Digital Home Thoughts: Adobe Announces Photoshop Elements 9

"SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sept. 21, 2010 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe(r) Photoshop(r) Elements 9 software for Windows(r) and Mac, offering a complete photo solution to anyone who wants to organize, edit, create and share extraordinary photos. With the newest version of the No. 1 selling consumer photo-editing software,* Adobe delivers powerful new technology to equip every consumer with the ability to achieve professional results easily and quickly."

Adobe has released the latest in the Adobe Photoshop Elements line, and as a long-time user of this product, I'm glad to hear it. I've believed for a long time that too many people think they "need" to buy the very expensive full version of Photoshop, when the reality is that Elements will likely do everything they need. These are the people though who feel like they're somehow less than cool if they're not using the most expensive software there is, the most expensive lenses, etc. But I digress...

So what does Photoshop Elements 9 bring to the table? The Spot Healing Brush, adapted from Photoshop CS5's much-praised content aware fill, should be pretty slick. There's a feature called Photomerge Style Match, which sounds like it functions a bit like the copy/paste settings in Lightroom. There's the ability to post to Facebook, and create online "interactive albums". Portraits get a boost with the "Perfect Portraits" feature - sounds like some sort of one-click retouch. I never touch the Organizer part of Elements, mostly because in previous versions I've found it to be intrusive and awful from a performance aspect, but prolific shooters may like the feature that automatically analyzes your photos and assigns it a rating based on lighting, focus, or contrast.

I get every very of Photoshop Elements, so I'll get this one too...but I should point out that v9 very likely continues the ugly trend Adobe introduced in v8: online activation that's restricted to two copies of the software. As someone that routinely uses six different computers, software with activations plans like this really irk me. I use Photoshop Elements 7 on my other computers because it lacks the online activation - I really wish Adobe treated their Photoshop Elements customers the way they treat their Lightroom customers; no online activations.

Adobe hasn't updated their product Web site yet, and I didn't get any images to go along with the press release, so for now you'll have to use your imagination. The remainder of the press release is after the break.

"The Photoshop brand has been creating groundbreaking imaging magic for 20 years, and Photoshop Elements has been making that magic accessible to mere mortals for nearly a decade," said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Digital Imaging at Adobe. "The Content Aware Fill technology introduced with Photoshop CS5 is one of our most exciting innovations ever, so we're thrilled to be able to make it accessible to photo and video enthusiasts in this latest Elements release."

Image Intelligence for Easy Editing

Photoshop Elements 9 uses powerful technology to make even the most complex results achievable for anyone. Adapted from Photoshop CS5's celebrated Content Aware Fill feature, the content intelligence in the Spot Healing Brush analyzes what's in the image and quickly de-clutters or repairs photos (like removing tourists from a crowded scene or an obstruction, such as a telephone pole) with a swipe of a brush, magically filling in the background. The same content intelligence synthesizes missing pixel information to create a stunning panorama from multiple photos, without leaving any gaps or blank spaces.

In addition, the new Photomerge Style Match turns drab photos dramatic by analyzing characteristics of any photo, such as contrast or color tone, and automatically applies those qualities to another photo, allowing users to easily replicate any photo style. Several new Guided Edit options walk users step-by-step through the process of achieving cool editing effects such as Out of Bounds, making an element of a photo appear to leap off the page in 3D, creating pop art masterpieces, or retouching made easy via the perfect portraits feature. In addition, users now have access to Layer Masks for compositing richly layered photos.

Organization Made Easy

For the first time, the popular Photoshop Elements Organizer is available on both the Windows and Mac platform, to help users quickly organize, find and display photo and video clips from one convenient location. The Auto-Analyzer takes the work out of finding the best shots by automatically searching a user's collection of photos and assigning a tag based on quality, such as lighting, focus or contrast. People Recognition also automatically creates People tags, so you can find your favorite people fast and it becomes more intelligent over time as it learns to associate specific faces with names.

Sharing Photos Virtually Anywhere

After users make their photos look better than ever, they have various sharing options, including posting photos directly to Facebook or creating one-of-a-kind interactive Online Albums with animated templates. In addition, users can share their memories with personalized photo creations like scrapbook pages, photo books, calendars and cards that can easily be printed from home or via online print service providers. The flexible photo creation workspace allows users complete control over how they design their photo books, by automatically placing photos within a template or providing access to any Photoshop Elements editing feature from directly within the layout mode.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 Plus

For added convenience, now Photoshop Elements 9 Windows and Mac users have the option to purchase Plus, which offers 20GB of storage for automatic online backup and sharing (up to 15,000 photos or four hours of DVD-quality video), as well as ongoing deliveries of new tutorials, artwork and interactive online templates sent directly to the desktop software. A benefit to all Photoshop Elements users is virtually anywhere access to photos and videos online or via select mobile devices at Photoshop.com.

Pricing and Availability

Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 for Windows and Mac is available now at www.adobe.com, and also will be available soon at retail outlets such as Amazon.com, Apple (Mac only), Best Buy, Costco, Fry's, New Egg, Office Depot, Office Max and Walmart. Photoshop Elements 9 Windows and Mac is available for a suggested retail price of US$99.99, and users can purchase Plus from within the product for US$49.99/year. Plus is available in the U.S. only.

Information about other language versions, as well as pricing, upgrade and support policies for other countries is available at www.adobe.com/go/photoshopelements. For free training videos on Photoshop Elements, visit Adobe TV at http://tv.adobe.com.

* Source: The NPD Group/Retail Tracking Service (April 2002 to March 2010) based on units sold (U.S. only).

About Adobe Systems Incorporated

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