May 27, 2010

Feedback, please: PSD viewing on iPads?

As you may have read, I’m switching my focus from Photoshop to the development of tablet apps. I periodically hear requests for the ability to view Photoshop PSD files on devices like the iPad (for example, browsing files that one has synced via Dropbox).

I’d like to hear your thoughts on whether such a capability would be relevant to you. Some questions offhand:

• What would you hope to accomplish? For example:
  • Would you be bringing your portfolio on the road?
  • Would you be taking the files somewhere to print them?
• Would viewing just a flat representation of the files be sufficient, or would you want to interact with layers (for example, to switch among layer comps in order to show design iterations)?
• Would you pay for such a capability? If so, how much?

This is obviously a capability that Adobe could build. The question of course is whether we should build it (as opposed, say, to building something else).

Using Mixed Case panel titles in Photoshop CS5

The ALL CAPS panel tabs in CS4 and later are one of the more polarizing aesthetic details of the applications. If you’d like to change Photoshop panel tabs to Mixed Case, grab this plug-in (Mac) or these registry entries (Win).

On Mac drop the plug-in into the “Adobe Photoshop CS5/Plug-ins” folder; on Windows double-click the “DisableUppercaseTitles_ON.reg” file.
[Update: You can do the same in InDesign CS4/CS5. Colin Fleming writes, "Create a folder, name it 'noallcaps' (one word, no spaces, no caps), put this folder in the InDesign application folder--done!"]

Video: Iron Baby!

If this doesn’t make you grin, I don’t know what would:

Apparent fatherhood/VFX rockstar Patrick Boivin makes my cheap-n’-cheerful parental Photoshoppery seem so anemic, but I love the work nonetheless. [Via Jim Geduldick]