfect font, just click to select and apply it. If you don’t, just press the Escape key to exit without changing your text.

TIP: Rather than selecting text, you can just select the text frame and use the above trick, as long as the frame is not part of a threaded series of frames.


Drag & Drop Table Rows/ColumnsIn the past, if you wanted to move table rows or columns, you would have to create new blank rows or columns, then select the content you wish to move, cut it, and paste the content into the newly made rows or columns. This approach isn’t painful, but it is a bit tedious. InDesign CC 2014 gives you a much saner way to transplant rows or columns —it’s as simple as drag and drop.

To move table rows or columns, just select, then drag into the new position.

Swatch GroupsIf you’re prone to having a large assortment of swatches, you’ll appreciate the new Swatch Groups feature. You can create groups for solid swatches and tint swatches, but groups can’t include gradient swatches. And you can’t move the “hard-wired” factory swatches None, Registration, Paper, or Black into a group.

Swatch groups make it easy to organize your solid and tint swatches


Photoshop CC 2014 In DepthJust when you think there’s nothing else you can do to a pixel, the clever Adobe engineers still manage to come up with sophisticated tools to make our pixel-wrangling easier. Let’s take a look at some of the most important features:

Smart SharpenWhile it isn’t possible to fix an image that was shot out-of-focus, Photoshop CC can enhance the apparent sharpness of an image to a greater degree than was possible in previous versions. It provides precise control of edge contrast, along with settings to prevent sharpening of noise and grain.

Choose Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen to open the Smart Sharpen dialog. The Radius slider determines the width of the “rim” of increased contrast around details; Reduce Noise sets a threshold to combat unwanted sharpening of noise and grain.

The Smart Sharpen feature in Photoshop CC allows you to sharpen images to a higher degree than previous versions, with intuitive controls to prevent sharpening of unwanted noise and grain.

In essence, sharpening is the exaggeration of contrast along all edges that Photoshop deems to be important detail. The improved features of Smart Sharpen allow you to push the sharpening further than you could in previous versions, and the Reduce Noise slider provides more control than the Threshold option did in older versions.

BEFORE: Decent image of painted building detail.

AFTER: Applying Smart Sharpen accentuates detail, without introducing unwanted noise.


TIP: Before applying any filter, such as Smart Sharpen, choose Filter > Convert for Smart Filters. This converts the selected layer to a Smart Object, which allows you to apply the filter effect nondestructively.

Intelligent Up-samplingIt’s best to work with as large an original image as possible (and thus, lots of data), but there are times when you’re forced to use an image at a larger size than would be optimal. Intelligent up-sampling does a better job of interpolation to create new data than previous versions. Still, don’t expect to scale a postage stamp-sized image up to a wall poster!

When you scale up an image, or need to increase the resolution (Image > Image Size), you’ll achieve the best results if you use even multiples (200%, 400%, etc.), and choose Preserve Details (enlargement) as the resampling method.

Photoshop CC does a great job of “making something out of nothing” when scaling up images. If possible, scale in multiples of 200%. But all scale factors will produce reasonable results when you choose “Preserve Details.”

OLD METHOD: Upsampling an image with the Bicubic Smoother resampling option yields an “okay” image, but detail is softened.

NEW METHOD: The new Preserve Details option does a very good job of retaining detail when an image is enlarged.

NOTE: If you’re reducing the size of an image, choose “Bicubic Sharper (reduction)” for the resampling method. This applies a bit of sharpening to compensate for discarded pixels.


Camera Shake ReductionContinuing the theme of sharpening, Camera Shake Reduction attempts to compensate for camera movement while an image is being captured. Note that this feature won’t help if the subject is moving; only if the camera itself has moved. Choose Filter > Sharpen > Shake Reduction and allow Photoshop to analyze the image for a trend in movement. You can click and drag to create a new analysis marquee, or even draw what you think is the “smear” path of the camera movement, but I think you’ll find that Photoshop’s first analysis is the best. It’s great — you can just twiddle your thumbs while Photoshop does the heavy lifting!

LEFT: Before Camera Shake ReductionRIGHT: After Camera Shake Reduction

Camera Raw as a FilterIf your camera captures Raw data, Photoshop can utilize the full extent of that data, which gives you some wonderful flexibility when performing color corrections or compensating for poor exposure. Photoshop now allows you to use many of the great Camera Raw tools on any image, regardless of format. Although you won’t have the leeway (or some of the features) that you would have with a true raw file, being able to use many Camera Raw corrections on any image can extend your ability to save less-than-perfect files.

There has long been a noise reduction option available under Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise, but Camera Raw tools are more powerful, and produce a better result.

If you wish to do this nondestructively (and you should), first choose Filter > Convert for Smart Filters. Then, choose Filter > Camera Raw Filter.

NOISE REDUCTION WITH THE CAMERA RAW FILTER: Start by dragging the Color slider to the right — color noise is the most noticeable. Then, work with the Luminance slider to reduce noise texture while minimizing any erosion of detail.


In the Camera Raw Filter dialog, switch to the Details screen by clicking the third icon from the left (a pair of triangles). The noise reduction controls are at the bottom of the options pane on the right. To combat noise, start by dragging the Color slider to the right (because color noise is most noticeable). If that doesn’t sufficiently improve the image, drag the Luminance noise slider to the right. This will soften noise, while attempting to retain detail.

LEFT: Before using Noise Reduction in the Camera Raw filter.RIGHT: After using Camera Raw filter noise reduction.

Perspective WarpThe magical Perspective Warp feature lets you change the apparent perspective of a subject. Choose Edit > Perspective Warp. There are two steps: first, draw the planes of an imaginary box to inform Photoshop about the current perspective; then, click the Warp button and manipulate the planes of the box to accomplish the perspective change. The entire selected layer is then warped, so you may wish to isolate the subject on its own layer first.

PERSPECTIVE WARP : DRAW PLANESIn this step, you’re showing Photoshop the current perspective of the subject. Click and drag to draw planes, then move the corner points to mimic the subject. Think of it as drawing the sides of an imaginary box containing the subject.


CLICK THE WARP BUTTONMove the corner points to manipulate the perspective. TIP: Shift-click on edges that should be vertical or horizontal; they turn yellow and snap to vertical or horizontal.

Focus SelectOne of the secrets of happiness (and success) in Photoshop is the art of making good selections. Whether you want to isolate a subject from the background, or mask part of an image for a color correction, you frequently need to make selections.

Photoshop CC 2014 introduces a new method for selecting, based on what’s in focus in the image. Choose Select > Focus Area to get started. You don’t even have to do anything; just let Photoshop begin to analyze the image.

Let Photoshop help you make a selection, based on what’s in focus in the image.

Photoshop’s first pass might not be perfect, but it’s a great start. Use the Add/Subtract brushes in the Focus Select dialog to clean it up.


Experiment with the In-Focus Range slider to adjust the results. Drag to the left to capture the sharpest, most in-focus areas; drag to the right to include less sharp content.

To further tune up the selection, click the Refine Edge button at the bottom of the Focus Area dialog. Use the Smart Radius slider to add smaller details; this lets Photoshop analyze junctures with less contrast and add them to the mask. The Smooth slider in the Adjust Edge section adds a bit of subtle anti-aliasing to the edge, without deforming it. It’s a great addition to almost any mask.

Edge Detection: Select Smart Radius and drag the Radius slider to the right to refine the mask edge and capture finer details.Adjust Edge: Drag the Smooth slider to soften the edge for a more realistic look.

Here’s the final result of only a few minutes’ work.


Spin BlurPhotoshop has offered a Radial Blur filter for years, but it was limited to a circular motion that couldn’t be reshaped. Photoshop CC 2014 introduces an elegant radial blur solution that enables you to more realistically depict motion.

Choose Filter > Blur Gallery > Spin Blur to see the controls. You can reshape the initial circle to match the subject you want to spin, control the transition from blur to sharp, and add strobe-like effects to accentuate the effect.

SPIN BLUR CONTROLSReshape the spin blur area by moving nodes on the oval. The area between the white dots and the edge define the transition from blurred to sharp; reposition the dots to widen or narrow that transition.

Transition zone from blur to sharp

On-object blur control; drag around the dial to increase or decrease blur amount

Think of the possibilities if you’re trying to show motion in a photograph of something like a centrifuge, an automobile, a ceiling fan — anything that rotates.

Strobe controls make blur look more realistic.

Control the blur angle


Path BlurSometimes you need to show motion that isn’t circular or elliptical in nature. For more organic blur effects, you can use the flexible new Path Blur feature. Choose Filter > Blur Gallery > Path Blur. Initially, a short horizontal blur path appears:

But you can reposition the blur path by Command-dragging (PC: Control-drag), and reshape the path by dragging the middle circle control. Select an endpoint of a blur path to control the speed at that point.

Create multiple blur paths, with differing rates of speed. Select an endpoint (black interior circle indicates a selected endpoint) to control the speed at that point. Set the speed of an endpoint to zero to “hit the brakes” and eliminate blur.

Wrapping UpBy the time you read this, there will almost certainly be even newer, more wonderful features introduced to all of these applications — that’s the strongest selling point of Creative Cloud!

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about the Creative Cloud, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, or Acrobat. And have fun creating with all this fabulous software!

Claudia McCue [email protected]

inside creative cloud*€¦ · the june 2014 update to creative cloud added the market feature,...

Documents