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Looking to buy the best monitor for photo editing that you can? You’re in the right place. No matter your skill level, we’ve gathered together the very best photo-editing monitors right now, for all budgets, in this buying guide. The 5 best laptops for photo editing Sign up for Adobe CC now Whether you’re a professional photographer or graphic designer, a student or an enthusiast who just appreciates the best possible picture quality, you need a display that will bring your creative ideas to life. Colour accuracy – the conformance of a display’s imaging capabilities according to various globally defined specifications – affects whether you can expect an image to look the same on all kinds of devices. And for professionals, that matters a lot. An eye-catching book or magazine cover depends heavily on whether the artist is aiming for a deep red or muddy orange, and that job becomes much harder with a poorly calibrated, inaccurate display. And while it’s still wise to invest in a monitor calibration tool, the best monitors for photo editing will have excellent colour accuracy straight out of the box. 45 best photo apps and photo editing software You'll also want to consider brightness and contrast levels: similarly, these give you the best possible perspective on black and white levels in an image. Additionally, there are now a whole lot of display form factors to choose from, with a range of sizes that support 4K (3,840 x 2,160) resolution. Ultra-wide curved monitors will give you masses of space to work in and the thinnest possible bezels, but not everyone. But if you opt for one, remember to set the monitor up at an appropriate distance and height from your sitting position. Either way, there’s a lot of choice out there. To help you decide which is best for you, here’s our pick of the best monitors for photo editing… The BenQ 27-inch SW2700PT display is a more affordable colour-accurate monitor for photo editing than some of the 32-inch behemoths on the market. It requires less desktop space to boot, but without sacrificing a high standard of image quality – making it one of the best monitors for photo editing you can get right now. It features a 2,560 x 1,440 resolution using the same 14-bit look-up table and offering the same 99% AdobeRGB coverage you find on displays from other manufacturers that can cost more than twice as much. Similarly, you get hardware calibration support and it comes with a nifty shading hood to eliminate glare from ambient light. While it may not support 4K resolution, the image quality is very good for digital photography. The SW2700PT is an excellent purchase if you want a professional display without the high prices of larger 4K screens. The 32-inch Asus PA329Q is a 4K monitor with a fairly hefty price tag: it's considerably more than other displays of its size. However, you can literally see where this extra money goes when you first catch a glimpse of its sumptuous image, thanks to its full support for Rec.709, sRGB and AdobeRGB (99.5%) colour spaces. It features proper 10-bit colour depth (as opposed to cheaper 8-bit monitors which use trick called frame reference counting to simulate 10-bit colour depth) with a 14-bit colour look-up table. Features-wise, it has a lot to offer as well, with a three-port USB 3 hub, four HDMI inputs, two DisplayPort inputs and full tilt, swivel and rotate capability. Best of all, it has a joystick to quickly navigate through the on-screen menus, vastly speeding up the time to flick through all the different preset colour options or make changes to the display brightness, gamma or contrast. Eizo trades heavily on a reputation for being the ultimate professional display brand. When you first see the clarity, vivacity and brightness of an Eizo display, it’s immediately obvious why they’re so much more expensive than other monitors and cost far more than most of us spend on an entire PC. The latest version of Eizo’s flagship 31-inch professional monitor, the Eizo ColorEdge CG319X, builds upon its predecessor, using an unmatched 24-bit look-up table for 10-bit colour depth, supporting 99% AdobeRGB, 100% Rec.709 and 98% DCI-P3 colour spaces. It also supports a slightly wider 4K resolution of 4096 x 2160, conforming to the professional DCI 4K standard used by some professional studios. It has a unique built-in hardware colour calibration tool that pops down with a click every time the monitor is power cycled, ensuring the colours remain in sync without needing to use a third-party colorimeter. New to this generation are hybrid-log gamma and perceptual quantisation for working with HDR video – a feature that, again, will be of most interest to studios and freelancers working with high-end imagery. Although most of us will take one look at the price and quickly move on, it should be remembered that the CG319X is a display that’s on another level. It's aimed at a niche professional audience where business demands the best possible colour accuracy, and boy, it sure delivers on this front. If you’re looking for a great monitor for photo editing that fits a more reasonable budget, Dell’s UltraSharp range delivers a great image. This 25-inch UltraSharp U2518D squeezes in under the £300 mark, and although it doesn’t offer the same absolute premium colour reproduction of the priciest displays we’ve suggested, it’s still capable of full sRGB coverage with a quality IPS panel that is accurate to a delta E of less than three. Contrast levels of 1000:1 are some of the best in this price range, with 350 nits of brightness to product a crystal clear image. The response time can go as low as 5ms, making it great for gaming on too – the U2518D makes a good all rounder display whatever you’re using your computer for. This is the best budget photo-editing monitor you can get. The ultra-wide form factor is usually found in displays aimed at gaming or general computer use, so it’s a pleasant surprise to see ViewSonic has stepped in to offer graphic artists a massive 37.5-inch 21:9 display with the VP3881. Ultra-wide displays such as this are like having two smaller monitors together on the desk, without a bezel breaking up the desktop space. It gives you space to have multiple windows open at once, boosting productivity immensely as you can have webpages, file explorers, and multiple editing applications on-screen simultaneously. The image quality isn’t quite in the same league as other displays listed here – it offers 100% sRGB coverage but a slightly narrower AdobeRGB conformity, and the 10-bit colour depth is compensated by frame reference counting. But it has a very complete set of image customisation settings in the on-screen menus that's enough to make the VP3881 a cut above other ultra-wide screens. Acer’s 32-inch colour-accurate 4K display, the ProDesigner PE320QK, is aimed squarely at people who care about professional-grade graphics work and photo editing. It comes with an anti-glare hood to eliminate ambient light that may affect on-screen colour accuracy. And rated at 550 nits brightness, it supports 10-bit colour, covering 100% Rec.709 and 90% DCI-P3 colour spaces. Unlike the other photo-editing monitors here, there are a few extra features that may appeal to gaming use as well, such as a 4ms response time, a few gaming presets in the menus and support for FreeSync adaptive-sync technology (which only works with AMD graphics cards, unfortunately.) If you’re a gamer and a photographer, those extra features could be enough to persuade you that the PE320QK is the only display you’ll ever need. Also read: The 5 best laptops for photo editing right now 45 best photo apps and photo editing software 63 free Photoshop actions View the full article

The flaw affects thousands of servers; but GitHub, a major libssh user, is unaffected. View the full article

The vendor only plans to patch two of the eight impacted devices, according to a researcher. View the full article

It’s fair to say Adobe really has pulled some impressive updates out the bag for Adobe MAX 2018. But, without a doubt, the biggest buzz came on Monday when Adobe chief product manager Scott Belsky introduced Photoshop for iPad. A 15,000-strong crowd went wild as Belsky handed over to product project manager Jenny Lyell, who demonstrated some of the app's capabilities, stating: "This is not a watered down version, this is full Photoshop on the iPad." Sign up for Adobe CC now However, despite the impressive demo, getting any further information about the app, in terms of price and release date, was like getting blood out of a stone. Adobe is keeping a lot of information about Photoshop for iPad close to its chest, but we managed to get a few minutes with Lyell, who gave us a little more insight into this tablet-version of Photoshop… 01. It's taken almost three years to make Approximately three years in the making, Photoshop for iPad came about after two engineers realised user demand via constant online searches for the term Photoshop for iPad. They decided their next challenge would be to see if it was actually possible to get the 28-year-old code base of Photoshop onto a tablet. For years, Adobe had tried it with other apps, including Sketch and other drawing apps, but these didn’t have the code base of Photoshop. So that was the dream, that was the challenge. "The code base for Photoshop is 28 years old, it’s a mammoth," says Lyell. "So how do you even comprehend that?" But a small team at Adobe believed it was possible, and so chatted with their leaders in engineering and product, who gave them the blessing to go work on the project. The project was to be kept quiet in the early stages. "Some people were extremely skeptical in the company and weren’t sure we should be investing in this," says Lyell. Bet those guys feel silly now, huh? 02. The alpha build had just five features As the technical aspects were going on with the development of Photoshop for iPad, Lyell was busy talking to customers, asking them questions like 'why do you actually want it on iPad? What does it help you with, what problem are/will you be solving with this software?' "So much of the product roadmap is influenced by our customers," says Lyell. "Once we saw the life of this happening, we knew that we wanted to preview and announce it. But I didn’t want us to get away from the customers, and so we recruited this small group of people to work on the alpha build. "At this point there were literally only five features in there. We set their expectations, telling them it would be like using Photoshop 1.0, but that we wanted them to run with us, from the beginning, and give us as much feedback as possible so we could make sure that even at the preview stage, the product we were creating was what the users wanted. Diverting from customers' needs, even just slightly early on, could have had huge ramifications. Customers have to be by our side." 03. It can handle hundreds (if not thousands) of layers At a private Apple event, Photoshop for iPad product lead Jenny Lyell delved a little deeper into the app's capabilities As the Adobe design team collected hours and hours of one-on-one interviews, trying to understand user needs, there was a breakthrough moment in the timeline when they got large PSD to open on the iPad. "The whole team was in tears, freaking out," Lyell says. “This is impossible, we thought. But we’d seen it with our own eyes!" So what constitutes a large PSD? "It was hundreds of layers that we got to open," says Lyell. With the same code base as Photoshop on desktop, Photoshop on iPad will open up any size PSD file. When asked if this would present any technical limitations, Lyell told us: "It would affect it just as a massive document on any machine would. So having the biggest single file on your mac would slow you down a few seconds vs a smaller one. Photoshop for iPad will work in a similar way, but we've optimised it a lot in terms of performance and we didn’t want to bring this out until we knew the hardware and software was ready." 04. It won't necessarily feature all your PS favourites If you're expecting to see the full toolset in this app, you'll be disappointed. Instead, the company has armed it with all the core tools users need to do real work in Photoshop. "Photoshop has a dozen different ways you can select an object – the 1.0 functionality is still in the code base!" says Lyell. "So we’re really rethinking how to give users all the core tools they need to do all the work they need, and give them the modern, best version of these tools so that they don’t have to feel any frustrations or inefficiencies." 05. It will feature Adobe's new AI technology Part of the update to Photoshop CC this year includes a new Adobe Sensei selection tool. When asked if Photoshop for iPad will include this, Lyell was quick to confirm. "We definitely want to get the newest Sensei technology in there, so it’s prioritised on the roadmap," she says. Support and pricing Adobe is pretty elusive about release dates and pricing models for Photoshop for iPad. When asked about when creatives can actually get their hands on the app (and trust us, we were persistent), we weren't even able to get a rough estimate as to when this is expected to ship. "It will be available in 2019, and we're still working out the business model in terms of pricing," Lyell said. We also asked whether it will be part of the CC suite or if Adobe is going to offer this as a standalone product and were told "we’re having conversations about that right now". Android users, we didn't forget about you either. When asked if this will be an iPad-only app, Lyell replied with: "Our plan is to extend to as many devices as we can right now. We still trying to sort out what's the best experience, and so are testing the different versions to see what’s optimised and what’s best for performance. We don’t want people having a poor experience, so that information will also come out during the launch." For what will almost certainly be a highly sought-after product, it’s a little frustrating to have no details as to when we can realistically expect this to ship to the masses. That said, 2019 is just around the corner, so let's hope it's sooner rather than later. Read more: Adobe launches video app Premiere Rush CC 13 iPad Pro apps that come alive with Apple Pencil Project Gemini: Adobe announces new digital art app View the full article

Just as responsive web design closed the gap between desktop and mobile sites a few years ago, progressive web app techniques are currently closing the gap between the web and the app world. With user experiences from desktop to mobile apps rapidly converging, it seems as though a much sleeker, more efficient internet is evolving – although inevitably not without some significant changes to its underlying genetic code. How to build a Progressive Web App Evidently there are some significant selective pressures driving this. First of all, creating native apps for every niche isn't necessarily an efficient use of resources: users end up with hundreds of big apps wasting bandwidth and valuable disk space and companies spend a great deal of money creating apps only for them to be abandoned after their first versions. And most of these apps are just driven by web content: information coming from web services or a content management system. The definition of a progressive web app is not concrete. A PWA is just a web app that uses several new APIs and abilities in the web platform using progressive enhancement to offer an app-like experience on every platform with the same code base. It's more a set of best practices and API usage that creates an excellent app-like experience for your users, so it's not like you have or don't have a PWA; it's more like your site is more or less PWA. The ascent of PWAs With PWAs on desktop, responsive web design has a new meaning as we need to support really tiny viewports and offer a widget-based view of our content While the name PWA was coined in 2015 in the article Escaping Tabs Without Losing our Soul by Alex Russell working at Google for the Chrome team, their journey didn't actually start there. We used to have HTML Applications (HTAs), which were created by Microsoft in 1999, along with many other web app platforms from Nokia, BlackBerry and other companies. Then, in 2007, Steve Jobs presented what was at the time the only way to create apps for the original iPhone: PWAs, albeit with a different name. Chrome started from there, improved the APIs a few years later and invented the PWA name. With so many previous failed experiences trying to bring web content to the world of apps, why do we think it'll work now? Well primarily, it's down to the companies that are now working and promoting the technologies behind PWAs, such as Microsoft, Google, Apple and Mozilla, to name but a few. Also, the performance of the web platform reached a point where there is no perceived difference when you compare a well-designed PWA with a native app. Those conditions have never existed before and that's one reason the web community has decided that the time has come for PWAs. PWAs in action today To provide a good user experience for your iOS users you must supply Apple-specific content Today PWAs are fully functional and installable on: Android with most browsers, with Chrome offering the best experience iOS with Safari Chromebooks Windows 10 from the Microsoft Store Feature phones with KaiOS – a fork from Firefox OS – currently available for millions of users mainly in India Support is also coming to macOS, Windows and Linux through Chrome later this year. It's available today as an experimental flag 'Desktop PWA' if you want to try it now. Installation on Windows on Edge without the usage of the store is coming later as well, although no specific time frame is defined. If you reread the list, you can see every platform has or is about to have support for fully installable PWAs in the following months. And because a PWA is just a website with features on top that will be activated only on compatible browsers, we can even say it's compatible with all browsers from its basic functionality. Also, PWAs are currently being generated from most of the CLIs for different frameworks, including the Angular 6+ CLI, React Create App, PWA Starter Kit from Polymer and Preact CLI. Finally, the Ionic Framework team came up with the idea of Capacitor, an open-source Cordova replacement that makes native PWAs possible on every app store. Installation On different browsers, the manual option to install a PWA's icon is different; on Windows 10, it's just an app in the store One of the critical aspects of a PWA is the installation of the app. This process is done in two optional steps: the download and offline storage of the app's files and the icon installation in the OS. Because both steps are optional, you can offer an offline experience in the browser or you can offer an icon without offline installation. But a true PWA should include both: it must be served with TLS under HTTPS and the user will decide if they will use it in the browser or within its own installed icon. Offline and immediate launch The brain of a PWA is the service worker, a JavaScript file installed on the user's device that is responsible for downloading the app's files, storing them into a cache and later serving them when needed. Once the service worker is installed, it acts like a network proxy for every resource that the web app needs: it can decide to fetch it from the network or deliver it from the local cache, which makes the app available offline and also available in just a couple of milliseconds even if the user has connection, emulating a native app launch. In order to install a service worker, your HTML document will need to include something like: That will install the file "sw.js" onto users' devices for the current folder in the current domain – a concept known as the scope. After it is installed, the next visits to any URL within its scope will be managed by that service worker. Let's say we have a PWA with four files: index.html, app.js, app.css and logo.png. The first thing is to install those files into the cache in the sw.js file. Then for the PWA to be always served from the cache, we need to listen for the fetch event within the service worker and decide the cache policy to use, such as cache first with the following snippet. In this case, every time the user accesses the PWA (both from a browser or from an installed icon), the engine will get the files from the cache. An advantage of PWAs versus native apps is that devices needn't download all the files again when there's a change, only the file that has changed with a transparent process. Also, we can still download parts of the app on demand. But the challenge is how do you know which files were updated on the server so you can replace them in the cache? If you don't want to write a low-level service worker to manage this, you can use the open-source library Workbox, which will help you with the generation of the service worker and the resources manifest to update the installed package. Be aware that the files of your PWA will be deleted if there is storage pressure on the device, unless you request Persistent Storage if available: On Chrome and most Android browsers, your app isn't able to use more than five per cent of the available space; on iOS it's 50MiB (near 50MB) per host only; in Edge it's variable according to the total memory size and in Windows Store, it's unlimited. First-class experience Different ways that browsers have to invite the user to install the PWA; on iOS you have to do it manually We have the brain and now it's time for the heart: the web app manifest. The purpose of turning a website into a PWA is not just to ensure it is available quickly or while offline but also to enable it to have its own icon in the OS and offer an entirely standalone experience like any other installed app. The manifest is a JSON file that defines metadata for the PWA used by a browser or an app store in order to define the installation behaviour. The file defines several properties as metadata for your PWA. Each OS will read these properties and try its best to match the experience you prefer. For example, Android will read 'display: standalone' and create a normal app experience. With 'display: minimal-ui' it will create an experience with a visible URL and TLS certificate – useful for security-sensitive apps. With 'display: fullscreen' it creates fully immersive apps without status bar or visible back button. A set of icons and colours defines how the splash screens or title bars will look for your app's window. There are some manifest generators, such as Web App Manifest Generator or PWA Builder that will also resize the icon for you in different resolutions if you provide a high resolution one (minimum 512 pixels). When you have the manifest file linked in your HTML document, users will be able to install the app using different techniques depending on the browser, typically called Add to Home Screen, Install or just Add. If your PWA is crawlable by Bing, Microsoft will automatically add it to the Microsoft Store so Windows 10 users will be able to install it from there. On some operating systems, your PWA will have the ability to capture links. This means that after the user has installed the app, any URL within the scope of your manifest will be opened within the boundaries of your app and not in the browser, no matter whether it appears in the browser or other apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook or an email. If you pass the PWA requirements that we are defining here, some platforms will offer ambient badging (a small icon usually in the URL bar specifying that the web is installable) or a web app banner. If you prefer, you can also add your own custom Install button using the following snippet: If the PWA is installed, the event 'appinstalled' will be fired on the window object so you can track stats listening for it. App stores is a free tool available from Microsoft that will help you in the creation or publishing of your PWA for different platforms online or in the command-line One of the major benefits of installing from a browser is being able to avoid the app-store approval process or having to pay to be a publisher. That comes with obvious advantages, such as instant publishing, creating private apps for companies or apps that shouldn't be accepted in the stores. But some companies do want to be in the store. As of today, the only stores officially accepting PWAs are the Windows Store and the kaiOS Store. Fortunately, with tools like Capacitor (currently in Alpha) or PWA Builder, we can create and sign native packages for other platforms as well. There are some PWAs already published in the Google Play Store, such as Twitter Lite and Google Maps Go, currently under custom implementations. Chrome will offer a solution from Chrome 68 via trusted web activities. From that point, we will be able to create an Android package (APK) with a launcher to our PWA and upload it to the store. For the Microsoft Store on Windows 10, the site PWA Builder is currently helping with the generation of an APPX Windows 10 package. Using a web view, you might be able to manually create an iOS app for the App Store but be extremely careful about the store's rules. Platform integration A basic PWA in action on different platforms; on macoS, it's still an experiment on Google Chrome By implementing progressive enhancement techniques, you will be able to use many features, including push notifications, camera and microphone access, geolocation, sensors, payments, share dialogs and offline storage. All of these features run directly within the browser's security model, including permission dialogs. We can also communicate with other apps through URI schemes, such as opening Twitter, YouTube or WhatsApp through their URLs or custom URIs, such as whatsapp://. Finally, when creating native PWAs that are published to the store using Capacitor or to the Microsoft Store, we will be able to bridge to native APIs that will enable us to execute virtually any native code. That integration with Windows 10 includes hardware access but also integration with the OS, offering options such as Pin to Start. For example, the Twitter PWA lets you pin any user to your start screen. Design and UX challenges Lighthouse will give you a score stating how PWA your solution is based on a series of tests on a Chromium engine Designing PWAs has unique challenges, so it's important to spend some time researching, testing as much as possible and considering the following: Users will expect app-like experiences. The installation process is still new, so we need to make extra effort to explain how to install the app. Updating the app in the background without user interaction is great but it also adds some challenges for the UX. On the desktop, responsive web design takes a new frontier as PWA windows can be tiny, much smaller than a mobile viewport. This means we need to create specific views or small widgets for this format, as seen in Chrome OS today. Push notifications should add value to the user only, so learn to ask at the right moment and don't waste the opportunity sending messages that are not useful or interesting. We need to design for web performance and for offline access. The year of PWAs With the addition of iOS and desktop this year, PWAs are everywhere today. But we need to remember that their journey is just starting, so expect frequent changes and make sure to keep yourself updated with the latest techniques and ideas to deliver an excellent user experience while the platform evolves. This article was originally published in issue 308 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 308 here or subscribe here. Related articles: 69 fantastic free web tools How to make an app Hot new CSS rules to try now View the full article

The update also features 23 security fixes. View the full article

This step-by-step guide is set to reveal how to go about the creation of realistic clouds. This tutorial is ideal for 'travel through the clouds' scenes in 3D movies, for example if you are aiming to shoot an aeroplane flying through the sky. There are also a variety of different cloud effects we can build. How to render a photorealistic sky There are a number of different types of software and plugins that we can use to create such an effect, for example the FumeFX and Phoenix FD plugins for 3ds Max, Maya, Houdini, Cinema 4D, Vue and so on. However, many big VFX and animation studios use the FumeFX plugin in their pipeline, as this software is old, trustworthy and most importantly user-friendly. There are different techniques you can use in order to make this effect in FumeFX, for example using Simple Source, Object Source and Particle Source, but in this case we are going to be using Object Source. Before you start working on this kind of effect, you should have a good knowledge of smoke properties. You must know about turbulence, velocity, buoyancy and so on. There are also different types of clouds you can create, including small cloud patches, lots of thick clouds (cloud bed), stormy clouds, thin cloud layers and cloud belts, and each one has different properties to consider. I can't teach you each and every parameter of this plugin and software, as these are vast and need a lot of time to go through. So as far as the thin cloud effect is concerned, we will learn as much as is required for this particular tutorial only. This is a very interesting subject, because you can't define one particular process for creating this effect. As you begin to work with the tools, you will find different types of effects every time. So, it very much depends on your own understanding of the techniques, as well as some creative experimentation. Download the files for this tutorial. 01. Create an object By using Object Source, our clouds will be emitted from an object, which we will initially model in 3ds Max Open 3ds Max. Before we start working on our scene, remember that we are going to use Object Source in FumeFX. This means we are going to use an object to emit smoke for the clouds and for that purpose, we are going to create an object. To create an object, we will use Geosphere; go to the Create panel, then Geometry > Standard Primitives > Geosphere. Now change the parameters to Radius: 20 and Segments: 10. Now we need to add a Noise Modifier and for that, go to the Modify panel, then Modifier List> Noise. Now change the parameters to Scale: 5.0, Strength X: 10, Y: 10, Z: 10. Now make 10 to 15 copies of the Geosphere that we have created, then scale them randomly and place as per the image shown. 02. Make FumeFx object source Add your object and then adjust the parameters After we finish modelling our object, it's time to proceed to the FumeFX plugin. So first of all we will create a FumeFX Object Source, where we will add our object. Go to the Create panel, then Helpers > FumeFX > Object Src. Click this button and drag it to the viewport. Now go to the Modify panel and make some changes in the parameters as per the screenshot here. First add all the Geospheres into the Objects section, using the Pick Object button, then change the Object Src Type to Solid. Set the Smoke: 7.5, then go to the Velocity section and set Normal: 8.0. Keep the other parameters as they are. 03. Create FumeFx container Make sure that your container covers all the Geospheres We have decided to use FumeFX for this effect, as this plugin is very simple but still has many options and parameters available to us, but we are only going to learn as much as is required for this particular tutorial. So let's start with the FumeFX Container. To create this Container go to Create > Geometry > FumeFX > FumeFX. Click on the FumeFX button and drag it into the viewport, then go to the Modify panel and set the Size and Spacing as shown. Set the Width: 500, Length: 350, Height: 250 and Spacing: 0.6. Now set the Position of FumeFX to X: 00, Y: 00, Z: 00. The Container should cover all the Geospheres, so make sure this is the case. 04. Modify FumeFx container Start by modifying the parameters for the Obj/Src section After we've set the FumeFX Container it's now time to modify the parameters. So, select the Container and go to the Modify panel. Now click on the Open FumeFX UI button, and here you can see a new window has appeared. There are six sections in this FumeFX user interface and we will modify them one by one. So let's start with the Obj/Src section. In this section you just have to add the FumeFX Object Source that we had generated earlier. So go to the Obj/Src section and click on the Pick Object button, then select the FumeFX Object Source. 05. General section parameters Adjust the parameters in the General section as seen here After we finish the setup of the Obj/ Src section, let's now tackle the General section. We already have the general parameters, Spacing: 0.6, Width: 500, Length: 350, Height: 250. Now move ahead to Output Range, set the Start Frame: -35, End Frame: 100, then go to Paths, where we set the FXD Files (Cache Files) path. Click the button next to Default Path and set the path as per your folder structure. Now move ahead to Playback Range and set the Play From: -35 and Play To: 100. These are the simple modifications we need to make in the General Section. 06. Simulation section Leave the Simulation running overnight as it's going to take a while Next we need to modify the Simulation parameters. Go to the Sim section and the first parameter we are going to change is Time Scale. Initially we will create the smoke, but after certain frames we need static smoke, as it should look and behave like a cloud. So we will animate this parameter. From frame -35 to -1 Time Scale will be 1.0 and on frame 0 Time Scale will be 0.01, so animate it accordingly. Gravity: 2.5, Vorticity: 1.0, X Turbulence: 0.5. Now go to Turbulence Noise and set the Scale: 1.0, Frames: 10.0 and Details: 5.0. Now go to Fuel and set the Burn Rate: 10 and Expansion: 0.5. Keep the other parameters as they are, and hit the Simulation button. It will take around 8-10 hours to finish. 07. Rendering settings Don't forget to turn on the Cast Shadows and Receive Shadows options After the simulation has finished, make sure that everything is as per your requirement. Next we need to make some simple modifications in the Rendering section. First we'll set the colour of the smoke. Go to the Rendering section and then Smoke Parameters. Set the smoke colour as white and Ambient Color R: 0, G: 27, B: 47, set the Opacity: 1.5. Then turn on the Cast Shadows and Receive Shadows options, because when we add the light we should see the smoke shadow. 08. Illumination section Let there be light Now it's time to add light to the scene. Go to Create>Lights> Standard>Target Spot. Click on Omni Light and create two lights in the viewport. Now set the light position, Omni01, X: -790, Y: -230, Z: 280 and Omni02, X: -650, Y: -140.0, Z: 280.0. Now select the Omni01 light and go to the Modify panel, then turn on the shadow and make it Ray Traced Shadows, then set the Multiplier: 0.4 and Color R: 138, G: 98, B: 59. Now go to Shadow Parameters and turn on the Atmosphere Shadows. Make the same changes on Omni02, only set the Multiplier: 0.15 and Color R: 119, G: 194, B: 254. After we've finished these settings, go back to FumeFX Container and then go to the Illumination section. Add these lights into the Light section by clicking on the Pick Light button. Now go to Multiple Scattering and set the Maximum Depth: 8 and Falloff: 3.5. 09. Render and post-process Once you've rendered your cloudscape, take it to your favourite compositing software for the final touches Now it's finally time to render. Go to Render Setup and set the Output Range, Output Resolution and Output Path settings. After finishing the setup just hit the Render button. It will likely take around five hours to finish rendering. After the rendering is complete import all the renders into Adobe After Effects or any compositing software that is convenient for you, and make some changes to colour or brightness. Then make the final output, and you'll get your clouds. This article was originally published in issue 236 of 3D World, the world's best-selling magazine for CG artists. Buy issue 236 here or subscribe to 3D World here. Related articles: Create a meteor shower in 3ds Max Big VFX on a budget Master large-scale environments in 3ds Max View the full article

Some great web design tools have appeared over the last month, including a new virtual reality web browser, some useful learning resources and an app that puts your logo designs through their paces. Read on to find out more. 01. Calibre Get detailed performance reports and recommendations for improving your site Calibre is a testing suite that gives you comprehensive data on your site’s performance. You can set up automated, scheduled testing and get a timeline of performance history, and the testing simulates the real-world conditions under which users will be browsing your site – such as different CPUs and browsers. It makes it easy to identify bottlenecks, and recommends solutions to page speed problems. 02. Logo Lab Discover potential problems with your logo design in the early stages of development Put this tool to work on your logo ideas to see how well they adhere to the principles of good logo design, such as scalability, visual balance and how it's perceived at low resolution or at a glance. The app shows you how your colour scheme looks to someone who’s colour blind, and how your logo looks inside different shaped containers and among other common logos. It's a quick way to see how your logo performs in lots of different situations, giving you the chance to iron out any problems before it's too late. 03. Werner's Nomenclature of Colours Get old-fashioned colour inspiration from this colour handbook In the 18th century mineralogist Abraham Werner devised a scheme for classifying colours, and the guidebook based on this scheme is reproduced online at this site. The colour guide was produced with the natural world in mind, and each colour swatch is accompanied by examples of where the colour appears in animals and plants. It's a useful source for colour scheme inspiration, particularly if natural themes are relevant to your project. Scroll to the bottom and click 'Download data' to get a spreadsheet containing the hex values for each colour. There is also the option to buy posters and prints created with colours from the guidebook, which are great gifts for any designer. 04. Modular JavaScript A series of five JavaScript books that you can read for free Modular JavaScript is a series of books that are free to read and created through an open process in which anyone can contribute content and offer fixes via the GitHub page. The stated goal is to "improve our collective understanding of writing robust, well-tested, modular JavaScript code". There are five books in the series which are available to purchase in digital and print formats, and available to read for free in HTML format. You have to allow the site to send a tweet in order to access the free version. 05. Shipstreams Learn problem-solving tactics by watching livestreams of people coding On this site you can pick up coding techniques by watching livestreams of programmers as they work. Coders stream their desktop as they do their thing, and also a webcam feed of their furrowed brow as they build software and solve problems. If you have the patience, it could be an interesting way to get an insight into other people's processes. 06. Luna Display Use your iPad as a second screen with this dongle that promises better quality and reliability than software alternatives Luna Display is a dongle that turns your iPad into a wireless second display for your Mac. To set up, you plug the Luna into your Mac and the iPad connects via the wifi network and is automatically recognised as a second display. If you've heard of Duet Display, which is an app that achieves something similar without any hardware, you may be wondering how the two compare. According to the creator of Luna Display, there are performance differences: Duet has a limited resolution, and Luna is more reliable and has a lower latency. So if you’ve tried Duet and want more, Luna could be worth a go. 07. Ferret Ferret makes it easier to write web scrapers Ferret helps you to extract data from the web by making it easier to write scrapers. You might need data for machine learning or UI testing purposes, and if you're writing a lot of web scrapers to get it, Ferret can make things easier by abstracting away much of the complexity so you can just express what you need. If you're working on a data-driven project, it may well help you to cut some corners in obtaining the data you need. 08. LinkSplit LinkSplit makes A/B testing easy by diverting traffic to two different test sites This is a tool with one simple yet highly useful function – it helps you with A/B testing by creating a URL that splits the traffic evenly between two or more destinations. There's no sign up process – just enter your destination URLs and then share the single test URL with your audience. Then you can monitor the results with your analytics platform. 09. You Don't Need WordPress Make a simple site using Google Docs as a CMS This system provides a way for you to bring the power and convenience of Google Docs to your blogging workflow. Write your blog in Google Docs and YDNW makes it into a hosted site for you for free, and things like colours, shapes and tables will be carried over. Of course this won’t be suitable for all purposes, but for a relatively simple site, it's a great option. 10. Firefox Reality Mozilla's new browser designed specially for your virtual reality device Firefox Reality is a new web browser designed specifically for browsing with a virtual reality device, and it's available now from the app stores for Viveport, Oculus and Google Daydream. The two stand-out features are the ability to search the web using your voice, and the provision of a feed of VR games and environments. The feed is the first thing you see when the browser starts, so you can dive right into things without having to search around. Firefox Reality is based on the new Quantum engine for mobile devices, so has all of the performance benefits that come with that. Read more: The 6 pillars of great UX Hot new CSS rules to try now 10 best new web design tools for September 2018 View the full article

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Want to learn how to take amazing photos that look like they were taken straight from a magazine? You can do just that with Hollywood Art Institute Photography Course & Certification, for only $19. This course offers 22 modules and 56 hours of content that can access anytime of the day or night. These tutorials will teach you all about how to make money as a photographer and how to take better photos right away. You'll use various learning techniques including video tutorials, articles, ebooks, flashcards, and more, and you'll be learning from some of the most influential and successful photographers in the field. Get Hollywood Art Institute Photography Course & Certification for just $19. Related articles: The 13 best photography websites Photography cheat sheet helps you take better photos 5 reasons to use photography in your designs View the full article

You're reading Adobe XD New Features: Voice Prototyping and Much More, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! Adobe has decided to add some interesting, new features available for Adobe XD. As we know, prototyping is a foundation of the Adobe XD. However, they have made prototyping so good that now we have voice triggers and speech playback. … View the full article

Do you need to know how to draw to be a designer? It's a common question for those entering the industry. The answer is, theoretically, no. It's not a practical necessity for most graphic designers to be able to draw or illustrate to a decent standard. But developing some illustration skills does give you a significant advantage over the competition – even if you're still commissioning illustration out, or mostly working with stock assets. Many brands use illustration to stand out from the crowd and define their personality, and it helps to have a strong grasp of the process even if you won't be crafting the final graphics yourself. With this in mind, read on for five great reasons you should develop your illustration skills as a designer. 01. Open up more opportunities Even the most basic illustration skills can give you access to a sweeter selection of design briefs It's simple enough. Adding another string to your bow – whether that's illustration, coding, art direction or any other complementary skill to graphic design – will open up more opportunities for you. If you're a freelancer, it can diversify the types of commission you can take on. We're not necessarily talking about pure illustration briefs here – that depends on how far you hone your skills, and what your longer-term ambitions are – but many design jobs require illustrated elements. Rather than the client splitting the commission, or worse, giving it all to someone else, you can pitch for the whole package. Whether you're crafting graphic elements from scratch to enhance your design, or working with stock assets as your starting point, it pays to sharpen those skills. Having a better grasp of the fundamentals of drawing can have a positive impact on other parts of the job too, even jobs like retouching – see point #5 for more. 02. Make yourself indispensable in-house Turn yourself into the design equivalent of a Swiss Army knife, and your creative director will love you The benefits to developing your drawing and illustration skills continue if you're in-house in a design agency, too. On a basic level, being able to communicate visual ideas more clearly and effectively within the team (see point #4) will add value to your contributions. Perhaps the agency website or promo materials need some illustrated elements – offer up your services and get noticed. But it really comes into its own on client jobs. While more illustration-heavy projects that require a particular style or approach will still likely be commissioned out, your creative director will love it if you can help create ideas sketches for clients, or take on smaller illustrated aspects of a brief. You'll soon make yourself indispensable, as well as building an illustration portfolio without leaving your job. 03. Craft more beautiful logos Honing your drawing and illustration skills will give you the edge when it comes to crafting a logo Amongst a sea of pared-back minimalism, flat-colour shapes and geometric sans serif type, you'd be forgiven for thinking that knowing how to draw is somewhat surplus in logo design. But traditional drawing abilities can prove invaluable, from sketching out early concepts right through to polishing the finer details. In recent years, global brands such as Carlsberg and Guinness have invested in carefully crafted, beautiful marks, collaborating with specialists to refine and enhance their shape and form. Honing your illustration abilities as a designer will help you appreciate the craft involved, and either take your own logo designs to the next level, or work more effectively with third-parties where required. 04. Improve your communication skills Drawing skills can also be invaluable for explaining an idea to a client, or art directing a third-party collaborator As well as contributing to the final output of a project, drawing and illustration skills make invaluable internal communication tools – whether with your team members, or your clients. A decent drawing can often get a concept across much more quickly than several paragraphs of text in an email. Improving your grasp of fundamentals like how to draw perspective and master shading will give these quick sketches a more professional edge, especially if you grasp how to draw people rather than amateurish stick men. Convince the client with a sketch, and don't waste more time than you need on a digital mock-up. This also applies when collaborating with a third-party such as an illustrator, animator or photographer. It's much easier to art direct someone if you can communicate your ideas visually. They won't expect your illustration skills to be at a professional standard – that's what you're hiring an illustrator for, after all – but will appreciate the clarity and clear guidance of a well-drawn reference sketch. 05. Sharpen your other design skills Drawing skills may just be one part of your creative toolkit, but they may help sharpen your other tools, too Should you need another reason to work on your drawing skills, it can also have an impact on your graphic design work. A sharp eye for fine details is useful in both disciplines, as is an appreciation of colour balance and composition. Awareness of light is second-nature to anyone who knows how to draw, and experimenting with different light sources and angles can have a significant impact on a design, and give you a more creative eye for retouching images too. Perhaps most important is a strong grasp of depth and perspective, a creative fundamental that's not always at the forefront of every designer's mind while grappling with layers and flat vector shapes. You don't necessarily need to invest in expensive professional training to reap the benefits, either. If you didn't get a chance to develop traditional drawing skills as a student, investigate evening classes in your local area. You might be surprised by the impact what you learn can have on your daily design work. Related articles: The designer's guide to illustration 5 reasons to use illustration in your designs 8 expert ways to commission better illustration View the full article

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As co-creative director at Antwerp’s design studio Mirror Mirror, Ben Boliau has developed some interesting ideas about his work, and the design industry as a whole. Set to make his second appearance at the third Us By Night event this 22-24 November, he promises to offer his audience a singular experience. What will attendees be able to take away from it? "Hopefully they’ll be inspired to think a bit differently, be really passionate and dead serious about their profession, but at the same time not be too uptight about graphic design.” Ahead of hosting the Living Room stage, Boliau shared five insights that he’ll be covering in his Us By Night talk... 01. Passion is no guarantee Mirror Mirror's rebranding of the Creative Club of Belgium, "sent a proverbial wrecking ball through the façade of a old and dusty institution" "Finding your niche in the design industry can certainly earn you some happy dollars," says Boliau, "and if you can correlate that with actually getting paid real money, you’ve hit the jackpot." But it's not as easy as that, warns the designer. "Passion is not a guarantee to reach that blissful double whammy – yet without it, you’re certainly never going to get there either." If you're just fuelled by passion, it may not be enough. "I believe one’s passion should never be the goal in itself. Passion should be a motor of sorts. All too often designers use a client’s brief (and budget) as an outlet to showcase their own personal style and authorship, or passion, instead of really reflecting on the actual brand or message they should be representing.” 02. Desperation and envy can be useful Although a main part of design events like Us By Night is to inspire creatives, and you can sometimes come away from them thinking, 'everything is awesome,' Boliau is adamant that just looking at the positives is not always helpful. "I would say the whole graphic design event circuit keeps both my love and hate for design and creativity alive," he tells us, "and I believe there is such a thing as too much inspiration. It can, in my case, lead to desperation and envy... But that’s totally cool. It’s supposed to be that way." If people only look at the positive in their careers, how will they ever learn from their mistakes? If you don't embrace the despair of not working on projects that inspire you, how will you push yourself to eventually do so? "I think it’s really important to be supportive," Boliau says, "but also to be honest and critical of stuff as well.” 03. 'Wrong design' isn't always wrong Boliau's talk will be dominated by his passion for '90s Houston TX studio Pen & Pixel Graphics, "and their outlandish album cover artwork" In Boliau's talk this November, he'll be covering his fascination for the '90s Houston TX studio Pen & Pixel Graphics and their "outlandish" album cover artwork. It's an ongoing love of his, and he details how it's influenced his own practice. "It’s great, weird stuff that totally ignores the rules of what design should be. I love it," he says. It's Boliau's hope that some attendees will be inspired enough to think a bit differently about their own approach to design, and he's not too fussed that this style just happens to be the latest trend. "We’ve reached a time when everything is dated and timeless at the same time," he says. "This whole '90s style has been a popular fad for a while, and it just so happens that the typographic conventions of that era have been 'my thing’ for years. I’m not going to stop loving or working with disproportionally scaled type because it has become a trend.” 04. Design events aren't just for designers Ben worked on the sixth edition of the Integrated conference, which was subtitled ‘Between Creativity and Criminality: The Art and Design of the Civil Domain’ With a lot of small design agencies, and two major arts and design colleges pumping out a slew of talented students each year, Antwerp's design scene is a "small pond with lots of fish," says Boliau. As with other cities, its design community runs the risk of being, "a little bit too internally focused. We all like to show each other what we're doing," says Boliau, "but much of the initiatives to promote local creativity just amount to circular inbreeding." So how to freshen things up while also attracting global clients? "I think the way Us By Night is set up goes a long way in opening up our hermetic design community to the client side," says Boliau. The event's unique focus on evening talks, markets and fun activities means it's "an event you can bring a brand manager to without boring him to death. It promotes our respective professions in such a dazzling way. If I were a client looking for a new agency to work with, I’d secretly go window shopping at Us By Night.” More speakers at Us By Night Ben Boliau will be speaking at Us By Night in Antwerp, Belgium, from 22-24 November 2018. The full speaker lineup includes artists, designers and various creatives from around the world, including: Erik Kessels Jonas Lindstroem Mr Bingo Mirko Borsche Andreas Bozarth Fornell Zach Lieberman Bráulio Amado Will MacNeil Don't miss out: buy your tickets here. Related articles: Explore cute character art at Us By Night Us By Night: a design festival with a difference How to network successfully: 19 pro tips View the full article

We've been blown away by the technology on show at Adobe MAX 2018. But as the conference kicked off yesterday, it wasn't artificial intelligence causing a stir, but the addition of some long-awaited features to Photoshop CC. As Terry White, Adobe's charismatic principal worldwide design and photography evangelist took to the stage, he hooked the crowd immediately: "These are the Photoshop updates you've been waiting for for YEARS," he said. Sign up to Adobe CC here You could feel the rumble of excitement and anticipation among the audience as White demonstrated how Photoshop users can now simply double click on text to edit, rather than selecting the layer, then the Type tool to make alterations. Creatives were delighted even further when he went on to reveal scale proportionally is now turned on by default. But the biggest reaction, by far, came when White announced continuous undo without holding the option or shift keys is now available. Clearly these long-awaited features, small as they may seem, have been top of many a creative's wishlist for quite some time. If that reaction was anything to go by, we reckon the Adobe team could've packed up right there and then, safe in the knowledge that their users were happy. But, of course, they didn't. Instead White went on to introduce even more all-new game-changing Photoshop features... Adobe Sensei Selection tool The new Adobe Sensei Selection tool in Photoshop automatically detects the object you wish to select and does all the hard work for you Adobe Sensei, the company's AI technology, is the tool pushing much of the innovation in Adobe products this year. And Photoshop is no exception. Using this bear (above) as an example, White demonstrated how, in just one click, Photoshop's new Sensei Selection tool automatically detects the object you wish to select and then does all the hard work for you. We haven't managed to get up close and personal with this new iteration of Photoshop CC just yet, but we can't wait to get our hands on it and see if this tool really is as easy as it looks to use. Live Blend modes It sounds so simple, but when White hovered over the various different blend modes and it updated in real time on the screen, once again, the crowd erupted. In much the same way as when he went on to share the new Frame tool, which, like InDesign, embeds a photo like a mask in Photoshop layouts. Overall, this new iteration of Photoshop seems to not only address some fundamental needs of users, but injects some seriously powerful new technology to enable a whole new level of creativity. Read more: Adobe launches video app Premiere Rush CC Voice prototyping added to Adobe XD Project Gemini: Adobe announces new art app View the full article

If you're familiar with the Pokémon games, you'll know that the capsule critters have been known to growl, roar and screech, but they haven't screamed before. All that's set to change with a limited edition set of trading cards that see a handful of Pokémon recreating the pose and painting techniques of Munch's famous picture of existential dread. Released by the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in collaboration with the Pokémon Company to tie in with a Munch retrospective, the set sees Pikachu, Psyduck, Eevee, Mimikyu and Rowlett turned into the stars of the expressionist painting. And it's good news for fans of the card game, because these artistic versions can be used in play – apparently causing a scream attack that will cause confusion. As well as appearing on trading cards, the Pokémon versions of The Scream will also feature on keychains, binders, and even a plush doll. This adorably terrifying mash-up is a funny way of connecting the Japanese mascots with the Norwegian painter, and judging by the enthusiastic reaction of fans on social media, it's also successfully raised awareness of the exhibition. Check them out by clicking left to right in the gallery below. If you've gotta catch 'em all when it comes to these cards, you'll be able to pick them up between 27 October and 20 January for 450 yen from the museum's shop, although it's not clear how you'll be able to get your hands on Pikachu at the moment. Pokémon centres around the city will also be giving away the cards when you purchase booster packs and through other promotional events. In the meantime, we can't help but picture more Pokémon in other artistic masterpieces. How about a Sunflora in the style of van Gogh? Related articles: #Bowsette heralds the fan art apocalypse The best online art classes in 2018 How to draw a landscape with pastels View the full article

Learning the rules of typography can be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, because hey, you can do good typography with thoughtful font pairings and everything! 6 embarrassing examples of bad kerning And a curse, because as soon as you've digested a few typography tutorials you'll immediately start to spot all the appalling typography that's out there, befouling the world with its terrible kerning, stretched type and Comic Sans. Even worse, the police just don't want to know about it. But now you can take matters into your own hands with the Uniform Ticket Book, from Hoefler&Co's 100 per cent totally real Typographic Violations Division. Stamp out crimes against typography! Billed as standard equipment for the modern design enforcer, the Uniform Ticket Book lists 32 common typographic infractions, from basic selection and composition violations such as poor typeface choice and improper word spacing, through to more serious crimes such as the use of artificial italics or mansplaining Font vs Typeface. Each infraction comes complete with appropriate penalties, and there's a useful Other section at the bottom for more exotic type transgressions. If you give 'em a good short sharp shock they won't do it again The Uniform Ticket Book is designed to provoke maximum anxiety with its searing orange print and ironic use of Helvetica, and it comes with 50 tickets that you could probably tear right through on a walk down the average high street on your lunch hour. It's available now for just $10 from Hoefler&Co's Design Shop, where it's pointed out that the Uniform Ticket Book is for novelty use only; we're sure they're joking about that bit. Go out and get them, but hey, be careful out there. Related articles: The 10 commandments of typography Typography rules and terms every designer must know The 8 biggest typography mistakes designers make View the full article

Cloud storage can be pretty pricey, and that's what makes this deal so awesome. For just $44.95, you can get Zoolz Cloud Storage: Lifetime of 1TB Instant Vault and 1TB of Cold Storage. At this affordable price, you can store large amounts of rarely visited data away for safekeeping, and you'll also get 1TB of space for data you access regularly. Smart Selection makes it easy to select and organise the files you want to store. You also get tons of convenient features, including bandwidth throttling, icon overlay, and file retention. For this price, you won't find a more reliable cloud storage solution. Try out Zoolz Cloud Storage: Lifetime of 1TB Instant Vault and 1TB of Cold Storage for just $44.95. Related articles: 20 tools that make freelancing easier 13 great tools for pitching to clients 17 top tools in Google Analytics View the full article

For readers of a certain age, the innovative packaging designs found in the Sainsbury's Supermarket Packaging Archive are sure to bring on a wave of nostalgia. Previously published in a now out of print book, the archive has recently been made available for you to browse at your leisure online. Even if you missed Sainsbury's Own Label masterpieces when they were on the shelves the first time round, there's still plenty of design goodness to enjoy in this archive. Fondly remembered for its strikingly modern aesthetic, which pushed boundaries with strikingly modern colours, shapes and typography, Sainsbury's boxes, tubs and tins redefined the packaging design landscape back in the '60s and '70s. Items like corn flake boxes have been lovingly archived Developed by Peter Dixon and Sainsbury's Design Studio, these revolutionary designs were a paradigm shift from what had gone before. They were optimistic, creative, and they put Sainsbury's on the map as a brand to be reckoned with. It's no wonder that the original book celebrating these designs can fetch upwards of a thousand pounds on Amazon. Not everyone's pockets are that deep though, so to bring the designs to a wider audience, the collection has been uploaded to Sainsbury's new digital archive. There's also a Sainsbury Archive Twitter account which regularly posts beautiful blasts from the past. Does this mandarin oranges label take you back? And considering that Dixon was tasked with redesigning upwards of a thousand products, there's plenty of packaging to pore over in the archive, which is laid out a bit like a Pinterest board, and can be filtered by year or product name. Each item is named and dated, and some are even accompanied by a press clipping from when they were released. Visitors are also invited to share their memories of using these wonderfully designed products. As well as celebrating good design, the astonishingly comprehensive archive is a fascinating glimpse into how people shopped and lived at the time. So whether you want to take a trip down memory lane or explore some design classics for the first time, be sure to take a look at this collection. Related articles: Biggest trends in product packaging design for 2018 45 awesome packaging designs 6 times brands temporarily changed their packaging View the full article

You're reading Loud and Magnetic: Big Typography Amplifies Messages, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google+! This year has been rich in web design and user experience trends. There have been animations of different kinds, experimentation with layouts, several delightful comebacks and extravagant mainstream concepts. Maybe surprisingly, typography has been in the spotlight. How you present … View the full article

Facebook's VP of product management was able to discuss more specifics about how the breach itself occurred. View the full article

If you've ever felt there was something missing from your Photoshop workflow, and that something was the ability to use the full software on the go, without switching between different apps, you're in luck. At its annual conference, Adobe MAX 2018, Adobe has announced it's expanding Photoshop CC, across all devices, starting with the iPad. This will enable users to open and edit PSD files on an iPad, using the same tools they are used to on desktop. Sign up to Adobe Creative Cloud Will it be the 'real Photoshop'? You'll be able to work with Layers, just like you can on the desktop version Project Rocket – or Photoshop for iPad came about when two Photoshop engineers decided to try to run Photoshop on iPad using Photoshop code. That got the design team thinking about how this product might look, and a few months later, they were ready for launch. Because Photoshop for iPad uses the same code as the desktop version, there won't be any compromises in terms of performance or results. The core tools will all be there, and you'll be able to add filters, work with layers and make selections and adjustments, and much more. This will be a marked improvement in the current offering for iPad users, as they will no longer have to switch between different apps such as Photoshop Mix and Photoshop Fix to perform different functions. This new Photoshop won't be exactly the same as the desktop version, however, as it will have a "reimagined user experience" that is optimised for touch devices, making the most of the iPad's Pencil, touch gestures and mobility. A seamless experience Photoshop for iPad will see the user interface redesigned for the device Not only will you be able to work on PSD files on the iPad, but your files will also sync across devices, via the new Cloud documents. This will mean you can begin working on your desktop, make some changes on your iPad, and then go back to desktop, without having to faff around with importing or exporting files. Photoshop for iPad will be available on its own, or as a partner to Photoshop on the desktop. Initially, a smaller set of features will be released in version 1.0, with more added over time. At the moment, we don't know when Photoshop for iPad will be shipping, or how much it will cost, but keep checking back here for more news. Read more: How to manage colours in Photoshop 60 top-class Photoshop tutorials to try The 38 best Photoshop plugins View the full article

Picking up a pencil or paintbrush is one of the first ways most people discover the power of creative expression. Drawing and painting are fundamental ways of communicating creatively, and now they've been brought to the iPad with Adobe's next-generation digital art app, Project Gemini. Announced at Adobe's annual conference, Adobe MAX 2018, Project Gemini is a dedicated painting and drawing app that makes full use of Photoshop's powerful painting engine. Revealed by Kyle T. Webster and Eric Snowden, the iPad app pairs pen and touch hardware with professional tools and a streamlined, easy-to-use interface. Sign up to Adobe Creative Cloud Rethinking the mobile art experience Images created in Project Gemini will sync with Photoshop on desktop Project Gemini has been created with Adobe's users and community in mind. Having heard that they've been asking for professional-level features on mobile, Adobe went back to the drawing board and completely rethought how its tools can be used on the go. The result is a set of intuitive features that hope to recapture that simple, natural feeling of working with analogue drawing tools. New painting and illustration capabilities, such as new types of paint and painting interactions, open up previously impossible digital art opportunities. This includes the ability to mix digital watercolour washes just like the real thing, as well as exclusive brushes and a multiscreen mode. To ensure that they're up to scratch, these tools have been rigorously tested by a selection of skilled artists. On top of that, Project Gemini is also able to sync with Photoshop on the desktop. This means that art you make in the field can be developed seamlessly when you're back in the studio, without the headache of transferring files. Photoshop brushes will be available across desktop and tablet devices Project Gemini is currently only available on iOS, although the team behind the app are expected to add new platforms in the future. Read more: How to draw: the best drawing tutorials Sneak peek: Supercharged Photoshop tool The 10 commandments of Photoshop etiquette View the full article

Today marks the start of Adobe Max 2018 – and it's already going off with a bang. As you'd expect, part of the company's annual creative conference includes details of updates it's made to its Creative Cloud service. And, we have to say, Adobe has pulled some seriously exciting – not to mention, impressive – new tools and apps out of the bag. The best laptop for graphic design in 2018 Adobe favourites Photoshop, Illustrator, XD and Lightroom have all had 'under the hood' work, with new features to help streamline creative workflows. But the big news has to be three new apps Adobe will soon be welcoming to the Creative Cloud family; Project Rush, an all-new video editing app, Project Rocket, aka Photoshop on iPad, and Project Gemini, a powerful new digital art app. “Today, we unveiled a portfolio of next-generation creative apps that deliver meaningful value to our community by transforming creative workflows across devices and platforms,” said Scott Belsky, chief product officer and executive vice president, Creative Cloud at Adobe. “By continuing to innovate in our flagship apps, extending into exploding segments like experience design and social video content creation, and pioneering in emerging mediums like touch, voice, 3D and augmented reality, Adobe Creative Cloud has truly become the creativity platform for all.” Excited? So are we. Let's take a closer look at exactly what Adobe has been up to... Project Rush Project Rush was no real secret, as Adobe’s all-new video editing app has been in the pipeline for a while. But now it's well and truly ready to roll. From the demos we've seen so far, this app is highly intuitive, by which we mean you don't need to be a video, colour or audio expert to create a really professional-looking video with it. Rush harnesses the power of its older siblings, Premiere Pro and After Effects, and gives users access to professionally designed motion graphics templates in Adobe Stock to get started quickly. Powered by Sensei, Adobe's new AI technology, Rush has a one-click auto-duck feature to adjust music and normalise sound. It also allows access anywhere, enabling users to create compelling video projects – optimised for social distribution – on one device and publish from another, with a consistent user experience across desktop and mobile. The downside to Rush is that you're out of luck if you're an Android user, with the all-new Premiere Rush CC only available on Windows, macOS and iOS. Adobe states Google Play store availability is coming in 2019, but when exactly that might be is anyone's guess. Project Rocket Is this the one we've all been waiting for? Adobe MAX 2018 sees the unveiling of Project Rocket, also known as Photoshop CC on the iPad. We've yet to see it fully in action, but Adobe claims the tablet version delivers all the power and precision of its desktop counterpart. Photoshop CC on iPad will let users open and edit native PSD files using Photoshop’s industry-standard image-editing tools and will feature the familiar Photoshop layers panel. Exciting stuff, which we can't wait to see. Although, we'll all have to wait a while, with Adobe so far saying nothing more than it will be available in 2019. Project Gemini A new app designed to accelerate drawing and painting workflows across devices, Project Gemini is coming first to iPad in 2019, and combines raster, vector and new dynamic brushes into a single app experience built for drawing. Project Gemini enables artists to use and sync their favourite Photoshop brushes and works seamlessly with Photoshop CC. Adobe Sensei Adobe Sensei is the company's new AI technology built into the Adobe Cloud platform, and it aims to dramatically improve the design and delivery of digital experiences. The 2019 release of Creative Cloud delivers over a dozen new Adobe Sensei-powered features and productivity enhancements – building on the many existing Sensei-powered features already available to Adobe Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Experience Cloud customers. Sensei-powered features in the 2019 release include: An expanded Content-Aware Fill workspace in Photoshop CC that offers greater precision and control to save editors valuable time when working with their images. A new Content-Aware Fit feature in InDesign CC that intelligently detects an image and crops or fits it to an image frame automatically. New Freeform Gradients in Illustrator CC that enable the creation of natural gradients. A new tool in Character Animator CC, Characterizer, which transforms any style of portrait into a vivid, animated character. Project Aero Adobe also previewed Project Aero, a new cross-device AR authoring tool that enables creators to design augmented reality experiences. Project Aero is the first AR app built for designers and artists and was first sneaked on-stage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference earlier this year. Project Aero enables optimal delivery of AR experiences, empowering creatives to place digital content in the real world. At Adobe MAX, Adobe showcased an AR-powered retail store of the future revealing the exciting possibilities of immersive design experiences. Adobe XD The all-in-one UX/UI solution for designing websites and mobile apps, Adobe XD, now features new capabilities leveraging recently acquired Sayspring technology to empower designers to prototype experiences and apps for voice-powered devices like Amazon Echo. New voice capabilities, including voice triggers and speech playback, enable designers to create powerful experience with screen and voice prototyping now in one application. In addition, developers can now leverage Adobe XD APIs to build plugins and app integrations that add new features, automate workflows and connect XD to the tools and services designers use every day. Adobe favourites Alongside these new additions, Adobe also introduced major updates to its desktop applications, including: a new Content-Aware Fill workspace in Photoshop CC. performance and workflow improvements across Lightroom CC and Lightroon Classic. the ability to design with photorealistic, freeform gradients in Illustrator. a powerful Content-Aware Fit in InDesign CC. the power to instantly create and animate unique stylised puppets using a webcam and reference artwork with Character Animator's new Characterizer. a new rendering engine for improved render preview in performance in Dimension CC. a new Sensei-powered search features and exclusive content in Adobe Stock, including a new library from GoPro. In addition, Adobe announced it is addressing the needs of the video animation industry with new workflows and integrations across its apps. Pricing and availability Updates to Creative Cloud desktop software are now available to all Creative Cloud subscribers, including membership plans for individuals, students, teams, educational institutions, government agencies and enterprises. Adobe’s mobile apps are available for download from the iOS App Store and Google Play. Photoshop CC on iPad, Project Aero and Project Gemini on iPad will be available in 2019. Spark Post on Android, previously available as a public beta, is now available as a 1.0 app in the Google Play store. The all-new Premiere Rush CC, available now on Windows and macOS and via the iOS App Store (Google Play store availability coming in 2019), is offered across a series of plans tailored for customers’ unique needs. View the full article