One of the benefits of a Creative Cloud subscription is access to hundreds of fonts via the online service Typekit. In CC 2014, you can access this from the font menu and, once installed, use those fonts in any CC program on your computer. Also new is the ability to search installed fonts by typing part of its name or attribute into the font family menu, and preview the active type layer’s content in another font by pointing at it in the font menu (you don’t even have to highlight the text first). System requirements
Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support; OS X 10.7, 10.8, or 10.9; 2GB of RAM; 3.2GB of available hard disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation; 1024x768 display with 16-bit colour and 512MB of VRAM; OpenGL 2.0– capable system; internet connection
The improved SMART GUIDES DISPLAY helpful spacing info about your
document’s content depending on where you point your cursor (circled)
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New in an earlier incremental CC release is the ability to edit scripted patterns without resorting to JavaScript. Choose one of eight built-in scripts – Tree and Picture Frame are recent additions – from the Fill dialog box and you’ll get another dialog box to customise the pattern’s density, size and colour variations. You can apply scripted patterns to paths, too, and save customisations as new presets.
The Perspective Warp command (released in early 2014) lets you change the perspective of a certain area in an image. By drawing a grid on top of your image, you can warp that particular area to make buildings and flat surfaces look straight instead of angled.
The ability to print 3D objects on a local 3D printer or send your file to a 3D printing service from inside Photoshop has been improved in CC 2014. The 3D print preview is incredible and shows any areas that the application has filled in to make the object solid enough to print. If you go down the printing-service route, then the preview estimates how much the project will cost.
Camera Raw’s Graduated and Radial filters are perfect for applying gradual changes to a photo in a linear or circular fashion (respectively), though, you can now edit the masks made by both filters using a brush.
To the delight of web designers worldwide, the Generator feature (released in late 2013) lets you instantly export web graphics by using a specific layer naming convention; new in Photoshop CC 2014 is the ability to export those graphics to a subfolder.
Other useful changes include a simplified process for syncing settings to the Creative Cloud, which now includes workspaces, keyboard shortcuts and menu customisations. You can also unlock a background layer by single-clicking its padlock icon, see recently used swatches at the top of its panel, and pick a custom background colour in the New document dialog box.
In Photoshop CC 2014, the Colour panel’s new Hue Cube mode turns it into a colour picker that’s always open. You can create gradients with a single colour stop, export 3D colour lookup tables for use in Adobe’s pro-level video editing applications,
and the layer-based Copy CSS command now understands inner- shadow layer styles.
When using the Liquify filter, you can pin the image’s edges down so they don’t get warped, while the Brushes panel displays the past 30 brushes you used at the top of its panel (an orange outline also highlights any brush you’ve modified).
Last but not least, there’s an Experimental Feature Manager tucked inside Photoshop’s preferences that lets you access features that Adobe periodically releases, as well as a checkbox that turns on a narrow Options bar (handy on smaller screens).
On the Mac, Photoshop CC 2014’s dialog boxes were redesigned for Apple’s Retina displays, so they’re noticeably shorter and wider (they’re also a darker grey and the buttons are square, making them look more Windows than Mac-like).
Unfortunately, some useful panels have disappeared in Photoshop CC 2014 due to their Flash-based nature. Mini Bridge, Kuler and Adobe Exchange have gone, though, you can download Kuler as an HTML-based panel from the new Adobe Add-Ons website. Sadly, the Oil Paint filter vanished due to outdated code.
Unlike the incremental updates of late 2013 and early 2014, Photoshop CC 2014 is a separate installation. This could be confusing and you may end up with two copies of Photoshop CC on your Mac – just use the Uninstaller program in the older version’s folder to zap it. However, if your workflow depends on a feature that was changed or removed in Photoshop CC 2014 – or a plug-in that doesn’t yet work in the new release – you can still use the older version.
Verdict
Since Photoshop CC 2014 is only available by subscription – and it’s a separate installation – there’s no reason not to install it. The productivity enhancements, new selection command and motion blur filters are big time-savers, plus the ability to edit masks made by Camera Raw’s Graduated and Radial filters is incredibly helpful. If your workflow depends on some of the missing panels, there’s no harm in keeping the older version. And with Adobe’s Creative Cloud Photography program – you get Photoshop and Lightroom (along with a slew of Creative Cloud benefits) for £7.49 per month – this level of pixel- pushing power has never been more affordable. J Lisa Snider
The new PATH BLUR FILTER lets you
control the direction, angle, and speed of the blur along a path that you draw, enabling you to make an object fly across (top) or fall out of (bottom) the sky
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Adobe continues to refine Illustrator CC 2014, a minor update with just a handful of feature additions. Interestingly, far more new features were introduced to the vector app with the mid-cycle Illustrator CC 17.1 update in January. A number of these merit discussion, and combined with the enhancements in CC 2014, they address one of the longest-standing complaints I’ve had with the software.