Color themes in Creative Cloud

Years ago, Adobe introduced Kuler, a tool for selecting colors and groups of colors. I always enjoyed playing with it, although I rarely exported the palette I created and imported it into an Adobe app.

Kuler is now Color CC and is still available as an online tool. But Color CC is incorporated throughout Creative Cloud as Adobe Color Themes:

  • InDesign: Create themes with InDesign with the Adobe Color Theme palette.
  • Photoshop: Open the palette by going to Window > Extensions > Adobe Color Theme.
  • Illustrator: You can't create new palettes, but you can access color palettes that you've saved to your cloud account. There is a link to the online tool from the Adobe Color Theme palette.
  • Capture CC: A mobile app that let's you create color palettes on the go and share them with your other CC apps. Building a color palette from a picture is actually really cool. 

Integrating Color CC throughout the ecosystem is just another way Adobe is merging their online tools, applications and cloud experiences. They are slowly adding more and more value to the subscription.

Every Wednesday, I post a quick tip on an Adobe app.

The Color Theme palette in Indesign CC 2015

The Color Theme palette in Indesign CC 2015


* The Capture CC app replaces the older Color CC app and includes more than just color features. But we'll save that for another tip.

Teleport Photoshop Layers

The Wednesday Quick Tip is back with a simple Photoshop tip. I use a lot of layers in Photoshop. And so I frequently duplicate layers by selecting one or more layers and selecting "Duplicate Layer..." from the flyout menu on the Layers palette.

But Photoshop also lets you duplicate layers to other destinations. By default, the destination for your duplicate layer is set to the current file that you are in:

But you can change the destination to any other open file or even create a new document with the layer:

You're not just duplicating the layer... you're kind of teleporting it to a different file. It's especially helpful when you want to copy an adjustment layer to a similar photo or combine a few images into a new document. 

It's a simple feature that many people don't even notice.

Every Wednesday, I post a quick tip on an Adobe app.

Adobe’s iPad Trio

Adobe has released three new apps for the iPad that integrate with Photoshop. Adobe Eazel is a painting app with a unique interface. Adobe Nav allows you to control Photoshop remotely through a customizable interface. And Adobe Color Lava is a color mixing app.

And while all three can be used on their own to varying degrees, the major selling point is that they are designed to be used in conjunction with Photoshop.

Getting Ready

All of the apps run on either the iPad or the iPad 2. (I’m testing them on my original iPad.) To integrate with Photoshop, you need to be running either the newly released Photoshop CS 5.5 or install the free 12.0.4 upgrade to CS5.

Your iPad and the Mac or PC need to be connected to the same wi-fi network. This doesn’t sound like an issue, but some setups – like the one I have in my office – use wired ethernet and don’t have wi-fi enabled. At home though where I connect through a wireless network, I had no problems.

And finally, you have to enable remote control in Photoshop by going to “Edit > Remote Connections…” You will be prompted to name your “Photoshop Server” and set a password. Then in each app, you’ll need to connect to Photoshop and select the computer.

Adobe Eazel

Eazel ($4.99 in the App Store) is a painting app with a unique interface. When you start Eazel, a video plays demoing how to use the app. And honestly, you need to watch it. The interface isn’t intuitive. You get the feeling that Adobe’s interface designers wanted to develop an experimental interface and that’s exactly what it feels like.

Using five fingers, you activate controls that allows you to paint with pseduo-watercolor brushes. Under each finger is a control that allows you adjust settings like brush size, color and opacity. Using two fingers, you can zoom in and out.

If you tap with five fingers and then pick your hand up, the control configuration changes from being under your fingers to being aligned in the center of the canvas. For me, this is much easier to control.

The painting effect is kind of cool, but difficult to control. With some practice, I was able to create some fun abstract artwork. But I was never a painter, so maybe someone with some painting experience might be better at it.

When you are done with your creation, you can export it to the Photo library or send it to Photoshop. Files are 2048 × 1536 pixels. When you transfer the file to Photoshop, it opens a new file with the document.

Transferring a file is the only feature that connects Eazel to Photoshop. It’s basically a painting app with a wireless export to Photoshop.

Adobe Nav

Nav ($1.99 from the App Store) is a simple app. Connect it to Photoshop and select tools with buttons. And you can customize the interface. A second screen lets you look at and switch between all open documents. One interesting feature is that when you disconnect from Photoshop, the second screen maintains the open documents. You can look at them and zoom in on the remaining files.

Adobe Color Lava

Color Lava ($2.99 in the App Store) is a color mixing app that allows you to paint colors on a canvas, blend them together and then build a color palette from your creation.

The interface is intuitive. On the left, there is a six color palette and a tray of “water.” In the middle of the color palette is a gray scale palette. Tapping it switches from color to black and white. Double tapping on any color gives you a hue, saturation and brightness sliders to customize colors. The “water” cleans your brush (and as a nice touch, ripples when you move the iPad).

You combine colors on a canvas. Then store colors you like in the five blanks spaces on the right. Just tap on one of the blank squares and then tap the color you want to save.

On the lower right side of the canvas is a camera icon. Click that to add a picture from your photo library. You can then sample colors from the picture, or paint on it to create new colors.

When you start a new palette, the current palette is saved to a second screen. The second screen lets you name your palettes and export them. Double tapping on a color set brings up your selections with RGB, HSB and hex values.

You also are given the option to Send to Photoshop or email the palette. Sending the colors to Photoshop seamlessly adds them to your Swatches palette. Emailing them sends a PNG with an Adobe Swatch Exchange (.ase) file. This is great because an .ase file can be imported into any Adobe Creative Suite application. You can easily add your colors in InDesign or Illustrator.

The main limitation is that there is no way to calibrate the iPad to match your main computer display. If you are a photographer or designer that is very particular about color workflow, then this may not be the app for you. And if you do need to match existing color profiles or if you need CMYK values, you will need to do a few other steps after importing.

Should you buy them?

Is there any real value for adding these apps to a professional workflow?

Eazel is fun, but I really don’t see the point. While the effects are cool, there are lots of painting and drawing apps that are more full-featured for about the same price. And the only Photoshop “feature” is sending the file to open in Photoshop. It feels like an interface experiment instead of an extension of Photoshop.

For Nav, I could see some instances where it would be nice to customize your workflow with some additional buttons or tools. But as it stands now, I’m really not sure I would use it frequently. I mean, how much of this is faster and more efficient on a touch screen than using a traditional mouse or trackpad setup. I do see lots of potential for Adobe to expand and develop this app, but for now, it’s very limited. (Random feature request: I would love to be able to create buttons for individual automated actions.)

Personally, I will absolutely use Color Lava. I can see how this would work with my workflow and the ability to send swatches as .ase files is a great added feature. It’s intuitive and delightful to use and for $2.99, I think it’s a great value.

Finally, let’s be honest, none of these apps are expensive. And if you are a Photoshop user, you may want to check them out. One thing you can be sure of is that Adobe is not done tweaking and adjusting these apps. I fully expect to see updates and refinements in the near future.

Trial Balloons

When I was using the apps, it occurred to me that these apps are, in many ways, trial balloons for Adobe. They can test out and show off different types of connectivity with Photoshop - from simple export to full remote control. They can try out different price points from $1.99 for Nav to $4.99 for Eazel. They can experiment with interfaces and workflows and figure out how to build even better tablet applications. Adobe and many other software manufacturers are trying to figure out how to create, sell and market apps for tablets. Connecting tablet apps with desktop software is a fascinating concept and these three apps are a great start. I can’t see what Adobe develops next.

Photoshop on the iPhone: Version 1.1

In October, I posted a review of Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone. Adobe has released a 1.1 update and there are a few notable changes and additions so I figured I’d write a quick update to the review.

New features

Sharpen and Contrast - I mentioned in my first review that I’d love to be able to sharpen images. Version 1.1 adds sharpening. And it also adds the ability to adjust the contrast in the image. Both are great additions to the app. (One problem with how the sharpening is implemented… Because you can’t zoom in and look at the detail while sharpening, it’s really easy to over sharpen images.)

Left: Original fuzzy image from iPhone. Middle: Image sharpening (over) applied. Right: Both sharpening and contrast adjusted on original image and then desaturated.

Borders - The 1.1 update adds a new set of borders. A few of the borders are nice and a few are cheesy… I don’t really use borders, but they are there if you want to use them. I’ve also uploaded a gallery over at Photoshop.com demonstrating some of the borders and new features.

Refinements - Adobe seems to have cleaned up the app. The interface feels a little more responsive and more polished. There are still a few behaviors that don’t feel quite right, but I imagine Adobe will continue to refine the interface.

Watch out for text messages

Twice, I got a text message while using Photoshop.com Mobile. If you click “Reply,” the iPhone switches right over to the Messages app and loses any changes you had made. To be fair, this is a problem with the iPhone and its lack of multitasking for non-Apple apps, and there is nothing Adobe can do about it. But it is something you should be aware of.

Photoshop.com

I’ve also played around some more with the Photoshop.com online service. Adobe continues to refine the online app and it’s improving.

The team at Adobe seems to be trying to position the service as being a hub for all of your other services. They offer a wide range of export and sharing options. I was able to successfully post galleries to Facebook and Flickr. I was also able to generate a Flash-based slideshow viewer. This could be useful if you want to post photos to several blogs and services simultaneously.

Download or update Photoshop.com Mobile for the iPhone version 1.1 for free from the App Store (iTunes link). Learn more about Adobe’s online editing and storage app at Photoshop.com.

Columbia Adobe User Group videos posted

The video of my demo at the Columbia Adobe User Group (CAUG) has been posted on Vimeo. You can catch my InDesign Typography Video over there. (My 15-20 minute presentation somehow turned into a 36 minute demo… sorry about that…) I think its a great resource to have these demos archived and posted.

I’d recommend watching Micah Thomason’s presentation on using Brushes in Photoshop. I’ve been using Photoshop since version 2.3 and I use Photoshop all the time, but had no idea that the brushes tool could do so much. Micah takes you through all the brush settings in Photoshop CS4 and explains how to use the brushes to make some very interesting textures.

They post all of the demos – two per meeting – to the CAUG Vimeo Channel. Right now, there are videos on topics like Camera RAW and Flash that are great resources.

My thanks again to Greg Lunn for inviting me to speak. I enjoyed it thoroughly and look forward to attending upcoming meetings.