Monday, January 18, 2010

January 2010 Edition

Hi subscriber,

Welcome to the second edition of "recent squeaks" -  the Hypermouse Newsletter. 

Another year begins, filled with much promise and speculation in our industry.

This issue includes a new tip for Photoshop CS4 users, several key bits of industry-related news, notification of a new section at our website, and our now regular product version listing. 

If you have anything YOU'D like to contribute to future issues of "recent squeaks", or have any comments on past, current or future issues, please contact us on 0410 669 098 or via return email.

regards

Colin Seton
Director and Training & Support Manager
Hypermouse - Graphics Education

New Photoshop CS4 Brush Size technique

One of our long-term clients recently discovered a nifty trick in Adobe Photoshop CS4. 

"On any brush tool, hold ctrl+opt (so far Mac only) and you'll see a red (the same colour as a default quick mask) representation of your brush size. Move your mouse left and right to decrease and increase the size; graphically"

As you can see in the attached image, this trick also shows the "Hardness" that the brush has. What's particularly interesting is the way that you drag the mouse to change the size, almost like a laptop touchpad gesture.

One of the major benefits of this cool tip is that it seems to increment the size in 20 pixel steps, a much finer degree of control than the "traditional" [ and ] keyboard controls, and significantly faster and intuitive than the "manual" brush size access panel.

As is the custom at hypermouse, it will now be referred to by us in future training sessions as the "Jeremy Method" after the client who discovered it. Previous named "methods" include the "Chad Method" used in Photoshop CS2/3 for management of Smart Objects with masks.

UPDATE: I have since found that with the addition of the Command Key (ctrl+opt+cmd), the "hardness" (feathering) of the brush can also be controlled using the same basic procedure. Importantly the key cannot be added whilst adjusting the size, but must be held from the start to control the brush's "hardness".

News points for early 2010

• At the time this newsletter was sent out, there has been a steady increase in speculation about Apple and their much rumoured mid-sized "tablet" device said to be announced at an event predicted to occur on the 27th January. One site has since suggested that the event itself may focus on new MacBook Pros and that the Tablet device (if it even exists) maybe a "one more thing" announcement. Others have suggested that a lot of the rumoured features of this new device may actually be new elements for the next iPhone model. Click here for one site which helps summarise some of these rumours.

• The other big story this year is the question of when Adobe will release Creative Suite v.5 which is likely due in either Q2 (18 months since CS4) or Q4 (24 months since CS4) of this year. A fundamental shift with CS5 is that it will be the first version of the Adobe Creative Suite that will not run on PPC based Macs. Click here for a link to a site dedicated to CS5 and what features it might contain.

• Meanwhile, on the Windows platform, a beta version of Microsoft Office 2010 is available for download. This latest version of Office for Windows looks to include several key new technologies and should prove interesting to those whose business or clients use this product day-to-day. Click here for more information and a link for downloading the beta.

• Finally, on a broader note, Sydney is to host a TEDx event on Saturday May 20th, 2010. For those unaware, TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design, has a fascinating history and a cool podcast/vodcast collection. Submissions for participation, as speakers or audience, in the event are due to begin this month. Click here for more information about the event and its relationship to the TED organisation.

Note: Colin away from March 10th till April 10th 2010

Hypermouse's Director and Training & Support Manager, Colin Seton will be heading off to Vancouver, Canada to attend the 2010 Winter Paralympics in March and will be returning via the USA in early April.

As a result, no onsite sessions will be available during this period. However, ongoing support will still be available via email, twitter (hypermouse), our normal mobile number or our "temporary" online Skype number (02) 8006 4565.

If you are in need of any training or consultancy prior to or after these dates, you should contact Colin ASAP on 0410 669 098 or email him at colin@hypermouse.com.au as any remaining available session times are likely to fill up quickly.

New Apps+Tech section of Hypermouse web site

With a constant stream of new applications for desktop/laptops appearing everyday and the announcement on January the 5th from Apple that over 3 billion iPhone and iPod Touch applications have been downloaded worldwide, Hypermouse has added a new Apps+Tech section which features a collection of reviews of freeware products such as FontExampler , shareware products such as Inklet, and iPhone applications such as TripView. 

Visit this link to check out this new section.

Current Product versions

To check the most recent version of a product on a Mac just go into the product menu (on a PC go to the Help Menu) and choose "About <Product Name>"... .

Adobe InDesign CS4 - 6.0.4
Adobe Photoshop CS4 - 11.0.1
Adobe Illustrator CS4 - 14.0.0
Adobe Bridge CS4 - 3.0.0
Adobe Flash CS4 - 10.0.2
Adobe Dreamweaver CS4 - 10.0.0
Adobe Fireworks CS4 - 10.0.3.11
Adobe Acrobat Professional - 9.3.0
QuarkXPress - 8.12
Apple iWork '09
(Keynote 5.0.3, Numbers 2.0.3, Pages 4.0.3)
Mozilla Firefox 3.5.6
Apple Safari - 4.0.4
Mac OS X - 10.6.2
Windows OS - 7.0
Adobe Camera Raw 5.6