Monthly Archives: December 2010

Adobe Update Photoshop CS5 for Windows to 12.03

Not long after installing the recent Photoshop CS5 update Windows users discovered some pretty nasty bugs, some of which would crash the application. At the same time a security glitch in the Windows code was also discovered.  So here we are just over a week later and Adobe have released an further update. However, the update is only for Windows as Mac users were not affected by the problems in 12.02

The most significant fixes in the Photoshop 12.0.3 update include the following:

  • Windows XP tool tip font issue introduced by 12.0.2
  • A number of potential security vulnerabilities have been addressed
  • Top type and font crashers found in the field have been addressed
  • A number of performance issues have been addressed
  • Crash opening 3D layers has been addressed
  • Color Engine crash has been resolved
  • Intermittent file format issues addressed
  • Shift scrolling bug fixed
  • Sharpen crasher fixed
  • Marching ants not seen at certain zoom levels fixed
  • Metadata focus distance issue addressed
  • File info bug addressed for Orphea Studio jpg’s
  • TWAIN crashers fixed
  • Brush cursor bug fixed
  • Histogram progress bar issue fixed
  • Droplet issues addressed

The new release can be obtained via the Auto Update feature in Photoshop or downloaded directly from the Adobe file servers.

A Taste of Route 66 and New Mexico

A selection of images from my recent trip to the USA can be viewed on my Flickr site. The gallery comprising 50 images from locations including a small section of Route 66 between Albuquerque (New Mexico) and Holbrook (Arizona), White Sands National Monument and Bosque del Apache. The gallery includes a number of images not shown in the blog entries shown below.

Neon Art Gallery, Central Ave, Albuquerque, New MexicoNeon Art Gallery, Central Ave, Albuquerque

My Flickr galleries also include images from earlier trips to USA, Antarctica and Iceland.

Adobe release Colour Print Utility for Photoshop CS5

Although not on the radar of most Photoshop users the absence of the No Colour Management option within the Photoshop CS5 print dialog caused significant consternation amongst those who create their own ICC profiles for printing. Unfortunately, the removal of this feature wasn’t something that Adobe wanted to do, but rather a necessity for compatibility with the most recent operating systems from both Microsoft and Apple. That being said, without this option printing the multi-coloured patch targets used for determining a printers colour handling characteristics is extremely difficult. Hence the screams of foul.

To address this omission and no doubt pacify those of us who build our own printer profiles Adobe have created the Adobe Color Print Utility, which is a simple application designed solely to enable printing without color management.

Using the utility couldn’t be simpler. First, open the appropriate target image (File>Open).

Print Testchart Loaded in Adobe Colour Printing Utility

Once the target is loaded choose Page Setup to configure the appropriate printer and paper size. Next, choose Print to set the printer driver to the correct media and print quality, turn the printer colour management off (i.e. No Color Adjustment). Finally, hit Print button.

Set Printer Driver Color Settings to Off (No Color Adjustment)

The target will likely print somewhat darker than the on-screen version and some of the colours of some patches will very probably have a fair amount of hue shift and increased saturation, but that’s what’s meant to happen. Once the print is dry it can be measured using an instrument such as the X-rite i1 spectrophotometer.

More information on the new utility and guidance on its use can be found in an Adobe Knowledge Base article. The utility can also be downloaded from the the Adobe KB page.