17 July 2020

At Adobe, Change Never Ends

As the software world continues its transition to software as a service (SaaS), users have to be prepared for continuous updates. Minor updates are delivered to users every few weeks and large updates show up once or twice a year.

This can be a problem for people who write about software because the minor updates often have too few features to merit a full product review, so it's the annual or semi-annual updates that get all the attention. It was easier to review a product that received a major update every 18 to 24 months because so much was new, but its much better for users to receive frequent small updates and bug fixes that are combined with more substantial releases twice a year.

And that brings me to Adobe.

The big 2020 mid-year update was released in late June. Version 2020.1 includes new features for many of the company's two dozen or so applications in the Creative Cloud suite. There are also mobile apps that run on Android and Apple devices. The options can be confusing. Take Lightroom and Photoshop for example. There's Lightroom Classic and Lightroom on Desktop systems, Lightroom and Lightroom Camera on mobile devices, Photoshop on the desktop and Ipads, and Photoshop Camera on mobile devices. I think that's the entire line, but something may be lurking out there that I've missed. And that's just the photo applications. There are others for publishing, design, video, and audio.

So today we'll take a look at the new features that caught my attention, and please understand that there are more new features than I'll be able to address here. I'll start with the photo applications because they probably have more users than the more specialized video, audio, publishing, and design applications.

The full Creative Cloud package that includes all desktop and mobile applications costs $600 per year, but those who need only the photo applications can enroll in the Creative Cloud Photography Plan for $120 per year.

Is $120 excessive? I always approach that question by thinking about film cameras. Coming back from a vacation, I might send two dozen 36-exposure rolls of film off to the lab. That's more than 800 photographs, and maybe that was excessive. Compared to my father-in-law who made a single 12-exposure roll of film last for two or three years, it's certainly excessive. So let's make that less excessive and say that I came back from a vacation with just one dozen 36-exposure rolls of film. That's about 430 pictures, and even cheap drugstore processing would have cost $130 or so, plus the cost of the film -- maybe about $60. So that's almost $200 for just one event. Is $120 per year for the Creative Cloud Photography Plan excessive? In my opinion, no.

Likewise, is the $600 fee for Creative Cloud excessive? Commercial artists, designers, and videographers might compare the cost to office rent. Even a small office will cost several hundred dollars per month. What about the hardware, office furniture, and all the other costs of doing business? Fifty dollars a month seems reasonable if you're using the software to create work that you sell.

Those who resist software as a service are fighting a losing battle. Even IDM Computer Solutions, the company that's responsible for UltraEdit, UltraEdit Studio, and other applications for developers is introducing new options and switching to a subscription model for those who want the features. So like it or not, it's where we're going.

With that little editorial out of the way, let's see what Adobe is offering with the 2020.1 release that subscribers received in June.

Lightroom Classic and Lightroom

One feature in Lightroom that users have been anticipating is a blockbuster. It's now possible to modify hue locally. To understand that, think back to Alice in Wonderland. The queen wanted red roses, but the roses were white and the guard cards were painting them red. It didn't work out too well for the guard cards because the queen had their heads removed, but it will work a lot better for you.

 Click any of the small images for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.

I started with a yellow flower at Inniswood Metro Gardens and painted a hue adjustment layer on. Adobe's Sensei technology identifies the source color and carefully limits the mask to just that color. Only the flower is changed and the background is ignored.

As good as Sensei is, sometimes the image will fool it. I had a purple flower that appeared to differ enough from the background that it might be a good candidate. After cropping the image, I applied the hue adjustment layer with a large brush. The flower and the grass in the background shared enough hue information that Sensei selected some of the grass, too. That doesn't mean this is a lost cause, only that I would need to use a smaller brush around the edges to carefully apply the mask.

Lightroom, Lightroom Classic, and the various mobile editions don't all have the same feature set. On the desktop the Lightroom Classic icon previously had sharp corners and the Lightroom icon had rounded corners. Both have square corners with the new release, but the icon for Lightroom Classic now displays "LrC" and the Lightroom icon shows "Lr" and they're easier to tell apart. That's important in some cases and this is one of them:

Lightroom, but not Lightroom Classic, allows users to share their edits so that another Lightroom user can see your original photo, the changes you made, and the final image. This is still a beta process and any image you want to share must have at least three modifications and it must have an aspect ratio no greater than 2:1. That seriously limits the usability of the feature, but it is still in beta testing, so expect that to change.

To share an edit, select any image that has at least three modifications and then click the Share icon in the upper right corner and choose Share Edit from the drop-down list. That will open a panel that allows you to name the image, describe it, decide whether you want users to be able to save your edits as a preset and whether you want to include location information, and finally specify at least one category. Then click Share.

The file will be uploaded and you'll be given a link that you can share. If you'd like to see the modifications to this image, you'll find them here: https://lightroom.app.link/jasVdhdiI7. Clicking the link will open a dialog that shows the recipient that the link needs to be opened in Lightroom.

Photoshop

Lightroom Classic and Lightroom are so good that many photographers never use Photoshop. The differences between the Lightroom applications and Photoshop are substantial. Photoshop allows pixel-level editing that's impossible in the Lightroom products. Users can also add layers to selectively apply image modifications. Some photographers add literally hundreds of layers to their images, some that affect just a tiny portion of the image.

So you can think of the Lightroom applications as macro editors and think of Photoshop as the micro editor. A lot of photographers use Lightroom or Lightroom Classic to manage their workflow and send only specific images to Photoshop when they need Photoshop's capabilities.

Photoshop has used Sensei technology to select a subject and the update improves subject selection when challenging areas exist. Challenging areas are those where the subject has hair or fur, so I gave it a try. There are two options:

Select Subject has been improved and gets more of the selection right without input from the user. That's not to say the user won't have to perform some fine tuning, but there's a lot less to do now than in the past. Select Subject is now content-aware and applies new algorithms when it detects a person is in the image to improve selections around hair.

Select and Mask has all the same improvements, but it immediately opens the Select and Mask workspace with tools that can be used to clean up the selection.

I used a picture of Chloe Cat on a bed. This is the cat you sometimes hear because she likes to add comments when I'm recording. Normally her comments are edited out.

The Sensei-driven selection got most of the cat, a little extra on the left edge, and omitted some of the black cloth she was sitting on. I wanted to eliminate the blanket in the background, but include the black cloth. The various Select and Mask tools made the process easy.

Chloe on a blue background shows where I failed to modify some of the selection, most noticeably on the right side of the image where her fur was trimmed. Using the selection modification brush would make quick work of the additional changes, but notice the excellent work done automatically around the ears.

There are other improvements in Photoshop, including an interface update for Adobe Camera Raw -- the function that gives Photoshop the same macro-editing capabilities that are present in Lightroom and Lightroom Classic. This version also adds the ability to create patters that can be rotated. That's less a feature for photographers than for designers.

Mobile Photo Apps

On the 26 June program, I mentioned the new Photoshop Camera for Android and Apple devices that joins Lightroom Camera. Why two applications? Lightroom camera allows the user to capture raw images on devices that support the technology. Photoshop Camera offers the ability to add filters.

What I didn't notice back in June is that the included filters are just the beginning. So far about 30 filters are available and it's a virtual certainty that more will be added. Some are just fun. Pop Art and Comic Skies are two examples. But there are also filters that are intended to improve pictures of people. Studio Light, Glam, and Portrait are in this category and they modify the image to look more like something created in a studio with a digital SLR camera. You'll also find filters for food photography, painterly effects, and grunge.

This is going to be a popular feature.

Besides being the photo organizer that connects to Lightroom on a desktop computer, Lightroom on a mobile device includes a camera function that's probably better than the camera app that came with your phone. Besides being able to capture JPEG images, you'll have the option to capture raw images if the hardware supports it.

Two warnings: Raw images take up a lot of space and using the raw function will deplete the battery and make the phone run very hot.

The mobile apps can be downloaded for free even if you don't have a Photography or Creative Cloud membership plan, but functionality is limited. If you already have one of the plans, be sure to visit the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store to download the mobile apps.

InDesign

Starting with the 2020.1 release, several Adobe applications will now activate missing typefaces automatically if they've been installed from the Adobe Fonts Library. This feature is disabled by default, so users will need to visit the Preferences panel to enable it.

Why add a new feature, but disable it by default? Here's a guess: Last year, Adobe changed how resizing works in Photoshop. In the past, the default operation allowed non-proportional stretching unless the user held down the Shift key. This is the reverse of just about every other application on the planet where proportional resizing is the default. The developers changed resizing so that Photoshop would maintain proportions unless the user held down the Shift key.

This was an absolutely logical change. It made Photoshop work the way nearly every other program worked and they probably thought it would be met with cheers. In short, it wasn't. But designers and photographers with 20 years worth of muscle memory pressed Shift and found that they were changing proportions. They were not pleased. Later, Adobe made the option something that designers could change in the Preferences panel.

Perhaps the lesson from that event was that no good deed goes unpunished. Whatever the case, changes that affect the way a known feature works is probably best explained to users and left to their discretion whether to enable it.

Photoshop and InDesign both have this optional new feature.

InDesign users who work with a group can now share design information from within the application instead of having to use other systems. So when a designer needs feedback from others on the team, the Share for Review option gives everyone the ability to examine the work and add comments.

Not to Mention Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and Dreamweaver

These applications all have significant enhancements, but are so specialized that I'm not going to include them here. To learn the whole story, check out Adobe's Creative Cloud website.

Short Circuits

Bidding a Fond Farewell to the Windows Control Panel, But Not for a While

When Microsoft released Windows 1.0 on November 20, 1985, it had component called the "Control Panel". The Control Panel has persisted for nearly 35 years now, even though Microsoft added the Settings app, because the Control Panel still offers some settings that the new app doesn't have.

Microsoft has migrated more settings from the Control Panel to the Settings app and now the process is nearly complete. It will be interesting to see if Microsoft really removes the Control Panel or just deprecates it without removing it. That has been the case with other features that are no longer needed, but are still there in the code.

Microsoft's Windows Insider blog says that information found in the Control Panel's System page will soon be migrated to Settings > System > About, and links that would open the System page in Control Panel will now direct users to About in Settings. The post notes that Microsoft is "bringing new improvements like making your device information copyable and streamlining the security information shown." More advanced controls that lived in the System page in Control Panel will also be made available from the new About page.

That sentence explains why the Control Panel has remained for so long: Many advanced functions had no corresponding feature in Settings. Because of this, the end of Control Panel's life might be slightly overstated. The blog tells readers who rely on settings that exist only in the Control Panel to let developers know what those settings are.

So don't panic. The Control Panel isn't going away next week or next month, and probably not next year. There's at least some chance that the Control Panel will continue to live on even after Microsoft has successfully migrated every setting to the Settings app. So I'll believe it when I don't see it.

Spare Parts

Unexpected, Unintuitive Wi-Fi Channel Selection

Is your Wi-Fi router set up properly? Most routers today can transmit signals in the 2.4GHz range and 5GHz range. Some of the newer devices also can communicate in the 60GHz range. Choosing the wrong channel can reduce your system's performance and that of your neighbors.

This applies primarily to signals in the 2.4GHz band because few devices exists for the 60GHz band and the 5GHz system has been designed to avoid the overlap we see in the oldest of the Wi-Fi bands. When you set up the 2.4GHz-band Wi-Fi, it looks like you have a choice of 11 channels. In fact, you should limit the choice to one of three: 1, 6, and 11.

There are simply too many channels. A signal on channel 6 intrudes into channels 4 and 7, and partly into channels 3 and 8. A signal on channel 1 intrudes into channels 2 and 3. And a signal on channel 11 intrudes into channels 9 and 10. That all makes sense, but none of it is intuitive.

Applications are available for Android devices that show which channels are occupied. The display might show all of the signals in your neighborhood on channels 1, 6, and 11. The intuitive response would be: Those channels are busy, so I should use one of the other channels.

Let's look at a display where there are signals on channels 1 and 2. My signal is on channel 6. A signal centered on channel 1 extends to channels 2 and 3. My signal extends downward from channel 6 through channels 5 and 4. No conflict. But a Wi-Fi channel isn't a hose. A signal may be centered on a given frequency, but it extends well beyond that frequency: A signal centered on channel 2 extends upward to channel to channel 4, where it causes some conflict with signals on channel 6.

So the obvious question is: If cross-channel interference is bad, what about on-channel interference? In an ideal world, every signal would have its own channel. That's not possible, so the Wi-Fi protocols have measures for dealing with signal collisions. The problem is that using one of the channels between the preferred channels generates interference on two primary channels, so there are more collisions to work around.

The only channels that don't overlap another channel are 1, 6, and 11, so those are the only channels that should be used by devices in the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi spectrum. Fortunately, physical separation is sufficient in residential neighborhoods is great enough that off-channel signals are too weak to cause more than minor interference, if they cause any problem at all. The screen shot shows that the interfering signals from a user on channel 2 and another user on channel 10 are down more than 90dBm (decibel-milliwatts), so they pose no problem.

The good news is that this will be less important as people move to the 5GHz band. Wi-Fi routers that operate in the 5GHz band usually have the built-in intelligence to select the best operating channel. Eventually the 5GHz band will fill up, too, but the technology designed for the 60GHz band should eliminate all the cross-channel problems.

Living on the Edge

Maybe you've noticed that Microsoft would really like you to start using the Chromium-powered Edge browser. Really, really, really. If you're still running version 1803 of Windows (April 2018), you'll soon be forced to upgrade, and Microsoft will serve a heaping pile of Edgy (sorry!) reminders with the upgrade.

Each Windows update reminds users about Microsoft's new Edge that replaces the old Edge that replaced the even older Internet Explorer that some people insisted on calling Internet Destroyer. I've looked at the new Edge, and it's a fine browser, but I rarely use it. Mozilla's Firefox is the browser I've set as the default. In part this is because Mozilla takes a stronger stance on privacy than Google does, and although Microsoft and Google are mortal enemies, Microsoft is still basing its new browser on Google's code.

If you're one of the (estimated) 73 people on the planet who liked the old Edge and you find that you don't like the new Edge, you'll be unhappy. Microsoft has set up a one-way street from the old Edge to the new Edge. But if you liked the old Edge, which was also an OK browser, you'll probably like the new Edge even better. Microsoft is hoping for a return to the days when its browser had the largest market share even though it was a lousy browser. Firefox buried Internet Explorer and then Chrome buried Firefox. Firefox is fighting back. Chrome is still the leader. And we'll see what happens with Edge.

Twenty Years Ago: Man, Did I Ever Get That Wrong!

Microsoft was starting to ship Windows Me (Millennium Edition) and I foolishly said "It won't have the stability of Windows 2000, but it should be an improvement over Windows 9x — at least when it's installed by the manufacturer on a new system. Probably, too, when it's installed on an existing system if you wipe out everything on the disk and start fresh."

It didn't work out quite that way. Windows Me because the worst version of Windows ever, at least until Vista and Windows 8 came along.

Microsoft was trying to create a good operating system, though, and I noted: "Windows Me includes some features from Windows 2000, such as the ability to fix some problems that users create by moving or deleting critical files. Windows Me's System File Protection keeps copies of critical files and — if a new applications overwrites one of them — the system will automatically restore it. What's interesting to me is that this very feature was present in one of the late beta versions of Windows 95 — nearly 6 years ago. Apparently Microsoft was never able to make it work exactly right, so it was omitted from every subsequent release version of Windows 95 and Windows 98. It's nice to see that the feature has finally made it!"