Adobe has announced its new CS6 software package for both Mac and Windows users, which includes new versions of Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects and more – Adobe has updated every piece of software found in the Creative Suite family. There is also a new color-grading application, SpeedGrade CS6, perfect for primary and secondary color correction of your SD, HD, 3D or RAW video footage. As expected, each program is extended with new tools and features, while at the same time offering 64-bit performance boost to make your workflow easier and quicker. What Does Photoshop CS6 Offer? While there are many changes (for example, After Effects receives more than 90 new or expanded effects to choose from), most of our readers are likely to be interested in Photoshop CS6. Here is an extended list of what’s new and improved: 1) Content-Aware Patch Patch images with greater control using Content-Aware Patch. Simply choose the patch area and Content-Aware technology will fill in the missing area. 2) Mercury Graphics Engine See near-instant results when editing with key tools such as Liquify, Puppet Warp, and Crop. The Mercury Graphics Engine delivers unprecedented responsiveness for a fluid feel as you work. 3) Reengineered Design Tools Create superior designs faster. Get consistent formatting with type styles, use vector layers to apply strokes and add gradients to vector objects, easily create custom strokes and dashed lines, quickly search layers, and more. 4) Crop Tool Crop images faster and with greater precision using the nondestructive Crop tool. Manipulate your images on canvas, and take advantage of the Mercury Graphics Engine to see your adjustments happen live. 5) Background Save Keep on working even while saving the largest of Photoshop files in the background – a performance improvement that can help your productivity soar. 6) Auto-Recovery Let the auto-recovery option work behind the scenes to save your edits without interrupting your progress. A copy of your work is saved every 10 minutes and recovered in the event of an unexpected shutdown. 7) Intuitive Video Creation Bring Photoshop editing power to your video footage. Easily enhance any clip using the full range of familiar Photoshop tools, and create entire videos using an intuitive set of video tools. 8) Preset Migration & Sharing Easily migrate your presets, workspaces, preferences, and settings so you can experience Photoshop in the same way on all your computers, share your setup, and bring your customizations from past versions into Photoshop CS6. 9) Blur Gallery Quickly create photographic blur effects using a simple interface with on-image controls. Create tilt-shift effects, blur everything and then sharpen one focal point, or vary the blurriness between multiple focal points. The Mercury Graphics Engine delivers immediate results. 10) Improved Auto-Corrections Quickly enhance your images with improved Auto Curves, Levels, and Brightness/Contrast controls. Intelligence from thousands of hand-retouched images is built-in to give you a better starting point for making adjustments 11) Adobe Photoshop Camera Raw 7 Plug-In Bring out the best in your JPEG and Raw files with improved processing and an enhanced control set; reveal every detail in the highlights of an image while still retaining rich detail in the shadows; and much more. 12) Adaptive Wide Angle Easily straighten objects that appear curved in panoramas or photos shot with fisheye or wide-angle lenses. On-canvas tools use the physical characteristics of individual lenses to automatically correct curvatures, and the Mercury Graphics Engine gives you near-instant results. 13) Dozens of User-Inspired Improvements Save time with more than 65 creativity and productivity enhancements that originated as suggestions from Photoshop users. 14) Modern Interface Work with a fresh, elegant Photoshop interface featuring dark background options that make your images pop, and benefit from hundreds of design touches that create a smoother, more consistent editing experience. 15) Skin Tone-Aware Selections & Masking Create better selections and masks with an option that isolates skin tones and faces in your photos, enabling you to adjust skin tones easily or, conversely, preserve them while you adjust the color of everything else. 16) Compatibility with Adobe Mobile Apps Extend your creativity beyond Photoshop CS6 with Adobe Touch Apps and Photoshop companion apps (sold separately). Intuitive touchscreen features provide ease of use and precise control for a variety of creative tasks. 17) Flexible Render Modes for Shadows Work more fluidly now that you can preview shadows in both GL and Adobe RayTrace render modes. 18) Type Styles Save time and ensure a consistent look with type styles, which let you apply formatting to selected characters, lines, or paragraphs of text with a single click. 19) Vector Layers Use vector layers to apply strokes and even add gradients to vector objects. 20) Sharper Vector Rendering Get sharper rendering by clicking once to snap the edges of vector objects to pixels. 21) Custom Strokes & Dashed Lines Easily create custom strokes and dashed lines. 22) Layer Search Use layer search capabilities to quickly zero in on the layer you need. 23) Lighting Effects Gallery Get better performance and results with the 64-bit Lighting Effects Gallery. The plug-in is powered by the Mercury Graphics Engine and offers on-canvas controls and previews that make it easier to visualize your lighting enhancements. 24) Scripted Patterns Generate geometric pattern fills faster with Scripted Patterns. 25) Revolutionary Erodible Brushes Draw more naturally and realistically using drawing tips that erode as you work. Endlessly wear down and sharpen a charcoal pencil or pastel to create different effects, and save favorite blunted tips as presets. 26) Oil Painting Filter Quickly give your work the look of an oil painting with the Mercury Graphics Engine-accelerated Oil Painting filter. Control the style of your brush as well as the direction and shine of your lighting for a superior look. 27) Enhanced Airbrush Tips Create realistic airbrush effects using fluid, lifelike controls and granular paint particles. 28) Painting Presets Simplify painting with presets that offer a good starting point for creating realistic painting effects. 29) Brush Enhancements Paint more naturally by manually changing the rotation of your paint brush with your mouse. Dynamically resize your brushes with shortcuts, and take advantage of the Mercury Graphics Engine to fluidly adjust opacity or hardness. 30) 10-Bit Deep Color Support Get a more accurate representation of how your images will appear in film with 10-bit monitor support. See just the pixels you’ve captured, reduce or eliminate the need for dithering, and reduce contouring or banding. 31) OpenEXR Transparency Preferences Choose whether you’d like to handle alpha channels in OpenEXR files as alpha channels or transparency. 32) Properties Panel Save time with a context-sensitive Properties panel that lets you make quick updates to the properties of your masks, adjustments, and 3D content. 33) Adobe Bridge CS6 Organize and manage your media visually using Adobe Bridge CS6 software. This integrated application delivers fast performance with cross-platform 64-bit support. 34) Redesigned Adobe Mini Bridge Access your images and documents more quickly and easily in Adobe Mini Bridge, redesigned as an elegant filmstrip. 35) Enhanced TIFF Support Work with a larger range of TIFF files. Enhanced TIFF support allows for greater bit depths and larger file sizes. 36) Automatic Resampling Get great results when resizing an image – the best resample method is automatically selected. 37) Filler Text Save time with the ability to insert “lorem ipsum” filler text when working with type. 38) Increased Maximum Brush Sizes Edit and paint with brush sizes all the way up to 5000 pixels. Other Features Content-Aware Family of Technologies Retouch images with astonishing ease, control, and precision. Remove or move selected image objects, and Content-Aware technology magically fills, patches, extends, or recomposes your image with stunning results. 64-Bit Support 64-bit support speeds up imaging tasks and helps process very large images faster. Tools for Intelligent Selections Create precise selections and masks, enabling you to easily adjust or preserve skin tones; easily select intricate image elements, such as faces and hair; and more. Puppet Warp Precisely reposition any image element to create a more visually appealing photo. For example, easily straighten an awkwardly bent arm. Powered by the Mercury Graphics Engine, Puppet Warp lets you edit with fluid responsiveness. System requirements for Windows Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor Microsoft® Windows® XP* with Service Pack 3 or Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 1GB of RAM 1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash storage devices) 1024x768 display (1280x800 recommended) with 16-bit color and 512MB of VRAM OpenGL 2.0–capable system DVD-ROM drive This software will not operate without activation. Broadband Internet connection and registration are required for software activation, validation of subscriptions, and access to online services.† Phone activation is not available.