Comments on: Feelin’ a little love

By: ejames

ejames — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 15:35:52 +0000

So now it is about one of your customers being a "glass 3% empty" kind of person (not sure exactly what that means but if it means that I have higher standards than the product manager for software that costs a lot of money I will take it as a compliment) instead of the software. And referencing an incredible act of violence "drive by" for pointing out a software problem is just uncalled for on your part. Further, the issue is not a perceived negative - it actually does exist and should be improved. [My point is that you're not adding value by simply saying, "Oh, were you trying to feel good about what you'd just done? Here, let me find a way to rain on your parade!" Dave (the reviewer) engaged in a useful dialog with the product development team, and his suggestions helped make things better. You, on the other hand, seem more interested in accentuating the negative, not providing any kind of constructive criticism. Cf. Teddy Roosevelt's response to that kind of thing. Incidentally--and this is the last bit of time I'm going to spend addressing your comments (esp. as I can't speak to you directly, what with the continued phony name/address)--I started the post by saying, "We never stop looking for ways to make Photoshop better." I defer to no one in my frustration at not being able to make everything perfect, all at once. That doesn't mean we won't keep working like crazy to make things better. --J.]

By: james

james — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:13:22 +0000

Sorry. It is perfect and should never be critiqued. [Who said that? But maybe you're a "glass 3% empty" kind of guy. (Hard to know *who* you are, given the fake email address.) Simply pulling one perceived negative--one connected to an optional feature--out of an otherwise positive review seems like a drive-by. For the record, we welcome and appreciate Dave G.'s feedback, as we did throughout the development cycle. --J.]

By: e james

e james — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:44:51 +0000

Then there is this: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/adobe-cs4-review.ars/2 [So, was your goal here to find anything imperfect and bring that to light? --J.] The tabbed issues they raise are a valid issue and hopefully will be looked at soon? [The application is always a work in progress, and we're constantly working to polish it. This is the first incarnation of tabs in an Adobe app, and in case it wasn't clear to you from the Ars piece, *you don't have to use them*. Go into prefs, flip one switch, and you're done. --J.] Also, charging mac users the same upgrade price for a 32 bit program while windows users get 64 bit system does not seem right. [Do you think Windows users should get a discount because they don't get 16-bit printing or gestures support? --J.]

By: Erik K Veland

Erik K Veland — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:33:54 +0000

I know I’ve been bitching a lot here, but kudos for the best upgrade yet. You have really managed to impress me!
[Cool! --J.]
The application frame was left off by default on my install and I have yet to turn it on.
The UI is much slicker and feels more Mac-like than ever believe it or not!
Content Aware Scaling is the best new feature since the healing brush (for Photoshop)!
Illustrator has all my pet peeves solved (transparent gradients, type on a path typography, bleeds, multiple artboards, expand outlines)!
Two minor things I’ve noticed:
Why the hell is the button layout in the Save for Web and Devices dialog:
[Save] [Cancel] [Done]?
Save should ALWAYS be in the bottom right corner and be the default. Now SteerMouse snaps my cursor to Done and lots of agonising “I thought I saved that file” ensues. Please get someone to sort this out in a point upgrade.
The second is more puzzling. A 30MB Illustrator file with a 23.5MB embedded TIFF takes more than five minutes to save and looks like it’s hanging (beachballing) through some of the process. In this day and age that should simply not happen (on a Mac Pro with a 10K Raptor).
[I'll pass along that feedback to the AI team. You're of course right that saving should be nowhere near that slow. --J.]
Anyway, I am super pleased with this new upgrade and hope you’ll forgive my earlier bitching :D
[Heh--really glad to hear it, esp. now that you've gotten to try the tools hands-on. --Thx, J.]

By: Dave M

Dave M — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 09:37:30 +0000

“I’m enjoying the new gpu driven interface features. At first notice, it was ‘hmm, that’s nice’… now, it’s Wow! this makes working so much easier.”
I’d like to second this. When I first launched and got the pop-up suggesting I check my manufacturer for updated rivers, I just clicked through to get out of it and things worked but honestly, I wasn’t over impressed. On the fifth, I got a message that there’d been a problem with the display control and the graphics card support was turned off and I got to use CS4 without it. All I can say is that it’s amazing how quickly I got used to having that.
BTW, a quick trip to ATI’s site and a driver download and I was back in business! That’s what I get for not following the directions, right? ;-)
I do have a question though – If I’m choosing between a faster GPU with 256 megs or one that’s a little slower with 512, which will work with Photoshop better?
Anyway, great work!
[Cool, thanks. I hope to post more info about GPU support any day now--for real! --J.]

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 12:13:54 +0000

Photoshop is one of the BEST Graphicprogams in the world.
Keep up the Good Work Guys.

By: Ann Shelbourne

Ann Shelbourne — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 07:31:45 +0000

Brilliant work by the entire Creative Suite team.
CS4 is definitely the best version yet — and that is not just Photoshop but right across the complete Design Suite.
CS4 is the MUST HAVE upgrade!

By: Stephan Bollinger

Stephan Bollinger — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 17:53:20 +0000

new features are great, but the biggest “features” for me are better performance, and better integration with other apps.
if a new version of any software saves me half an hour every day, its worth a lot!

By: Kent C.

Kent C. — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:46:54 +0000

Well deserved too. While I’m having some wacom driver problems that have a workaround, I’m enjoying the new gpu driven interface features. At first notice, it was ‘hmm, that’s nice’… now, it’s Wow! this makes working so much easier. Thanks John.
[Cool—thanks, Kent. --J.]

By: keith

keith — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:19:12 +0000

A number of reviewers have chimed in that this is the version to have. Interesting to see what features they base their findings on. Some base it on just one feature alone, while others have a list.

By: Koda

Koda — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 09:19:40 +0000

hello! it’s really nice to see so many improvements over this nice program suite!
However i must admit that i’m not really content with the cs4 version released for the mac operating systems
basically there are three points which are connected with each other
- lacking of 64bit support
- no cocoa based framework yet
- impossibility to install on a case sensitive filesystem
the 64bit issue and cocoa framwork are binded and when either will be fixed, the other will be too! However since there’s a need for major rewrital of the creative suite, i would duly suggest you correct the case sensitivity issue! i know your position on the matter, but i would take advantage of the next cocoa transition to apply the 65 files renaming necessary to have cs run on a case sensitive fs!
having said that, i really appreciate the heavy work put for releasing this suite and i’m sure that adobe will want to tak of loyal customers who happen to have a slightly different filesystem configuration.