Dreamweaver CS4 Beta 1 - Now available for free download!

I kinda fell like it sneak upon me - not so long ago I was reporting on my blog about CS3 beta's, and here I am, writing about Dreamweaver CS4 beta 1 available for (free!) download.
It's a trial that you can use for two days to preview new available tools and workspace in application. Two days suck, I know, but look at the bright side: if you have previous version of Dreamweaver you can use your serial number to make beta last longer (through entire beta process).

"Stop talking already and show us the screens!"

Ok, this is how the application looks like now:


Some changes are expected, it's beta 1 stage only, but we can get the whole idea. Here are most noticeable changes:
1. Screen real estate is much better used - small changes allowed Dreamweaver CS4 to give us bigger website preview/code view.
2. Mac colored workspace - I'm not sure how I feel about it at this stage. If I'd want to have Mac I'd get one :)
3. Insert bar now as a panel - very good, more space for the code and preview editor
4. Windows application bar at the top gone - very good, close buttons are available on menu bar, so we get more workspace and loose... nothing (how about doing so in all windows applications?)
5. Workspace switcher now in menu bar

Some closeups:







What does Adobe says top new features are?

• Live View
• Related Files
• Code Navigator
• CSS best practices
• Code hinting for Ajax and JavaScript frameworks
• HTML data sets
• Photoshop Smart Objects
• Subversion integration
• Adobe® AIR™ authoring support
• New user interface

List of top new Dreamweaver CS4 features with explanations.


What are you still doing here? Be first one to grab it!
(While you're at it, don't forget to check out other available CS4 free downloads: Fireworks CS4 Beta 1, Soundbooth CS4 Beta 1)

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 public beta - already?

It seems like not so long ago I have been reporting about Lightroom 1 beta, and here I am writing about Lightroom 2 beta! That's right, today Adobe released via Adobe Labs public beta of Lightroom 2!

You can grab it here: Adobe Lightroom download.



It's an early beta, so things are pretty slow, but it's great being able to use software of tomorrow today :)
I encourage you to check it out - here's the release note (pdf), but if you want just the juice, read this post from Adobe Lightroom Team. You can also get up to speed by watching Julieanne's video tutorial.

Photoshop Express is in da house... for free

Some of you may remember when a couple of months ago it was pretty loud about Adobe's new online service called Photoshop Express. Today Adobe finally released public beta of the application.

From what I have seen so far, it looks amazing. It may be a little poorer in terms of functionality then I have expected, but it is still a great, free tool - you can't have too many of those :)
Of course I didn't expect it to be as functional as is its bigger brother, Photoshop, but I had in mind something more like Photoshop Elements... but it is still in beta stage - probably in future versions some more functionalities will be introduced.

Here's the screen from how things look after login:



Here's another screen showing menu with options you may (should) try:



On this screen you can see library and albums menu. You can also notice that Photoshop Express is set up to work with services like Picasa, Photobucket and Facebook.



Here's the last screen with information about publishing galleries (yes, you can create your own galleries using Photoshop Express).



To sum up, at this stage service doesn't look groundbreaking and very useful - but time will show how its possibilities will expand.

What are you waiting for? Go and try it for yourself!

I thought Live Trace in Adobe Illustrator CS3 was amazing.

There are a few paths you can follow to trace raster image into its vector equivalent. The best known are Live Trace in Adobe Illustrator, and Corel Trace.
What are their disadvantages? They are rather expensive, for one. And the results they are producing are good, but certainly we could use something better.

Ladies and gentleman, say hello to Vector Magic.



It's essentially an online application, that will take your raster image and vectorize (aka trace) it.
The quality of the conversion is stunning. You can also see comparison of the results from various tracing programs and Vector Magic.

Below you can see image before and after vectorization:



Here's the best part: it's a free software. You don't even have to download it or install. It only requires Flash enabled browser (the tool is created in Adobe Flex) and an image you want to convert!

"Heaven is here" you may want to say. We're not quite there yet - they still need to add recognizing gradients feature :)

However, the tool is great even as it is. And judging by the update dates we will definately see some fast progress    :)

UPDATE: As "Anonymous" pointed out, the service is not free anymore :(

Thank you, Anonymous :)

Kelby Training - if that's not cool, I don't know what is

Hey :)

sorry for not being here yesterday, I had to go to Warsaw, to train employees of our clients about the Joomla Content Menagement System. It was fun being able to talk Joomla for entire day, I look forward to do this again :)

While I was gone, Scott Kelby was very busy launching his new online training service.


Why is it so great? How about really great teachers?? Dan Margulis (yes, the Dan Margulis!), Scott Kelby, Bert Monroy, Terry White, Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski... list goes on and on! You can check it out at: http://www.kelbytraining.com (watch front page video to see semi-official Scott :) )

List of available courses is a lot longer that you should expect on a first day :)

There are two more things I would like to mention:

1. Service is subscription based - you pay once and have access to all classes (just as Lynda.com)
2. Training courses are not only for Photoshop (I also spotted Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat and Lightroom)
   

You can also check out free trial.

Beauty in application interface - not Mac exclusive

For years what I have heard was: "I prefer Mac from PC because Mac applications are beautiful".

However, for some time I can see that PC applications are not far behind, if at all. And a lot of credit can go to Adobe - especially Production Studio amazes me. Have you for example seen After Effects 7 or CS3? It is fun to spend time in AE just because of its interface. Everytime it launches I feel like entering some secret place, where I can do magic noone else can.

In this post I would like point at another Adobe application that gives us beautiful workspace: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.



This is only a part of the interface, but still it is easy to see how well it works with images, no matter what colours they have. Everything is simple and easy to read. It is another evidence that beautifull design can be really, really simple.



They even included a very aesthetic pattern ornament. Take a look at knobes and sliders... We gotta get more of those :D

Adobe's website: new look

Recently Adobe launched their new look of their website. I am very interested in your opinion on this subject.

To be honest, I expected much more from Adobe.
From developer point of view, it's state of the art. From designer point of view... not so much.

Old website has been around for years, and I really think they could work on it for five more minutes. Or maybe they worked to hard, and overdone it?

That seems more likely, but doesn't explain why new website is so dirty and unattractive. I am talking about this awful gradient in the background. It's not that bad by itself, but with "Flash on." animation... WHY?!

The only thing that I like about this new look is the bottom part of the page: clear and aesthetic. Colours used are very "adobe production studio" like... But it is a good example to follow.

Below you can see the part that I like:



Nevertheless I have expected a lot more from Adobe - the company, that produces the best design software there is.