Photoshop CS6 Beta Release: What Are The Top 10 New Features?

Adobe's latest Photoshop CS6 Beta is dubbed by the software company as a whole new experience in digital image editing. The software company has released as limited time free download of the latest digital image editing software.

The latest version, CS6, is boasting an impressive 65 new features. Even more impressive is that those 65 new features were user-feedback inspired.

Photoshop CS6 will be a milestone release that pushes the boundaries of imaging innovation with incredible speed and performance, said Winston Hendrickson, vice president products, Creative Media Solutions, Adobe. We couldn't wait to share this beta of Photoshop CS6 with our customers and are looking forward to hearing from them and seeing the ways they are incorporating the beta into their daily creative work flows.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 and CS6 Extended will be released this May. In the meantime, check out some of the top 10 new features you can test out on Photoshop CS6 Beta right now.

1. 3D Editing Capabilities

Take advantage of 3D editing capabilities on CS6 Beta now, because this feature will only be available on the extended version of the new Photoshop CS6. With the new 3D editing capabilities, users get the chance to change not only color, but position, material, shadow and light source of a 3D image.

2. Content-Aware Tools

The new content-aware patch tool allows users to have greater control. Program users can fill in or patch another area of an image by selecting and duplicating. The content-aware move tool lets users move objects on an image to a new place. A bonus of this enhanced tool is that pixels will be blended better and blemishes on an image will disappear.

3. Brushes

With the wide range of brushes and sizes, users may not have realized that a flaw existed in previous Photoshop versions. The latest CS6 now allows designers to change opacity of the brushes, as well as increase the size to a whopping 5000px. Users will also be pleased to discover that they can change the color dynamics per stroke, as well as change the brightness/contrast slider for textures while painting.

4. Redesigned User Interface

A great new feature is the ability to remove the app bar, as well as reduce the app bar by over 30 percent. Another bonus is that a Don't show again checkbox has been added. The interface is now more elegant with a dark background. Adobe states that the background will allow images to pop even more. If you're not feeling the black interface, the program allows you to switch back to the original grey.

5. Fast(er) Performance

The new Photoshop CS6 uses the Mercury Graphic Engine, which according to Adobe's site, gives you near-instant results when you edit with key tools such as Liquify, Puppet Warp, and Crop.

6. Revamped Crop Tool

According to Gizmodo.com, the new crop tool allows users to go back and change a crop at any time. The Mercury Engine also helps with the cropping, allowing image flow, zoom, rotate and scale to be in real time. A precision straighten tool was also added to crop. The precision straighten tool knows how to rotate a final image after the user draws a straight line on the image.

7. Typography

Pulling from Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, the program now has paragraph and character styles. The Lorem Ipsum text generator was also included in the new program, reports Gizmodo.

8. Background Auto-Saving

Users have definitely had the misfortune of losing work in the past. Photoshop CS6 will now save work every 5, 10, 15, 30 or 60 minutes. The automatic saving happens in the background, so besides being convenient, it also doesn't disrupt work.

9. Automated Image Correction

If your feeling lazy, then this tool is for you. Automated image correction perfectly changes the curves, levels, brightness and contrast. This new feature is a great time saver.

10. Skin Selection

For those working with images of humans, the skin selection tool is great to save time as well. Skin and face detection technology in the software easily lets you modify your selection.