Adobe Announces CS4 Preview

Want to know what's in store for the next version of Photoshop (or your other Creative Suite favorites)? Without a having a public beta this go around, we've been having to glean clues about what might be in store for Photoshop "Next" from a variety of sources. Next week on Tuesday (September 23), we'll be able to see Creative Suite in all its shining brilliance, at least those of us who sign up for this preview at Adobe. Just click on the graphic below, sign up for your preferred time, give Adobe your contact info (for notification purposes) and you'll be in with the creative in-crowd. By the way, why wouldn't you go for the 11 a.m. Europe time and stay ahead of all your North American friends? Just wonderin'.

(Oh, and Fireworks and Dreamwever both did run in public beta, so we can probably glean at least some clues about the general CS4 interface, not to mention what those two have in store, here.)

In the meantime, Adobe VP John "Johnny L" Loiacono did demo Photoshop "Next" during the keynote at Photoshop World week before last. Photoshop Senior Product Manager John Nack was on hand as well (and inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame too, way to go, Illinois, or is it Ohio? Well, John's awesome enough to represent the whole gosh darn Midwest.) For those of you who missed it and would like to have a pre-preview before next week, check out Adobe's own Terry White's post here, in which you can download a video of the keynote.

John and John showed the world "context sensitive scaling" (shown here) and some of the new 3D features. (By the way, I sometimes tune out during 3D talk because it doesn't feel like it has anything to do with my 2D-based worklife, but the aforementioned John Nack has this great post about why we should all care about 3D. He's a Hall of Famer, you should listen.)

(Above, Adobe's Russell Brown and I contemplate the future of Photoshop. Photo by Suzanne Caballero) In the meantime, see you next week at virtual Adobe.