Photoshop CS6 Beta Ready for Download

Pam Pfiffner

Photoshop users are getting an early gift for the spring holidays this year. The latest beta of Photoshop CS 6 is now available to the public through Adobe Labs. The software is free and can downloaded at the URL https://www.adobe.com/go/photoshopcs6. Note that this is not the final shipping version of the application, the release date of which has not been announced.
Photoshop has not had a major upgrade in since April 2010, and from all appearances, a lot of effort has gone into refreshing the application. Some of the highlights of Photoshop CS 6 have been shown in sneak peeks over the past few months. The new feature most talked about is Content-Aware Move, which lets you move elements in an image without having to repair the area left behind. (Read about it New Video of Photoshop CS6 Shows Content-Aware Image Editing. To get up to speed on other features, see our news stories: Take a Peek at Photoshop’s Near Future; Another Adobe Photoshop Preview: The “Just Do It” Project; and One-click Depth of Field in Photoshop CS6.)
Some features that have been previewed — notably new 3-D features (see the video here) and new video capabilities (see the video here) — will be available only in Photoshop CS6 Extended when it ships.
But the only way to get a feel for the next version of Photoshop is to start playing with it. To use the Photoshop beta, users must create and use an Adobe ID to install it and then complete a one-time product activation that ensures the software is used only as specified by Adobe’s licensing agreement. Adobe’s current policy is to allow the product to be used on two computers.
Also this week in a phone call to investors, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said that Creative Suite 6 will ship “late in Q2,” which means before May 31, the end of Adobe’s second fiscal quarter. To read a transcript of Adobe’s financial call in which Narayen discusses Creative Suite 6, HTML 5, and other new products and technologies, go to its Investor Relations Page.
Now go play!