Friday, January 29, 2010

Flash player upload issues on Mac

The upload page on shwup used to be powered by Aurigma, a Java based tool that allows for multiple file selections and some other funky technical stuff. Since our last February release, we replaced this by our own custom uploader, written in Flash.

From Flash player 8 onwards, file uploads are natively supported (albeit with some quirks regarding cookie passing in browsers other than IE and nasty security fixes from version 10 onwards). Together with the ExternalInterface, building a more powerful uploader tool was within our grasp.

Within the first few weeks of deployment we received some feedback, predominantly from the Mac users, that the uploader simply wasn't working for them. Having no other means to upload files to shwup (other than via email) this was very painful for those users.

So we went ahead with eliminating the differences:
  1. use the same browser
  2. use the same Flash player
This didn't pinpoint a particular client side issue that could be held responsible. However, performing the same tests on our test and staging environment didn't exhibit the same issue; it actually worked!

Turning to the live server configuration it slowly became apparent that this problem was double sided; the combination of client platform and server configuration was causing some issue.

To make sure our user's address bar always contains "www.shwup.com" when visiting our website we use mod_rewrite to redirect any requests without the proper address using the following rule:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.shwup\.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.shwup.com$1 [R=301,QSA,L]

We thought that this couldn't possibly cause an issue until we switched on the debug option; it became clear that Flash player was passing "www.shwup.com:80" as the HTTP Host header; obviously this breaks the above regular expression and causes a redirect after which the Flash player happily reports that the upload was done without issues. Funny enough, this only happens on the Mac. Some developers have already reported this issue on Adobe's file upload article.

The following rule change fixed the issue:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.shwup\.com(:\d+)?$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.shwup.com$1 [R=301,QSA,L]

After spending this much time we can only say "assume nothing" when it comes to cross platform coding.

Source: http://shwup.blogspot.com/2009/04/flash-player-upload-issues-on-mac.html

Thursday, January 28, 2010

How-To: Install Flash Player 10.1 Beta 2 in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta 2 was released earlier this year, on December 17 at the Adobe MAX 2009. This release comes with several new features and numerous bug fixes.

To install Flash Player 10.1 Beta 2 in Ubuntu 9.10, just follow the steps below:

First, remove your existing Flash plugin. Do this depending on whether you installed Flash from the repositories or manually. If you installed Flash from the Ubuntu repositories, typing:

sudo apt-get remove --purge flashplugin-installer

should remove your current installation of Flash. If Flash was installed manually, the plugin should be located in the ~/.mozilla/plugins directory, where ~ is the home directory. So, to remove it:

rm -f ~/.mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so

Next, download the archive for the new Flash player from here (direct link here), or alternately you can type in a terminal:

wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/labs/flashplayer10/flashplayer10_1_p2_linux_121709.tar.gz

Make sure the current working directory is the one where you saved the archive and uncompress it:

tar -xzf flashplayer10_1_p2_linux_121709.tar.gz

Next, create the ~/.mozilla/plugins directory (if it doesn't already exist):

mkdir -p ~/.mozilla/plugins

And copy the plugin inside it:

cp install_flash_player_10_linux/libflashplayer.so ~/.mozilla/plugins

Now restart Firefox and this should be all.


Source: http://tuxarena.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-to-install-flash-player-101-beta-2.html

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Google's Nexus One will have Flash Player

Google introduced their new Nexus One phone today -- watch Adrian Ludwig preview an early version of Flash Player 10.1 running on the new device.



As we announced at MAX, Google has joined the Open Screen Project to bring another level of openness to the Web that is good for both developers and users. Many of Google's technologies such as YouTube, Google Chrome, and soon Android will include Flash Player, enabling users to consume Flash media content seamlessly.

The Nexus One features Google's Android software, HTC's hardware design, and QUALCOMM's Snapdragon chipset. All of these companies participate in the Open Screen Project and we've been working with our partners to bring a high performing Flash Player 10.1 to Android and other devices.

Source : http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2010/01/googles_nexus_one_will_have_fl.html

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Motorola Changing Mobile Web Browsing Experience with Adobe Flash Platform

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 to bring visually immersive, uncompromised Web browsing to Motorola smartphone portfolio.

LAS VEGAS - CES – Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) announced that it is working closely with Adobe to bring Adobe® Flash® Player 10.1 to Motorola’s smartphones as part of the Open Screen Project. Adobe has been working with the DROID by Motorola, released to consumers in November 2009, as it develops Flash Player 10.1 for the Android platform. Adobe Flash Player on Motorola smartphones will deliver uncompromised Web browsing – with its rich applications, games and video – to consumer’s fingertips, enabling them to be more connected and more mobile.

“Consumers demand that the same high-quality Web experience they know from the desktop port easily to their mobile experience as well,” said Sanjay Jha, co-CEO of Motorola and CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices. “Working with Adobe to bring rich Flash content to our smartphone portfolio will revolutionize how consumers experience the mobile Web by making it more vivid and interactive than ever before.”

“Flash is an integral part of the Web and delivers rich content, applications and videos to millions,” said David Wadhwani, vice president and general manager, Platform Business at Adobe. “By working with us to bring virtually all Flash content on the Web to its devices, Motorola is ensuring consumers have an uncompromised Web browsing experience no matter where they are.”

Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is the first consistent browser runtime release of the Open Screen Project. On Motorola smartphones, Adobe Flash Player will make the Web experience more compelling, interactive and visually immersive for users by delivering unique applications, content and videos across devices. As a participant of the Open Screen Project, Motorola will be deploying the full Flash Player broadly across the Android product portfolio. Motorola’s Android products will have Flash Player updates available once Adobe releases Flash Player 10.1, expected in the first half of 2010.

In addition, both Motorola and Adobe are strong supporters of the developer and content creator communities. By enabling Flash capabilities on Motorola smartphones, it opens up creativity and innovation for those who use Adobe’s industry leading Creative Suite tools.

Motorola’s work with Adobe in the Open Screen Project began in 2009. Integration of Adobe Flash Player 10.1 browser extensions in a portion of the device portfolio is expected in the first half of 2010. A Flash Player 10.1 beta demo on the Motorola Droid can be viewed at http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flashplayer/articles/mobile_demos_fp10.1.html.

Open Screen Project
Led by Adobe, the Open Screen Project includes close to 50 industry leaders working together to provide a consistent runtime environment across mobile phones, desktops and other consumer electronic devices. The initiative addresses the challenges of Web browsing and standalone applications on a broad range of devices, and removes the barriers to publishing content and applications seamlessly across screens. For more information about the Open Screen Project visit www.openscreenproject.org.

Adobe Flash Platform
The Adobe Flash Platform is the leading Web design and development platform for creating expressive applications, content, and video that run consistently across operating systems and devices and reach over 98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops. Flash Player 10 was installed on more than 93 percent of computers in just the first ten months since its release. According to comScore Media Metrix, approximately 75 percent of online videos viewed worldwide are delivered using Adobe Flash technology, making it the No. 1 format for video on the Web. Major broadcasters and media companies including Disney.com, MLB.com and DIRECTV rely on the Adobe Flash Platform for delivering video on the Web and the platform powers social network sites such as YouTube and MySpace. For more information about the Adobe Flash Platform visit www.adobe.com/flashplatform.

source : http://justamp.blogspot.com/2010/01/motorola-changing-mobile-web-browsing.html

Monday, January 25, 2010

Install Adobe Reader in Ubuntu 9.10

You can install the official Adobe Reader in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala).
Download .deb package from here called Linux- x86 (.deb)

The download weighs in at a heavy 60.5 MB

The system requirements are:

  • 32-bit Intel Pentium processor or equivalent
  • LSB (Linux Standard Base) 3.1 compliant systems including Red Hat® Linux WS 5, SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10, and Ubuntu 6.10
  • GNOME or KDE Desktop Environment
  • 512MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
  • 125MB of available hard-disk space (additional 75MB required for all supported font packs)
  • GTK+ (GIMP Toolkit) user interface library, version 2.6 or later
  • Firefox 1.5 or later, Mozilla 1.7.3 or later
Source : http://helpforlinux.blogspot.com/2009/10/install-adobe-reader-in-ubuntu-910.html

Friday, January 22, 2010

Install Flash Player For Ubuntu Linux

Type the following command to install flash player:

$ sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

Now flash player should be working. Visit youtube or any other site to view flash content.

Troubleshooting tip

Update: This issue only relevant to older Ubuntu Linux version such as 6.04.

Some people may find voice is not working with newly installed flash player. Type following commands to solve this problem (thanks to macewan.org):
$ sudo apt-get install alsa-oss
$ gksudo gedit /etc/firefox/firefoxrc

Find line that read as FIREFOX_DSP and set to:
FIREFOX_DSP="aoss"

Save and close the file.

Close Firefox and restart it again.


Source : http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/ubuntu-linux-how-to-install-flash-player-for-firefox/

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Installing Flash Player without Admin Privilleges

First you have to download the file, the change the extn as .zip (try to rename the file extension)
and extraxt and copy NPSWF32.dll and flashplayer.xpt and paste in the plugin dir of firefox , re start your browser walla!Enjoy...


other Sources : http://enomem.blogspot.com/2009/07/install-flash-player-without-admin-priv.html

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Having Flash Player Problems? There is An Easy Solution

Flash player problems are very common, especially if you have had your PC for a while. Flash player problems usually occur when there is corrupt or missing registry
data. You are probably thinking to yourself “what does that mean?” Even if you are not a technical wizard, these errors are easily repaired with a reliable registry cleaner.

Most people use their computer
for entertainment reasons, or to search for products or information. They never dream that things will happen that they don't understand. If this is you, don't become too upset by these Flash player errors, because it's not something directly caused by anything you did. Here is a little explanation that may help you understand why your PC acts strangely at times.

When you surf online, everything you do is kept in storage somewhere on your computer. For example, the websites you visit are stored in the history. When you create documents, they are stored in your document file which is commonly on your C drive. Download videos, music, games or freeware
and they also get placed on your PC. Eventually, all of these things add up, which starts causing minor problems.

Do you remember when you first got your computer? It probably ran fast as the dickens and was extremely efficient. Now you may notice not only flash player problems, but that your PC has gotten much slower. It may be slower to start up, or it may seem that you sit and wait for too long a time waiting for it to open up a link you click on. You may also experience things like your computer freezing up, or being difficult to shut down. These are all normal signs of wear and tear, but cleaning your registry will solve most.

You probably don't care how these things occur, you just want them fixed. You want your computer to be well optimized and quick, the way it once was. The days of dial up are nearly gone, but that is how you feel lately when you try to use your PC. The best registry cleaner
will repair flash player problems, leaving you with nothing but a fast running and super optimized computer!

Posted by : Olivia Larson
http://www.articlesbase.com/operating-systems-articles/having-flash-player-problems-there-is-an-easy-solution-1084714.html

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Detailed list of new Flash Player 10 features

Want to know exactly what is new in Flash Player 10? Through looking at the latest SWC, "zazzo9" has posted a full list of what new things Flash Player 10 is capable of. This list is a goldmine for anyone experimenting with the new player. The list contains new events such as exit_frame and frame_contructed as well as a host of 3D features.

With each new Flash Player comes new possibilities and as usual, it's left to the community to figure out what those are. "zazzo9" has produced a dump of new features using a disassembler tool called SwfDump. The list is extensive, but here is a short version highlighting only the new features available and what they probably offer.


New classes:

Vector Class - Offers arrays with Type checking. Should (in theory) be faster than ordinary arrays and easier to debug since they'll only accept the correct data type. Lee Brimelow recently put out a Flash Player 10 tutorial where he shows how to use the new Vector type.

GraphicsBitmapFill and GraphicsEndFill Class - New classes for handling filling of bitmaps, great for creating shaders (textured triangles) on 3D models. Supports a matrix for advanced distortion as well as a smoothing option. In our interview with Adobe's Tom Barclay he mentions these features as eeither CPU or GPU accelerated.

GraphicsGradientFill, GraphicsSolidFill, GraphicsStroke and GraphicsPath Class - Same as above, but for gradients and line drawing.

GraphicsTrianglePath Class - Object for storing one single 3D triangle, complete with geometry, normals, culling and mapping data.

Shader Class - Allow you the create custom shaders for 3D graphics. In 3D, a Shader applies rendering effects such as shadow, motion blur, specular highlights and other visual enhancements to 3D geometry at the time of rendering them to screen. This process makes fairly simple 3D models look visually richer than they really are. Rob Bateman has created a good example of what shaders are and what they offer for 3D in Flash. I initially thought this class had to do with 3D shaders, but according to Zeh Fernando, this class is related to Pixel shaders - thus shader is here just another word for Pixel Bender generated effects. Too bad - then again - Pixel Bender was built to "bend". Maybe somebody can figure out how to make 3D shaders using it?

The Shader class has several supporting classes such as ShaderInput, ShaderJob, ShaderParameter, ShaderParameterType, ShaderEvent, ShaderFilter and ShaderPrecision. From looking at the ShaderParameterType class, It looks like the shaders will support up to four levels of rendering quality (antialiasing?). Very promising indeed!

SamplesCallbackEvent Class - Allows you to get and set the position in the audio data as well as inject audio samples into the audio stream on your machine. I reality this, combined with the extract-method in the Sound Class makes it possible to generate any kind of sound as well as mix, add filters and more.

Matrix3D Class - to render objects from 3D space to a 2D representation, you use a matrix function. This new matrix class is native to the Flash Player, offering a massive speed enhancement. The old matrix functions were not native so any 3D engine will get a nice speed boost just from adding support for this feature alone. The class offers a large set of methods for working with the matrix such as interpolation, decomposition and transforms. Related to this class is also the new classes Orientation3D, PerspectiveProjection, Transform, Utils3D and Vector3D.

New methods in existing classes:

BitmapData Class - now supports getting and setting Vectors (getVector/setVector)

BlendMode class - provides constant values for visual blend mode effects. This class has a new static constant called SHADER. Shaders are often associated with rendering of 3D content. Interesting!

DisplayObject Class - This class handles all the display of objects in Flash (as the name implies). What's new is that EVERY single object now supports the third dimension. Where you formerly could set the X and Y position, you can now also set the Z position like this:

myMovieClip.z = 100;

Every object can rotate around the X, Y and Z axis (rotateX, rotateY, rotateZ) as opposed to formerly only being able to rotate in 2D. See Lee's 3D tutorial for an extensive example of this. You can also scale along the Z axis (scaleZ) as well as set the blendShader. Setting the blendShader sounds like it could be a way for using Pixel Bender to calculate the texture. Senocular has posted a tutorial that indicates this. This tutorial also mentions Graphics.lineShaderStyle(), a method not in the current Flash Player 10 beta, so it's clear that somebody in the community has a more recent version as well as some official documentation...

Graphics Class - Handles all the drawing of graphic primitives in the Flash Player. There's several new methods here. Some handle 3D drawing and some enhance the existing functionality. According to Adobe some of these commands can now be calculated by the users graphics card processors (GPU) for a massive speed boost.

Stage Class - has a new property for getting and setting the ColorCorrection according to the viewing monitor’s ICC color profile. In theory, this should improve color fidelity - given that the ICC profile is correct.

Event Class - In AS3, we rely on events for most everything we do. New core events are related to text enditing (Clear, Copy, Cut, Select all, Paste), audio (samples_callback) as well as movie playback (Exit_frame and frame_constructed) . These latter two are especially interesting as exit_frame brings a feature many Director developers have been missing. They both give you more granular control over when your code is executed. Should prove very useful for component development and could potentially rid us of the ever annoying "When in doubt - wait one frame".

Microphone Class - This class gets new methods for getting and setting the audio codec. Flash Player 10 offers the new speex codec in addition to the existing and proprietary Nellymoser codec. Speex is a free, open source codec that is patent free so this is yet another great move towards openness from Adobe. This class now has a supporting class with constants for the two possible codecs (SoundCodec Class).

Sound class - This class has two new functions and that's all we need... The Sound.extract command will pull out audio data as a ByteArray so you can manipulate it as you please. Using samplesCallbackData, you can then write those data back to the audio stream. Keith Peters has a great sample with code on his blog.

FileReference Class - now have two new commands for loading and saving files straight from the users desktop. No more uploading to a server for manipulating files.

NetConnection and NetStream Class - These classes have several new features for anabling Peer 2 Peer (P2P) features via Flash Media Server. Some good discussion on the P2P feature at this blog with Justin Everett Church chiming in at the end to clear the air of confusion.

NetStreamInfo Class - Has been enhanced with several useful features that are probably related to the new dynamic streaming capabilities. Using the information provided by this class, other video streaming server vendors should be able to support similar features. There's two related classes that has changes as well: NetStreamPlayOptions and NetStreamPlayTransitions. These will allow for swapping streams while playing transitions, a feature I had planned to add for the AS3 version of video.maru.

Capabilities Class - gets a "hasColorCorrection" method. Probably a good idea to test agains this one before trying to set the color correction on the Stage object.



This article is not yet finished. What's remaining is essentially the new text related classes. They're very exensive!

Written by : Jens C Brynildsen
Original post : http://www.flashmagazine.com/news/detail/detailed_list_of_new_flash_player_10_features/


Monday, January 18, 2010

(rt) Photography: Life & death from above, & more

* "We are experts in the application of violence..." Intense war photography, shot with a Canon 5D Mk II.
* Check out some winter gorgeousness (plus weirdness) from The Big Picture. I can't wait to teach our boys to sled (though living in California, I certainly must).
* Aerial history:
o From the Iconic Photos blog comes a a photo of the Pearl Harbor attack in progress, taken from a Japanese plane.
o Lovely B&W of an American airship under construction.
* Nocturnal:
o Night photography from atop the world's tallest building.
o I love the beams of light criscrossing Kevin Cooley's photos.


Posted by John Nack at 6:53 AM on January 18, 2010

Friday, January 15, 2010

Batch-creating PNGs or CMYK JPEGs from Photoshop

If you've ever wishes that Photoshop's Image Processor script offered the ability to create PNG and/or CMYK JPEG files, you're in luck: scripter Mike Hale has modified the script to add these options. Thanks, Mike. [Via Jeff Tranberry]

For what it's worth, we're trying to implement more features via scripting for exactly this reason: if you want something to work differently, you don't have to wait on Adobe to change it. Instead, if you're willing to learn a little JavaScript (or bribe someone who knows it), you can get what you want more quickly.

Posted by John Nack at 10:39 AM on January 14, 2010
Original Post : http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/01/batch-creating_pngs_or_cmyk_jpegs.html

Thursday, January 14, 2010

New Pixel Bender Technology Center

Adobe's Pixel Bender technology enables fast, GPU- and multicore-savvy filters to run in Photoshop, Flash, and After Effects. Now the Pixel Bender Technology Center provides one-stop access to a large variety of resources, including download of the PB plug-in Photoshop CS4. For more links, see engineering manager Kevin Goldsmith's blog.

Posted by : John Nack
Original Post : http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/01/new_pixel_bender_technology_center.html

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

How Adobe (and others) got everything wrong initially

Interesting:

Pyra was started to build a project-management app, not Blogger. Flickr's company was building a game. eBay was going to sell auction software. Initial assumptions are almost always wrong.
From Ten Rules For Web Startups. [Via]

I've heard Drs. Warnock & Geschke talk about how they started Adobe with the intention of selling printing hardware, and how they shopped this idea around and around until they finally agreed to do what customers wanted: just sell them the software. They depict it as something of a forehead-slapping moment that changed everything.

Tangentially related: I've mentioned it previously, but I always like this anecdote:

The hands-on nature of the startup was communicated to everyone the company brought onboard. For years, Warnock and Geschke hand-delivered a bottle of champagne or cognac and a dozen roses to a new hire's house. The employee arrived at work to find hammer, ruler, and screwdriver on a desk, which were to be used for hanging up shelves, pictures, and so on.

"From the start we wanted them to have the mentality that everyone sweeps the floor around here," says Geschke, adding that while the hand tools may be gone, the ethic persists today.


Original Post : http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2010/01/how_adobe_and_others_got_everything_wrong_initially.html

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Monday, January 11, 2010

Troubleshoot printing problems (Acrobat 5.0-7.0 on Windows)

What's covered

Determine the cause of the problem

Resolve problems printing a specific PDF file from an Acrobat product

Resolve problems printing any file from any application

Resolve problems printing any PDF file to a PostScript printer

Resolve problems printing any PDF file to a non-PostScript printer

This document provides troubleshooting suggestions from Adobe Technical Support that may help you resolve general printing problems in Adobe Acrobat products. You may find a solution to a specific printing problem by searching the Support Knowledgebase on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/support/products/acrobat.html .

This document uses the term Acrobat product to refer to Adobe Acrobat (Professional and Standard), Adobe Acrobat Elements, and Adobe Reader.

Determine the cause of the problem

Before you can troubleshoot the problem, you need to determine its cause.

To determine the cause of the printing problem:

1. Print another PDF file, such as the first page of Acrobat Help:

-- If that file prints correctly, the PDF file that doesn't print correctly may be damaged. See "Resolve problems printing a specific PDF file from an Acrobat product" in this document.

-- If the file doesn't print correctly, go to step 2.

2. Print another type of file (for example, a .txt file) from another application (such as Microsoft Word or WordPad):

-- If that file prints correctly, the problem isn't system-wide--it's specific to the Acrobat product. However, the way Acrobat interacts with the system may affect printing performance. Go to step 3 to eliminate some system-related causes of the problem.

-- If the file doesn't print correctly, the problem is system-wide--it isn't specific to Acrobat or PDF files. The problem could be low system resources, insufficient memory on your printer, or a poor connection between your computer and the printer. Go to step 3 to eliminate some likely causes of the problem.

3. Restart your computer, and then print a PDF file:

-- If the file prints correctly, your system may have been out of memory or resources.

-- If the file doesn't print correctly, go to step 4.

4. Turn off your printer for at least 15 seconds to flush its memory, and then turn it back on and print a PDF file:

-- If the file prints correctly, the printer's memory was too full.

-- If the file doesn't print correctly, go to step 5.

5. Print from another computer:

-- If the file prints correctly, the computer you first tried to print from may be unable to connect to the printer or the network correctly. Contact your network administrator or consult your network documentation.

-- If the file doesn't print correctly, go to step 6.

6. Print a PDF file to another printer:

-- If the file prints correctly, the computer you first tried to print from may be unable to connect to the original printer because of a communication, hardware, or memory problem. Make sure that the printer is turned on and connected properly, and then run a self-test on it to make sure that it's working correctly. For instructions, see the documentation that came with the printer. You may want to contact your network administrator for assistance.

-- If the file doesn't print correctly, see "Resolve problems printing any file from any application" in this document.

Resolve problems printing a specific PDF file from an Acrobat product

If you have problems printing an individual PDF file, do one or more of the following, printing after each task:

1. Print the PDF file as an image.

Printing the PDF file as an image may enable the file to print, but it doesn't identify the source of the problem; proceed through this document to identify the source.

Note: When you print a PDF file as an image, it may take longer to print.

To print a PDF file as an image:

Acrobat 7.0 and 6.x:

1. Choose File > Print, and then click Advanced.

2. Select Print As Image and any other desired printing options.

3. Click OK to close the Advanced Print Setup dialog box, and then click OK.

Acrobat 5.x:

1. Choose File > Print.

2. Select Print as Image, and then click OK.

2. Save the PDF file as a new file.

Resave the document by choosing File > Save As, and giving the file a new name. The Save As command causes Acrobat to rewrite the file.

3. Enable the PostScript error handler.

If you print to a PostScript printer, enable the PostScript error handler for the printer (if the printer driver includes this option). The PostScript error handler prints a list of PostScript errors that occur when you print. For help interpreting and resolving PostScript errors, see document 328515 , "Troubleshoot PostScript Errors."

To enable the PostScript error handler:

Windows 2000 and XP:

1. Choose Start > Settings > Printers (Windows 2000) or Start > Printers and Faxes (Windows XP).

2. Right-click the printer, and then choose Properties from the menu.

3. Click the General tab, click Printing Preferences, and then click Advanced.

4. Expand the Document Options, and then expand the PostScript Options.

5. Set Send PostScript Error Handler to Yes.

Windows NT 4:

1. Choose Start > Settings > Printers.

2. Right-click the printer, and then choose Document Defaults from the menu.

3. Click the Advanced tab.

4. Expand the Document Options, and then expand the PostScript Options.

5. Set Send PostScript Error Handler to Yes.

Windows Me, 98, and 95:

1. Choose Start > Settings > Printers.

2. Right-click the printer, and then choose Properties from the menu.

3. Click the PostScript tab, and then select Print Postscript Error Information.

4. Exit from all other applications.

In Windows Me, 98, or 95, keep at least 50% of the system resources free when printing from an Acrobat product. If the system resources are below 50%, exit from all applications but the Acrobat product. You may need to restart Windows to update system resource information.

To check the amount of available resources, right-click My Computer, choose Properties from the menu, and then click the Performance tab.

5. Re-create the PDF file.

Re-create the PDF file by using a different method. For example, use Acrobat Distiller or the Adobe PDF Printer.

6. Download the PDF file again.

If you downloaded the PDF file from the web, download it again--it may not have successfully downloaded the first time.

7. Print the PDF file in batches.

Print the PDF file in batches to determine if a particular page, or object on a page, is causing the problem. If you can identify a particular object on a page that won't print, remove or re-create the page or object.

8. Adjust the transparency flattening. (Acrobat Professional 6.0-7.0 only)

If a document contains transparent objects, Acrobat flattens it before printing it. Flattening removes transparency information and converts images to a format the printer can interpret. Adjust the transparency flattening to determine if transparency is causing the problem.

To adjust the transparency flattening:

1. Choose File > Print, and then click Advanced.

2. Choose Transparency Flattening from the list on the left.

3. Adjust the Raster/Vector Balance:

-- If you print to an inkjet printer, drag the Raster/Vector Balance slider to the lowest setting.

-- If you print to a PostScript printer, drag the Raster/Vector Balance slider to the highest setting.

4. Select Convert All Text To Outlines.

5. Deselect Clip Complex Regions, click OK, and then click Print.

9. Select the default print settings. (Acrobat 6.0-7.0 only)

Print using the default settings to determine if a variant print setting is causing the problem.

To select the default print settings:

1. Choose File > Print, and then click Advanced.

2. Choose Acrobat Default (Acrobat 7.0) or Acrobat 6 Default (Acrobat 6.0) or from the Settings menu, and then click OK.

3. Click OK to close the dialog box, and then click Print.

10. Merge or flatten layers. (Acrobat 6.0-7.0 Professional only)

If you print a PDF file that contains layers, only the content that is visible on-screen is printed. Acrobat Professional, however, lets you specify which layer is visible and printable. Merge or flatten the layers in the PDF file to determine if a layer is causing the printing issue. Merged layers acquire the properties of the layer into which they are merged. Flattening layers discards any content that isn't visible.

Note: Merging or flattening layers can't be undone.

To merge or flatten layers:

1. Make a backup copy of your PDF file.

2. Open the copy and choose Advanced > PDF Optimizer, and then click the Clean Up tab.

2. Select Remove Hidden Layers Content and Flatten Layers, and then click OK.

3. In the Layers palette, choose Options, and then select either Merge Layers or Flatten Layers.

11. Print a composite of the file. (Acrobat 6.0-7.0 Professional only)

If you print a PDF file with color separations, print a composite of the file to determine if a color plate is the problem. When you print a composite, all the colors print on one plate, regardless of whether individual colors are selected.

12. Change the PostScript options. (Acrobat 6.0-7.0 Professional only)

Print by using variations of the default PostScript options to determine if a variant print setting causes the problem.

To change the PostScript options:

1. Choose File > Print, and then click Advanced.

2. Select PostScript Options from the list on the left.

3. Select any PostScript options that aren't selected and deselect any options that are selected.

4. Click OK to close the dialog box, and then click Print.

Resolve problems printing any file from any application

If you have problems printing any file from the computer, contact Microsoft Technical Support or the printer manufacturer. Make sure that the printer is on, and check the physical connections between the printer and the computer--the solution may be as simple as reconnecting a loose cable.

Also, note any recent changes to the computer system that may affect printing, such as the following:

-- updating hardware or software

-- adding new hardware or software

-- deleting software

-- installing or removing fonts

-- connecting to a network

-- rearranging or cleaning up files on the hard drive

Keep a record of changes made to the system to help you troubleshoot printing and other problems. If the problem persists, work through the other sections in this document, as applicable.

Resolve problems printing any PDF file to a PostScript printer

If you have problems printing any PDF file from an Acrobat product to a PostScript printer, do one or more of the following, printing after each task:

1. Use the latest version of the Acrobat product.

Visit the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/main.html for current version information and updates, or choose Check For Updates Now from the Help menu.

2. Use an updated printer driver.

Use the Universal Installer (WinInstaller) to automatically install the PostScript printer driver that is compatible with your version of Windows. The most recent version of the Universal Installer is available on the Adobe website at www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html .

Note: If you use a network printer, the print server may not be set up to run alternate drivers for different operating systems on client computers. You may be using a printer driver that's compatible with the print server's operating system but not with your computer's operating system. To install a printer driver that's compatible with your operating system, reconfigure the network printer using the Add Printer Wizard. For instructions, see task 8.

3. Use an updated PPD file.

A PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file describes the capabilities of a PostScript printer for settings such as margins, color, and resolution. Incorrect or outdated PPD files can increase print times. Configure your printer in the Printers Control Panel with the PPD file recommended by the printer manufacturer.

To obtain a PPD file for your device, contact the printer manufacturer or visit www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html .

4. Set up the printer driver to output optimized PostScript code.

If you set up the printer driver to output PostScript code that's optimized for portability and in binary format, the amount of scaling the driver must do is minimized, thus preventing it from losing portions of images.

Windows XP and 2000:

1. Choose Start > Settings > Printers.

2. Right-click the printer, and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.

3. Click the General tab.

4. Click Printing Preferences, and then click Advanced.

5. Expand the Document Options, and then expand the PostScript Options.

6. Set PostScript Output Option to Optimize for Portability.

Windows NT 4.0:

1. Choose Start > Settings > Printers.

2. Right-click the printer, and choose Document Defaults from the pop-up menu. Click the Advanced tab.

3. Expand the Document Options, and then expand the PostScript Options.

4. Set PostScript Output Option to Optimize for Portability.

Windows Me, 98, or 95:

1. Choose Start > Settings > Printers.

2. Right-click the printer, and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.

3. Click the PostScript tab, and then set PostScript Output Format to PostScript (Optimize for Portability).

5. Move the PDF file to a local hard disk.

If the file that won't print is on a removable drive (for example, a Zip or Jaz disk) or on a network drive, move the file to a local hard disk. Adobe recommends storing files on a local hard disk when you open, save, or print them to reduce potential problems and damage to your files.

6. Create more free disk space.

Make sure that plenty of free hard disk space is available: Adobe recommends that free space is equivalent to three to five times the size of the file you print. To create more space, search for and delete temporary (.tmp) files on your computer, and clear the disk cache that the web browser uses. For instructions about clearing the disk cache, see the documentation for the browser. If you use Windows NT, 2000 or XP, you can also free up disk space bypassing the spool file, which stores temporary files to the system disk during printing. For instructions to bypass the spool file, see the documentation included with Windows.

7. Print from a local printer.

If you print to a network printer, try printing the file from a computer that is connected directly to a local printer:

-- If an Acrobat product is installed on the computer, print the PDF file from Acrobat.

-- If an Acrobat product isn't installed on the computer, save the PDF file as a PostScript file, and then copy the PostScript file to the printer from a DOS prompt. For instructions, refer to the Windows documentation.

If the file prints correctly, network-related issues may be the cause. Contact the network administrator for assistance.

8. Install a printer driver that's compatible with your operating system.

If you use a network printer, install a printer driver that's compatible with your operating system. Print servers don't always provide drivers for operating systems running on client computers, so you may be using a printer driver that's appropriate for the print server's operating system but not for your computer's operating system.

To install a printer driver that's compatible with your operating system:

1. Choose Start > Settings, and then double-click Printers (Windows Me, 2000, 98, or NT) or Printers and Faxes (Windows XP).

2. Right-click the network printer, and then choose Delete from the menu.

3. Double-click Add Printer, and then click Next.

4. Select Local Printer Attached to This Computer, deselect Automatically Detect and Install My Plug and Play Printer, and then click Next.

5. Select Create a New Port.

6. Choose Local Port from the Type of Port pop-up menu, and then click Next.

7. In the Port Name dialog box, type the path for the print server and printer (for example, \\printservername\printername), and then click OK.

8. Follow the on-screen instructions to install a driver that matches the brand and model of your network printer.

9. Save the printer memory.

Select Save Printer Memory in the Print dialog box of the Acrobat product. If Save Printer Memory is selected, all fonts for a given page download to the printer before the page prints; if Save Printer Memory is deselected, print jobs require more printer memory.

Resolve problems printing any PDF file to a non-PostScript printer

If you have problems printing any PDF file from an Acrobat product to a non-PostScript printer, do one or more of the following, printing after each task:

Disclaimer: Some of these solutions require you to change the printer driver properties. The locations for specific properties vary by printer and by printer driver. Therefore, Adobe Technical Support cannot provide detailed information about the location for each property. Contact the printer manufacturer or refer to the printer documentation for more information.

1. Switch to the standard VGA driver.

Switch to the standard VGA driver to determine if the video driver causes the problem. If the error doesn't occur when you use the standard VGA driver, contact the video card manufacturer for an updated driver. If you already use the current version, try using a different video resolution (for example, 800 x 600 rather than 1024 x 768).

Note: Standard VGA drivers display 16 colors only. Switch to Super VGA for applications that require a minimum of 256 colors, such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, or Adobe Illustrator.

To switch to the standard VGA driver:

Windows NT, 2000 or XP:

Start Windows in VGA mode.

Windows 98:

Note: You may need your Windows 98 CD-ROM to install the standard VGA driver.

1. Right-click the desktop, and then choose Properties from the pop-up menu.

2. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab, and then click Advanced.

3. Click the Adapter tab.

4. Make a note of the Adapter Type you currently use, and then click Change.

5. Click Next in the Update Device Driver Wizard dialog box that reports "This wizard searches for updated driver . . . ."

6. Select "Display a List of All the Drivers in a Specific Location, So You Can Select the Driver You Want" in the next dialog box, and then click Next.

7. Select Show All Hardware.

8. Choose [Standard Display Types] from the list of manufacturers, and then choose Standard Display Adapter [VGA] from the list of Models.

9. Click Next.

10. Click Yes in the Update Driver Warning dialog box that prompts "The driver that you have chosen was not written specifically for the selected hardware . . . ."

11. Click Next in the Update Device Driver Wizard dialog box that reports the driver location.

12. Click Finish when you receive the message "Windows has finished installing the driver you selected for your hardware device."

13. Click the Monitor tab.

14. Note the Monitor Type you currently use, and then click Change.

15. Click Next in the Update Device Driver Wizard dialog box that reports "This wizard searches for updated driver . . . ."

16. Select "Display a List of All the Drivers in a Specific Location, So You Can Select the Driver You Want" in the next dialog box, and then click Next.

17. Select Show All Hardware.

18. Choose [Standard Monitor Types] from the list of manufacturers.

19. Choose Standard VGA 640 x 480 from the list of models, and then click Next.

20. Click Finish when you receive the message "Windows has finished installing the driver you selected for your hardware device."

21. Click Apply.

22. Click OK when you receive the message "These settings will take effect when your computer is restarted." To revert to the original video driver, select the Adapter Type and Monitor Type you noted in steps 4 and 14.

Windows 95:

1. Right-click the desktop, and choose Properties from the pop-up menu.

2. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab, and then click Advanced Properties.

3. Select the Adapter tab, note the Adapter Type you currently use, and then click Change.

4. In the Select Device dialog box, select Show All Devices.

5. Select Standard Display Types from the top of the Manufacturers scroll box.

6. Select Standard Display Adapter (VGA) from the Models scroll box, and then click OK.

7. Click the Monitor tab, note the Monitor Type you're currently using, and then click Change.

8. In the Select Device dialog box, select Show All Devices.

9. Select Standard Monitor Types from the top of the Manufacturers scroll box.

10. Select Standard VGA 640 x 480 from the Models scroll box, and then click OK.

11. Restart Windows 95.

2. Ensure that the printer has enough memory.

Ensure that the printer has enough memory to print all page elements. To print at 300 dpi, the printer should have at least 2 MB of available RAM. To print at 600 dpi, the printer should have at least 4 to 6 MB of RAM. For instructions on determining available printer memory, see the printer documentation.

3. Use the printer's PostScript mode.

If the printer has a PostScript option, use the PostScript mode. For details, see the printer documentation.

Original Post : http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/316/316508.html

Friday, January 8, 2010

LiveCycle Reader Extensions ES sample application incompatible with Adobe Flash Player 10

Issue


If you have the Adobe Flash Player 10 plug-in installed on your LiveCycle ES client machine (versions 8.0.x, 8.2.1, and 8.2.1.1), then running the LiveCycle Reader Extensions ES sample application can cause the browser to stop responding.

Solution


To successfully run this sample application, your client browser must use the Adobe Flash Player 9 plug-in.

Note: You can continue to use Adobe Flash Player 10 with another browser.

To uninstall Adobe Flash Player 10, review the article œHow to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX control.

To obtain and install Adobe Flash Player 9, visit the Archived Flash Players page.

Original Post : http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/407/kb407403.html

Thursday, January 7, 2010

how to install adobe flash player on firefox

General

If you have installation questions or need help troubleshooting Adobe Flash Player, go to our Support Center.

Get answers about Adobe Flash Player licensing, Macromedia Flash content development, and more in our list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

For more information on Adobe Flash Player and privacy, please visit the Flash Player Privacy & Security Center.

Windows

Installation instructions for Windows Internet Explorer
  1. Installation of Adobe Flash Player may require administrative access to your PC, which is normally provided by your IT department. It is recommended that you close all other open browser windows before continuing with the installation.
  2. Click the download link to automatically download and install Adobe Flash Player into Microsoft Internet Explorer.
  3. Depending on your security settings, you may see a Security Warning dialog box. Click Install to install the ActiveX control.

    Active X security warning

  4. When the installation is complete, you will see the Adobe Flash Player logo and text.
Installation instructions for Windows non-Internet Explorer
  1. Installation of Adobe Flash Player may require administrative access to your PC, which is normally provided by your IT department. For the installation to succeed, you may be asked to close all open browser windows during the installation.
  2. Click the download link. A dialog box will appear asking you where to save the Installer.
  3. Save the Installer to your desktop, and wait for it to download completely.
  4. An Installer icon will appear on your desktop. Double-click on it.

    windows non ie installer

  5. You may be prompted to close open browser windows to continue with the installation.
  6. You can verify the version you have installed by visiting the About Flash Player page.

Mac

Installation instructions for MacOSX and MacPPC
  1. Installation of Adobe Flash Player may require administrative access to your PC, which is normally provided by your IT department. For the installation to succeed, you will be asked to close all open browser windows during the installation.
  2. Click the download link to begin installation. If a dialog box appears, follow the instructions to save the installer to your desktop.
  3. Save the Installer to your desktop, and wait for it to download completely.
  4. An Installer icon will appear on your desktop. Double-click on it.

    installer.exe

  5. Read and click through the dialog boxes. You will be prompted to close all open browser windows to continue with the installation.
  6. When the Install button appears, click it to install Adobe Flash Player into your browser's plug-ins folder.
  7. You can verify the version you have installed by visiting the About Flash Player page.

Linux (x86)

Installation instructions for .deb
  1. Click the download link to begin installation. If a dialog box appears, follow the instructions to save the installer to your desktop.
  2. Save the .deb package to your desktop, and wait for it to download completely.
  3. Double-click on the .deb package and follow the instructions to complete installation.

    -or-
    Issue one of the following commands from the terminal:

    • dpkg --install [filename].deb
    • dpkg -i [filename].deb
  4. To verify the plugin is installed in Mozilla, launch Mozilla and choose Help > About Plug-ins from the browser menu.
Installation instructions for tar.gz
  1. Click the download link to begin installation. A dialog box will appear asking you where to save the file.
  2. Save the .tar.gz file to your desktop and wait for the file to download completely.
  3. Unpackage the file. A directory called install_flash_player_10_linux will be created.
  4. In terminal, navigate to this directory and type ./flashplayer-installer to run the installer. Click Enter. The installer will instruct you to shut down your browser(s).
  5. Once the installation is complete, the plug-in will be installed in your Mozilla browser. To verify, launch Mozilla and choose Help > About Plug-ins from the browser menu.
Installation instructions for .rpm
  1. Click the download link to begin installation. A dialog box will appear asking you where to save the file.
  2. Save the .rpm file to your desktop and wait for the file to download completely.
  3. In terminal, navigate to the desktop and type # rpm -Uvh . Click Enter. (Note: This must be done as a root user). The installer will instruct you to shut down your browser(s).
  4. Once the installation is complete, the plug-in will be installed in your Mozilla browser. To verify, launch Mozilla and choose Help > About Plug-ins from the browser menu.
Installation instructions via APT
  1. Click the download link and follow the instructions to complete installation
  2. To verify the plugin is installed in Mozilla, launch Mozilla and choose Help > About Plug-ins from the browser menu.
  3. To get the most up-to-date Flash Player in the future, issue the following commands from the Terminal:

    • sudo apt-get update
    • sudo apt-get install adobe-flashplugin
Installation instructions for the YUM repository definition
  1. Click the download link to begin installation. A dialog box will appear asking you where to save the file.
  2. Save the .rpm file to your desktop and wait for the file to download completely.
  3. In terminal, navigate to the desktop and type # rpm -Uvh . Click Enter. (Note: This must be done as a root user).
  4. Once the installation is complete, in terminal, type # yum install flash-plugin. Click Enter. (Note: This must be done as a root user).
  5. To verify the plugin is installed in Mozilla, launch Mozilla and choose Help > About Plug-ins from the browser menu.
  6. To get the most up-to-date Flash Player in the future, simply type # yum update flash-plugin in terminal. You will not need to repeat steps 1-4.

Solaris

Installation instructions for Solaris SPARC

Click the download link to begin installation. A dialog box will ask you where to save the Installer. The following section assumes that you have unpacked the archive flash_player_10_solaris_sparc.tar.bz2 into the top level of your user directory. Your user directory is referred to as $HOME. Adobe Flash Player can be installed in two ways:

A. Install Adobe Flash Player system-wide, making it available to all users of the computer

-or-

B. Install Adobe Flash Player in a user account, making it available only to that user.

A. Installing Adobe Flash Player System-Wide:

  1. You will need root access to the computer to install Adobe Flash Player system-wide.
  2. Copy Adobe Flash Player (libflashplayer.so) into the Firefox/Mozilla plug-in directory.
  3. Restart Firefox/Mozilla.
  4. Verify the installation by typing about:plugins in the location bar or by choosing Help > About Plugins. You should see Adobe Flash Player listed as "Shockwave Flash 10.0"
  5. To test Adobe Flash Player go to: http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayerversion

B. Installing Adobe Flash Player in a User Account:

  1. If you have not already used Firefox/Mozilla from the user account, launch Firefox/Mozilla and close it. This will create a preferences directory (/.mozilla) in your home directory.
  2. Create a directory named "plugins" in the Firefox/Mozilla preferences directory. If the mkdir command reports the error "cannot make directory: File exists", this means that the directory was already present and did not need to be created.
  3. Copy libflashplayer.so and flashplayer.xpt into the plug-in directory.
  4. Restart Firefox/Mozilla
  5. Verify the installation by typing about:plugins in the location bar or by choosing Help > About Plugins. You should see Adobe Flash Player listed as "Shockwave Flash 10.0"
  6. To test Adobe Flash Player go to: http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayerversion
Installation instructions for Solaris x86

Click the download link to begin installation. A dialog box will ask you where to save the Installer. The following section assumes that you have unpacked the archive flash_player_10_solaris_x86.tar.bz2 into the top level of your user directory. Your user directory is referred to as $HOME.The Adobe Flash Player can be installed in two ways:

A. Install Adobe Flash Player system-wide, making it available to all users of the computer

-or-

B. Install Adobe Flash Player in a user account, making it available only to that user.

A. Installing Adobe Flash Player System-Wide:

  1. You will need root access to the computer to install Adobe Flash Player system-wide.
  2. Copy Adobe Flash Player (libflashplayer.so) into the Firefox/Mozilla plug-in directory.
  3. Restart Firefox/Mozilla.
  4. Verify the installation by typing about:plugins in the location bar or by choosing Help > About Plugins. You should see Adobe Flash Player listed as "Shockwave Flash Player 10.0"
  5. To test Adobe Flash Player go to: http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayerversion

B. Installing the Adobe Flash Player in a User Account:

  1. If you have not already used Firefox/Mozilla from the user account, launch Netscape/Mozilla and close it. This will create a preferences directory (/.mozilla) in your home directory.
  2. Create a directory named "plugins" in the Firefox/Mozilla preferences directory. If the mkdir command reports the error "cannot make directory: File exists", this means that the directory was already present and did not need to be created.
  3. Copy libflashplayer.so and flashplayer.xpt into the plug-in directory.
  4. Restart Firefox/Mozilla
  5. Verify the installation by typing about:plugins in the location bar or by choosing Help > About Plugins. You should see Adobe Flash Player listed as "Shockwave Flash Player 10.0"
  6. To test Adobe Flash Player go to: http://www.adobe.com/go/flashplayerversion
Orinal from ADOBE
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/productinfo/instructions/

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Adobe Photoshop CS4


There's just enough that's better in the CS4 updates to Photoshop and Photoshop Extended--most notably, usability improvements for core features--that many people will find themselves sighing, biting the bullet, and upgrading. If you work with video or 3D, or want to update your Creative Suite to CS4 for other reasons, this is a no-brainer; for the rest of us, there's little you can do with CS4 that you couldn't do with CS3, and the latter seems a bit faster and more memory efficient in some respects.

The Web abounds with complaints about Adobe's installer and updater, and I think most are quite justified. Every Windows application installer suggests you close any running applications, but you can usually ignore it and 99 percent of the time everything works out fine. Adobe forces you to close your browser and all Microsoft Office applications, because many of the programs in the suite--primarily Acrobat--spread octopus-like tentacles throughout your working environment. That's pretty appalling in and of itself, but in addition to wasting a large chunk of time installing, you can't do anything else but play Solitaire while it's happening. And as before with the updater, you'll get to relive this delightful close-your-apps-or-else experience on a regular basis. Even as I type it's stopped dead waiting for me to close Firefox. Plus, the installation "progress" bar bears no relation to reality whatsoever, with its two steps forward and one step back movement. Over and over again. All of this adds up to a one-point demerit for Adobe on its Setup and Interface rating.

In some ways this version feels like a necessary evil. Adobe has obviously put a lot of work into it, but most of it is under the hood--way under the hood from the perspective of the everyday user. The entire 3D engine (in Extended) has been migrated from a PDF-based architecture to OpenGL, and the company has seeded OpenGL support throughout the application. The panels architecture is now extensible via Flash, allowing people to create their own panels or modify some of the existing ones (you can try it yourself using Adobe Configurator). And via the release of the Pixel Bender SDK, the filter library is not only extensible but has baked-in GPU and multicore acceleration. All of this is essential in order to allow future versions of Photoshop to evolve. However, the move to support 64-bit Windows, and multitouch inputs and 16-bit printing on the Mac are likely the real technology changes that will significantly impact everyday users of this version.

Photoshop CS4 Extended users will benefit more immediately from these underlying changes than Standard users. For the latter, OpenGL support primarily manifests itself as some whizzy screen zooming and rotation tools that demo well but likely won't get used much. However, Adobe has greatly improved Extended's 3D support. It now offers most of the essential render settings and view controls, plus the ability to create primitives (and extend the library of primitives), necessary to work with 3D models. You edit and paint on textures simply by double-clicking on them in the Layers palette, then see your changes applied when you toggle back to the model; not quite real-time, interactive painting, but close enough for now. And now there's basic keyframe animation for 3D scenes. Still there's room for improvement: it needs better lighting handling and the ability to tile and more easily position textures, and several aspects of the interface, like the Rendering options, are still far too dialog-driven. And Photoshop gets very slow when you load (or generate via the Mesh from grayscale command) relatively complex models with tens of thousands of polygons.

That mixture of real-time and dialog-driven action still permeates the interface of Photoshop in general, despite some advances. For example, if you use Photoshop for Web or print production work, the move to modeless Adjustment and Masks panels for real-time adjustments to preview changes in mask feathering and density is potentially a huge time-saver. But all the ancillary operations, such as the Radius, Contrast, Smooth, (another) Feather, and Contract/Expand parameters controlled by Refine Mask, remain in a modal dialog box.

So while there are a few tweaks, such as the new tabbed windows (you can still float 'em, though) and jarring all-caps text, long-time users won't encounter a lot of user interface differences to slow down their work flow. On the upside, tool shortcut keys now behave in what Adobe refers to as a "spring loaded" fashion. That means that if you hold down the shortcut key for one tool while another is selected in the toolbar, it temporarily overrides the toolbar until you release the key. Very nice. On the other hand, I don't particularly like the icon representations of the adjustments in the new panel--you can't tell what they are without mousing over them and reading the text--but you can just ignore them and use the adjustment layer pop-up on the Layers palette as always.

Aside from the real-time adjustments, there's not a lot new here for Photoshop's core photo-editing audience. Adobe Camera Raw is now up to version 5.x, and has been brought more into sync with the way Lightroom handles files. It includes local retouching brushes like that application, though I suspect the quick fixes for which they're intended are less important when opening in Photoshop than in Lightroom. And now that you've trained yourself not to use Dodge, Burn, and Sponge--because they've worked so poorly for the last 10- plus versions--Adobe has fixed them, by limiting the areas of the tonal range they apply to. The Vibrance control, a saturation adjustment that preserves skin tones and which has made it into all the other Adobe photo applications, finally comes to Photoshop as well. Also useful (some might say overdue), the Clone Stamp and Healing brushes now display a preview of what it will be stamping or healing, and brush size in general is now interactive.

Adobe has also tweaked the Color Range Select tool, adding the ability to limit the selection to "Localized Color Clusters." It sounds nice, but I couldn't get it to work well in any meaningful way; rather than limit it to contiguous colors that meet the specified criteria, as I expected, it seemed to limit the range to a user-specified-size circle around a sample point. An extension of the old Auto Align and Auto Blend capabilities combines the sharpest areas of several layers of similar images, which Adobe promotes as delivering an extended depth-of-field image. In practice, you have to be very careful or you'll end up with an odd mixture of blur and sharp that bears no resemblance to anything producible with a camera. Those image combination scripts have also been beefed up with vignette (edge darkening) and fish-eye distortion correction when creating panoramas.

Content-Aware scaling, Adobe's implementation of seam-carving technology, seems slightly more cooked than it seemed while I was beta testing the software, but it's not quite ready for prime time. For one thing, it's slow; though it's OK while you interact with it, when it comes time to apply, it can take a while. Also, if you leave it on, the program defaults, and you'll get an unholy mess. Always dial it back to at least 50 percent. The fact that you should really use a rough mask to protect important areas will slow down your work flow. Finally, it can leave behind tons of contouring artifacts.

Photoshop also has much better integration with Lightroom 2.1. You can jump seamlessly back and forth without any of the onerous saving and manual refreshing required by an earlier version of this capability. You make adjustments in LR, then open it in Photoshop, save, and jump back to Lightroom.

Of course, there's the inevitable disappointment with the stuff Adobe hasn't changed, such as the poor print layout controls and embarrassingly primitive text handling.

I'm not quite sure what conclusions to draw about CS4's performance relative to CS3. CS3 was faster across the board than CS2, but CS4 seems to have taken a small step backwards. For instance, I ran a variation of the Photoshop Action suite we use for desktop testing (for details, see the Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test section on our How we test desktops page), but with the larger raw files from a 24-megapixel Sony Alpha DSLR-A900 (close to 70MB in their 8-bit form and about 140MB opened as 16-bit) and under both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista.

Time (in seconds)
CS3, 64-bit Vista 153
CS4, 64-bit Vista 165
CS3, 32-bit Vista 185
CS4, 32-bit on 64-bit Vista 189
CS4, 32-bit Vista 217

As you can see, CS4 ran about 7 percent slower than CS3 in the 64-bit environment and 17 percent slower in a 32-bit environment. I also created an Action that sequentially selected and rotated the entire image 20.5 degrees 3 times, which took CS4 twice as long to run on both OSes than CS3--3.3-3.7 seconds per rotation in CS4 vs. 1.7 seconds in CS3. Opening six raw files from the Adobe Camera Raw dialog takes about the same amount of time when there's sufficient memory allocated in Photoshop's preferences, but CS4 hit the virtualization border at a higher memory allocation. My guess is that the increased overhead of CS4 makes it bottleneck just a bit sooner than CS3 in the same memory environment. If that's true, Adobe has some critical optimization work to do, because that's an across-the-board problem. It's also bad news for those of us who have to run Photoshop along with other memory hogs, like Microsoft Office. (My test configuration was a 3GHz Intel Core2 Extreme X9650 system with 4GB RAM, an Nvidia GeForce GTX280 with 1GB dedicated graphics memory--and another 1GB shared--running at 1,900x1200 resolution and a 74GB WDC WD740GD hard disk. Unfortunately, our Mac testbed was misbehaving when I needed it.) Given the performance results, I can't help but think that the newly added support for 64-bit Windows was a necessity, not a luxury. Adobe was surprised by these results, and is looking into it.

There's more, of course, but nothing that screams, "I'm going to make your life easier!" Which is why I suspect users will be sighing when they plunk down the cash for the upgrade rather than eagerly anticipating all the fun times ahead. Maybe that will come with CS5, when the fruits of Adobe's technological labors have ripened and left the sanctuary of Adobe Labs for the wild.

Original Post : http://reviews.cnet.com/image-editing/adobe-photoshop-cs4/4505-3634_7-33255262-2.html?tag=txt;page

Posted By : Lori Grunin