CS5's greatest feature is no trick: a 'content aware' tool that allows users to select and delete objects on any photo, and have the background 'fill' the gaps without any further adjustment or aberration. And it's finally here.
For the official CS5 demonstration of the software this week, the Adobe management team demonstrated how easily it was to delete a galloping horse from a rustic farmland photo.
The process, in Adobe's offical demo at least, was as simple as selecting the horse, deleting horse and filling the background. To watch it on YouTube is one thing (see below), but seeing it previewed in real-time drew gasps from the assembled media.
The simplicity of the content aware tool is masked by its complexity; an algorithm that uses a system akin to computational guessing and drawing the appropriate content (or filling it) to fit the scene.
Adobe officials say that the results of content aware technology depend on the nature of the image (see our story here that explains in more detail, the science behind the tool).
But will this magic marker for the digital age be enough to motivate CS4 and CS3 users to switch over? Official prices for the full CS5 suite of software titles aren't cheap: $4344 for the Master collection or $1503 for Master Collection upgrade.
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| The Adobe CS5 Master Collection, starts shipping early May, though at $4,344 for the full price, it's not cheap |
Fortunately, previous Photoshop users can access the cheaper upgrade price of $337 for the Photoshop CS5 by itself. The stand alone price is a heavy chunk of change at $1168, so the upgrade seems to be the best pick of the bunch if you already own Photoshop and can't wait to use its content aware technology.
