The rumours have started and as anticipated, Photoshop 9 (code-named Space Monkey) will probably show up sometime early in 2005. My own prediction made back in May was for March 2005 solely based on Adobe's release pattern. (stay tuned for PhotoshopWorld on March 8th)
No details about new features but I wonder if we could assume based on its close relative, Photoshop Elements? The new Photoshop Elements 3 started to ship this week with some major upgrades. Some of which were adopted from Photoshop CS, others are brand new. Even since the days of Photoshop LE, Photoshop Elements has always been a scaled down product for the average consumer with less power tools but still in general a very similar looking application.
To serve all Photoshop users, NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) launched a new sister site of photoshopuser.com to go with this major update. Scott Kelby's comments on the new interface:
Adobe has streamlined the interface in a big way, and perhaps most notably they designed Elements 3 to give you an unubstructive view of the photos your editing by redesigning the workspace. They've come up with a thinner single row toolbar (shown here), and all your palettes are now docked on the far right side of the workspace, rather than floating in front of your photos. They also added a Photo Bin below your image area that gives you one click access to all your open photos. Of course, you can always skip this new workspace and use the old method, but once your work in this new "Maximize" mode, you'll fall in love with it and my guess is you won't switch back. [full article]
For more information about what Adobe has changed with the newest version of Photoshop.
- Audio clip about Photoshop Elements Techniques (note the play button)
- A video demo of the new interface
- What Adobe has to say
- Reasons to upgrade from Elements 2
Now the questions that remain will be if Adobe follows a similar path with Photoshop 9 (which could very well be called Photoshop 8.5, Photoshop CS 2 etc)